Weekend Report- NYC

Friday- Hitched a ride down to New York City with my friend Andy, which was great because we left early and avoided traffic and made a stop at a cute diner in Connecticut, complete with a Greek waitress who hugs and kisses customers. I did some Christmas shopping downtown, including a stop at F.A.O. Schwarz, which has the most amazing variety of stuffed animals you can possibly imagine. After that, I met up wtih Carolina at her apartment- Cornell offers subsidized housing for post-docs on Roosevelt Island, a small island in the East River. You can get there on the subway, or on a convenient and much more scenic aerial tramway (that was featured in one of the recent Spider-Man movies). After catching up over dinner and beers, we headed out to meet up with a couple of my soccer friends and did some bar hopping downtown.

Saturday- We woke up early and headed to the Brooklyn Museum to see a special photography exhibit, Who Shot Rock & Roll. The exhibition featured many iconic images of musicians and provided backstory highlighting the photographers, most of whom remain relatively unknown. I really enjoyed it and if you're in New York City and at all a music fan, I'd definitely recommend it. The rest of the museum was nice, too, and it only costs a suggested donation of $10 to get in. After the museum, we walked around Brooklyn for a bit and then headed back to Manhattan to go to the movies. We saw Invictus, the new Clint Eastwood film about an unlikely friendship between Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) and the captain of the national (and almost all white) rugby team, played by Matt Damon. Hey, you've gotta love a feel-good sports movie. When we exited the cinema, we found ourselves in the middle of a full-blown snowstorm. We met up with my friends Liz, Amanda, and Dan for Mexican food, and then traipsed through the snowdrifts to an Irish pub afterwards. I love being in the city during a winter storm.
Sunday- I headed back to Boston on the Lucky Star bus, which was only slightly delayed by the weather, although that didn't prevent it from stopping at vile Arby's. Overall, I had a great weekend in New York City, even though I uncharacteristically didn't take any pictures except for one of the wintry streets I took from the window of the tram.