Day 4 in NYC

Wow. This place is amazing. I don't know where to begin. I guess...Monday. I arrived around 11:30am after getting up at 4:15am central time to catch my plane in Austin. JetBlue was a great airline for this trip. It's only 3 - 3.5 hours, which makes it super easy to come back. (And I'm already planning on it.) JFK is not a cute airport...

My place is in Long Island City which is only a 10 minute train ride to Manhattan on the #7. The station is a few steps from the front door. Which also means that I hear the train all the time. Not a big deal. It's quieter than the trains that go by my place in SA! I have two roommates, Isaak and Erik, and a one-eyed cat named Kittie. Erik works for the Bronx Zoo and he's invited a few friends to go visit on Friday. Isaak is working on his Phd. Both have taken me to places in the neighborhood and the city.

Tuesday was my first day in the City. I ate Ethopian food for lunch in the Village and then went to Cafe Habana in NOLITA for dinner. Somewhere in between I had a chocolate canoli from a really old bakery called Vesuvius. Tre bien! So that was just the food. I saw so much that day and walked off all of that food, too! NYU, Soho, Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park...about 6 hours of walking around and that was just between Grand Central and Soho!

Wednesday I ventured out on my own to Times Square to visit La Judy. She workes off 49th and Broadway, so I just walked there from the subway station - which I took on my own for the first time. (People here complain about having to wait for the next train - a whole 3 minutes - geez! They would hate public transit in Austin or SA....) Time Square was madness! It was so busy, horns honking, the traffic, people walking around in a hurry - I loved it. The billboards were HUGE. Judy says to me, "If the P.Diddy billboard is behind you then you're walking in the right direction." Being in New York feels like you have your finger on the pulse of the world. So many different languages, faces, clothes, foods. If you get bored in this city, something is wrong with you. I finally met Judy on the corner of 49th and Broadway which was really surreal. It was just a few months ago we were dancing cumbias at her nieces quinceniera in Alice, Texas. She took me to her work on the 33rd floor. I met the CEO of the company and then we left for Judy's place on the Upper West Side. We had plans to see the NY Philharmonic in Central Park but it rained. So we stayed in her room most of the afternoon. I was helping her with some graphics that she was updating in her portfolio. It was great seeing a familiar face.

Today my plan was to visit the Museum of Modern Art. Now that I had some experience tranferring on the subway I felt comfortable enough to actually go to some specific places. I did manage to get confused/disoriented once I got off the train. I think that'll get better. But fortunatly I ened up at the NY Public Library. I love libraries and this one was amazing. I kept thinking how much my mom would love it. I wish she was with me today. It would have been fun. One day! They had a photography exhibit that I checked out. Then I went to the third floor and it was awesome. I saw a handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Gutenberg Bible, too.

After that I walked down 5th Avenue to 53rd. It was around 10 blocks, 14 actually because I walked too far. I spent a few hours at the Museum, had lunch and kept looking... the Cy Twombly's at the Menil are better...(teehee) but everything else...I mean who can complain! I saw alot of the collection when it was in Houston for the Amazing Century exhibition. I think that's what it was called. They had everything except Dali's Persistance of Memory-which is super tiny! The works were inspiring. What caught my attention most was a print exhibition, Picasso, Rendon, Kara Walker, Willie Cole and a few others I'm blanking on. It was great. I want to try printmaking again. I have some ideas... Another exhibition I saw was What is Painting....great!

Tomorrow, PS1 and possibly Chelsea galleries, Bronx Zoo. Maybe galleries on Saturday! Too many things to do and not enough time...I guess I'll have to come back. My work with Takashi begins on Monday, so I am exploring as much now because we will be super busy once he arrives.