First Foray into the City

(Just to clarify, I've actually been to the city several times since I first wrote this post, but here is my first experience there.)

Every time I asked someone where to go in New York, the only answer I got was "Blah blah blah museums stuff stuff...and stay out of Brooklyn!"

Uh. Well. I spent the night there.

Yes. In Brooklyn.

It was the weekend. I'm here at Skidmore on Sunday. I survived!

I was dropped off at the train station, where I bought tickets for the train--and really, I just stopped to ask a lady if I was on the right train, and actually I was! Hurray.

I had to rush--MoMa closed at eight, I got off of work at 5:30 pm. It took me two hours to get from Long Island to the museum, no joke. I didn't even have time to go home and freshen up a bit before going back out. I just ran, then caught some naps on the train. I got off at Penn Station and it was like jumping into a pool of sound.

To me, on first impression, the subway stations are magical. Tons of people pouring out like water. Pockets of music drifting around...Delicious smell of hot dogs...I refrained, but barely, because I had no idea if my friends were going for dinner.

After that, I was too nervous about the subways, so after quite a few nice people noticed me being lost on the streets (I must look oblivious naturally because I wasn't even consulting a map) I caved and grabbed a taxi.

Ten minutes later and ten dollars lighter (yikes) I found the MoMa, which was completely overrun by all different kinds of people who were taking advantage of free-entrance Friday. Now, I get free admission to MoMa, and I can bring one friend in for five bucks. It was still free Friday, so that didn't matter. It's cool that it's there though; I plan to take advantage of covered museum entry later.

I met my friend Anastasia there, and it was the very first time I'd ever met her in my life. I also met her sister Jamie and her boyfriend Tomas.

We walked around the Pre-Fab exhibit they had, and then were chased out at eight. I actually lost my ticket at one point and the people wouldn't let me in, even though entry was free? So one of the guards grabbed a ticket out of the garbage can and told me to go in, hahaha.

But then it was time for dinner, so after a few minutes of indecisiveness, I said that Cuban food sounded great, so off to (Cuban restaurant, forgot the name, will put it here when I remember) we went! I had smelly mussels that tasted wonderful and were only nine dollars. Oh, and a Pisco Sour, which is not a drink for everyone because it's made of egg whites and really strong brandy.

By that time, if I had gone home, I'd have arrived in the wee hours of the morning in search of a cabbie to take me there, so my friends let me stay in their apartment!

First we went to a club, though. Weird club; I forget the name of it. Some dumpy guy tried really hard to, ah, get to know me better, same ol' same ol.' Me and Jamie yelled at each other above everyone else about interior design while ignoring the guy. There were a lot of people and a few outlandish costumes here and there. The thing about New York is that whatever fits on your body is something you can wear, and nobody will single you out for having bad taste in fashion. I wasn't dressed up in the least, but I still felt cute.

After that we just wandered aimlessly, then crashed at Anastasia's apartment. Oh! She has an apartment that has a garden and lawn chairs on the roof of the building, so I got to see the skyline of the city! I don't care how cliche it seems: that skyline is gorgeous and golden and now it's forever in my heart.

Anastasia's cat is huge, gray, and named Java. I slept on an inflatable mattress that night. Inflatable mattresses always deflate whenever I sleep on them. Here's the funny part, though: Once I was nearly just sleeping on the ground because all the air was gone from under me, Java jumped on the mattress and the cat was heavy enough that I bounced upwards! How funny is that!