NYC

My friend Dianna (from school) recently moved to New York City following graduation, and she invited me down to her house for the weekend. We celebrated her 22nd birthday!

It was my first time going to NYC on my own. Even though I live in Albany, I've only been to New York with my mom, or with my high school cross country/ track teams whenever we had meets. 

This time I got to experience the city with friends, it it was definitely more fun. We did karaoke, ate good food, got temporarily lost in central park, etc:

One of the things Dianna really wanted to do for her birthday was go to the "Little Shop of Crafts." I love crafting so was looking forward to going. Unfortunately, I couldn't paint any ceramic pieces, but I ended up painting a birdhouse for a Father's Day gift.

The shop itself was OK. It was cool inside and you could BYOB. We brought some wine. It felt a little weird drinking with all the kids around, but they kind of just ignored us and we minded our own business. The pieces the shop had for sale were expensive, but we were able to get a reduced price with a deal from Groupon.

That night, we went out for dinner and came back for dessert clafouti that Dianna's sister made for her birthday. It was so heavenly. I'll have to try making this myself!

New York City - Career Tracks

The Smith College Career Development Office (CDO) took a group of us down to NYC to network with alums and other professionals. My group was the "Sustainable Foods" track, and so we went around to different businesses dealing with some aspect of sustainable food.

One of the locations included The Green Table at Chelsea Market, where they serve local and organic foods including delicious cheeses from New York State.

It was interesting seeing the different career options and thinking about where I could end up in a few years. Although, I'd rather not live in NYC. It was a huge wake up call to go from the fairly clean Tokyo to dirty, smelly New York City.

We finished up the evening at an alum's townhouse on the Upper East Side. There we ate dinner, drank wine and sparkling water, and chatted with fellow Smithies.