Happy Halloween!

Last night I stayed up REALLY late just doing work. I probably should have gotten to bed earlier, but whatever, that's what naps are for. However, I set my alarm for 9:45 because I wanted to study a little bit and then go to my hair cut appointment at 12pm. I must have turned off my alarms this morning and gotten back into bed because I woke up at 12:04!!!! Oops. So, I rushed to get dressed, call the salon, and then catch a cab. I really did not want to spend money on a cab, but I had no other choice. Anyway, I got to the salon by 12:25 and everything was okay. They took me right away and the woman was so nice. I told her exactly what I wanted and she went to work on my hair. I got a little color and now I have bangs. It's really weird to have bangs straight across my face now, but I'll get used to it. After I left the salon, I got on the subway to Union Square, picked up some pictures I had developed at Walgreens, and then walked home.

When I got back to the apartment I started to do some more studying and then Liz came home. We wrapped ourselves up in aluminum foil and walked across the street to Chipotle. They have $8.50 burritos but on Halloween if you come dressed up like a burrito they'll give you one for free! I'm saving my burrito for later.

Tonight we have NO idea what we are doing. I don't even know if my Halloween makeup is going to work. I'm praying it does. I hope all of you have a great time tonight wherever you are for Halloween...I'll hopefully talk to some of you soon.

Love and miss you all, like always...

Love,

Jess

Staying in tonight

Well, last night I didn't get a lot of my study guide finished, so tonight I'm staying in and working on my art history study guide and I'm going to study, study, study!

Today I had my architecture class and we were toured around Ladies Mile. This is the area where all of the big department stores were opened in NY and they had an elevated railway for people to travel down Sixth Avenue to get to the department stores. It was a good walk. After that I went to Trader Joe's and did my grocery shopping, walked home, walked back to the post office, and then walked to do some more errands. I did A LOT of walking today, I'm sort of glad I'm staying in tonight. Anyway, now I'm back at my apartment, sitting in the living room, about to start my work for the evening. Then, I'm going for a haircut at 12pm tomorrow and when I get home I'll start applying my Halloween makeup. I'm really hoping it works and the blood/craziness that I plan to glue on my face/body stays on. I will upload pictures when I can. We will probably be going to the Halloween parade and then to some bars around the East Village. I'm ready to freak some people out with my makeup!

Hope you all had a nice Friday. Happy weekend, and Happy (Early) Halloween!

Love and miss you all.

Love Always,

Jess

Anna Deavere Smith

So, first things first, last night I did not get eaten by a wild animal in my room. I couldn't find anything under my bed and I haven't heard any scary noises. (Maybe Liz was just hallucinating. haha) Anyway, today I had my Sex and Gender class (boring as usual) and then my friends, Victoria and Emily, and I went to Starbucks and talked for an hour while drinking our lattes and coffee. Emily had to go to class, so Victoria and I just stayed there for a while doing our homework.

After getting some work done, we headed towards Broadway and 11th to go to Blockbusters (they were having a storewide sale) and the Halloween store. I still don't know what I'm going to be, but right now I have zombie makeup, gauze, and a fake knife in my room...we'll see what happens with that. I will be sure to upload pictures.

I walked home after shopping at the Halloween store for a little bit and then I got ready to go to my performance at 8pm. I am now back from the show and it was UNBELIEVABLE. We saw a show in Times Square called "Let Me Down Easy" with Anna Deavere Smith. (CLICK HERE to see what she has been in.) The show was absolutely amazing. It was a one-woman show but I felt like I had seen over 20 different people tonight. The play talks a lot about medicine and health care and she has interviewed so many fascinating people. (Hopefully I can take my family to see the show when they come here for Thanksgiving.)

Now I'm back at my apartment, my roommate just carved a pumpkin, I'm about to work more on my study guide for art history and then I'll hopefully go to sleep in a little while. Hope all of you had a good Thursday.

LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!

Love Always,

Jess

2 long, stressful weeks

So, it has been almost TWO WEEKS that I haven’t written on this blog. And I know some people are annoyed that I haven’t been keeping you updated with what is going on. I guess every week is going to be stressful no matter what, so I’m not going to use that as an excuse, BUT I have had midterms the past two weeks. Instead of writing a bunch of stuff for every day that I’ve missed, I’ll give you all some straightforward points.

Thursday Night

• Saw a play with my Drama class called My Life in a Nutshell about triangulated desire and love triangles (acted out by life-size marionettes)
• Went to the midnight showing of Where the Wild Things Are in Times Square

Friday

• We went on an architecture tour around the East Village
• Came home, went to a bar with my roommates
• At the bar, we met some new people and just had a good time.
• After the bar, we moved locations to another bar in the East Village called Beauty Bar. It was my roommates’ friend Chris Lowell’s birthday, so we all celebrated with him.
• Of course we finished the night off with Crif Dogs yummmmmy hot dogs!

Me and my roommates before going to Beauty Bar :-)

Saturday

• Woke up and tried to do work
• Found out our friend Brian was on his way to Puerto Rico with Chris Lowell and their other friends for the weekend.
• Made my way to Brooklyn to help with the Halloween Show at Streb Trapeze Academy
• The emcee of the Halloween show was Randy Jones (The original cowboy from the Village People!)
• We were all singing YMCA along with him. It was amazing!
• Stayed there until 2:15am cleaning up, then came back to Manhattan

Me and Randy Jones

Sunday

• Woke up around 9:30
• Got ready for trapeze. I invited 9 of my friends to trapeze for a 12:15pm class and we all met at the Subway to head to Brooklyn together.
• Had a GREAT class from 12:15-2:15. While everyone else was learning how to do knee hangs, I learned how to do a layout (hopefully you will be able to see it in the video below)
• Everyone had a blast and we didn’t want to leave, so we went out to lunch at Biergarten in Brooklyn
• After I got back to Manhattan I had to start on all of my work, so I went to Starbucks for the rest of the day/night

Everyone resting after class.

Eating after working out on the trapeze.

Monday

• Class at 9:30
• Spent the rest of the day in Starbucks doing work (again)
• Came back to the apartment to finish up more work and go to sleep
• Watched some of Moonstruck before going to bed

Tuesday

• Class from 11-1:45 (had a quiz, like every Tuesday)
• Work from 3:45-5:45 in Brooklyn
• Stayed at the trapeze academy to do homework and then ended up staying for Staff Training from 8:30-10:30
• At staff training, I learned how to spot people and explain tricks on the low bar. And I learned how to work the platform (hold someone’s belt before taking off on the trapeze)
• Got a ride home from Jay, my friends from Club Med, around 11pm
• Tried to do some work after I got home, wasn’t very successful.

Wednesday

• Class from 9:30-10:45
• Went to Starbucks (clearly my favorite study area) to finish papers
• Had my Drama in Performance class from 3-6:10. I wasn’t feeling too great, and I was stressing out about everything else going on in my life/school, so I didn’t participate a lot in the discussion.

Thursday

• Sex and Gender from 11-12:15
• Had drinks (at Starbucks) with some girls from my class. Ended up talking for over an hour…I plan on hanging out with them a lot more this semester!
• Performance with class at The Irish Repertory Theatre called The Emperor Jones
• Rushed home to study for my architecture midterm.

Friday

• Architecture midterm at 12:30
• In the middle of our last compare/contrast essay, the fire alarm went off! She collected our tests and we all had to evacuate.
• After our midterm, we still had a tour around the West Village
• When we finished the tour, it was freezing and we were hungry, so I went with some friends to Chipotle and we got burritos.
• I wanted to stay in Friday night so my friend Victoria (from my Sex and Gender class) came over and we just talked for hours
• Relaxing Friday night but still went to sleep at like 4am

Saturday

• Woke up late
• Spent the day trying to do work, I’m never very successful on Saturdays
• Got burgers at a new restaurant across the street from my apartment with friends
• Thought I wasn’t going to go out again because I just wasn’t feeling in the mood
• Instead, my roommates convinced me and there ended up being a bunch of SF people at our apartment
• We had a great time and it was another late night in NYC.

Sunday

• Woke up around 1 in the afternoon and read most of the day.

Monday

• Art History class
• Dropped off my laundry
• Finished my readings for Sex and Gender

Tuesday

• Sex and Gender class/quiz
• I didn’t feel like going to recitation for the class, so I walked home
• On my way home, I stopped by the new burger place across the street and asked if they needed any extra hands. He sat me down right away and interviewed me. I think it went really well but I’m still waiting to hear back from them
• Work at Trapeze academy 3:45-5:45
• Got beat up by 4-7 year olds (I swear, these kids were insane today…I got kicked, slapped, licked, bitten, and abused by these children! Haha)
• Taught some new tricks to the older class…It made me feel so good to be able to teach someone else a trick and see them do it on the big trapeze.
• Rushed to the subway to get back to Manhattan
• Spent hours in Starbucks doing work
• At 11pm, when they were kicking everyone out, they started playing “Closing Time” and it made my night of studying there worth it. (I love that song.)

Wednesday

• This morning I went to the Met with my Art and Architecture class
• It was UNBELIEVABLE and I am definitely going to go there again before I leave New York. I fell in love with the museum.
• Took the subway back to my apartment.
• It rained all day.
• Drama in Performance class from 3:30-6:10.
• Right when I got out of class, I saw I missed a call from my roommate, Liz. I called her back right away and she asked if I was in my room. I said no, and then she told me she heard really scary noises coming from behind my door, like there were a bunch of mice trying to get out. She even had to leave the apartment and take a walk because she was so scared of being in the apartment. Of course, I ran back to the apartment, met Liz on the corner and we walked back together. When we got to my room, I opened the door and nothing was there. I’m SO scared but I don’t know what to do because I can’t hear anything now.
• Right now I’m sitting on the couch in the living room because I’m scared to be in my room.

Tonight I will be writing a paper and creating a study guide for my art history midterm that I have on Monday.

That was my past two weeks…hope you all had a good two weeks as well.

Love you and miss you! (More pictures to come.)

Love Always,

Jess

Cold and Rainy

Well, we just started getting some pretty horrible weather here in NYC. I'm sitting in my room right now, looking out the window, and it is grey, wet, cold, and gross outside. I have to leave in an hour to go to a performance in the West Village.

Yesterday I had my Drama in Performance class and it was another great class. I almost wish I had that class every day! We talked about the performance we saw last week at BAM and then it was time for more performances. I got up to do mine and I was so nervous. I could feel my legs shaking, but I tried to forget about it and just do my performance. I ended up calming down, doing my "dance" (which involved jumping off of the table in the front of my classroom) and then I was done. I got some good comments and now my professor wants our final class outing to be a trapeze class. How awesome would that be?!? I must admit, it's going to be pretty difficult to try and work it out, since the class limit is 10 and we have about 26 people, but maybe I can figure out a way to do this. After class, I walked around the West Village with my friend Alexis for a little while and then came back to my apartment to write a paper. Last night my roommates and I saw about 6 different mice. It was insane. They were running around EVERYWHERE and it made us feel so disgusting. So, Liz and I set up some traps with cheese and we caught a couple of mice. When Emma came home, she wrote an email to the management and told them that we NEED to get the holes filled in so these mice don't bother us anymore. This morning they called us back and said they would fix the problem ASAP. Richie, our handyman, is coming tomorrow to get everything figured out.

Today I had class from 11-12:15, then I came back to my apartment and made myself an omelette. I have just been relaxing since then and in an hour I'm heading to the West Village to see "My Life in a Nutshell" by Hanne Tierney. The show is only 45 minutes long and it is performed with life-size marionettes. (Should be another interesting play.) If I'm feeling up for it, I also might go see Where the Wild Things Are at midnight with a girl from my architecture field study class.

Hope you are all having a good week...it's ALMOST Friday. woohoo!

Love and miss you.

Love Always,

Jess

Almost another week.

It has been another week that I haven't updated this thing and I think you are all waiting to hear what's been going on in NYC. The last time I updated was on Wednesday night, so I'll try to remember from there.

Thursday:

On Thursday, I had my normal Sex and Gender class from 11-12:15 and then I went to see a performance with my Drama in Performance class. (It seems to always be the same post during the week, but I'll try not to bore you.) This week, however, the performance was in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. We saw another contemporary dance piece, this one was called Decreation, and it was in a much larger theater than we were used to. Our seats were in the second to last row on the balcony. I'm still trying to let the performance settle with me because I have to figure out my feelings about it by the time we discuss it in class tomorrow. After the performance, my friend Alexis came over to my apartment and we opened up the bottle of red wine that Anne and Bob brought for me from California. Me, Alexis, and my roommate, Liz, had some wine and chocolate and enjoyed our night inside the apartment.

Friday:

I got up for my 12:30 architecture class and after an hour of sitting in class, we went outside to explore SoHo and the Cast-Iron Historic District. It was a really great tour, despite the odd weather we were having. After the tour, I had to go to Starbucks and finish reading an article for my art history class and then write a response. By the time that was over, I came back to the apartment and my roommates and I felt like taking a walk. We walked all around the East Village, bumped into some friends of mine from classes and then returned to the apartment. Then, my friend Mary from Smith (who is now living in Brooklyn) came over to hang out because the last time I saw her was in San Francisco. We got some Crif Dogs (the amazing hot dogs down the street from me) and then called it a night.

Saturday:

I woke up early on Saturday to go to Governor's Island for a homework assignment. For my architecture field study class, we had to go to Governor's Island and then we have to write a paper about what we think should happen to the island in the future. You have to take the ferry to get there, but it's free! As soon as I got off the ferry, I rented a bike for an hour, and biked around the island. It was amazing just being there on my own and having my own adventure outside of the crazy city. I could see the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the island itself was pretty gorgeous (but windy). Once I upload all of my pictures from this past week, I'll have a post that is only pictures. After my adventure on Governor's Island, I went back to my apartment to just have another relaxing night at home. However, later on Saturday night I met up with a friend at a cafe down the street from my place. We stayed there for a while just talking...it was great.

Sunday:

I spent all of Sunday doing my work for Sex and Gender because I had a lot of reading (like always) due Tuesday. That was it. haha

Monday:

I had my normal art history class at 9:30am. Then, I spent the rest of the day finishing up my work for Sex and Gender, writing down notes, etc. Wow, the past two days have been pretty boring. No need in trying to tell you all the details because I have really only been doing work.

Today (Tuesday):

I had class from 11-1:45pm today. After that, I walked on Bleecker street back towards Bowery and then walked up Bowery to get to my apartment. I always like exploring different ways to get home. I had to hurry though because I had work at 3:45pm. It is now 7pm and I am done with work in Brooklyn at Espana/Streb Trapeze Academy. They have wireless internet here, so I brought my computer to do some work. (Clearly I'm not doing any work because I'm updated my blog for all of you.) I'm going to stay here for a little while longer trying to get work done and then I'll take the subway back to Manhattan and finish up my other work there.

This week really wasn't that eventful, but I have enjoyed it nonetheless. I have to sign off now and do some work. I hope all of you have had a great week.

Love you and miss you...

Love Always.

Jess

Didn't dance today.

Well, I spent last night and today choreographing my little performance piece, and ended up not presenting it in front of my class today. We got through a lot of people, but I was not one of them, so I have to be nervous for another week until I can perform it next Wednesday. Aside from that, this morning I had my Art History class from 9:30-10:45 and then I spent the rest of the day before my Drama class, at 3pm, working on my performance piece and relaxing.

The performance is supposed to be about what moves us. Every "dance" was different today. I absolutely LOVED watching everyone express themselves in different ways. I'm focusing on trapeze in mine. We read an essay for class about Pina Bausch and she said in an essay titled "What Moves Me" that she knew from the moment she walked into a dance class, she knew she wanted to be a dancer. I related that to me and the trapeze because I knew from the moment I first flew on a trapeze that I wanted to continue doing circus arts. My performance piece is about my thought process before going on a trapeze and jumping off the platform. I'm not going to talk about all the details of it, but for the end of the piece, I'm going to jump off of the table in my classroom. haha. I thought that would be a fun ending and sort of like jumping off of a trapeze. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Today, after my Drama class, I took the subway up to 57th and 7th Ave. and walked to Anne and Bob's apartment. (Anne and Bob are my parents' very good friends from home, so it was almost like having my own parents here in NY.) They took me out for a great dinner and it was so nice seeing them. (They even gave me some sweets to bring back to the apartment for everyone.) I am now back on St. Mark's, about to start my work due tomorrow. Hope all of you are having a good week!

Love and miss you...

Love Always,

Jess

I don't know.

It is REALLY hard to come up with a new title for every blog entry. haha. Anyway, today is Tuesday and the last time I updated was Sunday. On Monday I had my normal art history class at 9:30am. Smith College had Mountain Day on Monday, so I was jealous that they didn't have classes. If you don't know what Mountain Day is, I'll explain it. Before Fall Break at Smith, the president always chooses one day to be Mountain Day. The bells are rung before classes begin on whichever day is chosen, and it tells students that classes are cancelled and everyone gets a day off. Most people sleep in late, catch up on work, and just hang out with friends. But the people who really take advantage of the beautiful day off will rent vans with their house and go apple picking and have picnic lunches. So, that is what Smithies got to do on Monday. I, on the other hand, spent the day (2pm-10pm) at the Starbucks around the corner from my apartment and read all of the material for my Sex and Gender class. I was sitting next to a really nice guy for the entire time I was there. He was an illustrator and we would take breaks from our work every so often to chat. He was spending the day in Starbucks retouching old wedding photographs for a client. After he left, I stayed for another hour working, and then headed back to the apartment. I realized I hadn't eaten dinner, so I made myself some creamed spinach.

Today, I went to class from 11-1:45, and then headed to work at the Trapeze Academy in Brooklyn. I am now back from work, sitting in my room on my bed, trying to figure out what homework to start first. I have to choreograph a dance for my Drama in Performance class for tomorrow, so maaaaybe I should start that.

I love you and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

Walter's 90th Birthday

Last night I met up with Anne and Bob Kolber at 6th Ave. and West 3rd Street to take the subway to Brooklyn. It was great seeing familiar faces from home. I let them lead the way because they know their way around much better than I do. Anyway, we got on the subway and after getting on the wrong train and ending up back in Manhattan, we finally made it to Brooklyn and were on our way to Kings Highway. (Clearly they didn't know their way around as well as I thought they did. haha.) After arriving at Kings Highway we got a car service to take us to the restaurant where Walter and Adele were hosting the party. The party was in the back of the restaurant in a private room and there were so many people there. I really had no idea what to expect at this party. I knew I would see Linda and Armelle and the other Kesslers, but I had no idea I would see all of my New York family! It was very emotional for me because it made me realize how much family I have that I never get to see. I even met family I never knew I had.

I was sitting next to Armelle at the table and there was a woman sitting across from me. She asked me who I was and I said, "Walter's Great Niece" and she responded with a quick, "Who is your father?" I said "Richard Pollack" and she said, "I'm Phyllis!" I couldn't believe that I had been sitting across from Phyllis for 10 minutes and had no idea. The last time I really remember seeing her is when we stayed at her house in New York for Grandma Molly's funeral. It got me very emotional and I started tearing up, but I held it in. I just really couldn't believe all of the people I was seeing at this party. There were so many Pollacks!

Me with Phyllis and Janet.

Everyone said they wished my parents were there. (Mom and Dad, we really did miss you and I hope there is another occasion where everyone is together and we can get the big Pollack family together again.) Dinner probably started around 8 and we had the choice of 3 things to order. Then all the waiters brought appetizer plates for every person. I could have just eaten that for dinner, there was so much food. Then a plate full of pasta came out and I realized it wasn't a mistake, it was just another course before our main meal. After the pasta we were given a full plate of salad. And then after the salad we were FINALLY given our main course. Nobody could finish their main course because we were all so stuffed. In between all of these courses, people gave speeches and the things people were saying about Uncle Walter were hilarious. Everyone was cracking up the entire night. (Dad, you were mentioned in Bob's speech when he talked about the San Francisco Chapter of F.E.O.R.D., Former Employees of Royal Drugs!) By the time cake came and we were done with our meal, it was around 11pm. When the party was ending and everyone was heading home, I said goodbye to Uncle Walter and Aunt Adele and to the rest of my family that I saw throughout the night. It was really such a special night. Anne, Bob, Mel, and I took a car service back to Manhattan. (Mel is Linda's friend who lives in the East Village and wants to give me a tour of everything since he has been living here for 28 years.) Mel and I were dropped off in front of my apartment on St. Mark's, but decided to walk around for 10 minutes while Mel showed me some hot spots in the East Village. When I finally got back to my apartment, my roommates were having a few friends over so I hung out with them a little bit. Everyone was going to a party in Brooklyn, but since I had just been there and really didn't have the energy, I decided to stay home.

Today I woke up around noon and now I'm about to make myself something to eat and then start my homework (because I have a lot of it). Here are some pictures from last night:

David giving his speech.

The three (Silverman?) brothers telling stories about Uncle Walter.

The Berman sisters. (Anne in the middle.)

Julia (a relative I just met last night), Adele and Howard.

Me and Aunt Adele (my great aunt).

Me and my 90 year old Great Uncle Walter. Love him!

Love you and miss you all.

Love Always,

Jess

Hellooooo Weekend.

Yesterday I had my Sex and Gender class from 11-12:15. Like always, we spent the class discussing our TUESDAY quiz, trying to figure out what were the right answers and why. We have an older man in his late 40s who is also a student at NYU in our class. Our professor has not liked him every since the first day of class. His answer to our professors, "What is the difference between men and women?" question was, "The plumbing." This man continued to use that phrase when discussing what he thought was different. Most of our class is women, so of course all of the girls try to sit far away from him because he makes everyone feel very uncomfortable. Anyway, the point of this story is that yesterday our professor finally lost it. In the middle of one of the man's answers he started to interrupt him and tell him his idea was wrong. Well, the man started yelling at our professor telling him not to talk over him and it started a huge argument. (It was quite entertaining.) Soon after that happened, class ended and I headed back to my apartment.

Last night we went to a performance on E. 4th Street called Days & Nights: Two Chekhovian Interludes. The play was only two acts long, 60 minutes with no intermission. It was a musical! I was so happy to finally see a musical. Even though it wasn't a normal broadway musical, the actors were wonderful. The first act is called "The Doctor, A Chamber Opera" and the second is "A Joke, A Musical." After the performance, I walked back to my apartment (only four blocks north of the theater" and was greeted by our friend Pete and my two roommates. He brought over little gifts for us to say thank you for coming to his show on Tuesday night. (I uploaded the video of their performance on YouTube...CLICK HERE.)

I took the rest of the night off and relaxed after another stressful week (but I've realized every week is going to be like this with work, so I have to learn ways to de-stress during the week). This morning, I slept in a little, made myself breakfast, and headed to my 12:30 architecture class. We spent the day walking around City Hall, staying around the same area we've been studying since the first week of class. (Next week will be a little better because we're touring around SOHO.) I am now back at my apartment about to go pick up my laundry that I dropped off yesterday, pick up a package at FedEx, stop at Walgreens, and then I am hanging out with my friend Jasmin tonight. I would tell you what we're doing, but it is TOP SECRET. haha. I am really not allowed to tell anyone what we are doing, but hopefully in the future I can tell you all. (Let's just say, we're hanging out in Tisch tonight.)

Tomorrow I will be going to Uncle Walter's birthday, so I'll fill you in on that soon. I can't wait to see some family and friends in New York. I've missed all of you back home so much!

Love and miss you.

Love Always,

Jess