It's time for an update....Part 1: The rest of summer

Hey y'all!

I haven't written in a very long time, I know.  So I decided to share with you what has been going on in my life the last many, many weeks!

Since there has so much that has gone on, I think I will do a week-by-week highlights post.  I have quite a few things to fit in though, so not to worry!  I hope you still find my NYC life interesting...

Week of July 21: I was able to meet up with one of my gorgeous, awesome, creative, and long-time friends, Lisa.  We met in 4th grade, and even though she moved back to Georgia after that year, we still kept in touch and were able to see each other time to time.  This time, it had been 4 years since we saw each other, and it was amazing that we were able to pick up where we left off! I'm so blessed to have such an amazing girl in my life!

I took Lisa around the museum!

Out to dinner calls for a funny face, right?

Lisa, her mom Nancy, her mom's friend, and me out to dinner

Week of July 28: I was still working with a museum program for students, this time high school age and within a group of students interested in space and stars.  One of the students was very challenging to work with, which has been my biggest fear so far of becoming a teacher.  He was challenging in that he was disobedient, did not give due respect to instructors, and was really good at the work but did not apply himself.  By the end of the first day working with him, I was frustrated with his attitude, but tried to stay calm and give him the attention he needed--he worked very well one-on-one and was able to stay focused.  I think by the end of the second week my MAT partners and I worked with that astro class, he seemed a bit more respectful and appreciative of the help I gave him.  So that's something.


Week of August 4:  My birthday was on August 8th!  And little did I know that this was the fateful day I would meet...the one and only Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson!! (A famous astrophysicist).  He was so cool and so down to earth and hosted an hors d'oeuvres night for a bunch of the college students interning at the museum.  It was incredible to hear his take on science education.  It was incredible to meet him and be in the same room as him, period!

Neil, spreading his wisdom

Striking a gangstah' pose with Neil!

He even wished me a Happy Birthday. I was also VERY lucky to have coincidentally worn my awesome space shirt! It was perfect.

Later that night, a bunch of us found the rooftop and took some fun pictures up there!

Having fun on the rooftop of AMNH!

Picture of me and my buddy Abe!

It was a splendid day :)

Weeks of August 11 and August 18: I went home to Wisconsin for Job's Daughter Jamboree from August 16-18th, and then was able to stay home until that Wednesday.  It was so much fun and I was so happy to see my friends and family that I wasn't able to see for such a long time!!

On August 22, I co-taught for the first time with Wanda from the program.  We co-taught spectroscopy, and we had the unique opportunity to teach to a student in the class who had a hearing disability.  It was great to be exposed to a different learning style, which needed us to adapt a different lesson format so that this student could see her interpreter at all times (some of the presentation originally called for turning down all the classroom lights to perform investigations about "light" from a single bulb).  I would say that our presentation went really well and I learned just as much about teaching as I hope the students learned about spectroscopy!

Week of August 25:  So while I had just seen my parents, they drove out to visit ME in NYC!  Except not really in NYC, we went cabining up north in the Catskills and the Adirondacks.  Both areas are absolutely AMAZING.  They are beautiful and hilly and gorgeous!  It was a lot of fun to see the grounds of Woodstock in Bethel, look at beautiful geology, drive around looking at covered bridges, and lighting off red, white, and blue floating lanterns for Labor Day!

Middle schoolers, frisbees, and concerts!

So this last week, I, along with two of my classmates, helped out as a co-teacher in one of the many education program that is run by the Museum of Natural History.  We got to work with the Evolution Institute, a 2-week long "camp" that allows middle school students to enhance their understanding of evolution and everything that goes along with it.  Let me tell you, it was quite the experience.  And I want to TEACH middle school?...hm, we'll see how that goes!

It was really cool to work with the kids though.  They were pretty rowdy and loud at times, but very smart!!!  I even got to teach part of the curriculum on Friday, talking about Linnean taxonomy and Cladistics (things I had only learned in high school or college!)  So even though it was challenging to deal with their behavior sometimes, I was very impressed by some of their super smarts too!  They seemed to take well to my teaching, so I suppose that's a good sign!  The next two weeks I am working with a different museum program, and I will update you on how that goes later!

Another thing I've been up to is I ended up joining an Ultimate Frisbee team with my friend from the MAT program! It has been super duper fun and given me a good constant as I continue to settle into my move here in NY!

I'm throwing the frisbee to my teammate on the far left!

My team and I waiting for the other team to throw the disc!

Yesterday, I went out to Long Island to a free concert in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, NY.  The line up included A Great Big World, Sarah Bareilles, and Plain White T's.  It was a super fun concert, and I got to meet Chad Vaccarino and Ian Axel from A Great Big World! One of my new favorite bands.  I didn't have anything for them to autograph, so I asked them to sign my purse! I guess I'll have to carry that purse around and get more signatures on it, I'm turning it into my autograph purse!

Me, Chad, and Ian!

Seeing my family!

Well, I didn't get to actually SEE see them, but through the powers of magic, I go to do that thing that Sirius Black does to see Harry in book 4 in the Gryffindor common room through the fire place!

Yeah, this thing!

Okay okay, so that didn't actually happen.  But with the powers of SKYPE I got to see them! :)  We had a nice looong chat! It was really good to see them, and I miss them so much!

Here's my family!

Don't they look great??

Having fun on the deck!

I got to show them the apartment (even though Lyla already saw it) and they showed me cute baby bunnies in the yard!  It was really good being able to see and talk to them! Sounds like they've been having hot and humid or very rainy days too, just like here!  I get to see them in person though in August, so I'm really super excited for that!  I'm going home Aug 16-18, and mom and dad are potentially coming to visit from Aug 28 to Sept 2 or so!  Let's see, we talked about the yard work they're doing, the ultimate frisbee team I joined, what my program is like, how much fun I'm having, them going to help friends move to a new house, and the visits we'll both be making in August! I can't wait to talk with them again! I love you and miss you, Mom, Dad, and Lyla!!! xoxoxoxo!!!

Lyla was super excited to come to New York! (a.k.a. A Picture Blog!)

My sister, Lyla, came to visit me over the 4th of July weekend! I had a loooong weekend so it worked out really great! She came Tuesday, 7/2, and left the following Monday. Boy, did we do A LOT.  And because we did so much, we had our cameras with us. And because we had our cameras with us, we took a humongous amount of pictures. And because I now have exactly 999 pictures of her trip here (yes, 999, between the two of us), I shall be summarizing what we did WITH PICTURES! Yay! 

Tuesday, July 2:
I had class all day, and I was going to head STRAIGHT to the airport as soon as I got done...but my flip flop decided to break! :( So I had to go back home to get wearable shoes, and then I headed to La Guardia, with the name-sign that I made for Lyla's arrival!  She got in around 4pm.

This is the sign I made for her for when she got off the plane!
Unfortunately I was a little late because of a flip-flop malfunction :(
but I still had the sign anyway and held it up as soon as
 I saw her at Baggage Claim!

Lyla's first ride in a New York taxi! Yayayayyyy!

We got back to the apartment around 5 where Lyla unloaded the big suitcase full of things for me, which included this cute little gift from Mom and Dad!  It's a penguin sunglasses holder!

That penguin got STYLE. Bucky Badger sunglasses!

It being only 7ish pm by this point, we decided to take the train downtown!

She's so touristy, it was fun to watch!

Lyla's first subway ride!

We went to Times Square first.

She was in awe.

I bet she had 100 pictures by this point already

Lyla LOVES the minions!

 We checked out some stores first, including a couple of the touristy shops, Forever 21, and the Disney Store!

"And at last I see the light!"~Tangled

 And by this point we were finally hungry, which brought us to...Ellen's Stardust Diner.

This restaurant is very cool and very unique.  The waitstaff consists of all people with musical theater background, trying to make it on Broadway. I came here with my mom, my friend Lisa, and her mom and grandma back in 2009.  It was the cooooolest thing ever.  While you are at the restaurant, the waitstaff take turns performing throughout the night! As you enter, get your seat, wait for your order, eat, and pay for your bill, someone is singing and performing, and while it's a bit on the expensive side, it's totally worth the dinner-and-a-show!

Three of the performers!

Lyla and her fave performer!

Times Square at night

We had such a fun time!

And then we went back and crashed.

Wednesday, July 3:

Well I had class again all day, so Lyla stayed back to unpack.  She then went to the Museum to hang out and see everything before I got out of class. Here, let me share some of her pictures with you without her permission! 

It's the Hall of Biodiversity!

Dum dum, me want gum gum!

After class, I met up with Lyla and we went to one of the special exhibits called "Our Global Kitchen".

"That's a BIG fish!"

We ventured back to Times Square, to peruse around some more.  We found the NY Times building!

Lyla was pretty stoked!

And we looked at other shops and stuffs, and decided later that evening to see the show "Potted Potter", an off-Broadway comedy show where only two actors re-enact parody all 7 Harry Potter books in 75 minutes! It was HILARIOUS!!

The stage!

We had a blast!!

And then we went back and crashed.

Thursday, July 4:
INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Happy Birthday, 'Murica!
We set aside this day to go to the 9/11 Memorial. I don't think I have any words that can do justice to the awe, inspiration, and humbleness I felt while walking around. You know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words.

One of the Infinity Pools

Names of the victims. Flags of support.

Freedom Tower. 1776 feet of beauty, honor, and glory.

Following the majesty of the 9/11 memorial, Lyla and I went to go see the decided to venture to Staten Island! We took the free ferry across the Hudson River. There were some great views of the skyline of Manhattan!

Battery Park and Manhattan Skyline

Lady Liberty

There wasn't much on Staten Island, but they had a 9/11 memorial as well. It had the names and facial profiles of the victims who were from SI.

You can see the Manhattan Skyline in between the "wings"

After venturing around Staten Island for a bit, we went back to Manhattan to see the "FRIENDS" apartment in Greenwich Village!

Woot woot! So neat!

After walking around the village a bit, we went to meet up with my buddy Ed (from my program) and his girlfriend Jasmine to get seats for the Macy's Fireworks.  Ed knew one of the police officers working crowd control, soooo we pretty much got to go on a dock and get some pretty awesome seats.

Right on the water!

Pretty fireworks!

And then we went back and crashed.

Friday, July 5th:

So we did a LOT the first few days, and we decided to sleep in and make Friday a pretty simple day.  Around noon we headed down to Central Park to go to the zoo and ride bikes!  We went to Central Park zoo first...but let me just say, I was very unimpressed.  The best part of the zoo was the penguin exhibit, and that's without me being biased!  They had a cool red panda and cute lemurs, and the seals were kinda exciting, but no Marty the Zebra, no Melman the giraffe, no Gloria the Hippo, and certainly no Alex the Lion.

Red panda!

PENGUIN

I really do love penguins.

"Now introducing...Ariel, the LION!"

Lyla and I then rent bikes for THREE HOURS and rode all around Central Park! We stopped at the large Bethseda Fountain, the Balto statue, and lots of pretty lakes and bridges and scenery!

Swedish Marionette house

Bike riding!

Balto statue

Bethesda Fountain

Pretty scenery!

Wow! After our bike ride, we were absolutely TIRED! (...so we took a nap at the museum in the student lounge! Shhh, don't tell anyone!)

Lyla was really excited to be "behind-the-scenes"...so she took
a picture of the "Employees Only" sign! What a goof ;)

After our cat nap, we headed to Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock to see the sunset. However, we didn't get there in time, so we just decided to go to the NBC store and hang around a bit.

Fave TV show right here! FRIENDS

Really cool old video camera!!

The fountain in Rockefeller Plaza

Rockefeller Tower. Holy tall, Batman!

Radio City!

And then, of course, we had to go back to Times Square for some souvenir shopping. This time, we went into Toys R Us, just for the heck of it! We had a great time!

T-rex has a rival....ME!

Kiss the Candy Land King!

NOM NOM NOM

GULP GULP GULP

After messing around, we went to a midnight comedy show which as absolutely hilarious!  Well, at least some of the comics were. Some weren't so great...but we had a really fun time anyway!  The show was at Broadway Comedy Club, I would suggest checking them out if you come visit!

One of the comics

And then we went back and crashed.

Saturday, July 6:

Another more-relaxing-type day.  We started our day by going to Grand Central Station.  Then we went to just go look at the Brooklyn Bridge, and spent a couple hours in Chinatown and Little Italy!

Grand Central Station

Having fun!

The Brooklyn Bridge

Really neat old buildings

  

Some government building. Supreme Court maybe?

China Town!

You can read!

The day was SOOO hot, so to get out of the heat we went to see Despicable Me 2. It was an incredibly cute movie!! Absolutely loved it!

I love Johnny Depp

Whack-A-Minion!

After the movie, we went to the Top of the Rock to watch the sunset! It was beautiful!

Downtown Manhattan

We witnessed a proposal! Here's the happy couple :)

Beautiful sunset!

A really cool room that you walk around and
the lights follow you!

Downtown Manhattan--night view

Down in the gift shop. I'm flying!

After the Rock we walked around downtown by Ten-House, one of the fire stations that was located right by the twin towers and lost many members of their squads.  They have a beautiful memorial for those whose lives were lost and the families affected by the tragedies.

"Dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on."

And then we went back and crashed.

Sunday, July 7:
Lyla's last day! That day she wanted to keep it chill and see some cool buildings, like FAO Schwartz, Macy's, and the Flatiron building. Then we headed to Coney Island!!

Lyla and Minion Dave!

Patrick the Pup and I are Best Friends.

GUMMY BEAR

GIMME GIMME GIMME

The large piano! Which FAO Schwartz has now capitalized
and charges people to dance on it.
Made famous by the movie "Big" starring Tom Hanks!

Macy's

Flatiron building! Featured in Spiderman

Coney Island!

We went on the Wonder Wheel in a car that moves back and
forth as you go round and round! Super fun!

View of the beach from the top of the Wonder Wheel!

OM NOM NOM--Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs with chili and
cheese, and bacon-cheese fries! It was delicious.

So at this point, I have a really really REALLY funny story to tell you.

When Lyla and I got to Coney Island, we both were waiting in the line for the restroom at the beach. Seriously tho, it took like 20 minutes before we were allowed to enter the restroom by the bath attendant.  Anyway, the attendant-lady ended up sending only me in and Lyla had to wait for someone else to exit before she could exit.  Well as soon as I am at the sink washing my hands, the lady shouts to someone "Hey you, your mom came into the bathroom now."  Not giving it any thought, I didn't turn around because I knew she wasn't talking to me.  But as soon as I went to leave she caught my attention and said again, "Your mom came into the bathroom now."....I could barely contain my laughter!! I immediately replied, "Ummm that's my sister..."  She then replied with, "Oh well you two look alike" but at this point I couldn't hold it in, so I just ran outside so that I could laugh not at her face!! It was soooo funny.  I can't believe that lady thought Lyla was my MOM!!  Ah, the downfalls of having a baby face!  Lyla and I are still having a great laugh about it!

Anyway, as we exited Coney Island, we found the Zoltare like in the movie "Big".

"I wish I looked OLDER so that people don't think Lyla is my mom!"

"I wish Ariel looked OLDER so that people don't think I'm her mom!"

And then we went back and Lyla packed (oooh, a twist in events!) and we crashed.

Monday, July 8:

Lyla leaves! :(  We had such a great time in NYC though. I'm super glad she got to spend time here with me!! I can't wait until my family comes to visit again!!!!