When In Manhattan......

I arrived in New York City Monday morning Jan 10th real early (7am). JKF was not as impressive as I had imagined it to be, it was rather bland and deceivingly convenient. But regardless I took my backpack and carry on to the air tram and road it for an incredible 45 minutes before switching to the metro where I was able to easily get myself to 96th and Central Park West at which point I took a small walk to 94th and Amsterdam where my friend Maya is living. She lives in this adorable apartment with 2 other guy room mates in a pretty amazing area. I love the idea of possibly living here one day for a short amount of time. I am definitely a city girl, and its getting obvious. Its so easy for me to orient myself with the streets and the metros and city maps. Like second nature really. Upon arriving at her house I took a short 3 hour snooze since I was not able to sleep at all on the plane. Maya and I then ventured out late after noon to Rockefeller Plaza where we saw the Radio City Music Hall where the rockets show is, as well as the ice skating rink and the 30 Rockefeller center building where the Today show is filmed. We went on a super long walk all the way to Union Square where we were meeting our friend Uri at a bar called Side. Apparently this bar is a "duck fan" bar and was it ever! I ran into about 8 people I went to college with that are now living in NYC. It was so surreal, there were times I actually thought I was in Eugene at Taylors or something very surreal. After the game Maya and I went home and called it an early night. Unfortunately the Ducks lost....

The next morning at 10am Maya took me to her gym where we took her boot camp class, it kicked my butt! The instructor was probably an ex football player or some nonsense like that cause he knew all these crazy toning techniques that were so intense, lots of jumping, abs, arms, push up pyramids and squats! Uhhggg! I will definitely be looking to joining such a class when in Istanbul. We were unsure how to plan out our day and ended up coming across free shows in NYC, which lead to us viewing a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Colin Firth was the guest who plays in the movie The Kings Speech. The taping was interesting, it was free so we stood in line and waited only for about 20 minutes or so.

Then as we were lead into the studio we sat and waited. A audience warm up guy showed up and interacted with us a bit, warmed us up and tested the sounds levels then Jon came out and also interacted with us right before the show started. It was amazing to see how well oiled the show is, how the director, producer, and camera people move in just the right way without flaw and quick. They all know totally how this works and they seem to do it in a way that prevents their equipment from being in our way too much. After the taping I decided to continue my walk and see Time Square at night, it was a short walk only like 10 blocks farther from where I was and absolutely worth it. Being in Time Square for the first time in your life is like being in a dream.

Its almost like deja vu in that you totally have seen this place a thousand times before via MTV, New Years ball drops, various Hollywood films and TV shows so when I was walking the Square I totally felt out of my own body it was bright and big. Those are the best words I can find at the moment, kind of like a mini Vegas strip. Tons of lights, and billboards the size of buildings, bright signs and advertisements galore. I spent as much time as my freezing body could handle before starting the 50 + block walk back to 94th street. It started to snow pretty hard during my walk right as I was passing through Central Park. In that moment I really felt like I have been able to gather as much New York as possible and it was only day two! Being in such a magical place really made me appreciate all the things that have been placed on my table this past two years. I cant wait for the future!