First Weekend in NYC

I'm exhausted.

This was my first full, free weekend as an official NYC resident and I really did my best to fill every minute with seeing friends and exploring fun places in the city! Including the 4th of July holiday I only have about 4 and half weeks left in the program so I'm trying to take advantage of every opportunity. After reflecting on this weekend, I think I am successful in doing so so far!

Friday

Lectures ended early on Friday so I had the entire night free! Lucky for me I have many friends living in the city this summer including these two lovely ladies. 

We got together for dinner in the Upper East Side at a delicious restaurant called The Penrose followed by dessert at Insomnia Cookies! It's nice when a little piece of home is just a subway ride away :)

Saturday 

Looking back, this was an insanely busy day. It started off by me getting some really exciting news that I was asked to be a contributing writer to TheatreArtLife.com, a theatre entertainment digital platform. I will be writing regular articles for them about a variety of topics regarding theatre! I have always wanted to write for a website and this seems like an absolutely perfect place for me! (I have included the link below if you want to check out the site!) 

https://theatreartlife.com

Since the dining hall doesn't provide meals on weekends, my friend Emily and I decided to explore some local places for lunch and stumbled upon this really cute restaurant called Dig Inn. In essence, its an extremely healthy Chipotle! I included a picture of my lunch because a whole day later I am still thinking about it:  

(Herb Roasted Chicken, Lemon Quinoa, Sweet Potatoes & Sautéed Kale) 

I will definitely be back!    

                                                                   

                             

After lunch I was lucky enough to meet up with my friend Andrew for happy hour at a rooftop bar near my building!

Later that night, some of my friends in the program and I decided to go to an authentic ramen noodle restaurant called Totto Ramen. It was SO good. One of my friends who is from Singapore attempted to teach me to use chopsticks but you can imagine how that turned out. After dinner we found a cute bar around the corner called The Pocket Bar that had great music and a really cool atmosphere. It was a perfect Saturday night in the city!

Sunday

Although I planned to spend today in my pajamas recovering from the craziness of the weekend, Emily and I decided that since next week begins our intense, highly anticipated Book Workshop where we will have very little free time, we would take the day to do some more exploring! We decided to go to this bookstore called The Strand, that spans about 3 blocks and holds 18 miles worth of books. They had EVERYTHING there...from YA literature, to children's books, to art history, drama, fiction, nonfiction...you name it it was there. My personal favorite part was the Rare Books section where they had first editions of classic novels on display (and on sale for thousands of dollars) and even some old Playbills from Broadway shows! Surprisingly enough I was able to control myself and only bought a couple of books and a tote bag, but it will definitely not be my last visit! 

After The Strand we tried out a coffee shop called The Bean followed by dessert at the famous Ben's Cookies! 

P.S. I'm including pictures of all of this amazing food because I still can't get over how many great places there are to eat in this city. 

~

It was a very full weekend. I think the best part of it (one of them anyway) is that I finally feel confident navigating the subway which is something I was super nervous about to begin with. I am so thankful for all of these experiences and having the opportunity to explore this beautiful city with great people! Tomorrow starts another week of lectures and I am so excited to keep going on this journey!