Airborne

Currently, I am sitting in the last row, in the middle seat, of the plane on my flight home to San Francisco. They have a free trial for internet on this flight, so I am able to update my blog now. I just talked to my sis on video chat. It is so weird that I am able to video chat and talk to people while I'm airborne, flying across the country.

Last night I spent the night packing up my room. It looked so empty and depressing without all of my photos and colorful bedding, but it was only a couple nights without that. A few people came over to say their goodbyes last night and then this morning I saw a couple more. I, of course, was packing up until the last minute before I had to hop in a cab. I almost didn't even get to say goodbye to Emma because she was out of the apartment. When I hailed a cab on St. Mark's, outside my apartment, she came running up to me and I got to give her a big hug goodbye. I really can't believe it's over. But I'm starting a new chapter and I'll get to update all of you on my travels in Europe and life in Scotland.

Love you all...and see you soon!

Love Always,

Jess

I'M DONE!

FINALLY!!!! (And, yes, I do need all of those exclamation marks. haha.) I am done with all of my finals and work and now all I have to do is pack, pack, and pack some more. I went on a bunch of errands today and I'm finally able to be in the apartment and pack up my room. It's going to be so sad to leave New York, and I was already feeling upset about it this weekend...but I have a huge adventure ahead of me. I'll keep you all updated. My flight leaves tomorrow afternoon for San Francisco. I will be home for about a week, and then I fly to Scotland on December 31st.

Love and miss you all...but see you soon!

Love Always,

Jess

ROAD TRIP

This weekend has been amazing so far. Yesterday I had my architecture final at 12pm, and I guess it went okay...at least I knew the buildings. I feel like I could have done better, but at least I'm finished and I can focus on other important things going on in my life. Monday I have my last final, in Art History, and then I fly home to San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon. After my final, I went to the NYU bookstore and used my $75 gift card that I received for being the notetaker in my Sex and Gender class. I finally bought the NYU apparel I wanted. After my little shopping spree, I walked back to my apartment and started packing. I had to take down ALL of my posters and pack up all of the jackets/shoes/random stuff that I brought from Smith in the beginning of the semester. At around 6:30 or 7, my friend Jay (aka J-Bird) from trapeze picked me up and we started our road trip. I had to bring all of my stuff back to Smith because I didn't want to pay for shipping it across the country. The trip was about 3 and a half hours, stopping for gas and food on the way. When we got into Northampton there was snow on the ground and I was so excited to be in a familiar place. It was also weird though because I completely removed myself from Smith College this year, and I had to be back on campus for less than 24 hours.

We stayed at the Autumn Inn down the street from Smith and while Jay did his work in the hotel, I went to Smith to empty my suitcases out in the trunk room of my house. My boxes were still all there (even though some where on the complete opposite side of the room) and I even used a couple of extra boxes that weren't being used. When I walked into Cushing, my house at Smith, I saw some familiar and some new faces. I called my friend, Jessica, and told her that I was in the trunk room. She came downstairs and we caught up with each other's lives, and she even helped me move some of my boxes. After I was done, we went up to her room and just hung out for a little while and talked. My other friend, Olivia, came and joined us as well. It was so nice seeing them and it made me realize how much I miss my friends at Smith. New York was always so stressful and busy that I could never really take a step back and communicate a lot with the girls in Northampton. Hopefully next semester I'll have more time to keep in touch and maybe even have some Skype dates with them!

The view from our room at the Autumn Inn

After hanging out in Cushing for a little while, Jay picked me up and we headed back to the hotel. He went to sleep because he needed rest for a trapeze show they were having the next day. I stayed up, watched some TV, and studied for my final. We woke up at 8:45 and left the hotel by 9:45 after grabbing our complimentary breakfast to go. On the way out of Northampton, we stopped at the Campus Center of Smith College and I got to see my best friend, Alex, before her final. Jay and I were rushing to leave for New York, so I had to say a quick hello and then hop back in the car. We were rushing because there was going to be a big snow storm coming through NY and we didn't want to get stuck in it while driving. After a 3 hour drive, right when we got onto St. Mark's at my apartment it started snowing. We were VERY lucky we didn't hit a lot of traffic.

Now I am making flashcards and studying for art history. It's going to be an indoor kind of night tonight. The snow has stopped for now, but starting at around 6pm, we should be getting many more inches.

Love you and miss you all. (See you in THREE days! Oh no...I have to pack!)

Love Always,

Jess

On the seventh day of Hannukah

...my true love gave to me: 7 noodle kugels, and blah blah blah you know the rest.

I would love to write more than a few sentences tonight but that looks like it's going to be impossible. I'm still in the library (it's almost 1am) and I'm studying for my architecture final that I have tomorrow at noon. eek! Goodnight to all of you!

Love and miss you all!

Love ALWAYS,

Jess

On the sixth night of Hannukah

...my true love gave to me: 6 pickled herrings (umm...okay?), 5 bowls of chicken soup, 4 potato latkes, 3 pounds of corned beef, 2 kosher pickles, and lox, bagels, and some cream cheese!

Last night was the BEST last dinner I could have had with everyone here in NY. We all went to curry row, to a restaurant covered in christmas lights. The restaurant was awesome, we ended up having around 14 people, and they told them it was my birthday. After the restaurant, we all left and played with a parachute on the streets of New York. Liz, my roommate, had done an art project for one of her classes where she painted a quote on a white parachute and filmed people playing with it in NY. So, she brought the parachute to dinner and we all sat inside the parachute in the middle of the sidewalk. It was hilarious because people were walking by and had no idea what was going on. (Two random people came into the parachute as well to see what it was like inside.) We ran down the street with the parachute and went to our friend Pete's apartment. We had a great time just hanging out at Pete's and, at the end of the night, I said my goodbyes to everyone. So sad!

Waiting outside the door before walking into the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant... CRAZINESS!!!

Me and Liz

Emma and Pete talking over Brian

Everyone under the parachute on the sidewalk in NY.

Now, I'm studying for my architecture final that I have tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Love and miss you all! (Home in 6 days!)

Love Always,

Jess

On the fifth night of Hannukah

...my true love gave to me: 5 bowls of chicken soup, 4 potato latkes, 3 pounds of corned beef, 2 kosher pickles and lox, bagels, and some cream cheeeeeese!

I did have a bagel with lox and cream cheese today (even though it wasn't from my true love on the first night of Hannukah)! haha. At 11am, I had my Sex and Gender final and I think it went pretty well. I felt good coming out of it, so I hope it shows in the grade. After my final, I went to my last Starbucks date with my friends in the class, Emily and Victoria. So sad saying goodbye to everybody. I really can't believe the semester is over. It FLEW by! After Starbucks, I came back to the apartment, got ready for work, and headed to Brooklyn. It was my last day of work with KidFly. It was a great day at trapeze. The kids got caught and I even got to fly after class (even though I was wearing jeans). I decided to stay for a while after work, write an essay, and type up some class notes for my Architecture final on Friday. The fly team was practicing, so I got to watch them while writing. I'm going to miss Streb Trapeze Academy SO much! It was a great semester here in NY and I got to do what I love every week...work with kids and fly on a trapeze. After ordering dinner with the fly team, I headed back to the city. After I got off the subway, I walked to my friend Victoria's dorm (which is a block from my apartment) and I ate my dinner there that I never ate at trapeze.

Now I'm back in the apartment, typing up some more notes and then making flash cards. Tomorrow I have class from 3:30-6:10 to watch more final performances for my Drama in Performance class. Then, my friends and I are going out for a "Goodbye Jessica" dinner. haha. (I can't believe it's all over!!!) I'll post pictures later this week.

Love and miss you all...but I'll be home in 7 DAYS!

Love Always,

Jess

On the fourth night of Hannukah

...my true love gave to me: 4 potato latkes, 3 pounds of corned beef, 2 kosher pickles, and lox, bagels, and some cream cheeeeeese.

Today I turned in my final paper for Art History. I searched everywhere for a color printer and tried to send myself the word document, but nothing worked. ugh! Anyway, right now I'm about to study for my Sex and Gender final that I have tomorrow at 11am. Oh yeah, did I mention I pulled an all nighter last night? yuuuup. In the library, doing work until around 6am, walked back to my apartment where people passed me on the street and said "Good Morning," and then I watched the sun rise as I continued to do work. I took a 3 hour nap today, but that really wasn't enough. I need to study for this final and then get to bed soon.

Love and miss you all! (Home in 8 DAYS!!!)

Love always,

Jess

On the third night of Hannukah

...my true love gave to me: 3 pounds of corned beef, 2 Kosher pickles and lox, bagels, and some cream cheeeeese!

Nothing to update you all on. I had an amazing breakfast this morning (Poached eggs over smoked salmon and potato latkes...sort of like an Eggs Benedict). Then I spent the rest of the day working on essays/finals. I am currently in the NYU library finishing up some work. woohoo! At least I am not the only one here...I could barely find a place to sit. Everyone is busy working/studying. Fun times.

Love and miss you all! (Home in 9 DAYS!!)

Love always,

Jess

On the second night of Hannukah

...my true love gave to me: 2 Kosher pickles and lox, bagels, and some cream cheeeese.

Today, I slept in, made myself a good breakfast and got ready to do work in Starbucks. I finally made it to Starbucks, and was there for a few hours, but then I couldn't handle sitting anymore. So, I walked back to the apartment, made myself a reeeaaallly good salad, and I've been doing work in my living room. After a while of working, I heard some Christmas music blasting outside and when I looked out of my window, this is what I saw:

I went out onto the fire escape and watched what was going on. Not only was there a crazy Christmas car, but all of a sudden there were hundreds of people walking down St. Mark's. I have no idea what they were walking for. (I tried to post the video of it on here, but it was taking hours so I gave up.)

Today was SantaCon in NY (and San Francisco) where you dress up as Santa with thousands of other people. On their website they say it is "a not-for-profit, non-political, non-religious and non-logical Santa Claus convention, attended for absolutely no reason." haha. Well, it is hilarious nonetheless and I've heard from many people today that they saw a bunch of Santas walking around NY. (I even saw some in the Starbucks when I was doing work.)

Now I'm going to continue working on final papers and enjoy being out of the cold, inside my warm apartment!

Love and miss you all! (See you in 10 DAYS!)

Love always,

Jess

On the first night of Hannukah

...my true love gave to me: lox, bagels, and some cream cheeeeeese! Okay, well, I didn't get lox and bagels, but I made some DELICIOUS homemade latkes for myself and my roommates in the apartment tonight.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AWESOME BIG SISTER! Today is her birthday and I ordered her some cupcakes that were delivered to her classroom (she's a second grade teacher) by our mother. Thanks again, Mom! Today I had my last Architecture in NY Field Study class and we walked around Rockefeller Center. It was freezing today, so we tried to go inside every building we were able to.

The RCA Building (now GE Building) at Rockefeller Center.

After the tour, I took the subway back to the East Village and did some grocery shopping. At first, I was only going to get ingredients for a salad, so I bought some lettuce, tomato, avocado, and all that other good stuff. Then, I called my parents to wish them a Happy Hannukah and they told me they were making latkes tonight. Usually my whole family will make latkes over Hannukah and wear goggles so that our eyes don't water. We have a great time and when they told me they were making latkes I got jealous. Soooo, I went back to St. Mark's Market and bought myself all the ingredients to make my own latkes. The latkes turned out beautifully and I am now hanging out in my living room, about to watch a movie or another episode of Lost, and then continue to write my art history paper.

The process...peeling the potatoes.

All of the ingredients mixed together.

Browning up/cooking in the oil.

Ready to come out of the pan.

The finished product!

Me enjoying my latkes a little too much. haha

Last year for Hannukah, my whole family and I were in Hawaii. I made a menorah out of mini cups and marshmallows because we forgot to pack one. I was going through Hannukah pictures tonight from my computer and found this one of my Uncle, Mom, and Dad. It is hilarious! I don't know why they did this or what was going on, but I think it is a great picture. (I hope they don't mind me posting this on my blog. haha.) Love you guys!

I'll be home in 11 DAYS!!!

Love and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

Making Progress!

Like I said in my previous post, this was going to be a stressful week for me. I wasn't lying. Monday I had my usual art history class from 9:30-10:45 and then spent the rest of the day writing papers. Tuesday was my Sex and Gender class, where we took our LAST quiz of the semester. After that class, we had recitation and then I had work in Brooklyn at the Trapeze Academy. I had this brilliant idea that Jay (my friend from Club Med) and I would take a road trip next week to Smith on Thursday and return on Friday so I could study the rest of the weekend for my art history final. We had everything planned out, and then I realized I had an architecture final on Friday the 18th at Noon. oops! So, right now, I have absolutely no idea when I'm going to drop all of my stuff off at Smith before I leave New York. After work, I had a final rehearsal for my Drama in Performance final performance. It went very smoothly, we finally got the DVD working, and we were ready to perform! That night I edited the paper I needed to turn in for my Drama class and I changed my flights for returning home to San Francisco. I was originally planning on flying home on Monday December 21st, but that morning I have an art history final at 8am. I figured I wouldn't want to leave New York on such a stressful day, so I switched my flight to Tuesday the 22nd. Hopefully that will give me time to relax and have one last fun night in New York before going to Scotland for 6 months!

Yesterday (Wednesday), I was stressing out most of the day because of my final performance. I always get really nervous performing and speaking in front of class, so I was going to be facing a huge fear of mine that afternoon. In the morning, we had our final review (and last class) for Art and Architecture in the Age of Giotto. I really can't believe everything is coming to an end. I don't want to leave these classes yet...they have been so much fun and I've really learned a lot. At 3:30pm, in Drama in Performance, we performed and it went perfectly! The performance was amazing, and I was really happy with how it turned out. Nobody made a mistake and we received many positive comments on our project. I spent the rest of the night editing my Sex and Gender final paper and woke up to print it out this morning.

Today, (Thursday), I printed out my final paper, and went to my last Sex and Gender class! No more ridiculous quizzes that don't make any sense!! (Well, I shouldn't say that yes because we still have a final exam next Tuesday with the same format of our quizzes.) After class, I walked to the Starbucks on Washington Square and I am currently sitting in here, updating my blog, and doing some other work for final papers and studying for exams. Who knows how much longer I'll be sitting here, but I have so much to do before I leave on the 22nd, and I really want to get work done early so I can pack.

By the way, I just opened up my email and received a $75 gift certificate to the NYU Bookstore! I signed up to be a notetaker for my Sex and Gender class for someone who is unable to take their own notes, and in exchange I received a gift certificate to the bookstore. Now I can buy the NYU apparel I have been wanting.

Love you and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

A Good Weekend

Well, I thought this would be a very stressful weekend, but it ended up being quite pleasant. I got some work finished on Saturday and today, but mostly I used this weekend to relax and have a good time with my roommates before finals start. Yesterday, Emma had her final performance for her production that she wrote, directed, and performed in. She was unbelievable and I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to live with her this semester. I never needed a TV to entertain me, she and Liz are both hilarious and we laughed every day.

Last night, after Emma's show, I ran to go get Emma her congratulatory gift and came back to the apartment to clean up a little. We had her cast over at the apartment and some other close friends. It was a fun group of people and we just enjoyed being together last night and celebrating Emma's graduation, since she is now pretty much done with college. My gift to her was a Snuggie and it was hilarious. Hopefully she will be able to relax, watch some movies, and hang out around the apartment in her Snuggie. haha. The Snuggie was passed around to everyone throughout the night. (See pictures below.) It wasn't a very late night and this morning I enjoyed sleeping in.

The Snuggie (with a bonus book light!)

Emma in her Snuggie

Emma and Liz enjoying the Snuggie together

Will "sleeping" on our couch in the Snuggie

Today I got some work done, memorized lines for my final drama performance, had rehearsal for the project, and now I'm back in the apartment about to finish some more work. This coming week is going to be pretty stressful. My final Sex and Gender paper is due on Thursday, I am going to write a draft of my Art History final paper so I can just edit and rework it over the weekend. My final drama performance is on Wednesday, in class. And I have an essay due for that class on Wednesday as well. Woohooo finals! Anyway, hope you all had a good weekend and I'll be home 2 weeks from tomorrow. eek!

Love you and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

17 days...

until I fly home. Crazy, right? I'm starting to think about all of the things I wish I had done here in New York, but I know I will be back someday. I was just talking to my friend, Nicole, about this last night. I feel like it takes a semester to settle into New York and realize how to balance your life out here, but the problem with me is that I only had a semester to live in NY. I'm just starting to feel comfortable with my studies and schedule here and I have to leave in 2 weeks. I don't know if I see myself returning to New York to live here anytime soon, but that is only because I don't know what I want to do after school. I have one more year left at Smith and then I can decide where I want to live. Right now, New York seems a little too stressful for me, but maybe I'll want that in the future. I will definitely be visiting a lot next year, though, because NY is just a bus ride away for me from Smith.

This whole week has been pretty uneventful, just work work work. Tuesday I had my Sex and Gender class where I turned in a 10 page paper, and took a quiz. Recitation was cancelled, so that made my day because I really didn't feel like sitting through another class. Then, I had work in Brooklyn from 3:45-5:45. It was a good day at work with the kids, we all had a great time. It is so nice to be able to get away from the city and hang out with such a fun crowd at the Trapeze Academy. The first class, with the 5-7 year olds, was a blast. The kids were getting their tricks down, having fun playing around on the new mats, and goofing around with me. I love working with those kids and it makes me miss working at the JCC in San Francisco as a camp counselor. The second class is 8 year olds and up. They were doing pretty well and since they now know how to tie themselves in and when to climb up the ladder I didn't need to do much. All I did was teach them how to work their core strength in order to get into their tricks when they're in the air. After trapeze, class ended and I took the subway back to the city. I spent the rest of the night working on an essay for my Drama in Performance class.

Wednesday I had my art history class from 9:30-10:45 and then I stayed in the art history department to finish writing my essay for Drama in Performance. It was one of my favorite essay prompts because we were writing about the circus show we saw a few weeks ago. We had to write about what act we would contribute to the circus show if we were traveling around with them. What fears would we have to face to complete our act and what might we have to give up to join this circus? I, of course, wrote about flying trapeze so it was a fun paper to write. After I printed out the paper, I went back to my apartment, changed into my theater-going clothes and went to my Drama in Performance class. We had to leave straight from class to go to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Cate Blanchett. We grabbed some pizza before hopping on the subway and the show was FANTASTIC. I didn't know what to expect, and even though we were sitting in the theater from 7:30-11pm, time flew by. Cate Blanchett was unbelievable and I'm so glad that was the last show we saw. It was the perfect play to end on.

Thursday I had Sex and Gender from 11-12:15 and then spent some time in Starbucks with my friends, Emily and Victoria. I love our Thursday after-class tradition of grabbing drinks and sitting and talking for an hour. It takes my mind off the stress of my work here at NYU. After Starbucks I headed back to my apartment to memorize lines for my Drama group's film shoot for our project. We met up at 6:30 and spent a couple of hours filming scenes for our final project. I think it turned out beautifully and we're all excited to get our project over with on Wednesday. (We are going to be the first ones to perform in class.)

Friday I woke up early to have a meeting with my professor for my art history class. I was having some trouble finding paintings I wanted to write about for my final paper, a 10-page catalogue of my own medieval Italian art exhibition. It's going to be a very interesting paper to write because 5 of the paintings are displayed in museums here in NY. I'll probably take a trip to those museums in the coming week to see the paintings I've chosen. After the meeting, I went back to my apartment, dropped off my laptop and walked back to the same building for my Architecture Field Study class. We walked around "Corporate Heaven," Park Avenue, and looked at some amazing architecture. I'd have to say this tour was on the top of my list. We saw the Citicorp Building, St. Peter's Church, Seagram Building, Villard Houses, and many others. The tour was focused on architecture being used at advertisement, which fascinated me, especially with the Seagram Building. I, of course, loved the Seagram Building because it was designed by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. After spending a lot of time in my architecture studio last year working on a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion project, I have learned a lot about Mies. The Seagram Building has whiskey-brown tinted glass windows, reminiscent of the product Seagram sells. It almost looks like one big bottle of Seagram Whiskey.

Citicorp Building (designed by Hugh Stubbins & Associates)

Seagram Building= a bottle of Seagram Whiskey (SO COOL!)

Mosette Broderick's tour group in front of the NY Racquet & Tennis Club (designed by McKim, Mead, and White)

After the architecture tour, I headed to MOMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit. My friend Barrett, from my class, came along with me because he said he hasn't visited MOMA since he's been a student at NYU. When we got there, we realized it was Free Friday Night at the Museum. The line wrapped around the block but moved very quickly, so we got into the museum around 4pm. We saw Monet's Water Lilies and went to some other great exhibits before heading to the Tim Burton exhibit. Somehow we walked right into the exhibit without showing our tickets or waiting in any line. The show was UNBELIEVABLE. One of the best exhibits I have ever seen in MOMA. He is so talented and it inspired me to start sketching more. (I haven't started yet...but hopefully in Scotland I will pull out my sketchbook and draw some castles. haha.) After the exhibit, Barrett had to go but I continued to walk around the museum. I checked out the Jackson Pollock room and Starry Night, and then my roommate, Liz, called me and I met up with her downstairs. (She was in a class touring around the museum, so we were planning on meeting up after she was finished.) It was 5:30 and we decided to hop on the subway and go to Spice, the restaurant, in Union Square. It was nice to not eat in our apartment.

Barrett took a picture of me in front of Radio City Music Hall...I'm such a tourist (still)!

After dinner, we walked back to the apartment, got ready for Emma's show and went to Tisch to see the performance. Emma has been working so hard this semester preparing for this show that she wrote, directed, and is performing in, and it finally happened this week/weekend. Opening night was Wednesday and tonight is the last show. She did a wonderful job and I'm so happy for her. She is graduating in a few weeks, as well, so she has a lot to be proud of! I'm going to miss Emma and Liz SO much, I really don't know what I would have done without them in this city. It's going to be hard to say goodbye, but I know I will see them again in NY or San Francisco, or maybe Europe in the summer after I'm done studying in Glasgow.

After the show, I went over to Nicole's dorm and we watched Vicky Christina Barcelona, talked, and relaxed. It's nice having some relaxing nights here in between work and writing all of these essays. Today, I have just been working in my apartment. Emma had a matinee today at 1pm and tonight I'm going to her 8pm show.

Love you and miss you all! (I'll be home so soon.)

Love Always,

Jess

A Wonderful Thanksgiving Break in NYC

It was an AMAZING Thanksgiving break spent in NYC with my family. I miss them so much already, but I know I will be back home spending Christmas with them in only 3 weeks. Time has really flown by this semester. I don’t know how I’m feeling yet about leaving New York and starting my new adventure in Scotland, but I do know that it will be a great experience.

The last update I gave was on Tuesday night and a lot happened after that over break.

Wednesday

I had a meeting with my drama group for our final drama performance. It went very well and I’m excited to get it over with on December 9^th. Haha. After my rehearsal, I met up with my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and uncle for dinner. My dad and sister found a great restaurant called Rouge Tomate. (I would definitely recommend it to everyone living in or visiting New York.) It is located at 10 East 60^th Street. We had a wonderful dinner, played a little trick on my uncle, and just had a great time together. After dinner we walked back to the condo my family was staying in and we just relaxed the rest of the night. (I, of course, watched an episode of Lost before going to bed.)

My soup at Rouge Tomate. Beautifully presented...and delicious!

Bec, Bill, and Mike at Rouge Tomate.

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving!! When I woke up my dad, mom, and uncle had already left to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I was happy to sleep in and just watch it on TV (even though it was only a few blocks away from us). When everyone got back to the condo we made a wonderful bagel with lox and cream cheese breakfast and figured out what we were going to do the rest of the day. We ended up seeing “The Blind Side” with Sandra Bullock. It was a feel-good movie and we all enjoyed it. After the movie, I headed back down to the East Village so I could get a new set of clothes at my apartment and change for Thanksgiving dinner. From my apartment, I took the subway directly to 96^th Street for our Carmine’s Thanksgiving Dinner. They had a special that included an 18-20 pound turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and all of that other good stuff you usually eat on Thanksgiving. After dinner, we ordered Carmine’s famous Titanic dessert for Uncle Pete’s birthday. I still can’t believe how much we ate that night. Everyone was feeling pretty disgusting after that dinner. Once we got back to the condo, we all just put on our pajamas and rested our stomachs.

BEFORE (notice the huge turkey and full plates of food)

AFTER...we ate a lot!

The Titanic birthday dessert. BEFORE.

And, AFTER.

Friday

Friday was Uncle Pete’s birthday. It was also one of our most filled days of the week. We started off the day walking to Rockefeller Center and watched the ice skaters and crowds of people shopping on Black Friday. I can’t handle huge crowds like that. It was ridiculous trying to walk on the sidewalk of Fifth Avenue. At Rockefeller Center, we took some family photos and enjoyed just being together. My parents and I tried to get into MOMA but the line was down the block. After Rockefeller Center, we made our way to Grand Central for lunch at the Oyster Bar. I had some New England clam chowder and a platter of oysters. SO good! After lunch, everyone took the subway to the East Village and I got to show my sister and brother-in-law my apartment. From St. Mark’s we walked down Broadway to SoHo and picked up some shoes that my mom had on hold at the Camper store. (We also went to the Sabon store where you can wash your hands. I even ended up buying some of their Vanilla Coconut exfoliating scrub.) After a while of walking around SoHo, making a stop at Kee’s Chocolates, and getting drinks at the SoHo Grande Hotel, we ate a wonderful dinner at Aurora. After dinner, Bec found a little bakery where we ate dessert (and laughed our asses off). It seems like we really lucked out with great restaurants and food this past week in NY. We ended the night, again, relaxing in the condo watching TV. I also had to say my goodbyes to Bec and Bill because they were leaving very early in the morning to head back to SF.

Ice skating at Rockefeller Center

Uncle Pete and Dad washing their hands at Sabon.

Mr. and Mrs. Kee at Kee's Chocolates.

Bec eating her Tiramisu (because they were out of chocolate mousse)

Dad, Uncle Pete and Bill up to no good on the subway.

Saturday

I woke up and Bec and Bill had already left for the airport. My dad and I ended up walking to MOMA because we missed going on Friday. They had a great Bauhaus exhibit that the both of us enjoyed. After seeing Bauhaus, Starry Night, and Monet’s Water Lilies, we grabbed some pizza at Angelo’s (the pizza place right next to the Late Show with David Letterman). We then took a cab back to the condo, grabbed all of my stuff, and took another cab back down to my apartment in the East Village. I said goodbye to the fam and started unpacking from an amazing week spent on the Upper West Side with everyone.

The rest of the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) I spent in Starbucks and at the apartment catching up on the work I hadn’t done over break. Today (Monday) I had my art history class from 9:30-10:45 and now I’m about to head to Starbucks and write my 10-page essay due tomorrow. Woohoo! (I’ve already started it, so I think I can get it done pretty quickly. Besides, it’s only a rough draft that is due at 11am.)

Love you and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

A great week so far.

Monday:

In the morning I had my art history class from 9:30-10:45 and that was my only class for the week. The rest of the day I got some work done and then I met up with my mom, dad, and Uncle Pete for the Late Show with David Letterman. I was expecting to see Robin Williams and Ashley Greene, since it was Monday, but I guess they were filming 3 shows on Monday because they can't film on Thanksgiving. We ended up seeing the Wednesday night show with Natalie Portman and Adam Lambert. It was so weird because Dave kept saying "tomorrow is Thanksgiving" when really it was only Monday night. After the show, we went to the Meatpacking district and ate at Son Cubano. After dinner we walked along the High Line for a little while. From there we took a cab to St. Mark's and I got to show the fam my apartment and introduce everyone to my awesome roommates! After the tour we walked around St. Mark's for a little bit and then took a cab to the Upper West Side. I decided to sleep up there last night for a little change of scenery. When we arrived, everyone got in their pajamas, ate dessert, and Uncle Pete and I watched the new episode of Dexter. I ended up staying awake longer than everyone because it was so nice to have a TV and sleep on the 15th floor of an apartment building overlooking the city.

Walking through Columbus Circle, on our way to the Late Show

Knowing the name of this deli allowed me to win tickets to the Late Show

Waiting in line to get the tickets.

Dad, Mom, and Uncle Pete in the elevator going up to the High Line.

Posing in the blue tunnel area of the High Line.

Tuesday:

I woke up to a beautiful view of NYC from the Kolber's apartment. I stayed in bed for a little bit and then took my time doing work, getting ready, and then I finally left the Upper West Side at 2pm. I took a cab from 60th and Amsterdam to my apartment, and then took the subway to work in Brooklyn. As soon as work was over, I got dressed up and ready before heading straight to Times Square for a Broadway show with the fam. We saw "A Steady Rain" with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. It was unbelievable! Everyone loved it, and they raised thousands of dollars for a Broadway Cares/Equity Fights charity. After the show, we went to Carnegie Deli to get some Reubens. Dad and Uncle Pete shared one and then Mom and I shared another one. Mom and I didn't get through half of ours even sharing it. It was PILED with meat and cheese. I can't believe I even ate a little bit of it. Bec and Bill joined us at the deli and then we parted ways. Now I'm back in my apartment and everyone else is on the Upper West Side.

Uncle Pete enjoying the view of Times Square after seeing "A Steady Rain"

The Naked Cowboy posing with some girls in the middle of Times Square

Dad and his Reuben sandwich. (I had to take a picture with him in it so you could see how HUGE it is!)

Tomorrow I have a meeting with my drama group and then I'll be meeting up with the fam for dinner.

Love you and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

(Part of) The Family Has Arrived!

My family is finally here in NYC and I'm so happy! (Bec and Bill arrive on Tuesday from Massachusetts.) This weekend was mostly just preparing for their arrival (aka cleaning the apartment) and hanging out around the East Village. Last night I hung out with friends at our apartment and then we went out to a bar but didn't stay there for long. Today I had a meeting with my drama group for our final project and then I took the subway to JFK Airport. When I got to the airport, I met up with my parents and Uncle Pete and then we all took a cab to Brooklyn to see Uncle Walter and Aunt Adele. We went to their favorite diner called the Kings Plaza Diner on Avenue U and had an amazing (and unhealthy) dinner. I ended up eating a bacon cheeseburger, but it was SO good. After dinner, we took a cab back to Manhattan, my family dropped me off on St. Mark's, and they continued on to the Upper West Side. I am currently laying on my couch trying to recover from my huge dinner and I am thinking of watching an episode of Lost.

Mom and Uncle Pete

Dad with his Uncle Walter and Aunt Adele

Tomorrow I have my art history class and then the fam and I are off to see the Late Show with David Letterman. (More details on that later.)

Love and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

Thank goodness it's the weekend.

Wednesday:

I had my art history class in the morning, then I came back to the apartment to finish researching for my final project in Drama in Performance. As I was researching I got a call from an unknown number. When I picked up, the man on the other line said he was calling from the Late Show. I then remembered that a while back my mom and I had signed up to win tickets to the Late Show for next week. The man told me if I called John, the audience coordinator, and answered the trivia question correctly, I would win the tickets for my dad and I. I found out that my mom got the same phone call and she had already won two tickets for her and my uncle. It was up to me, and I NEVER watch the Late Show. I quickly researched some trivia questions about the show and read a couple articles about winning the tickets, and I called the audience coordinator. He asked me where Rupert Jee works that they visit on the show a lot. I knew the answer because I had just read an article about a woman getting the same type of question. The answer was "Hello Deli"!! He told me I won the tickets for Monday night and my family and I would be able to pick them up from 3:30-4:30 before the show. I'm SO excited and I can't believe I actually got the answer correct. By the time I was done celebrating, I realized I had to meet with my drama group in the library. After our meeting, I walked back to the apartment and decided to relax a little (aka I didn't get any work done on Wednesday night.)

Thursday:

My Sex and Gender class went from 11-12:15 as always and then I had to rush back to the apartment to start my essay that was due today at 12:30. I already had an outline/idea for my paper, the hard part was starting it. I worked at The Bean (a coffee place at East 3rd Street and 1st Ave) for a little while with my friend Emily and I wasn't very successful writing my essay. So, we grabbed dinner at the Dumpling Man and then I went to my real study/homework place (Starbucks) to finish my work. I was finally able to focus and get it going. At around 10pm, my friend from that class, Nicole, joined me to start writing her paper. (We're procrastinators, I know!) When Starbucks closed at 11pm, we went back to our own apartments and finished writing our essays. I was up really late finalizing it so I wouldn't have to get up early to finish working.

Today:

This morning I woke up to proofread my essay a couple more times and then I decided I needed to include a drawing of the island we were talking about and designing in our essay. I must say, I was very happy with how my picture turned out and I'm excited to get feedback on my paper. I stapled everything together, grabbed a bagel to eat before class, and headed to my class. While I was eating my bagel, I saw this girl who looked really familiar walking past me. I have seen her a few times and always wanted to say hi, but I didn't know if I was just making things up. Well, anyway, clearly we knew each other because she stopped to say hi when we made eye contact. I realized that it was this girl named Lexi who I went to Mill Valley Middle School with. She also lives on St. Mark's here in NYC. We exchanged numbers and now we are planning on catching up and hanging out before I leave. After that encounter, I had my Architecture in NY class and we toured around Grand Central, the Chrysler Building, the Ford Foundation building and then we ended at the UN. It was one of my favorite tours and it was a GORGEOUS day today. I'm hoping that when my family gets to NY on Sunday it will still be this beautiful outside. After the tour, I came back to the apartment and now I'm just hanging out trying to get a head start on some more work (and catch you up on my life).

My drawing of Governors Island for my project that I turned in today.

Grand Central Station on a beautiful day with no clouds in the sky and the sun shining bright!

The last building we looked at on our tour. (The United Nations Secretariat Building.)

Love and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

Yummm.

I just treated myself to a WONDERFUL sushi dinner. There is a sushi restaurant 2 blocks away on St. Mark's where all of the sushi rolls are 50% off all day every day. So good! Today I had my Sex and Gender classes from 11-1:145. Then I came back to the apartment, ate some lunch, and watched an episode of Lost. I have never seen an episode before, and now I'm addicted. I just started today at 2pm and now I'm downloading the third episode of the first season.

From 3:45-5:45 I had work at the trapeze academy. It went well and the kids got to do catches, so they were excited about that. I hung out around there for a little while after class catching up with my friend Jay because I haven't seen him for a while. Then I walked to the subway, came back to Manhattan, and decided to treat myself to some sushi. I could feel myself getting into a funk and I really didn't want to have a weird/bad night so I got sushi and miso soup. It was really good (and cheap) and now I'm about to start researching for my Drama in Performance final project.

Me and my friend, Barrett, in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (or as my architecture teacher likes to call it, St. John the Unfinished)

Walking past the Seinfeld restaurant on the Upper West Side.

My friend, Emily Greene, performing on Saturday night with her band.

Emily taking a break from the piano. She is amazing!

5 days until my family gets to New York City!!!!

Love and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess