Anne in New York

Last update from New York

2006-08-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

I am leaving for the train station in about 30 minutes, I'm hoping the rain holds off until I make it to the subway station. There is no way to hold an umbrella while pulling two rolling suitcases a few blocks through New York City.

This past weekend was good. I toured the United Nations and did some shopping on Saturday. Sunday was fun since John came down from Boston area. Unfortunately it was pretty rainy, but we still did some walking around and explored different areas of Manhattan. We also went to see An Inconvenient Truth which I suggest everyone see. It's very well done and clear without getting boring and dry.

It's been good to be in New York for the summer but I'm ready to start my senior year of college. It seems crazy that I'll be graduating in 9 months, but then I can head to graduate school and start something new.

Heading into the last weekend

2006-08-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that the summer is practically over. I have one more day at work and one last weekend to have fun in New York. I'll have help having fun since my friend John is coming to visit on Sunday. Hopefully the weather will be nice so we can do some outdoor stuff.

The past two nights I've been pretty busy. Wednesday I went to the other opera in the park, Rigoletto. This time I had a program and could see the leads and it was amazing! It's so much fun to be out in Central Park and enjoy wonderful music for free. Just amazing.

Last night I went to the play The History Boys on Broadway. I've never been to a straight play on Broadway before but I figured starting with the show that won best play this year would be a good start. I was right. It was really good. It originated in London and almost all of the original cast are here in New York (all except one and the understudies). My seat wasn't the best, I was one in from the left aisle, but I enjoyed it anyway. The lead actor is Richard Griffiths so it was no surprise that he was good, but everyone was. They made a movie of the play staring the original cast. I don't know when it comes out, but I am very up to buying it.

Opera

2006-08-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to the Metropolitan Opera in the Park. They were doing Verdi's La Traviata and I was excited to see it. I was wondering how they would transport an entire opera, set and all, to Central Park. Now I know, they don't. What it really is, is more like a sing-and-play-through of the entire opera. The orchestra was on stage with the chorus on risers behind them and the leads up in front of the orchestra. They were amazing. I mean of course they were good, it's the Met, but I really enjoyed it.

That's even though I missed getting a program so I couldn't follow along with which piece we were on at what time (thank goodness I checked up on the story online before going). I also sat in a place with the sound tent blocking my view of half the stage (unfortunately the half where the leads stood). It ended up for me more like I was listening to the opera on the radio, but that's fine because I was out in Central Park on a really nice night with good food I had brought with me and incredible music. Even without a program I could follow the outline of the story that I knew by following the tone of the music. I really liked it.

Tonight is Verdi's Rigoletto and I think I will go a little earlier to get a better view of the stage. Last night I only got there 2 hours before it started, what what was I thinking ;). I will also make sure I don't miss the person handing out programs this time.

Musicals and Museums

2006-08-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all.

Well it's been a good week here in New York if a little strange. The World Conference for Religions for Peace starts next week in Japan so both the USA and International offices are running around like crazy people making sure everything is ready for the conference and making sure other projects can be left alone for a while. A few people had already left on Friday and more will be gone by Monday. Starting Wednesday there will be four people at the most in the offices when there are normally a good 20 people running around. All of us will be interns so it will be an interesting week without direct leadership since Bud will be in Japan which is 13 hours ahead.

It'll be an interesting week.

So Thursday night I saw Sweeny Todd which is a very disturbing yet good musical. Yeah for student rush ticket prices. Much cheaper. The set was very minimal, and the actors did a really good job placing the scenes. One interesting thing they did was have the actors be the orchestra as well. There were 10 actors and they played instruments, usually when they weren't part of the scene, but sometimes when they were part of it. It was a cool concept but I'd like to see the musical again with a more conventional set-up to see if the instruments took anything away from the show. I liked it, the music was good as should be expected with Sondheim and the actors (Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris) were spectacular.

I was going to try for tickets to Mother Courage which Meryl Streep stars in today, but the line was too long. The tickets are free, you just need to stand in line. No problem I thought, I got there a little after 9am, they don't start handing out the tickets until 1pm, but that wasn't good enough. I'll try again tomorrow and get there earlier. (that means I will definitely need to take a nap or Monday will not be fun(

Instead I read in the park for an hour and then went to the Museum of Modern Art. I was there for about 4 hours which you would think means I'm a huge fan of modern art but that isn't the case. Some of it I did really like, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, the photographs, the architecture, and most of the sculptures, but I'm really not into the paintings the fit into the one solid color with four vertical lines on it category.

I just plain don't "get" those works and I'd rather pay for something aesthetically pleasing or thought provoking rather than a work that just confuses me. I was pleasantly surprised with one work in that category that had an audio description with it. It told you how to stare at certain sections and then you can see other colors behind the solid areas. That was cool.

I did like the museum overall and I did see the only Calder I've ever heard of that wasn't that orangy-red color he always uses. Probably since it was an abstract black widow spider. Anyway I should go since I'm planning on going to bed early (yes, it's a sad Saturday night). I think I'm getting up at 6 and I need to keep myself from throwing the alarm across the room or just plain turning it off and going back to sleep.

Back in the Big Apple

2006-08-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

So I went home for a week. Well, "home" means I was home for two days then in an RV for seven and home for another day. My friend Christine got married the first weekend and I was in the wedding party. It was a really nice wedding, she looked beautiful and I know that she will be very happy. Since I didn't have much time at home I squeezed in visiting my friends around wedding activities. I had dessert and drinks with John Friday night which was great since we were able to catch up on each other's summers. He had an amazing experience in South Africa earlier this summer.

I also found time to go to Circle Theatre and see Moby Dick the Musical which was hilarious. Everyone did a wonderful job including my friend Kendra who had a solo song that she completely nailed. It was nice to see the theatre and catch up with people. Everyone who I worked with the past two years that is still at Circle was at the show except for Joni. It was great to see them.

Then the next day we left for a family RV trip through Northern Michigan and the UP on our way to Minnesota for Hannah's wedding. All in all it went very well, there were few times that having 5 people in an RV was just plain to cramped. It helped that all three of us girls got our own beds. We did the main tourist's spots in Michigan, my favorite was Mackinac Island.

Then Hannah got married and she looked beautiful as well and Dave looked very handsome in his tux. She picked gorgeous flower arrangements and it was a very nice wedding. Thankfully she was nice like Christine and all of us bridesmaids looked good in the dresses. I am grateful. Her reception was short but sweet and it was nice to see college friends for a couple of hours.

Then back on the road to get home to return the RV and then to get ready to head back to New York. I'm here for another two weeks and then I'm home for Labor Day weekend before I head back to school. I need to figure out everything I meant to do before I go home and find a way to fit it all in.

That's all for now, hope everyone's summers are finishing up well.

I SAW RENT!!!!!

2006-08-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

That's right, apparently 8th times a charm because I won the lottery and saw Rent for $20. It was amazing! I was in the front row on the aisle and it was amazing. The music is of course incredible and being that close meant I really saw all of the acting taking place and they were all so good. The set is very minimal, it pretty much looks like a very wide alley in New York so the different areas of the set are used slightly differently depending on the scene. It was amazing. I've been listening to the soundtrack all day at work, I just love it.

Quick post

2006-08-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I realized that I never put in the link for the interfaith Season of Prayer website so I'm doing it now on my lunch break. http://www.seasonofprayer.org I hope the link works, but if not copy and paste it to check out the website. There are lots of prayers offered by different religious traditions for peace and security in the Middle East, particularly Lebanon/Israel.

By the way, I know I posted before that it was really hot, but that unfortunately was not as bad as it is now. The high yesterday and today was 100 with heat index of 105-115. My work and my apartment both have air conditioning, but the fear is that the power will go out. About a week ago a large section of Queens went through a 10 day blackout and Con Ed can't guarantee that it won't happen again there or in other parts of the city. They mayor has called on everyone to conserve as much electricity as possible so that we don't overload the circuits/cables. He ordered some emergency electricity measure and buildings like the Empire State are going dark at night instead of their usual decorative lights. It would be horrible if the power went out today or tomorrow, it's just plain dangerously hot.

But, I am going home on Friday for the weddings and thankfully the Midwest is getting over its heatwave so when I get home I won't be roasting anymore.

Talk to (and see!) some of you soon.

Trying to get tickets

2006-07-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

So I was hoping to report that I've seen Rent, but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. I've been to the lottery 5 times now and it's getting a little ridiculous that I haven't gotten I ticket yet, but that's the way it goes. I'm going to try MTW next week and if it doesn't work then once I get back from the weddings I'll just buy a discount ticket instead of trying for the $20 ones.

The lottery system is pretty uncomplicated. 2 and 1/2 hours before the show you can put your name and how many tickets you want (1 or 2) on an index card and it goes with all the other index cards in a big bucket. Then, you wait around until 2 hours before the show when they draw out the lucky winners.

There's a homeless man named Rob who was made friends with the people who work at the theatre. Every lottery for the night shows he's there with newspapers to sell (there's a newspaper called Street News that is sold to the homeless who then sell it for a profit). He's got a little speach that he does every time and sometimes one of the lottery workers joins in with him. He does a jazz square while singing "I should tell you, I should tell you, I should tell you, I should tell you, Would you buy my paper?" (for those of you who don't know those are lyrics from the show).

I finally bought one of his papers yesterday. I figure $2 is not too much for me to spend to support something as cool as Street News. I haven't read all of it, but it looks like it's a monthly issue. I don't know how "official" the news stories are, but it's a good sized paper, and covers politics and sports and has lots of articles geared toward awareness of homeless issues.

That's it for now. I'll be home next weekend and I hope I'll be able to see most of you.

Cool Day

2006-07-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

So I got to do some exciting things today at work. A couple that has been in Iran for the past 3 years came in today and I got to interview them. They've been going around for the past couple of weeks since they got back talking to people and telling what they think people should know about Iran and Iranians. They were there on an exchange program through the Mennonite community to study Shi'a Islam.

They talked about their experiences as Americans and Christians in Iran. Mostly they wanted to stress that Americans need to realize that Muslims are not homogeneous. They also mentioned that many of the Iranians that they met were eager for more exchanges between the US and Iran, artistic and cultural. It was cool to talk with them. The interview was recorded and will eventually be on the Religions for Peace-USA website.

Then, Bud had a retreat for the rest of the day, so he asked Kat and I to listen in on a conference call that he couldn't be in on. It was a bunch of religious leaders planning a Season of Prayer for Peace in the Middle East as an interfaith effort. I don't remember exactly who was on the call, but I know that there were two Jewish leaders, a Sikh leader, two Muslims, and a couple of Christians. They were working an a baseline for the prayers and it was interesting the types of issue that came up.

Most people started off saying that we should pray for an immediate end to the violence. One of the Jewish leaders pointed out a tension with calling for a ceasefire. He said that although Jews would agree that they want the fighting to stop, they are worried about the political aspects of a ceasefire. While no one wants more people to die, they don't want a ceasefire that doesn't lead to just, lasting, and secure peace. The final wording isn't completely set, but pretty much the central prayer will be for an urgent end to the violence to save lives and to lead to a just, lasting, and secure peace.

In the next day or two it will be finalized and the baseline and prayers from many traditions will be put in a website encouraging people of all faith to take time to pray for peace. I'll put a link up here once it's done.

Enter Anne in the role of drowned rat

2006-07-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

It's raining, which is a good thing because it's been incredibly hot for the past few days. Yesterday the heat index was 99 and today was hotter. So the rain is a good thing except for the fact that I got caught in it. I was on my way back from Central Park and when I got out of the subway station it was really coming down. In about 15 seconds I was soaked.

Actually only the front of me was soaked. The rain was coming down at a pretty good slant (of course a slant that had me facing into the rain most of my walk home) so my back only got half wet. My front was as wet as it could get. I'm not joking, it could not have been wetter if I had jumped in a lake.

I was in Central Park for an outdoor concert of the New York Philharmonic. They played The Chairman Dances by John Adams, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 1 and Beethoven's 5th. It was good, I mean of course the orchestra was wonderful, but the atmosphere was an interesting mix of concert and outdoor party. The Great Lawn was packed and people had food and everything with them. They miked the orchestra, but there was always lots of people talking over the music. I got used to it but for the first two pieces I was a little annoyed, I mean, you can have a pick-nick in Central Park anytime so why would you come to the concert if you weren't going to listen to it? But I was used to it by the time they played Beethoven and the piece is amazing so I really enjoyed it.

Anyway, I have to work in the morning so I'm heading to bed. I wonder if my clothes will have dried out by morning.

It is so HOT!!

2006-07-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

It's incredibly hot here right now. The high today was 96 and tomorrow it's 95. The whole weekend was really hot and most of last week was muggy and gross. I do have airconditioning in the apartment but the trip to and from work and to the grocery is so uncomfortable. It's really bad down in the subway. The trains are almost all airconditioned, but the stations are sweltering. Thank goodness it's going to be in the 80's after tomorrow.

Saturday was another nice day in the park. I was smarter than last week and bought some sunscreen so I didn't come back to the apartment looking like lobster this time. Central Park is really nice. It's huge and there are so many different areas, some to play baseball, some playgrounds, some open fields, and some more wooded areas, too. I've explored some of it (including a turtle pond which was really cool) but I tend to go to the same place to read each Saturday. SheepMeadow is really big and green and lots of families and sunbathers. It feels really good to be spending time outdoors.

Sunday I decided that I was going to go see Rent. I went to the Discount Tickets Booth but they didn't have any available for the matinee so I went back to the apartment and thought I would try again for the night show. Online I found out that they have a lottery for the first two rows every show for $20 a ticket. So I went to put my name in the lottery. Only one problem, I missed the part that said there are no shows on Sundays during July and August. Woops. Oh well, I'll try next Saturday if my excitement doesn't make me try sometime during the week.

So I realized that I skipped over the time when my parents were here at the beginning of June. The whole family went to The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It's a musical (of course, what else would the Hillman's go see as a family), and it's really funny. A bunch of adults acting like middle-schoolers at a spelling bee. They also bring a few audience members on for two rounds of words. They give the audience members an easy one first and for the second word a really hard one so that they can get them off the stage and continue with the story line. Only one of them guessed correctly. It was hilarious. The actors were passing looks among themselves like "great, what do we do with him". So he got called back up immediately and was given another really hard word. He asked the standard question Can I have the definition please? and was told No.

The rest of the show was really funny and good. I recommend it to anyone. It's good for families except for one song (My Unfortunate Erection) so either bring kids way to young to get it or the ones old enough that you are embarrassed that they know what the song is about. Renee and Eve are fortunately young enough. I wouldn't mind seeing it again especially since little things will change with different audience members.

More random thoughts

2006-07-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

So I've been riding the subway a lot which I'm sure is not surprising, but I've made some observations. People always seem to be falling asleep as they ride. They ride along with their eyes closed, usually listening to their ipod, and don't look up at the stations that the train arrives at. I keep thinking that they are going to miss their stop, but I guess they've been taking that route long enough that they know how many times the train will stop and so don't need to pay attention.

But I was wondering why so many people ride with their eyes closed. I mean, the ride of the train isn't all that soothing. A few days ago I figured it out because I did it myself. It's so you don't have to stare at the other passengers. If your riding for longer than two stops you run out of ads to read. They only way to keep from staring at random people is to close your eyes and pretend to nap.

I've also been thinking about the homeless or just job-less people. I don't know what to do when I pass them. I don't like to give money to people who aren't doing something for it whether it's singing, playing an instrument, or pretending to be a statue that only moves when you deposit money in their hat. The problem is I don't like opening up my purse and wallet on the street. I need to start putting my change in an outside pocket of my purse so that I don't have to open the whole thing to grab a donation. Now if only I could figure out how much I should give.

I also don't know what to do about the people who are just begging. There's no way to know if they've exhausted all job searches and are really desperate and need the money. There's also no way to know if they have given up looking for a job but could find one if they tried. I don't know if I should give them something (although it is illegal for them to panhandle) or not. I haven't but wonder if I should.

Sometimes there's a man outside of Grand Central who has a large container and he announces that he is collecting for the homeless. He makes comments about how we can afford to put in something, even a penny, but I never donate. He isn't wearing a shirt of a particular organization. There's no way to know if he's really collecting for an organization that helps the homeless or if he is homeless and the money is for him, or if he's just looking for easy money. I feel bad just walking by, but since I can't know for sure where the money would be going I don't feel comfortable donating anything.

I guess that's enough rambling. I'll update again later.

What is with the pictures?

2006-07-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know why the pictures didn't work before, so here they are for real. The first two are of my room.
This one is of the hallway from the living room to the two bedrooms. The door at the end of the hall goes to the bedroom Steph is using,
This is the the incredibly small bathroom, just room to stand.
This is the living room.
These are pictures of the kitchen/dining room.

This is the front door to the apartment building.

Pictures of the new apartment

2006-07-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

Stupid Internet

2006-07-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

I completely meant to update this weekend and put some pictures up, but the internet died at my apartment. Well actually it's a longer story than that, but it's not interesting at all. Anyway, I have internet access now and there is no reason it shouldn't stay that way.

I did have an adventure this weekend. On Friday I went to a Staten Island Yankees v the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game with two other interns, my boss, his family, and two family friends. It was a double header and we were going to the second game that was supposed to start at 7:10. Well, the first game started late so the second game didn't start until 9:00pm. Kane, Kat, and I hurried out to catch the 11:30 ferry back to Manhattan. That's when the real fun started.

We were planning on taking the 1 train which was right at the ferry station. Nope, can't do that. It's closed from South Ferry to 14th St. (By the way, South Ferry is at the southern tip of Manhattan and I live up in midtown around 50th St.) So we walked two blocks to the 4 and 5 trains. Nope, can't do that either. We waited 15 minutes to hear an announcement that the 4/5 trains would not be running any more that night due to construction. Great, we are very far from where we need to be and we don't know the area at all.

So we followed another man who had to leave the 4/5 station and started walking up Broadway. We past two other 4/5 stations until we finally found a station with a couple of different lines that could get us Uptown. We got on the A line....the wrong way. We went to Brooklyn. Woops. We got out and finally got on the A heading in the correct direction. Then I got to walk back by myself at 1:30am to get to my apartment. By the way, there were still quite a few people out, this city really doesn't sleep.

So that's my adventure. I got back about 1:45 and went right to bed. Then I got up and went to Central Park and got sunburned. I didn't bring any sunscreen with me to New York and I dozed off out in the sun. Not smart. Oh well.

This is really long so I'll end it and post some pictures. Bye!

Moving and the 4th

2006-07-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted last so I'll try to recap a little. On Friday Steph and I moved to our new apartment. It's in a slightly less-nice neighborhood, really close to the theatre district. It's a nice apartment, two bedrooms a good size kitchen (except for counter space) and a small living room. The bathroom is incredibly small. As strange as it is to take a picture of the bathroom I'm going to have to so that you can see how small it is. I'll probably take pictures in the next day or two and then Ill post them.

Saturday I did my normal thing of reading in Central Park for a couple of hours. It is so nice to sit out in the sun and be in some green for a while. I read some more of Spong's Why Christianity Must Change or Die. I know the title sounds really shocking, but it is actually a well thought out book that is really making sense to me. It's all about how to still be a Christian when your rational mind tells you that many of the doctrines of the Church don't make sense. I also read some of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which is a really good book.

Sunday I went and walked for a while down Broadway checking out the stores and theatres. I stopped in the Toys R Us store just for fun. It was crazy with tons of people and some really cool toys. Times Square is of course full of people and right now construction. The Ticket Booth has been moved because they are working right where is normally is. I partly went to find where it moved to since I'm planning on seeing Rent in a couple of weekends. I actually found the other location on Tuesday without meaning to.

Monday I just lazed around and pretty much vegged all day. Yeah for summer. Yesterday for the 4th I went down to Water St where they had a small festival. Kind of an art fair combined with the food part of Grand Rapids Festival. It was really nice. Then later I went to the fireworks. They block off about 60 blocks or so of FDR Dr and everyone goes and brings chairs and spreads out blankets and waits for the fireworks. I went online and found a website that said the best place to be was on the FDR at 34th St and that's where I ended up which is lucky since the police only let people fill in certain sections at a time so there's no guarantee that you can sit where you want. I had to get there about 2 hours before the fireworks started.

I read a book and listened to my ipod until it got too dark. We did have some entertainment before the fireworks started. There was a man who came through the crowd singing patriotic songs alternating with "Amazing Grace" every so often. I though it was amazing how many people he got to sing along with him. Then the fireworks started and the website was right. 34th St is the best place. There were three barges with fireworks on them and the middle one was almost directly in front of me. They were really good. I can't tell you how long they lasted because I forgot to check the time, but they lasted a long time. There were smilely faces and cube fireworks that I have never seen before. They were really good.

Well I'm sure this is plenty long enough so I'll stop here. I'll put some picture up and some random thoughts I've been having pretty soon.

AHHHHHHHHH

2006-06-27T13:08:00.001-07:00

The past 24 hours have been frustrating. I came home from work to find that I could not get into the apartment. I'll do my best to explain the door situation. When you walk down to our door the first one is metal and it opens up into a small alcove thing. Then the actual door to the apartment is there. Both doors have a lock and then two deadbolts. When I got home, the outside door was unlocked, but the deadbolts were in. How does this happen you may ask, let me tell you.

The first option is that Steph was home and had for some reason locked the deadbolts. Well, the lights were all out and when I rang the doorbell multiple times nothing happened. You would think that the next step would be to call my roommate and make sure that she wasn't a sleep in the apartment and just didn't hear the doorbell. But oh, wait, this is of course the only time I have ever forgotten my cell phone since coming to New York so my phone is locked in the apartment.

The other option is that workers who have a key to the first door so that they can lift up a grate to get to the basement to work on the foundation did it. They must have locked the deadbolts to keep anyone from walking in and falling down the open grate and then stupidly left through the normal entrance to the apartment building, leaving the deadbolts in place. Yep, that's what happened although it hasn't been completely confirmed.

How to get in the apartment? Well, shouldn't I be able to go through the apartment building and go in the normal door instead of our special entrance. No. I don't have a key to get into the actual building and even if I did, we keep that door deadbolted and chain-locked at all times. Not helpful. So I was locked out of the apartment with no phone. Not fun at all!!!!

I found a pay phone near by and had to call my Dad to call Steph because I don't know her number by heart. My Dad had to call Steph's Dad who called Trisha (the owner) who had to come to the apartment building to call the building maintenance boss to come with a worker. That worker had to go through the apartment building down to the basement and then lift the very heavy grate so that he could climb into the alcove to undo the deadbolts. AHHHHH, so complicated! It was nuts.

Then I found out that my allergy serum was delivered to an office on Friday but they didn't check their mail until Monday so the serum is ruined because it needs to be refrigerated. The clinic here says it's not their fault because somehow the other office should have made sure that it was delivered in the middle of the week, not on a Friday and that the serum should have been sent with a cold pack. I will give them that a cold pack would have been smart, but I don't think it would have lasted all weekend anyway. So I have been dealing with that clinic today since I don't have the money for new serum (it's over $400 and insurance won't cover new serum this quickly). AHHHH! Annoying people who won't take responsibility for their actions.

Well that is now off of my chest and I feel a little better. Sorry to rant to everyone, hopefully I will have happy news soon since I'm moving to the other apartment on Friday.

Avenue Q!

2006-06-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have seen Avenue Q, I know all of you are very jealous. Steph's mom is here to visit Steph and go to a family member's bridal shower and she is amazing and took us both out to dinner and a show Thursday night. It was really fun. There actually isn't much more to the story than what you get from the soundtrack, but to see the actors working with the puppets was cool. The ones who are the puppets wear black so that they fade a little, but their facial expressions added so much to what they were doing with the puppets.

It really was a whole lot of fun and our seats were really nice. We were in the third row on the right side, really, really close which was cool. The only downside is that during "Fantasies Come True" the fog came down in the audience and it had a strange smell.

Last night (Friday) Steph's mom took us and two of Steph's friends out to dinner and then to a movie. The restaurant was called Ninja, a teamed place. It was pretty cool, the tables were each in their own little nook. Some in bamboo lined rooms and other (like ours) in almost a cave. All of the staff were in ninja outfits and the food was Japanese. Thankfully there was more than just sushi and the meal I ended up getting was really good. Before the bill came one of the staff came and did a lot of slight of hand magic tricks that were really well done.

Then we went and say The DaVinci Code and this theatre with 4 floors and 25 theatres. Kinda nuts but really nice. My verdict on the movie is that it is a good movie but of course not as good as the book. I think they did a pretty good job of translating everything that in the book goes on in the characters head's into dialogue for the movie. I don't understand why they changed what they ended up changing though. I don't think that it cut down time to make Sophie's brother die in the crash or make whatever that guy's name was not her real grandfather. I don't think those kind of things needed to be changed.

Today was a rainy day so unfortunately I couldn't continue my tradition of reading in Central Park :( Instead I hung out in the apartment reading, watching tv, and taking a nap. The nap had to happen because I was woken up by people working on the apartment building in the basement which is on the other side of the wall of my bedroom. Hopefully they don't work on Sundays. So that's it right now. Life is good, I'm enjoying work and being in New York, so far so good.

Trying the picture thing again

2006-06-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

So here is the apartment for anyone who is interested. The first two are of the downstairs bedroom, the rest are of the upstairs kitchen/living/dining room.

Here is the tiny kitchen, which doesn't have a microwave. It's been interesting learning how to reheat leftovers without burning/over cooking them.

Pictures of the apartment

2006-06-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

My Day Out

2006-06-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good and bad day. I got some bad news yesterday, a neighbor of ours, Deb Chamberlin was on vacation with her family in Yellowstone when she stepped over a retaining wall to take a picture and she fell and died. It hasn't really hit me yet that she is gone, I mean it is such a freak thing to happen. I don't know when it will sink in since I won't be home for the funeral. It's really hitting my mom hard. They were pretty good friends and on school board together.

The rest of my day was actually really nice. The person I'm renting from needed the apartment for a few hours to show it to her boyfriend's parents, so I went to Central Park. I read for a while like last week and then went to a different area of the park and saw King Lear performed by the Boomerang Theatre Company. It was really well done, especially for being outside with no real set except for the hill they were on. It was nice to sit outside surrounded by green.

After dinner I went to a concert that was part of the Celebrate Brooklyn series that goes on in the summer. The opening act was a group called Chirgilchin. They are a throat singing group from Western Mongolia. Throat singing is really cool, I don't know exactly how it works, but they can sing overtones. It's really cool, you'd have to hear it to really know what it is.

The main act was Laurie Anderson (that's who is in the picture above). She's an artist that has been around for a while. I actually studied her in a music history course at school because she was/is very innovative. The concert was really cool. Think Maureen's performance piece from Rent only better because the pieces had more melody and harmony. She tended to start out with a little talking/poetry over some music and then it would morph into a song. There were two musicians playing with her, one on bass and the other on keyboards. It was a little strange, but very good.

So that was the latest I've been out completely on my own (my roommate was with college friends for the weekend) and as dorky as it is I feel proud of myself. I went to a concert a good hour subway ride away by myself and got home a little before midnight in one piece. It was really fun.

Random thoughts

2006-06-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

So some random thoughts and observations about my time in New York. I keep wondering if I look like a tourist or a New Yorker. For the most part I don't think it's too obvious that I don't actually live here. I don't walk around with a map or a large camera or a fanny-pack. I don't make remarks about how big everything is or how many people there are. There are only a couple of things that make me definitely not a New Yorker.

One is that I don't know which way to go when I get out of a subway station. Even when the sign tells you that you are exiting at the NE corner of 60th and Lexington Ave. You would think that I would then know which way to go to get to 61st. Nope, definitely don't. I first went to 59th and had to turn around, embarrassing since of course all true New Yorkers can tell that I went the wrong way (because they all care and noticed). Then I somehow forgot that I was traveling north instead of south like yesterday when I was heading to the allergies (I used a different subway line) and turned the wrong way on 61st. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I usually have a very good sense of direction.

The other is that I don't cross the street in heavy traffic. New Yorkers either have a death wish or are all just arrogant enough to think that there is no way anyone is going to hit them. Now I have no problem checking one-way streets and crossing if I don't see anyone coming, but I do not walk out into the middle of a four lane street because one direction of traffic was clear and stand there waiting for the other direction to clear while taxis and delivery trucks pass by with inches to spare. Nope, can't do it. I really would rather stand on the corner revealing that I am not a true New Yorker than risk death by car.

So I went to the comedy club again on Monday and this comic made some observations that have stuck with me. He was black and was making comments about things white people do. One may not translate well on a blog, but I'll try. He said that white people have this half smile thing where they don't show their teeth and press their lips together. It's this really pompous condescending smile and I know all of you would recognize it if you saw it. The other is what he called the "walk to run" and he was completely dead on. It's where a person jogs a few steps and then walks again. People tend to do it if they think they won't make it to their destination in time, like when you're crossing the street and the signal is about to change to don't walk.

I totally did it today. And the comic was right. It's not like those three jogging steps I took really made any difference in my making it across the street. Keep it in the back of your mind, you'll do it too in the next couple of days. I've noticed plenty of people so far. I'm not sure the comic was right that only white people do it, but I think I'll pay attention and try to figure it out.

That's about it, I'll post more later.

Update

2006-06-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Not much new, I have survived a full week out here in New York. Today most of the interns went to the Foundation Center to take two free classes on using their database and the first steps to develop a grant proposal. Yes I know, sounds thrilling, but most of it was actually pretty interesting. These people have gathered information on pretty much every foundation/organization/corporation that has donated money to nonprofits in the past however many years. This includes people who will give money to individual students. There is actually a free (yeah!) class that is called "Finding Foundation Support for Your Education". Sounds good to me, I'm definitely going and finding out how to convince someone they want to send me to grad school while I learn how to fix the world.

Anyway, if anyone has some summer reading suggestions let me know. I have some books, mostly John Shelby Spong, but I'll get through them pretty quick if my time in Central Park was any indication on Saturday. Heavy stuff like Spong is fine, but fun stuff is good too.

Hopefully I'll have interesting stuff soon but for now know that I am still alive and safe and doing just fine.

Central Park

2006-06-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

I went to Central Park today and went out on Sheep Meadow and sat in the sun. Sheep Meadow is a large open grassy area where lots of families and individuals layout on blankets or fly kites or throw balls. It was wonderful. I sat for a good 3 hours and read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. By the way, I found that book in the suitcase I packed for New York. I feel really bad, but it was wrapped and I'm pretty sure it was a birthday present that I forgot I put in my suitcase. I'm not sure who it was from, but thank you to who it was. If you read this please tell me so that I can thank you. It's a really good book.

So Sheep Meadow is really beautiful. Very green and the part next to the road has a practical wall of trees so you are surrounded by green. The coolest part is that behind the trees is the city so you see green and then tall buildings and then this amazing blue sky with white clouds. It was gorgeous. I didn't have my camera so I'll probably be hoping the rest of the summer to have another picture perfect day, but I plan on having it with me from now on.

By the way John, if you read this, I found where your IMAGINE picture came from (the one on your live journal home page). You may already know this, but it is inlaid in the pathway in the Strawberry Fields part of Central Park near W 72nd St.

One more thing and then I'm done for this post. I forgot to mention in the last one that I went to a comedy club Tuesday night called Stand Up Comedy Club with my roommate. The guy she is sort of dating and his friend has performed earlier and got free tickets for the later group of sets. The cool part is that Al Fraken did a set. Yes, the actual Al Franken. He didn't stay very long, three routines with another guy, something George. One about "what do you when you're drunk and have to drive", "An human echo", and comedy about the nuclear talks with Iran.

That's it for now,

Anne

I'm in New York!

2006-06-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

So I'm here in New York interning at Religions for Peace-USA which is located on the United Nations Plaza across the street from the actual United Nations. Because I'm overly nervous about putting my address out into the world wide web, I'll just tell you that I'm living on the upper west side in a really nice area. The apartment is nice, one bedroom downstairs and a livingroom/kitchen/office with a bathroom upstairs. I'll put pictures up if anyone wants to see what it looks like.

The internship is going fine so far, I've only been working two days. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed, no one is going to make sure you're in by 9 and there until 5, in fact if you work from home every so often that's fine too. Right now my project is to develop a student interfaith organization directory. This means that I need to check out every college/university in the United States and see if it has an interfaith organization on campus. Some of it (like now as I find out how many schools are in each state) is not going to be very exciting, but in the end I think it will be really helpful thing to have. It will also be helpful for me to see what is around at the universities I'm looking at for grad school. -I'll make sure I get those done first :)

Well that's about it for now, I'll try to make sure that this is at least semi-interesting and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

-Anne