Days 84-85 - To Moorestown and back to Philly

Driving around from Emma's to visit Mini and Clara downtown, then across to Moorestown, back to Philly, and up to JK's

Monday I was finally coming down with this cold I've been mostly holding off since Boston, so I slept in while Emma went to work and spent the morning blogging. It ended up working out well since she was worried about her heater and I was there to let the repair guy in to check it out. After he left, I went out to lunch with Mini! College nicknames never really go away, they just lurk, mostly forgotten, until you see someone who spent so long calling you by that name that they have to pause for a moment to remember what the rest of the world calls you.

Sarah was my coxswain for two years, not only skilled at the whole "making sure the boat doesn't crash" part, but also really encouraging and enthusiastic about helping us work together to be a fast boat. She worked at an admissions department at a college in North Carolina for a little bit after graduating, and now she's working at Temple University in downtown Philly, taking classes and looking to get her masters and keep working her way up in Admissions. It was fun to talk to her and her co-workers, especially learning so much about the differences in admission policies between small schools and bigger universities. In a school like this with tens of thousands of applicants, she is the sole person to look at the applications that are assigned to her but really has very little leeway in her decision of admittance or not - a certain score is needed to be admitted, rejected, or placed on the hold list, and 100 of the 110 points are determined by GPA, class rank (if available), and SAT scores. That's it. She gets 10 subjective points to award based on the essay and the recommendation letter, but it doesn't make much of a difference unless someone is on the cusp - a very big difference from smaller schools with admission committees that really strive to evaluate applicants holistically.

She had to go back to work, so I said goodbye and went to go find a coffee shop near center city where I was going to meet up with Clara, another crew friend, after she got home from work. Parking was a bear, but I finally settled in at OCF Coffee, enjoying a cup of tea and some wifi until it was time to go find Clara. It was so good to see her! Speaking of forgotten nicknames - I was walking up the street staring at my phone, trying to figure out where her apartment was, when I heard "Mama Jess!" from across the street and looked up to see a familiar bespectacled figure jogging across the street towards me, both of our arms already open and knees braced for a big hug. (I was sort of an unofficial team mom in crew, hence the nickname that I still hear mostly from the novice group that started my junior year). I was sad that I didn't get to see Allie - she's in law school and was in an exam (I hope it went well!) but I did get to see their super cute apartment and walk with Clara over to her friend's house so that she could do laundry in anticipation of their Thanksgiving trip to Martha's Vineyard. Clara has been working at all kinds of jobs (including some awesome freelance journalism), and is currently settling in doing logistics and organization with a company that does sports advertising (they're the people that will broker your deal to be the sponsor of a new stadium to get your company logo on the side of the building, for example).

I said goodbye and started heading out across the river to Moorestown, NJ to stay with my mother's cousins, Will and Louise. The last time I got to visit their house was three years ago, the night before I met up with my training group before leaving for Burkina - a still memorable sushi dinner with wonderful company before leaping into a new unknown. I hadn't realized that so much of the extended family that I only see at our annual reunions lived in the very near vicinity - I would have spent more time visiting! Their son is Will and his son Rollie had already arrived - I stayed with him, his wife Angie, and their two kids when I was in St. Louis. I hadn't expected to see them again so soon, but it was such a great surprise, especially getting to see the kids again.

Tuesday was a family day! Quilla and I played tag in the yard for a while, then moved down in the basement to delight in all of the toys that her dad and aunts played with when they were kids. Uncle Will went off to work, Aunt Louise was getting food ready for the next few days, Will and Angie took the kids over to his sister Beth's house back on the PA side of the river, and I chipped away at my applications for a bit before following them over that direction. I've never seen this part of my family outside of reunions - it was so much fun to spend time with so many people without being overwhelmed by trying to catch up with all 50 adults and kids that usually make it to reunions. Will and Louise have three kids - Will, Beth, and Kate - who are all married and have 2, 3, and 2.5 kids respectively (one is 7 and the rest are 4 or younger) - it made for a busy house but we all had a really good time eating and laughing and watching the tumbling mass of children rumble around the house. I was an unexpected addition but they all took the extra person in stride ;)

After dinner I headed a little north to stay with my friend JK. Another Peace Corps friend, we were in the same training group and actually lived fairly close together - I passed through her village of Yilou on the bus ride from my village to the capital. She's working as a volunteer coordinator at the St. James's School, a new neighborhood school associated with the Episcopal diocese that puts motivated local kids into an intensive learning environment with the goal of getting them ready for future academic success. It sounds like a pretty complex job, especially because the school and program is so new that she's essentially writing her job as she goes along, but it does seem like she enjoys the challenge of the work and feeling like it's having a directly useful impact on the lives of all these students. She lives next to the school in a communal house with about 8 of her coworkers, which conveniently has a little guest room where I could stay!

We hung around the house for a while trying to get in touch with her friends around town, but on a Tuesday night just two days before a holiday no one was really interested in going out, so we hopped in the car and drove downtown to Tabu, a bar in center city. We agreed that we tend to feel this innate bond with the people we served with but that neither of us actually got to know more than a handful of people on more than a pretty superficial level. She and I had opportunities to hang out and chat throughout our service, more than with some others who lived very far away and we never saw except at trainings, but it was nice to get to sit and just ask questions about her life pre- and post- PC - I learned a lot, and shared a lot, which is always a great experience. We ended up staying until they kicked us out at closing, then headed back home to bed.

 Cool street art near Temple University

 With Clara!

 Quilla and Aunt Louise cleaning off some old toys in the basement (like the child's plastic record player)

 The Ben Franklin bridge over to Beth's house

 Will with his nephew Ben (L) and son Rollie (R)

 Aunt Louise trying to corral kids towards a photo

 Angie, Beth, and Will with Rollie and Ben - currently the two youngest cousins

 Uncle Will was bravely performing as "Poppy the Horse" for a good long while

 Living room full of kids and adults - such a great place to be Thanksgiving week!

 When kids decide what game we're going to play...this is Charlie with his mom, Kate

 At the kids table! Quilla, Abby, Charlie, Annie, and Connor

 Beth, Ben, and Uncle Will

 Rollie observing the bustle from across the room

Days 82-83 - Family Time in NJ, To Philly

Distance - 100 miles
Time -  2.5 hours
 (having issues with my tracking app, hence the not entirely correct but pretty close map screenshot instead)

I appreciate it when my friends leave me to go to work because then I get things done - typically blog updates, emails, applications - all those necessary things that are constantly awaiting attention. But I also love when I get to hang out with people for calm weekends spent grazing on delicious food and playing with babies! Saturday I woke up much later than anticipated, my room on the third floor very effectively insulating me from Colin's wake up routine. I padded downstairs to the kitchen, where Jen and Colin were eating breakfast (at least he was). We chatted and played with him for a while, then the two of them went to "Rockin' Railroad" - a kids music class just down the road.

I declined the jokingly-offered invitation to come along and hear them banging on things (Mom - it sounds like those elementary school band concerts!) and instead spent the morning blogging and talking with Chris, who made us excellent egg and cheese english muffin sandwiches. Jen came back with bagels, which we grazed on for lunch and breakfast the next day. Chris went to go watch a football game at his old high school with his friends after Jen put Colin down for his nap, and then she and I had some time to talk and do little to-do things until Colin woke up. We all bundled up to go walk to the park, where Colin had a great time directing us to go over and stare at all the ducks and geese - when was the last time I saw an entire flock of geese? Certainly not in Tucson!

We were all getting chilly (even Colin, who refused to leave the playground without a fuss because he was still enjoying himself even if he couldn't feel his fingers), so we walked home to warm up. We watched an episode of Dora The Explorer, which admittedly left me wishing we had just watched endless re-runs of it in my Spanish 101 class - I would have learned so much more! When Chris got home we put all of our layers back on and went out for Mexican food at Tinga. The tacos were tasty, the service was very prompt (we agreed that having a small child might have helped with that part) and we were fed and back home in time to get Colin to bed at bedtime. We settled in and watched The Hurt Locker - none of us had seen it and felt up to a more serious movie. It was such an intense film, but really felt well done. I was surprised to find that it was filmed in Jordan and Canada - I wonder what other films I've watched that are set in a certain location (in this case, Iraq) that aren't at all filmed there? I knew it was fairly common, but I guess I've never actually looked to check.

On Sunday I woke up and spent some time playing with Colin and chatting with Jen and Chris while we all ate breakfast and Chris layered up for the Giants Game. The sun was shining but it was deceiving - it was freezing outside! Jen, Colin, and I went on a drive around the local area to see some of the different parts of town, which was really a treat. They live in a large comfortable house on a beautiful road, but some of the houses we passed - good grief! They almost look like hotels - how do you ever have enough people in them for them to feel full? As we pointed out houses that we liked, I found that I particularly was drawn to ones with bay windows and those round turret rooms off the front - some day I would love to have a home with a round reading room stuffed to the gills with books ;)

I packed up my car, said goodbye to everyone, and headed to meet Elissa and Sarah for tea at InsaniTea! It's just down the street from Jen and Chris and it only took me 3 minutes to drive there (waaay too cold to walk) but 10 minutes to find parking :p (clearly I should have walked anyway). Sarah and Elissa live a town over but come to Montclair for church, and then stick around to get some work done in this cute little shop that only sells tea and hot cocoa in mismatched "choose your own" mugs. The lady working behind the counter asked if I knew what I was getting into by ordering the lapsang souchang tea, and I assured her that its smoky flavor didn't scare me in the least, but I appreciated the warning. The three of us sat in the front window to talk for a little bit - we all rowed together at Mount Holyoke for three years. Elissa and I had caught up quite a bit the other day in town, but I did enjoy listing to Sarah talk about her work as a teacher in Newark - it sounds challenging and stressful, but really rewarding in a lot of ways. 

All good things must come to an end, so after an hour or so I realized I really should get on the road and let them get a little work done. After a last hug goodbye, I was on my way to Philadelphia! I was going to meet my friend Clara but our timing was off - I suggested meeting for a late lunch, but arriving at 4:30 pm is really much later than a late lunch. So I headed over to meet my host for the evening, Emma!

Emma was another Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina, I believe she was starting her second year when my training group arrived in the country and then she stayed for a third year so she ended up leaving only a few months before I did. She worked as a teacher her first two years, then worked with Save the Children her third year in the hopes of using that as her "hands on" experience for applying to school as a Physician's Assistant. She's now in her first year of a two year CDC fellowship, working at the airport in Philly in the quarantine (for sick passengers as well as for potentially diseased foodstuffs that are brought into the country), and working on trying to help her boyfriend Richard get his visa to visit the US from Burkina, where he works as a gendarme (sort of a policeman, but Burkina also has separate police - admittedly I never really figured out the exact difference in their jobs - Emma?).

We went out to dinner at a great West African restaurant - twice in one week! Le Bercail was closer to Burkinabe food than Africa Kine in Harlem, which was more Senegalese, but both of them were very good food. My chicken yassa was very similar to ones that I had had in Ouaga (yassa is an onion sauce that is actually Senegalese but adopted by other countries in the region), and the atticke was pretty close to what I remembered, even down to the dollop of cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes mixed in mayonnaise that was served on top. Emma's sauce d'arachide (peanut sauce) was comfortingly familiar, also with the unavoidable red palm oil slick on top, but we were a little concerned with the unnamed hunk of bone/meat that tasted as though it had been smoked. Normally this wouldn't raise much concern, but Emma said that she often saw people enter the country with meat from abroad that they had half smoked to try and keep it from spoiling on the 24 hour journey, which admittedly kind of tainted it for both of us and we just stuck with the sauce after that. They did have gingembre - essentially juiced ginger mixed with water and sugar - which was an unexpected treat! It had been a favorite of mine in village, where my friend sold it frozen in little plastic bags, you just bite off the corner and crush up the bag - instant slushie, particularly amazing when it's over 100 degrees outside.

I know I keep saying this, but I really do need to be better about taking more photos on days like these! :p

 I missed the adorable moment when they were coloring together, but I still think this is a cute father-son photo

Atticke and sauce yassa! Admittedly not the most photogenic, but it tastes great, I promise ;)

Day 81 - Manhattan Traffic

I didn't track this particular journey with my phone because I was using the GPS as a secondary one to supplement the Garmin - it's perfect for longer trips but in cities it is just hopelessly confused, so relying on the phone is a better idea when the cell signal is more reliable than the GPS waves pinging around the skyscrapers. If I had tracked it, it would have been a line from Brooklyn to Montclair, NJ - a 25 mile trip that took a good 2 1/2 hours, hence the title of the post for today.

Friday I went out in the morning to deal with parking, but then walked back to Emily's apartment and got some really solid work done on my grad school applications for a few hours. Once I was satisfied with my progress I took the subway to Manhattan and started my day at the museum at FIT - the Fashion Institute of Technology. They had a free exhibit called "A Queer History of Fashion - From the Closet to the Catwalk" - and after looking at the prices of most of the museums around the city, free sounded perfect. They tragically wouldn't allow photos, but it was fascinating! (They published a whole book with photos and essays about each piece and how it fit into or diverged from the general clothing trends of the time) I'm not the most fashion conscious, but I did find it really interesting to see a progression of clothing from the 1800s up thorough today, including a lot of outfits worn by movie stars and designed by famous designers. I think it only runs through January, if you're in the area it's worth a look.

The little museum exhibit took up just the right amount of time, I was right on time to hop on the subway outside the museum and go uptown to meet my friend Janine for coffee. Janine and I went to high school together, and then she ended up finishing her degree at Wellsley, another of those crazy women's colleges. We had lost touch for the most part, and were actually brought back in contact at one point by our respective college friends who happened to be childhood best friends! Small world. Janine was running a few minutes late so I sat down next to the opera house with my stack of postcards. I swear there is no better way to make friends than to start writing postcards in public, it just invites people to comment. I know I could have brushed off the intrusion, but I'm trying to make it a policy to stop and talk to people who seem curious and want to just chat. I capped my pen after half a sentence and started talking to the real estate investor who was sitting next to me, also waiting for someone and just enjoying the slightly warmer weather and watery sunshine peeking through the clouds.

Janine was always known for being a brilliant student, but once people got past her amazing academics they discovered that she's an incredibly thoughtful friend who genuinely wants other people to be just as successful as she is - I can't even count how many people in our class benefited from the generous gift of her time and knowledge as she informally tutored us in just about any subject we might have a question in. She studied neuroscience and French, then got her Masters in Performance at NYU, and now happily bustles between a kaleidoscope of jobs in publishing, tutoring middle and high school students, recording books on tape, doing theater work in several capacities, and generally being amazing (did I get everything?).

We grabbed a cup of coffee to go and started wandering through that part of Central Park aptly named "The Ramble" for its wandering, crisscrossing paths that were perfect for spending a few hours walking and catching up on our respective lives for the past few years. We ended up at the Natural History Museum, but by that point it was pretty late - she had to go to an appointment and I had to go retrieve my car and move to New Jersey.

Janine and I said goodbye and I got back on the subway for the last time, making my way over to Brooklyn. I paid my parking bill, put air in the tires because one was low, returned my Metro card to Emily's house, and then immediately got stuck in the center of a very busy intersection trying to turn left and being honked at from every direction. :p Thus began my driving adventure. I won't give you the block by block playback, although I did spend at least 15 minutes on each block. I have no idea how traffic eventually moves - I swear it looked packed solid, and then without visible reason, a space for one car to squeeze would suddenly appear and someone would swerve into it, always with a chorus of car horns as people anticipated traffic moving and then got stuck in the middle of the intersection, blocking cross traffic often for several light cycles.

Somehow magically things kept crawling along, and I eventually made it safely out to beautiful Montclair to stay with my cousin Jenny, her husband Chris, and their adorable, smiley son Colin (aka Biggie). I got there just in time to say goodnight to Biggie, and then the three of us chatted and enjoyed some pizza before going to bed.

 At the FIT Museum

 The only picture I got before being informed that I shouldn't be taking them

 The fountain outside of the Opera House

 Never seen one of these before!

 And then there were snails

 Lots of them!

 Fountain in Central Park

 Abe Lincoln, outside the New York Historical Society Museum and Library

 Bronto-topiaries outside of the Natural History Museum!

 With Janine in her super cool tartan suit jacket

 Obligatory crazy angry face photo ;)

The Natural History subway art

Day 80 - College Friends

Thursday I dealt with parking, then took the subway over to Greenwich Village to walk around. Chloe's suggestion via text was "Check out the MET or the museum of natural history (SCIENCE!!) or go to the village or Central Park! EAT EVERYTHING!!!" This is why I love my friends.

I wandered around the Village for a while, and when I got chilly I stopped and settled in at Think Coffee. The tea selection in a coffee shop can be a little hit or miss, but I knew I'd hit the jackpot when I saw that they had lapsang souchong tea - that distinct, deliciously smokey tea that is typically an acquired taste and is definitely one that you don't find in many places, but I've come to really enjoy it. I wrote some postcards for an hour or so, then started to wander uptown to see Chloe for lunch. She wasn't going to be free until 12:30 but suggested a few places to check out near her office.

And that's how I ended up spending 30 minutes in Lush, being overwhelmed by competing scents and chatting away with the staff while they scrubbed and moisturized my hands to within an inch of their lives! At least they were finally nice and warm, albeit smelling very strongly of just about every flower ever turned into a body product. I was offered a lip scrub by the sweet young Puerto Rican guy with fire-engine red hair in a manner reminiscent of being offered a shot of booze when still underage. We "did" the lip scrub and then "chased" it with a honey lip balm that left my lips tingly and smiling. I thanked them all for their time and company - they seemed to be having just as much fun as I was, it was a slow morning for them.

I checked out a few of the stores in the Garment District before turning the corner and being met with a flying hug by Chloe. We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant whose name I just can't remember (Chloe?), and then treated ourselves to macaroons at a pop up food court that had appeared around the corner from her office in a large street median area. Maple and bacon is clearly the "it" combination still, but for good reason - the macaroon was delicious, as was the Earl Gray. I think macaroons might be my next baking venture when I get home...anyone want to help? I took a quick tour of her office after getting a hasty "security clearance" via a few phone calls, then she had to actually do some work so I said goodbye and headed back out into the cold.

I texted Elissa, a college friend who I rowed with for three years, and met her on 5th before we continued on to Central Park. She lives in New Jersey with her fiance Sarah (another crew friend) but comes into the city almost daily to volunteer in the pediatric oncology ward at a city hospital, as well as working as a nanny for a few families in the city while she applies to nursing programs. We walked all the way up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art - ostensibly it's admission by donation but we were discouraged by the glaring admission people when we stood there contemplating paying less than the suggested $25, so we went to the gift shop and spent our money there instead ;) It was fun seeing the more popular works of art reproduced as cards, scarves, shirts, mugs, etc - I can't wait to go back when I actually have a whole day to spend looking through the massive museum!

After walking back to Penn Station so that she could catch the train home, I continued down to Union Square to meet Alicia, Emily, and her co-workers for celebratory birthday drinks at Reservoir (Emily's was Tuesday, her friend Steven's was Saturday). After drinks I met up with two college friends - Sarah Brady and Caitlin. Sarah and I met through friends, Caitlin and I rowed together, and after a bit of searching it turned out that they had, in fact, met each other before! Sarah was working in publishing but has now jumped into TV and documentaries as a production assistant (?) and loves her new job - she works with folks on Law and Order: SVU and also on an upcoming, super secret documentary - how cool is that? Caitlin is working in publishing and wants to stay in the industry but is currently working her tail off networking and applying to jobs, hoping to move to a company that's a little bigger so that she can get into a position that has the potential for continued upward movement and new challenges.

Caitlin suggested an arepa bar called Caracas, which we all thought sounded delicious, but tragically the wait was easily an hour so we decided that Venezuelan food would have to wait for another day. Instead we went to Japadog! Besides having a cool name, the concept is also cool and a little crazy - essentially it's Japanese foods and condiments served on top of hot dogs. I had one that was served with a teriyaki onion sauce and strips of roasted seaweed on top, but I almost got the one with the potstickers on it ;) Cheap, tasty, and different - just what we were looking for! Sarah went home to get some sleep, but Caitlin and I stopped for some frozen yogurt before getting on the train to go back to Brooklyn. Despite the cold winter weather, New Yorkers seem to love their frozen yogurt - there seemed to be yet another store every few blocks!

I'm starting to believe that if you live in NY long enough you develop some kind of a homing system for the subway, so that you have a general idea at all times of where the nearest entrance is and how that relates to where the nearest train to get home is. I happily followed Caitlin onto her line once I realized that I could take it to transfer to the A line I'd been using, but without her confident striding along towards the subway I would have been on my phone trying to figure out where in the world I was and how to get where I needed to go. :p

 The Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village :)

 I was so shocked by how big this post office was that I had to go in just to see it

 Chloe!

 Don't let her cute size fool you, she's a 4th degree black belt - I'm very glad she's on my side!

 A black squirrel! I used to think they only lived in Marysville, Kansas, but now I've seen them here and in Detroit

 The carousel clock at the Central Park zoo

 Bear trying to eat something behind him, and happy frogs at his feet

 This tree apparently missed the memo that you generally turn colors before going bald...

 Gnome and the story gate at the playground beside the MET

 The entryway at the MET

 Elissa and her awesome hat

 Japadog

Super fast selfie with Caitlin before I jumped off the subway to make my transfer

Day 79 - MoMA, Central Library

On Wednesday Emily's roommate, Lewis (the owner of Toby), mentioned that there was a doughnut shop in Manhattan that not only had good coffee, but was known for its peanut butter and jelly donuts. Sold! After dealing with the car, I got back on the train and found my way to Doughnut Plant, on 23rd St. I had walked past it the day before but had resisted the temptation to go in, but now with a genuine recommendation... I have never seen a square doughnut before, especially with a hole in the center but still filled all along the rim with raspberry jam filling, then dipped in some kind of peanut frosting with chopped peanuts. It was huge, and delicious! I almost went back for the mini creme brulee doughnut, but decided that I was probably on enough of a sugar high as it was. Still, they had some amazingly creative flavors - if you like doughnuts and happen to be in the city, I think they have at least two or three locations ;)

From there I walked uptown through Times Square again, arriving at the Modern Museum of Art just after it opened, and behind a group of French-speaking tourists that I had a very hard time understanding - I think West Africans actually do speak slower than Europeans, or maybe I'm just rusty. MoMA was so amazing! It was a fantastic collection, everything from an entire room of Monet Waterlily paintings (!) to a solar powered sand-melter that could make 3-D sculptures. I spent a few hours going through the 5 floors (the 6th was special exhibits that were in the members-only preview period) and I think that if I had picked up the audio tour I would have easily spent more time. Not the least expensive museum to visit, but in my mind it was well worth the price.

My timing worked out perfectly, just as I was browsing the gift shop I got a text from Emily saying that she was finally out of court and would love to meet for lunch. I took the train towards her office and we met up in Union Square near the farmer's market, then walked a block to Coffee Break. Ostensibly it's a Brazilian diner/restaurant but the lunch menu felt almost entirely American - sandwiches, soups, burgers, and salads for the most part, the three items listed specifically as Brazilian entrees were a little pricy for lunch, especially next to their other options. I had a half of a Cuban sandwich and a bowl of the butternut squash with ginger soup, Emily had the barbeque chicken sandwich, and while they were both tasty, we both agreed that this was perhaps a place best reserved for a nice dinner instead of an everyday lunch.

After visiting Emily's office and walking around the Union Square farmer's market, I spent some quality time in the main Reading Room at the library, admiring the rows and rows of tables filled with people studying, typing, and reading (and watching YouTube videos, of course - a study break?) Around 5:30 I took the subway up to Harlem to meet Alicia and Emily for dinner at Africa Kine. Alicia is another RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer) who was in the same health training group as Emily and me, and she now works in the Bronx at a "health home" coordinating care for people with chronic conditions. It was fun to see them in America, especially since they've ended up in essentially the same field, but in the context of eating in a Senegalese restaurant (that had a puus-laaga in one of the bathroom stalls! see the photos).

The food wasn't exactly the same as Burkinabe food, but the similarities in service that used to occasionally drive us crazy now made us smile - you wait forever for someone to serve you, you have to ask several times to have your water refilled, there's never the kind of silverware you need, and the menu even admitted that you should just ask your server if various things were available. In Burkina we quickly learned that if you looked at the menu you would find that inevitably your first 2 or 3 choices would be unavailable, so it was just best to ask what *was* available, or to list off the things you wanted to eat that weren't on the menu and see if they had some of those (often they did). We patched together a nostalgic meal of alloco (fried plantains), grilled fish with attieke (a fermented cassava cous cous), rice with peanut sauce that came with the obligatory slick of red palm oil on top, and bissap (a hibiscus infusion served cold and mixed with a ton of sugar). We did our best but left defeated by the massive amount of food - it wasn't exactly what we remembered, but did scratch that sentimental itch. Now I just need to make a huge salad with romaine, green pepper slices, tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled egg, green olives with pits, and that terrible/wonderful Maggi and mayo dressing that we would get in Ouaga...

Since all of that wasn't enough excitement, I took my leave and headed back downtown to meet my friend Chloe for drinks at Cafetasia on 8th St. She was coming from work and looked amazing in her suit coat, playful tie that was revealed to have a very tiny "My Little Pony" pattern, and her cat-ear knit cap (and her just-purchased ruby red electric guitar strapped to her back) - as she put it, she's dressing for the job she wants to have, but that doesn't mean giving up the things that make her her ;) Chloe and I met in college, both through friends of friends and a few biology courses that we took together, and I'm happy to report to those of you who haven't seen her in a while that she still gives amazing hugs. She considered going to medical school, but recently decided to pass on the MCAT and get a job in computers, a field where she is not only incredibly skilled, but also seems to enjoy quite a lot. She's working for a company that coordinates major advertising campaigns, keeping the tech side of things up and running!

More and more I appreciate catching up with college and childhood friends - it's been such fun to see where we've all gone, and even more so when we realize that we still get along well and enjoy each other's company. I didn't have anything else to eat, but her pad thai duck smelled very tasty, my ginger mojito had quite a lot of fresh ginger shredded into it, which made for an unexpected but pleasant snack with my drink. After dinner we were walking along towards the subway when she suddenly stopped, then looked at me and asked "What's your favorite kind of cookie?" "Umm...any?" I replied, a little puzzled. She grabbed my arm and practically dashed into the very narrow shop that we'd just passed, stepping into a mouth-watering wall of warm chocolate-scented air. This was my introduction to Insomnia Cookies, a company I'd heard of but never experienced, who will deliver warm cookies and cold milk to your house (in this area, probably your dorm room) up until 3am. Such a simple idea for a take out and delivery place, but right next to NYU? Brilliant. And yes, the cookies were delicious treat on the ride back to Brooklyn.

The amazing square PB&J doughnut

Wall art in Doughnut Plant

George Cohan on Broadway

Touring through MoMA

A giant room with two huge screens showing a silent video of an elephant wandering around that same room

Sophie Tottie (2008) - she draws an ink line at the top and then traces along it line by line so that the imperfections of the top line become exaggerated and create interesting wave patterns

Joseph Kosuth "Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) The Word "Definition"" (1968), made me pause and consider

I like when they have similar works by different artists grouped together so you can compare them - this is "What Is Painting" by John Baldessari (1968)

Jackson Pollock (1950) "One: Number 31, 1950" I remember as a kid thinking it was crazy to call this art, but I get it now that at the time it was kind of a revolutionary thing to present something so intensely abstract as art, and I actually did find it really fascinating to just stare at

This reminded me that some day I want to make that cake I saw that looks like a Mondrian painting when you slice it...

There's something about these pieces that never gets old, no matter how many of them I see. Claude Monet "Agapanthus" (1914-26) <--I suspect this isn't a reflection of how long this particular painting took, rather I think it means that no one is sure where in that period of years any individual painting in the series was started or finished

Claude Monet "Water Lillies" triptych (1914-26)

This piece by Umberto Boccioni immediately caught my eye, probably because it reminds me of one that I adore by Franz Marc. This is "Dynamism of a Soccer Player" (1913)

Then I turned the corner and saw "The Starry Night" and had to consciously close my mouth after it hung open in surprise and delight - I didn't expect to find this in MoMA!

Out of several paintings by Georges-Pierre Seurat, I liked "Evening, Honfleur" (1886) the best, in part because of the painted frame that he added later

Who can resist this collection of Warhol "Campbell's Soup Cans"? (1962)

Look, it's me reflected in Dorothea Rockburne's "Guardian Angel, II" (1982) :) I never realized you could use watercolor on vellum like this, the effect up close was almost like painted silk

The video explaining the process of using the sun to melt sand into sculptures

 Concentrating the heat (this was done in the Moroccan desert)

The machine adds sand layer by layer as the computer guides the beam of light, and then at the end you can remove the sculpture

The finished product, in person. Markus Kayser "Solar-Sintered Bowl" (2011)

The "Mine Kafon Wind-Powered Deminer" (2011) by Massoud Hassani in collaboration with the Design Academy Eindhoven. A GPS chip inside it records the safe path as the wind pushes it through the mine field, and if it detonates a mine the bamboo and biodegradable plastic parts can be partially salvaged and reassembled to make another Mine Kafon. Inspired by children's rolling, wind-powered toys that have to be abandoned when they roll into a known mine field.

A video map showing the US wind currents at various times of the year

Everything is better with a guinea pig. "Scale VI" (2012) by Josephine Pryde

A cool doorway walking up Fifth

Emily in her office!

It was an artwork kind of day - an ouroboros in Union Square

 Gnome with a cool tree statue

 You're not allowed to take photos in the Reading Room, unless you're sneaky

 The ceiling of one of the hallways in the library

 Golden tree roots in the subway tunnel walking from one station to another underground

 Food!

 Alloco

 Emily and Alicia - don't we look so much cleaner in America?

 I promise to not make a habit of photographing toilets to put on here, but all of us were just so excited to see a plastic toilet teapot exactly like the ones in Burkina that a picture was necessary

Pagne curtains