Stephen Sondheim

One of the best evenings of my life so far.  Pietro got us tickets to see "A discussion with Stephen Sondheim and Frank Rich" at McCarter Theater at Princeton.  It was Epic. With a capital E. Not only did we get an inside look into his thoughts opinions and feelings about his own work but we heard him riff on other famous people and shows AND

he spoke to me.

ok maybe more accurately yelled at me because I took a picture (WHICH WAS TOTALLY ALLOWED I MIGHT ADD) and my flash was off as directed but my camera still gave off a pre-taking-the-picture light.  In an audience of at least 200 he singled me out, pointed directly at me, and said "please don't do that"
Muahaha it was awesome :)

The picture I got was not a very good one but the white blob to the left is Stephen Sondheim and the slightly more clear person to the right is Frank Rich (of the NY Times).

Below are some pictures we took walking around the campus at sunset before the show

And below is the view from Pietro's apartment at night

San Gennaro Festival

First some pictures of the view from my classroom building just to make you a little jealous :P

Now to tell you about this Italian food festival we went to in Little Italy Thursday night. Pietro was visiting and everyone kept talking about it (apparently it's a big thing every year) so we decided to go check it out.  we purposely did not bring much cash with us so we would not break our healthy eating but it was still fun to go and see all the good food and different stalls and hear Italian music playing as we walked.
Here are some pictures to give you an idea:

Photography Therapy (It's a real thing!)

So I am about to go to a lab meeting to check out this research team that I am interested in.  It is third on my list so I probably won't end up joining but it just sounds so cool I had to share.  The project is called the PhotoVoice project and it works with young elementary aged kids who are victims or domestic violence and abuse.  Some of these kids are so abused that they have traumatic brain injuries and thus have speech difficulties, motor skill difficulties etc. making talking about their experiences or expressing through other artistic methods difficult.  The purpose of the project is to give them a voice with which to express their thoughts and feelings about what has happened to them in a therapeutic way.  Every week they meet and share that weeks "photo assignment." By taking photos and sharing them with the class, they are able to express themselves and often end up talking about their past, because they feel more comfortable when everyone is looking at the photo rather than at them.

I just think this is so cool, the only think that makes me hesitant to join is that I'm not sure they collect the right type of data to foster a thesis in two years but maybe they will convince me at my meeting today, we will see...

Best of Downtown NYC

First of all I apologize for delays in posting, I went from watching netflix all day to having negative amounts of free time in one fell swoop. 

Anyway I have been wanting to post for a while about my favorite food experiences in NYC so far.  I would like to one day become an experienced foodie, so I would like to have this list to look back on in the future to remember which places I liked most. I was going to do top 5 but it's hard to compare across categories, so I came up with 10 Categories with what is in my opinion the best in each.  Keep in mind I still have not tried a wide breadth of places, so it will be interesting to see how/if this changes in 6 months.

BEST BAGELS:

Village Bagels and Juice Bar
135 West 3rd Street

(Right off 6th Ave)

New York, NY 10012

SO GOOD. This has been a Faturday tradition right from the beginning, fresh baked every morning, I always get a sesame seed bagel with vegetable cream cheese which is hand made so its nice and fresh and chunky and flavorful. Plus they play Saturday morning cartoons on the TV, how great is that?

BEST CAFE:

Argo Tea Cafe
75 University Place
New York, NY 10003

So maybe I have to say this place because I work here and I get drinks for free but even if I didn't I would study here all the time.  I love it, the drinks are sooo delicious and there are an overwhelming amount of options, especially if you are a non-coffee drinker like me.  When I have to get work done I will come and use the wifi and sit for like 2-3 hours because the atmosphere is nice, especially at night.

BEST VEGETARIAN:

Bite
211 East 14th Street
New York, NY 10003
*Note it's not a vegetarian restaurant, but I think they have the most delicious healthy meat free options

Yummy soup and salad. Pietro and I used to stop in here for lunch during the week all the time because it's healthy but VERY flavorful. I've never had such flavorful soups and salads. And everything tastes fresh and homemade. I recommend the tomato soup with the goat cheese salad

BEST DUMPLINGS:

Vanessa's Dumplings
118 Eldridge St
New York, NY 10002

This was actually not my vote, this is the only place I've had dumplings so I can't really compare but we did go here because it is widely known to be the best dumpling place in NYC. They were very delicious and very cheap

BEST BUBBLE TEA:

Golden King Bakery
90 Bowery St.
New York, NY 10013

So this random place in Chinatown has the best bubble tea in NYC because they literally just take fresh fruits, juice them, and put bubbles in them. It's SO refreshing, especially the watermelon and the kiwi flavors. It's a nice change of pace after many overly sweet milky bubble teas.
BEST SUSHI:

East Japanese Restaurant
366 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10016

I went here with my coworker Andy and it is a rotating sushi place.  The sushi was SOO tasty and not too expensive! I even branched out and had eel and squid.

BEST GOURMET RESTAURANT:

Panca
92 7th Avenue South
New York, NY 10014

BEST MEAL IN NY EVERRR. Pretty expensive Peruvian restaurant, but SO worth it. Pietro said it was the best Peruvian food he's eaten in the states. It was the best food I've eaten ever. NOM NOM NOM SO GOOD.

BEST DESSERT:

OK this one is a tie... for more fancyish dessert:

Sweet Revenge
62 Carmine Street
New York, NY 10014

This is a bar/cupcake place. It's nice to drink wine and eat dessert at the same time and their cupcakes are TO DIE FOR!

For something on the go:

Pinkberry
177 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10012

This is the best frozen yogurt place I've been to, their yogurt tastes soo good and they have really fresh topping. They have a new PB&J flavor I want to try :)


BEST BAR:


Peculier Pub
145 Bleecker St.
New York, NY 10012

Great place for drink with friends, not too loud and not too crowded.  I really like their blueberry beer although my friends all say it's gross :P  I have heard they also have good food although I have not tried it, maybe soon!

BEST LATE NIGHT SNACK:

Wafels & Dingus

Food Truck, moves around but I usually catch it at 7th Ave & Christopher Street

Heaven on a waffle. They have this spread called Spekuloos (or gingermousse as Erin's dad calls it) it tastes like graham crackers and gingerbread. and the waffles are all warm and fluffy mmmmmm.

Ok I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on food in the city! This post is making me hungry so I'm going to go cook now...

RUDE.

I would just like to say, I don't care how rich or important or entitled you feel.  Please don't be rude to your food service professionals.  We work hard to serve you with a smile on our faces (even when we don't feel like smiling) and we are usually more tired than you are.  Treating us like we are untouchable dirt on your shoe miles below you on the social chain will not get you anything.  And if you do feel that you need to treat us that way to be happy in your life, then you are a waste of space.

Happy Hour X2

Now to update you on the rest of my first week:

My second day of classes went well.  My Development and Prevention Science class seems like it is going to be my favorite by far because it is all about creating prevention programs for social issues (exactly what I wanna do with my life).  The second class that day was about Psychometrics and seems exactly like a class I took in undergrad so it should be easy.  Thursday was my first day working in my research lab on what is called the OPEQ project (OPportunities for Equitable access to Quality basic education) where they are training teachers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on how to work with kids traumatized by war violence and sexual abuse and help them to catch up academically.  The topic is pretty interesting but for the first semester or so I will get assigned all the grunt work which means I spent Thursday and Friday sitting in front of the computer for 6 hours at a time researching reliability and validity data on academic assessments.  A little boring but will hopefully improve with time

Now for all my classes total I've been assigned about 250 pages of reading and two writing assignments all due next week, It has been hard to find time to do it though because there are so many introductory sessions and welcome sessions and happy hours and receptions etc. for the start of the school year, many of which are mandatory.  Thursday night I had to go to two different happy hours back to back, then come home go to bed and wake up at 4.  I hope it dies down in the next week or two or I will never get my work done! I still haven't even dented the readings due Tuesday and I'm scheduled to work a lot of this weekend. stressstressstress

but even with the stress it's still interesting enough to be worth it :)

First Day of School

Yesterday was very long and very tiring.  I went to work in the morning and then had two classes: Culture, Context & Psychology and then at night I had Statistics.  The first one seems like its going to be a TON of work but really interesting. Stats seems like its going to be really easy but boring, which isn't great for a night class.  I feel less anxious because at least one of my textbooks is arriving today but I think the classes I have today (Development & Prevention Science and Measurement: Classical Test Theory) are significantly harder, we'll see.

In the past when I have gone into a class expecting it to be hard I have put way more effort into it, so hopefully it will still be ok

Oh! Also a friend from home, Katherine, was in the city yesterday so between classes we had dinner and I bought her bubble tea.  It was great getting to share my love of bubble tea with someone!! She loved it and I was very happy :)

More later in the week!

Back to School

So friends, school starts tomorrow, and I have been having many mixed feelings.  My old therapist taught me that when you feel anxious and overwhelmed it helps to pinpoint the causes for each emotion, so here goes:

Anxiety/Fear:
-I am still missing two of my textbooks which they tried to deliver but I wasn't here to sign for it.  Good thing I'll be in class all day tomorrow... not. Still not sure how I'm going to get those.  I would ask my super, Rocky, to sign for them as he does for a lot of my packages when I'm not there but this has happened so often that he has started joking around about the big Christmas tip he better get, this makes me reluctant...

-NYU is a very high caliber school, full of ridiculously smart people.  What if I can't compete? I got so used to being at the top of every class in undergrad, what if I'm not here? What if everything is beyond my understanding? It will be like TJ all over again.

-I am sick of school.  All of my friends are getting jobs and starting their real lives, I feel like I got left back or something because I am still in school.  I don't want more homework, more studying, and more reading, I just want the degree so I can get the job.  What if I end up not liking it? What if this decision was a huge mistake? What if I get so burnt out on academics I can't continue?

-My schedule is going to be insane. Wake up at 4, work from 5-11am, go to class all day, come home and study, go to bed *hopefully* by 10 or 11, repeat.  What if I can't sustain this?

Excitement:
-I am finally going to be fully immersed in the subject matter that is my passion.  No more general education classes, *hopefully* no more boring classes, etc.

-I am going to be surrounded by the same 25 people in all my classes and they will all care about the same things I do.  We will all have the same interests and passions so I will finally have people that are genuinely interested in hat I want to do for a living (not that the rest of you aren't genuinely interested, but I know past a certain point you get bored of hearing about it)



Now as you can see my anxiety list is way bigger than my excitement list, this could be potentially worrying, or it could just be my usual anxious self.  We'll see what it's like and I will re-evaluate my feelings in a few days

Haircut!

First haircut in NY! I got bangs, I was super nervous because I've only ever been to one salon for most of my life with the same lady doing my hair since forever.  Also to add to my nervousness I could only afford to go to Supercuts which doesn't have the greatest reputation to it was a risk.  But in the end it was ok and I'm happy with it :)