NYC trip: Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5

Hey there,

So on day 3 of my NYC trip (this was Saturday January 1, 2011) Sloka and I didn't do too much.  First we went to Times Square (well, first was breakfast, but that's a given, I LOVE breakfast, and it's always a must).  And as it usually is, Times Square was a mad house.  We went to Macy's-the original Macy's.  Oh  my goodness!!!!  So, the store literally has 9 floors and is like a billion blocks long (okay the billion part is not literal, but there really are 9 floors).  The inside was decorated beautifully for Christmas, and the place was booming.  It was quite the overwhelming experience.  Sloka and I stopped at ONE of the information booths and asked which floor women's was on and two associates and a customer laughed at us.  The guy working said, you have to be a bit more specific hunny, what kind of women's.  I said I don't know, anything, and he replied, floors, 2,3,4,5,6,7.  Uh, yeah, so we only stayed in Macy's for like 20minutes most of which time we were on elevators or escalators.  I'm not really into that whole shopping with a million of my closest friends thing.  So we left Macy's and went to Forever 21 (my fav clothing store).  Sloka bought a cute red coat and I bought a flannel shirt (which is mega comfy, my first flannel piece, but I thought I'd try something different), a cute pencil skirt, and a couple pairs of sunglasses.  Then we headed back out into the madness of Times Square, went to a Pizzeria for lunch/dinner-it's amazing how time flies in NYC and your meals start to all run together- and then headed for the subway.  I think that's pretty much all we did that day, besides hang out at her place and talk.

Day 4 (Sunday January 2, 2011)-So this was by far my favorite day of the trip. I was very adamant about seeing a show while I was there.  While perusing the Broadway website I realized that Stomp was playing off Broadway.  For anyone who doesn't know Stomp is a production that was created by some people in England playing trash cans and other dump yard paraphernalia for musical entertainment.  There are no words (except the occasional yeah), and it's all music and dance.  It's amazing the "instruments" they use.  There was one number that was all lighters.  That's right, light up a fire lighters were used as a musical instrument and it was amazing.  Anyhoo, so Sloka and I went all over town-yeah, we got lost as usual-trying to find Orpheum theater where Stomp was playing to see if we could get tickets.  Thank God, we finally found it (and along the way stopped in a few stores and I bought a cute pair of fake glasses) and were able to get tickets for the 3:00 show.  It was around 1:00 when we arrived so we walked around, went to a park, and to a Whole Foods to kill a bit of time until the show.

Sloka and I trying to navigate the streets of NYC to find the theater where Stomp was playing.  PS, that's the read coat she bought from Forever 21 the day before, PPS-I took this picture, I'm good at this picture taking of myself thing, but I'll admit I had to take a couple to capture both Sloka and me while walking

 A silly picture of me in the park as we waited for Stomp to start.  I was eating a pear I think or an apple, some fruit.

Stomp was absolutely amazing and is highly recommended for everyone to go and see if you get the opportunity.  Photography inside was prohibited so this was the best I could do to document this, but I really did see it :-)

So next we went to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.  We walked from Manhattan to Brooklyn.  I'm not sure how far it is, but it's a good little walk.  There were lots of pedestrians (and a few runners) on the bridge, but it wasn't too crowded which was nice.  The view of the river was really pretty and I saw the Statue of Liberty.

So this is my picture of the Statue of Liberty with my camera zoomed as far as it can go, yeah, see that speak, that's her.  Needless to say the Statue isn't too close to the bridge, but I saw it, and that's what matters :-)

After we got to Brooklyn we walked around for a bit.  I personally really liked Brooklyn, I mean, I liked it better than Manhattan.  It was still nice with a big city feel, but with not nearly as much crowd.  Also, the streets had cute Christmas lights decorations, and I just found it to be a cute little place.  IF, big old IF, I were to move to NYC I'd want to live in Brooklyn. 
Next we walked the bridge back to Manhattan, and I have to say that the view of Manhattan was breath taking.


A view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn bridge.  The picture really doesn't do the beauty of the city justice, but you get the idea.

Me on the Brooklyn bridge headed back to Manhattan

So once we got back to Manhattan, we uncussefully tried to take the subway back home, and after much walking and confusion gave up and caught a taxi home.  So once we got back to Sloka's apartment we were pooped and again ended up just hanging out there talking.  You'd think that as much time as we spent talking we hadn't just seen each other two weeks before :-)  But I guess that's what women do.
The next day (day 5, Monday January 3, 2011) Sloka and I sadly said our goodbyes as she headed out to work.  I mustered up the courage to brave the subway to go to MoMA (museum of modern art).  After getting lost only once, I arrived at MoMA, and it was packed!!!!  I really enjoyed the photography and the architecture exhibits that they had.  However, I have to say that a lot of the paintings, some of the statues, and all of the films were a little two modern for me.  Although there was this one film of a piano being played, and the song was really pretty, but the screen was blank.  There was another film of a lady brushing her teeth :-/  And I saw the world famous paintings of the campbell soup cans.  I did find it really interesting to see and think about what different people consider art.  After MoMA I walked around 5th Ave. for a bit (did you really think I'd leave the city before hitting up 5th Ave;-).  The only store I actually went into was Forever 21 which was 6 floors tall.  After being overwhelmed and exhausted from MoMA and navigating the subway I left Forever 21 empty handed, and just walked around looking for the right subway station to get me home.  Once I found the right subway station I actually didn't get lost until I got back to Sloka's neighborhood, and I had to figure out which random building that looked as if no one should live in it was her apartment building.  It amazes me how the apartment buildings there and the stores all look the same.  I guess it's because half of the apartments are over stores.  Anyhoo, then I packed up my stuff, and headed to the subway for one final trip.  I safely made it to JFK with only getting lost one time (I was proud to have taken only 1 wrong train;-). 

A picture of the city from one of the windows inside of MoMA

Okay, now comes the most hilarious part of the trip.  I finally make it to JFK (it's about 1.5hrs. by subway from Sloka's apartment), and I go through security, and then I hear, is this your bag?  Oh boy, so they do a bag check on my back pack.  They take my reusable tin water bottle out and say they have to swab it.  They swabbed it in Charlotte too so no biggie.  Then dude says, uh, we're going to have to search you.  What?!?!?  Because of an empty water container.  So I'm thinking these people are nuts, the only thing on that water bottle is NYC tap water.  So I say fine.  Then they make me wait, which annoys me of course so I ask if he can just throw the bottle away.  He tells me no.  Now let's just pause for a minute.  What in the world could they have possible found on the water bottle to make me-5'1" 115lb woman-seem suspicious and become worthy of being patted down.  So, the lady is finally ready to do the pat down, and as she explains it to me I am so dumbfounded by the national security of the US that I just give her a blank stare.  She goes, "do you speak English?"  So I say yeah, and the patting begins.  Well, by this point I am just tickled to pieces that there are people out there killing, stealing, plotting assasinations against world leaders and I'm being patted down becuase of an empty water container that for the past 4.5 days has contained nothing but NYC water.  Of course me being me I laugh the whole time until she says I can go. 

Phew....what a trip.  I need a nap now just writing about it.  Anyhoo, I'm back home in the slow paced world that I'm used to safe and sound.  NYC was nice to visit, but I think that's one city that can be crossed off of the potential places for me to move to after graduation. 

Well, that's my trip in a nutshell
Love, peace, and happiness