NYC Review

Top 10 BEST of our Big Apple Week:

1. The FOOD!!
Especially the take-out. We mapped out some of the best cheap eats around the city that we found out about, and stuffed our faces with the delicious stuff!
Our favorite was the illustrious, "Vanessa's Dumpling House." It was this delicious little place off of Eldridge and Grand St. in China Town, and we were able to get a whole meal for like $10. This included Pork Buns, dumplings, and Peking Duck sandwiches! YUM!

Also we got some fabulous NYC pizza. We had one Terriyaki Chicken pizza that was like a party in my mouth! But also got some classic pepperonis too:Other great eats included some yummy Thai food, Japanese food, and bona fide Italian. Calamari, YUM!

That's one thing that makes NYC so fantastic-- we payed about the same amount for those delicious, diverse meals as we do for a meal from McDonald's-- and the meals from NYC are just as accessible as McDonald's. Crazy! and kinda sad now that we're back in VA.

2. Sweet Reunions!
My favorite part of NYC was getting to reunite with my best friend, Kelly. We lived on the same hall freshman year and both majored in social work, so we have a lot of good times under our belts. She grew up in Queens and just finished her Master's in social work from Fordham where I'm applying.

She was nice enough to let us crash at her place the night before my aunt left for her cruise.

I was SO mad when I realized that I hadn't gotten any pictures of her! Boo. Since I wasn't able to get any current pictures of Kelly, I'll have to include some of my favorite pictures of Kelly. They're from my NYC visit in the summer of 2005! Kelly looks about the same anyways... even though I certainly don't.
Kelly hadn't met Eliza yet, and I was soo excited that they finally got to meet! And she was sooo sweet to Eliza. When Kelly was around, Steve and I didn't even get a glance from Eliza, she was fully entertained and in love with Kelly! It was awesome! She even babysat for us one night when Steve and I went to an off-broadway play, The Cherry Orchard (newly translated version of Chekhov's play). It was AWESOME. (More about that later)

Happy Steve after the play waiting for the train.

Steve was able to reunite with one of the artist/illustrators that he interned with two summers ago, Paul Zelinsky. Eliza and I got to meet him for the first time. He was really nice and took us out to eat (best way to our hearts) at a delicious Japanese place down the street from his studio. But first he and Steve talked shop over the book Zelinsky is currently illustrating.
If you're not familiar with Zelinsky's work, you should check out his website. A LITTLE bit of the stuff on his website, Steve actually helped animate and design for him. He is the illustrator of some of the best, classical picture books like Rumplestiltskin, Rapunzel, and Swamp Angel (he's currently working on a sequel).

It was so neat to see that someone as famous and talented as he is can be such a kind, humble person too. He was also very sweet to Eliza.

3. Business Pleasure:

(Steve's illustration)

Steve was able to do portfolio drop offs on Monday-Wednesday. This is where publishers accept various artists' portfolios and review them some time during the day, and then the artist can pick up their portfolio in the afternoon with notes or suggestions in it, most of which say, "Thanks for your interest. We'll keep your information on file if we have any work we think fits your style." Or something like that. But Steve was able to get about 15 different art directors to review his portfolio. It was a good opportunity to show work to big picture book publishers like HarperCollins, Viking, Penguin, Puffin, Random House, etc.

I was able to go to an informational meeting at Fordham to find out more about their program. The Assistant Dean/Director of Admissions for social work led the meeting, and she was VERY interesting. She talked a lot about being Jewish and being a New Yorker and some about being a social worker too, and I felt like I should be taping her, she was such a character. It was fantastic. I'll give an impersonation to anyone who requests it!
I was also able to submit my application, except for one recommendation, and meet with the assistant to admissions and get a great run-down of the program and stuff, and it made me really excited to go to Fordham. Right now it's my #1 choice for Grad Schools, if anyone's interested. They were very nice to me, and told me that they were impressed with my work and intern experiences and also how early I was submitting my application. Haha. They said they would want me to interview in April for my field placement/internships, with about 3 different agencies. So exciting!

So the business we were able to accomplish in NYC was quite pleasurable.

4. Aunt Julie's apartment definitely makes our top 5 best parts of our NYC trip! It is such a neat apartment. Aunt Julie has made it such a beautiful place, and so I hope Eliza didn't sabotage it too much.
Liam, the kitty we were living with for the week, did not appreciate Eliza's attention, though. He would hiss at her and run away when she would run towards him with her arms outstretched. Apparently, his former home was with a 2 yr old boy who would maul him, and since the cat is declawed, he doesn't have much of a defense system. So he spent much of his time in his favorite spot up high in the back of the bedroom closet and would emerge mostly at night after Eliza was in bed. Poor kitty.
The apartment's location is fabulous. It's in the village on 5th avenue between 10th and 11th street, right by Washington Square Park and NYU. So fun!

5. Free Events! The Museums! The Museum of Modern Art, the MET, and best of all, the Brooklyn Children's Museum.
This was like heaven for Eliza! She was in love. It was a really fun place! They had a faux-garden where the kids could "plant" vegetables. They had a pond the kids could like climb under and see close-up some fish and turtles. They had a mini grocery store which was awesome. They had a section where the kids could dress up like Ghanaian villagers and shake some of their instruments, and they also have these steel drums they can play, and that's just in the big kids section.

In the toddler section they have this like giant bath tub thing to play with water and water toys that comes with a plastic apron to cover your clothes. Then there's like a giant doll house with lots of dolls, and the BEST part (for Eliza) was the big sandbox full of blue sand. Eliza was soo in love with that thing, I actually dozed off watching her scoop sand over and over. It was a blast. And we didn't have to pay anything since we have a membership with Charlottesville's Discovery Museum! Sweet!
Steve could tell you a lot more about the free events of NYC, though. He went out like 4 of the nights we were there to different free musical performances like at Juilliard and other music schools, etc. If he wants, he can tell you more about those later. I stayed home with sleeping Eliza and enjoyed the cable (I'm boring, I know).

[Note from Steve: I had a great time attending some very full concerts at the Juilliard Chamber Music Festival and the Mannes New School of Music. My favorite performances were of Schumann's second Piano Sonata and Janacek's String Quartet "Intimate Letters". It's really amazing to have events like these for free, and it was nice to see so many people there.]

6. Cheap produce in China Town

7. Central Park and Central Park Zoo
You can see a cormorant in the background, and there are seals under the water, but Eliza's cute smile eclipses these. I think her favorite animals at the zoo were the ring-tailed lemurs and the toucan.

8. Touristy, glitzy Times Square!
with The Best Toys'R'Us Ever! If you haven't ever been, there's a giant carousel inside of the 4 story store. The picture below is Eliza and me on the ride.Eliza was in the midst of a tantrum when we told her it was time to go and that she needed to put back her stuffed animal (I know, we're mean parents). I gave her her stuffed lion to distract her from the un-bought animal, and she, of course, threw it in a fit of rage. The giant giraffe retrieved it for her, and Eliza was amazed, grinned and whispered, "Thank you."

Thank you, Geoffrey Giraffe!
9. Staying within our budget! We were soooo proud of ourselves! Can you believe we made it through a week in NYC on just about $300?? Awesome. Especially considering how much a family of 3 usually spends in a week while not being tourists!

10. Vacation Time. Enough said.

Top 5 Least Favorite Things about our NYC trip!

1. The COLD!!! Brrrr. It snowed three of the days we were there. One of those days, we were lost in Manhatten with one of us pushing the stroller and the other one pulling our two rolling suitcases behind them (me- stroller, steve- suitcases). The snow was billowing down, the wind was blowing like crazy.

I had snuggled Eliza up as best I could in her winter coat and a blanket on her legs and then put another blanket over the front of her stroller (she looked like a little, over-stuffed eskimo most of the time we were in NYC). But we found out that the elevator on the subway we tried to get on was broken!

We could have lugged everything up and down the stairs (for the 4th time that day), but long story short, we walked about 30 blocks in the snow on the streets of NYC. Because we were too cheap to use a cab! haha. Whatever, they're wayyy over priced. Here we are on our way to church. We went to Kelly's mom's ward, which was the Harlem ward. Kelly told me I looked like a Babushka in this outfit...

Later, we found a map that listed which of the subways that had handicap accessible (elevators) entrances, but we also learned how to lift the stroller up and down flights of stairs. That was painful, but workable. The stroller over-all was INVALUABLE.
Eliza took her naps like everyday when we packed her in the stroller and got on the subway! It was hilarious. It was soo noisy and so it made me wonder what kind of dreams she was having. I guess the movement of the trains was soothing for her? Funny girl.

(Washington Square Park)

The stroller also served as a safe form of transport for a very independent minded toddler! Also works as a socially acceptable grocery cart for a city in which you walk everywhere!

So the question about whether to do strollers on in the city? My response is a resounding YES! Eliza's outgrown all of the backpack carrier things a long, long time ago, so that wasn't an option for us. If we end up moving to NYC, though, we'll have to invest in a new stroller. We'll want one that's more compact and light (for carrying up steps) but still with lots of space underneath to load stuff into.
2. Not getting to see a Broadway musical. The play we saw was incredible, though. The Cherry Orchard was directed by Kate Winslet's husband, Sam Mendes. My favorite part of it was when the young scholar character (played by Ethan Hawke) is lecturing the older, living in the past when she was wealthy woman, about her lifestyle, she says to him something like, "Oh, you eternal student! You know all the answers when you haven't even lived long enough to find out the questions!" I loved that. Especially since I feel baffled by recently being confronted with some of the difficult questions in my adult life.

3. Staying within our budget. Hehe.

4. The blind neighbor downstairs from my aunt's apartment who called one night and left a scary message saying we should stop moving our furniture at 9 at night. Eliza had just bonked into a rocking chair while trying to chase the cat who was behind it, but otherwise we weren't moving anything. Aunt Julie said he apologized the next time she talked to him, but he was a very angry person.

This was my only angry New Yorker experience. Maybe I'm just angry enough that other people didn't seem that angry to me. However, people were really considerate, especially on the subway when I had the stroller. Lots of people even offered to help us lift, carry, or direct us to the nearest elevator.

5. LEAVING!! There might be more least favorites, but I can't think of them.

[Eliza's least favorite part of the trip was the enormous anirobotic T-Rex at Toys-R-Us. The moment it roared she sprinted away, while simultaneously signing "Dad!" and "All done!" I was with her, but apparently she thinks that only her dad can protect her from dinasaurs! We took her to the book section and read with her while she recovered from the shock.]

We had such a blast! Steve is totally converted to the city and definitely would like for us to move there if I get accepted to Fordham. Any body know of some apartment openings for this August/September? We're looking at the Manhattan side of Queens or maybe somewhere in Brooklyn.

Thanks again, Julie, Bob, and Liam!!