New York: Summary

So a couple of weeks late, fogetaboutit as the "Italians" say in NYC... I'm finally getting to writing a summary about my time with Oren. I have to say that I love New Yorkers - they may walk fast and be stuck to their cell phones, but they're my kind of people.

Anyway, I started off my vacation in New York visiting a cupcake place for breakfast. I restrained myself and only got a muffin for breakfast, but this place would have done me in otherwise. The cupcakes were sooo beautiful and delicious-looking! Oren apparently also knows this cupcake place well.

After that, Oren and I took my bags back to his place in Astorias. It was very well-situated with a few restaurants and shops nearby and a cinema close, too! Then, we headed back downtown to go to the Ground Zero memorial and museum. I'm looking forward to going back in a few years when they have the memorial completed because it looks like it'll be amazing. The museum was still good to walk through to see that day from different perspectives. Not that any of us can forget that day, what we were doing, where we were, when we heard the news....

After that, we walked around Soho and Chelsea to get a feel for the area. We were looking for two bookstores for me to bring back books from - one was Housing Works' bookstore, which is a nonprofit organization that helps the NYC homeless with AIDS, and the other was Strand, which boosted 18 miles of books! I was excited to get the books, but it was great to see how the social enterprise of Housing Works functioned because I think that'll be a future way of inspiring change in communities, rather than the overcrowded nonprofit field.... ok, that's a rant for another time!

On Saturday, Oren and I walked through Central Park east and then headed to Spanish Harlem, the real, dirty gritty New York, for Mexican food. After lunch, we went to the Guggenheim for the Haunted photography exhibit. The way the building is set up, the exhibit winds around the central rotunda and there are little galleries on the sides of each level. Oren and I finished up the day by going to see Shrek 4!! A whole two weeks before it came to theaters in Munich!

On Sunday, we didn't have so much time because I eventually needed to get to the airport, but we did manage to find a street fair with lovely smelling food stands. It was right by where our parents used to live way back when they lived in New York with baby Oren. Think of it, I could have been a New Yorker if they stayed there! Can you even imagine?!

To sum it up, I had a fantastic time and poor Oren had his pushy, active sister to keep up with again. I'm surprised we even got out of the apartment most days by noon!