Food, late nights, and travel troubles. And more food.

Well, it's been over a week, so I guess that I'm overdue for another post. Not too much happened this week in the way of school, just the usual; a couple essays due, page after page of reading, and the numerous reading quizzes which I have come to detest. We did go on a field trip for my Intro to the City class on Tuesday though, (I know! A field trip in college?!?) down to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, which was actually pretty cool. It didn't start off so great, because the tour guide was really dry, and I can't remember anything she said, since she had the most severe lisp ever. Every time she said something, all I could focus on was the lisp. We then were led into a room that was a preserved apartment in an early 1900s tenement, and accompanied by an actress who did an impressive job playing that part of an Sefardic Jew immigrant from Spain. We basically talked with her for about twenty minutes, as if we were Irish immigrants, looking for a place to stay.

After the museum I stopped at a nearby Chinatown bakery to get some cheap food; things that I have grown up on, like hot dog buns, roast pork buns, and egg custard tarts. I think I got about 5 items for 4 dollars? Gotta love Chinatown. The next day I had the experience of trying a bulgogi hot dog. Literally it's a hot dog with bulgogi layered atop. It was actually decent, though not nearly worth the 5.50 James and I each paid for ours. Then we went to Yogurtland, on Bleecker Street, easily some of the best ice cream in Manhattan, and a much better 5 dollars spent.

Thursday of this week turned out to be a lot more low key than the week previous, as my afternoon was spent running errands, and sitting in my apartment waiting for SOMEONE to wake up, yes, wake up, til 10pm. I got bored and at around 10 minutes to 10, began to walk from Midtown down Broadway towards the James' dorm @ U-Hall. So we ended up watching a Japanese romance movie with English subtitles, which I think was called Heavenly Forest? The movie was really good, extremely sad, definitely a tearjerker. Afterwards we decided to hang out in Union Square Park til about 3am. I seem to have developed a habit of keeping my friends in the city up til ridiculous hours of the night...

Anyway, the next morning I overslept, waking up just before noon. I was planning to take the 12:05 bus from Port Authority back home to give some tennis lessons as I usually do, but obviously I wasn't going to make that. Seeing as I had a 2pm lesson, I was a bit pressed for time, and had to improvise. There was a 12:50 bus leaving from the GWB Bus Station all the way up on 178th Street which meant, walking 5 blocks to Penn Station, taking the A all the way up to 175th from Penn Station, and walking the other 3 blocks in the underground tunnel, all in about 45 minutes. So I was making good time, and it looked like I might just make the bus. Then for some reason, I got off at 168th St, thinking that was where the bus station was. Turns out that was a costly error, as the next subway didn't come for 10 minutes. I missed the bus by 5. So I was more than a little ticked off after missing two buses, and losing my first lesson. (aka 3o bucks) I had to wait another half hour for the next bus, and I remember thinking, "I wonder when Chihiro and James are going home? What would be the chances of them deciding to take this same bus?" And like clockwork, who should come up the escalator but Chihiro. Then a minute later, James. It was just so bizarre.

So when we got back to Closter, James decided to come to my house to mooch off the abundance of food in my fridge. And once we walked into the house, James saw that my sister had just gotten Rock Band for her birthday. So we played for about an hour, James the guitar and me the drums, until I had to go give a lesson.

Saturday was my sister's birthday, and my transportation woes continued. I was driving through downtown Closter when in mid-turn, my car suddenly broke down on me. Luckily I broke down right in front of the police station, so the cops were right there to help me out. Looks like my 19 year old Honda Accord has reached the end of the line though. For my sister's birthday, we went to Harvest, in Closter, which is always great food, but expensive.

And now comes midterms week. I actually attempted to be somewhat studious today, and read a bunch of powerpoints for my 5 essay midterm for my Intro to the City class. Ironically, this midterm for my easiest class, will likely end up being my hardest midterm. My only other official midterm is for Econ, although I have my midterms on back to back days. =(

To end on a lighter note, I got the most amazing blender off of Amazon. The glass for the blender is actually portable, so you don't even need to pour out your drink into another container. Unfortunately, the only things I have here to blend right now are Cheez Doodles, marshmallows, coffee, cereal, cookies, jello, greek yogurt, pork dumplings, and a steak burrito. Yum.