Strong coffee, Coney Island hotdogs, and flamingo dresses

Once again, long time, no blog. I've still been busier than a little bee, trying to soak up as much of this wonderful city as I possible can. It's crazy to think that I've been here for a little over a week now. With as much as I've been cramming into my daily schedules, you'd think I've been here for a month at least.

Bottom line: I am so incredibly happy and so incredibly in love with New York City.

Here's a little recap of the last few days for you (whoever "you" might be!).

WEDNESDAY

I woke up. Ate my delicious breakfast (fruit and yogurt parfait, of course). Went to the gym.

You will find that this is a common start to all of my days here. It's the perfect way to refuel, reenergize, and reorient my brain for the day ahead.

At about 11:30am, I left for my internship and grabbed a delicious (and veryyy strong) cup of coffee from a little coffee/food truck outside the Trump Tower near Wall Street. And because I mentioned this in the last entry, here is a photo of where I'm working the entire semester:

I know, I know... it isn't the best photo. I'm sorry for this! I just wanted to give you a little taste of what it looks like from the outside. Maybe I'll post more in the future. And maybe I'll show you photos of the inside at some point, too. I'm just tryin' to keep you on your toes!

Anyway, my second day at Bank Robber Music was absolutely wonderful. One of their long-term interns (the lovely, Suzy) was there to show me the ropes and answer all of the questions I could possibly ask. And I asked a lot, too. She was quite the trooper, and I'm so glad to have met her! She definitely made me feel great about the internship I've chosen, and I've already learned so much just from those few hours with her.

At about 5pm, I left for class! Yes.. even though I'm in NYC, I guess I'm still in school, and I still have to go to class. But this is the only physical class that I have this semester, and it only meets on Wednesday evenings from 7:00pm to 9:30pm. That's nuthin. AND it's going to be fabulous. Basically, it's just an overview of all types of entertainment in NYC. We have a planned trip to see "Once" on Broadway, several guest speakers that are coming in to chat about the business, and we might even get to see a Mets game.

And this is a class?

I know. So wonderful.

I can't remember what I did for the rest of Wednesday evening. You'd think that I'd have learned by now... if I don't document every second with photos or by writing things down, I will completely forget them. I don't know what this means for me in my later years.. not a good sign, that's for sure.

THURSDAY

Allison and I woke up, ate breakfast, went to the gym. Then, we decided to go exploring around the Greenwich Village area together. We stumbled upon this wonderful, little vintage clothing store:

Allison bought some super cute shoes, and I left empty-handed. But that's quite alright. I will be back! Plus, that just means more money for food. (Always a good thing).

We also sauntered on over to my favorite new place: Washington Square Park.

We walked around a bit more, shopped a bit more (which I can only do for so long), and then decided to head back. I was stupid and thought it would be cute if I wore my wedges all day... Bad idea. Wearing wedges while walking around NYC will always end in blisters. I've learned my lesson.

I ended up getting the greatest shirt and the greatest little skirt while we were out, though. I haven't bought clothes in months, so now I have some new items for my wardrobe.

Once again, I can't remember what I did Thursday evening. I'm pretty sure I made dinner of some sort, and then relaxed for the rest of the night. We had a big day planned for Friday, so I wanted to be well rested.

FRIDAY

As I'm sure a lot of you know (based on the amount of media coverage surrounding it), this was the morning that multiple bystanders were shot outside of the Empire State Building. Thank goodness none of my classmates or I have work around that area. Everyone was safe and sound and we weren't affected at all by the whole thing. So sad, though. I hate to keep hearing these stories. Thank you to those of you who texted or called me to make sure I was okay! You are wonderful.

At about 12pm, Allison, Josh, and his roommate, Eric, all left for:

CONEY ISLAND. Yes. Which only took 30 minutes to get to by train. And which just so happens to be:

THE BEACH. So so wonderful. It was the absolute most beautiful day, too. The sun was shining, but it was only about 85 degrees, and there was a nice, light breeze. It was so relaxing, and it made me fall in love with New York even more. I'm sorry, Nashville... I love you, too... but your closest beach is 8 hours away.

After soaking up the sun for a couple of hours, we decided to head out. But not before getting a hotdog from the one and only: Nathan's. And I'm talking about the REAL Nathan's. The ORIGINAL Nathan's.

There I am. Chowing down on the deliciousness.

Here's an up close photo of my hotdog, just because I know you are curious:

I ordered onions on it. Clearly, they decided to use an entire onion.

The way back home took us twice as long, because someone pulled the emergency brake on our train for some reason. I'm still not sure as to what happened, but after waiting for thirty minutes, we were allowed to move again.

Last night, we went to a show at ZirZamin on West Housten Street. It was such a neat, little venue! Allison's friend, Matt, was the entertainment for the evening, and he was wonderful. Such a fun show.

TODAY

I did my usual routine (wake up, breakfast, gym, etc), and then I decided to find a place where I could work on the mounds of schoolwork that I have piling up from my online classes. At first, I tried Googling a coffeeshop somewhere in NYC that had an outside area where I could work. In reality, I just wanted to find a NYC-version of Nashville's Bongo Java... a coffeeshop with a wonderfully large front porch. Those don't really exist in New York.

So, I decided to go with my Plan B. I thought it was a longshot, but I Googled "free wifi NYC parks". And sure enough- SO MANY parks here have free internet! Insane to me. And so wonderful.

So, I gathered all of my belongings and hiked over to the Brooklyn Bridge Park to work on homework for the day. It was absolutely perfect. I had a great view of the skyline, and I was surrounded by so many interesting people. I have to admit, I really wanted to people watch more than anything.

This little gem was taken by a woman sitting near me who was wearing the craziest dress covered in pink flamingos. I wish I'd taken a photo of her. After seeing me trying to take a picture of the skyline, she insisted on taking photo after photo of me with it in the background.



There ya go! A little smattering of photos and ramblings for you to enjoy :). Tomorrow, I have a few things planned, but for now, I'm going to eat some dinner and try to wrap up the rest of this homework.

I love you all.
<3
Nat