This weekend I went all the way up to Columbia University to hear Georg Friedrich Hass conduct a 24-piece chamber orchestra. I found out when I got there that had the date wrong, so I will get to make the trip again this Friday. Since I was there, I decided to try out an Ethiopian restaurant in the neighborhood that I had read about. It is called Awash and just a little bit south of Columbia on Amsterdam.

I was seated right away but the service was slow and I spent two hours there, but the food was wonderful. They cover large plate with pancake-like bread called Injera. I ordered Lamb Yebey Tibs, a mildly spicy lamb dish, with a lentil side and a chickpea side. It comes with two rolled up injera, and you eat with your food with your fingers, so they bring you a hot towel to clean your hands. It is very spicy, but a different hot than Mexican food. My mouth had a nice warm feeling for about an hour after I ate. I really like the food.

Saturday I went to the Metropolitan Art Museum. I saw the exhibit, Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna, and the Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors exhibit and then ate at the cafeteria. My chicken dish was ok but nothing special. After I meandered a little I ended up in the Impressionists rooms and I sat down in front of Sargent’s Madame X. I had felt a bit lonesome when I sat down, but as I looked around I realized I was surrounded by old friends, Sargent before me, Degas on my left, Van Gogh, Monet and Manet on my right, an Cassatte behind me. It was great to see them in person knowing that Picasso or Braque had put his hand to that piece of canvas.

Sunday I came into New York to go to Chinatown for the Lunar New Year’s Parade. It was crazy crowded. I reminded me of the poem “There’s too many kids in this tub, too many elbows to scrub. I just washed a behind that I sure isn’t mine, There’s too many kids in this tub.” It was so crowded that I was pushed on every side. I found a niche on the side of a building and tried to get out of the crush. Eventually I made my way a bit further down the street and a nice old Chinese gentleman invited me to stand beside him on a step and he told me about the parade as it passed. He told me where different lions were from and also about the different costumes people were wearing. He told me the black lion had to come last since it is the strongest and would overpower the others if it came earlier. This is the year of the Ox so a lot of people were wearing horns. It took me a while to realize they weren’t meant to be devils. Venders everywhere were selling poppers full of confetti so there was a constant flow of colored paper in the air.

It was hard to see the parade very well because of the crowd. Many people had their babies on their shoulders so the crowd looked like a sea of people with bobbing babies on the surface. Still, I enjoyed it and I did get a few good pictures of the event.