First "Official" Day

Well, after a whirlwind couple of days exploring the city, it was time to check into the hotel I'll be staying at for the next 90ish day and officially start New York Term.

At Ayurveda Cafe

I checked into my hotel on Friday and was reunited with the nine other Coe students on the program. Once we were sort of settled in, we went out to eat at a restaurant called Ayurveda Cafe. It's a place that serves incredibly healthy food (and no meat). It's also all you can eat so that was fabulous. The food was delicious and gave us a chance to begin to catch up with each other.

The trip to the restaurant also prompted an experience on the subway. The subway will be my main mode of transportation and so it's a good idea to purchase a 30 day unlimited pass. We all bought our passes and then for girls who had never used a subway, they got a quick lesson. Luckily, there are girls like myself who have used and are comfortable with public transportation so we can help each other out.

More unpacking happened after dinner and then it was bed. I woke up early today to explore the fitness center in our hotel before heading off to a cafe called Le Pain Quotidient (the daily bread in French). It was an AMAZING place (if my dad comes back we are most definitely going there!). Great interior and just a neat place.

Post breakfast, myself and some other girls decided to go on a little subway adventure to Brooklyn. Our destination was Target for some essentials we had either left behind or forgotten. It was a bit of a ride to get there but it was good bonding time and gave us a chance to explore an area we had not been before.

Since everyone had different agendas at Target, we all agreed to just have a buddy to get back to our hotel. I paired up with Ashley and post-shopping, we jumped back on the same subway line we had taken to get to Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the line broke down a few stops in and after waiting for 10 minutes, Ashley and I decided to transfer to a different line.

We ended up in the middle of the city at a line that didn't have a lot of good transfer options. So above ground we went, headed to a station near Bryant Park (and my soon-to-be-stomping grounds). Back underground we went and accidentally ended up on an express line. Which basically means it makes few stops, stopping only at major stations. As Ashley and I sat on the subway, I saw the street numbers tick away, moving towards the one hundreds and away from 77 (the street we are on). Luckily, it's easy to backtrack; Ashley and I hopped off at the next station and doubled back, using a local line this time to get to our hotel.

Of course the day continued with a meeting with Murray and Susan, two of our professors. Murray is in charge of the music portion while Susan heads the theater aspect. We went over expectations and guidelines for the class portion of the term. So basically a syllabus day.

Once we finished that, it was back to the subway to go to Kathy's studio. Kathy is another professor, in charge of art (so she'll be taking us to museums and whatnot). Her medium is printmaking and it was neat to be in her studio and see all of her equipment  Kathy served food and invited alums from the New York Term program. Some of the alums who came I knew, because they were on campus my freshman and sophomore years. It was nice to see those old friends and meet new people who went to Coe and participated in this program.

Back to the hotel I went and I think after this blog post, I'll go to sleep! Another long but fantastic day. More adventures to come!