Snowstorm Central

The meteorologists were right; the East Coast was in for a big storm. After my last post, the snow continued to fall. Our event was still on, so we trucked towards downtown to New York Arts Live. It was a lovely place, full of history. At six, we went up to the third floor to see Walter Dundervill. He is currently a resident artist at NY Arts Live and part of their requirement to complete the residency is to have a small performance. Walter chose to do this studio series early in his creative process, allowing someone to see the final result of this dance, "Litter," and see the progress from this initial performance.

The performance was modern dance and unique. Walter is known for his costuming (Patricia is actually a former dancer of Walter's) and it was beautiful, especially in the second half of the dance, with long flowing fabrics with one color on one half and then bleeding into another color for the other half. Walter himself was even in the dance, but I'm not sure if that was because they were missing one of their dancers or, like Rainer, Walter enjoys being part of dance.

Around 7:15 PM, a talk-back began with Walter and his dancers. We were just starting to get into the good stuff when we had to leave. The second dance performance we were seeing was beginning at 7:30 PM in the space downstairs.

The second performance was "Mechanics of a Dance Machine" by Karole Armitage. This lady was actually born in Madison, Wisconsin (woot woot!). I had only one word for this performance:

STUNNING.

Seriously. It was a perfect mix between the elements of classical ballet and modern dance. The dancers were in tip-top shape; not only because it was about an hour long, but because they were wearing swim-suit like clothes and you could clearly see their muscles. Red was the theme of the performance, from the red lights above the dancers to the single red stripe found in the women's outfits. The dancers moved their bodies in ways I didn't think were possible. It was by far my favorite dance performance and I'm actually thrilled to write my response for it.

When we got done, it was still snowing out. Whitney and Ashley hadn't eaten dinner yet so we swung by a pizza place. It was delicious (I purchased some garlic knots) and then we trekked back to the hotel. Penn Station (where I would have taken a train to NJ) shut down at 8 PM, so I was out of luck for the night. The trains are still down this morning so I'll either just make a day trip there tomorrow or wait until the weekend of the 22nd (I have Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday free so EXTRA long weekend).

I woke up this morning to LOTS of snow. Central Park (two blocks from my hotel) was recorded having 11.4 inches. It's heavy snow, mushy in the streets but pretty sitting on top of the cars so we'll see how fast they will clean it up.

I've decided to use this as a working weekend. I'm planning on writing my responses for events I saw this week, applying for a few scholarships for the upcoming senior year, and getting a few blog posts set up for YOU, my reader. I've almost gathered all the information on the other girls on this trip, so you can see what they're doing. Also, next weekend will mark the three-year anniversary of my second trip to Coe (during Scholarship Weekend). This was an influential visit and one of my favorite weekends to be at Coe, so I'm a little sad I won't be there to meet some prospective students.

Well, I better go enjoy the snow. I shouldn't really complain about this snow because I talked to my dad last night and said Mt. Horeb was blessed with falling snow for nine straight days. Wow! Got to love Wisconsin.

This Midwest Girl Can't Escape a Good Snowstorm

I find myself often reminded I'm a Midwest girl when I meet people who have been born and bred on the east coast. If they ask where I'm from, I proudly say, "I'm originally from Wisconsin" and get a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look.

I then add I go to school in Iowa and it's like putting a big label on my forehead with "MIDWEST" in all capital letters. Some people have never even been to the Midwest. How is that possible?

Because, come on, Wisconsin and Iowa are awesome. The Midwest is legit.

Anyways, with all this cold weather and now snow, people are interested in my Midwest origins because I apparently know how to handle a snowstorm.

Well, yes, that's true.

I woke up this morning to a light snow/sleet falling outside my window. The walk to work wasn't too cold but I did walk into The Paley Center with a wet hat and scarf. I met with Marni (my boss) and got a list of assignments. Then off to work I went.

The snow continued to fall outside, still that horrible wet, mush mixture. Around 2 PM or so, I got the heads-up that I would probably be leaving work early. I ended up leaving around 2:30 PM.

It was a little more nasty coming back to the Upper West Side. The snow is now falling down in bigger flakes and sticking. I altered my subway route a little to end up on a 1 train (there's a stop that's two blocks from the hotel) but the 1 was packed. Packed, wet subway rides are NOT fun.

So now I'm back, heated up some warm soup, called my aunt (I'm still going to ride out to New Jersey tonight if I can), and now am going to do a little catch up writing. Our event is still happening (we got an enthusiastic email from Patricia saying it's on so get ready for some dance!) so I'll battle the elements again to see some dance.

Lucky for me, I'm a Midwest girl so I know how to deal with this snow :)

Modern Art Anyone?

Okay I need to be better about blogging everyday. It just seems that my days begin early and end late and there is little time to write because I just want to SLEEP.

But never fear, I'm back. Blogging just for you.

Wednesday was another day at a library. I wrote more letters and also did some serious shelf organizing and rearranging. My shelving skills (developed at the Mt. Horeb Public Library and perfected at the Stewart Memorial Library) came in handy as I put the books in alpha order and straightened them so more books could fit on one shelf.

Deep in thought about art

On Wednesday night we went down to Houston Street (pronounced "House-ton") to the Film Forum to see The Little Fugitive, the first American independent film. It was an adorable movie and also well made considering it was a low budget film. Our group had a pretty lively discussion afterwards which really got my gears turning.

Thursday was field trip day and this time, we were off to The Modern Museum of Art (MoMA). This art was MUCH different than the art we saw at the Met, but a good different. Our focus was art made from 1910-1925, when abstract art was coming into being. The art was out there, but Kathy had us think about the art from a revolution standpoint: What is the art saying about life and how is it a rebellion? That did help create a frame of mind to start to think about the pieces.

Whitney, myself, and Rina

Thursday night, Whitney, Rina, and I headed to The Strand (the bookstore) to check out some books. While we were there, there was a mingle going on and we joined in. We ended up meeting a lot of really neat and interesting people. More NY friends!

While I write this post before heading off to The Paley Center, it's snowing; apparently a large snowstorm is coming. We have two dance events tonights, both at New York Live Arts. Post events, I'm going to head to Penn Station and hop on a train to New Jersey. I'm spending the weekend with family and I'm thrilled!

Much more to come!

The Case of the Tuesdays

Don't worry, that title might sound bad.

But it's not.

All is fine in NYC, I promise.

We had two free days in a row (Monday and today) so it's been nice to know that once I'm done with work at 5 PM, I'm done for the night.

Monday night I used my "street" skills to head down to Penn Station to meet my aunt and uncle. We went to dinner in the Meatpacking District at a restaurant called The Standard Grill. It was delicious and we got there just in time because when we left, the place was packed! We were celebrating my mom's birthday and a good month in the city.

Today was another adventure day at the library. In the morning I met with Brian who does solely outreach in the prisons. He runs a book discussion group and I was helping him create a syllabus for the next 15 week book discussion. The theme I chose was utopia and dystopia and it was fun to be in charge of the creating the syllabus instead of the other way around.

In the afternoon I went with Nick and another employee of NYPL, Sam, back to Bronx Central Library. It's about an hour commute up there but totally worth it. The Bronx Central branch is absolutely beautiful; it's actually an eco-friendly branch. I was able to meet a few more librarians before heading back to the hotel.

Courtney and I had planned on having dinner tonight to catch up, but it was Katie's (another girl on the trip) birthday and her roommate, Jordan, had planned a small get-together. Courtney and I joined Whitney for dinner just down the street before singing happy birthday and eating cake in the hotel. Courtney and I agreed to postpone dinner until an actually free night where we can talk and really catch up.

Back at the library tomorrow and then I'm headed even further downtown to see a movie with the group.

Hello February!

Friday marked the first day of my all-time favorite month...FEBRUARY. Not only does Groundhog's Day, Valentine's Day, and President's Day occur, but also several birthdays such as my own. I am lucky enough to share the same birthday month with Ronald Reagan, Abe Lincoln, and Harry Styles.

:)

I've also completed 24 days in the NYC term program which still seems like not enough days. We always seem to be on the move which is WONDERFUL.

I worked my third day at The Paley Center on February 1st and I'm really enjoying the internship. I've started to learn about all the hard work that goes into coordinating tweets and Facebook posts. Already I've gained new knowledge on social media and have begun to perfect the skill of fitting messages into 160 characters (that has to be useful sometime later in life).

We continued our Friday dance tradition by going to Brooklyn to see Trisha Brown Dance Company. Brown falls into the same choreographer category as Rainer (see last Friday) aka she rebelled against ballet. The program was composed of four dances and they were breathtaking. All the dancers were in tip-top shape and bounded so gracefully across the stage. It was neat and I really love how Patricia is taking us to totally different dance events each week.

The band Whitney and I discovered

Post performance, Whitney and I checked out a live band that was playing before heading back to the hotel. Our room continued our late night tradition of eating popcorn and chatting.

Whitney and I woke up early on Saturday to head to the Union Square area in hopes of snagging a spot at a coffee shop to get some work done. Unfortunately, the coffee shop we had targeted was much smaller than we had thought (that darn internet not giving us accurate information) so we wandered a bit around Union Square before heading WAY uptown to the Columbia area.

We've really enjoyed the Columbia area and especially a coffee shop in a science building on campus called Joe's. The only problem with this coffee shop is that seating fills up REALLY fast and if you get there late, there's little possibility of finding an empty table.

My journal entry: craft style at Starbucks

Of course, Whitney and I tried but failed to snag a table. We moved onto to Starbucks (oh Starbucks) and were able to nab two window seats. This was perfect and we ended up spending the rest of our day there. I worked on some journal entries and even got to do some arts and crafts for the NYPL entry for Kathy.

We returned home to eat popcorn with Ashley and Rina. We stayed up way too late talking but it was most definitely worth it.

All of room 416 slept in today before heading downtown to Ensemble Studio Theater to see Et Tu, Brunche? The theater has a group of young playwrights (under 30) called Youngbloods. Each month, the theater hosts a Youngbloods Brunch where (for a fee) you can eat a delicious brunch, drink orange juice, and watch several short plays.

Our group was one of the first groups there so we were able to pick out front row seats before feasting on bacon, pancakes, and eggs. After a delicious brunch we saw five short plays centered around betrayal. All had their strengths and weaknesses but all five had us laughing at some point.

Whitney, Ashley, Alison, and I headed back to the hotel, ordered in some pizza and watched the Super Bowl. Ashley was cheering for the Ravens, Whitney cheered for the 49s, and we all fangirled Beyonce's halftime show.

Another busy week ahead: dinner with my aunt, uncle, and cousins tomorrow, dinner with Courtney on Tuesday, events Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and suddenly it's the weekend.