About this time last year..

Me and this lovely lady were packing up every leotard and summer dress, and bringing our cute, little, dancer behinds to NYC. Seems like forever ago, but at the same time, just like yesterday, that we were living in a little one bedroom, 5th floor, hotter than you-know-what, apartment. The two of us made sure to document e v e r y t h i n g. From over-flowing toilets, to learning/refreshing our Spanish, running to Ailey, arriving late to Ailey, emergency rooms, Forth of July fireworks above the Hudson and soooo much more. So don't you worry, new friends! It's all here. (Unfortunately, it goes backwards so if you want to read in order, you'll have to use my archive on the side and click June then July.. sorry!) So have a ball reading all about one of the most amazing, difficult, rewarding and inspirational summers of my life. And most likely, hers too.

Happy Wednesday!

Weekend number six..

Arrival of boyfriend, despite nasty tornado. CHECK!

Successful order of fries, calzone & sandwiches. CHECK! 

Trip to The Museum of Natural History. CHECK!

Visiting NYC bars, catching up & laughing with our friend Paul. CHECK, CHECK!

***

These are some of the pictures that I took at the museum. I would have taken more, but it was so hard to stop and take pictures when there was so much to focus on. Not to mention fighting through what seemed like millions and millions of people. I'm sure Alivia took more than me, so make sure you visit her blog when she posts them!

 [Didn't mean to catch that kid in the photo. But it's kind of cute!]

 I think that if you plan on coming to visit the museum, you're going to need two days. Unless you don't want to see every exhibit. We spent about three hours there and probably only saw about half of the museum. It was wonderful though. And air conditioned. This weekend it was about 100 degrees, so the museum was a very popular escape from the heat. The animal and dinosaur exhibits were my favorite : )

Even though I know that The Night at The Museum wasn't filmed in the actual museum, I was sort of hoping to see a teeny, tiny connection between the two. I kept looking for the Teddy Roosevelt/Robbin Williams replica. Hmph.

We decided that we had enough fun this weekend to make up for all of the other laid back, "I-don't-feel-like-leaving-the-apartment" weekends. And "fun" might even be an understatement for our Saturday night escapade : )

***

We're starting our last week at Ailey tomorrow. Well, I guess we sort of started it tonight. We had to go to the school for about an hour for our tech rehearsal [with lights and costumes on stage]. It's hard to believe that six weeks have gone by already. I'm excited to come home, but I know that I will definitely be missing some parts of this wonderfully, lively, [very dirty] City!
For now, the things I will not miss:

smelly trash on the hot side walks

walking 14 blocks to class

almost getting run over by cabs - even if it's our turn to walk!

getting yelled, whistled, and winked at [and not in a flattering way]

our very hot apartment

the five flights of stairs [64 stairs to be exact.. but who's counting?!]

 no counter space

not having laundry on the same floor that we live

dodging/slamming into people who aren't paying attention

paying $5.99 for the smallest box of cereal

I hope that in the past six weeks, you haven't mistaken my complaining/aggravation as ungratefulness. Because I don't think I could be more thankful to have been able to live here. To dance here. To do what I love everyday.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I missed my family at our annual family picnic today. The food is always so amazing. And as usual, it rained during the bocce tournament. [I swear it happens every year!]

totally slacking..

So I haven't updated all of my lovely friends & family since Sunday/Monday. And I apologize. Here are some of my favorite memorable moments from this week. Summed up in an unorganized list [maybe more like paragraph form]..

In Dunham class on Tuesday, Ms. Peters called me out. She made me do something across the floor by myself, because I was "taking too many steps." I felt like a dummy and then more like a dummy when I got teary eyed after she finally felt bad and accepted my sorry, sorry "hop-step" of a mess.

On Wednesday, after a long day of dancing, and dealing with little girls who are immature and think no one can see or hear them when they laugh and point at people that are dancing, we came home. 

[Oh. But before we could come home we had to deal with getting called an inappropriate name because we didn't droll over  some man's so called "compliment." Give. Me. A. Break. Seriously.]

As I was about to take a very cold and relaxing shower, our toilet decided to empty all of it's contents onto the bathroom floor. There was a lot of yelling & not nice words.  We don't have a plunger or any tools, which made it a little more challenging to fix it. Not impossible. We just had to scavenge through the apartment for objects long and narrow enough to fit down the toilet. For now it is being held together with a spatula. Awesome. Luckily Dana is coming tomorrow and is bringing a whole new floater kit. He is so sweet & I love him more everyday.

So yeah. That's what's been going on in the lives of the two twenty-two year old's living without a plunger.

Stay tuned.. 

many more exciting events could take place in the next eight days : )

You never know with us..

Love you all so much & can't wait to see you!

Battery Park & Ground Zero. Check.

Our lovely friend Mary Elizabeth was kind enough to spend her Sunday afternoon showing Alivia and I around the area in which she lives. I've never been to Battery Park City so I was excited to experience and new part of The City. We met M.E. [Mary Elizabeth for sort] and her wonderful parents in the Financial Building. It reminded me of a mall. However there were palm trees in it! Definitely not like any mall that I've been to before. It was nice to sit and chat over coffee about dance, New York, Ailey, Dean and friends while overlooking the Hudson River through a gigantic glass window.

 Once we finished our yummy snacks and coffee/tea, we headed up the beautiful staircase [pictured above] for the "best view of Ground Zero" according to M.E. And it was definitely something to see. She told us her story of September 11th [she has lived in the Battery Park area since she was young] and how her father and brother were in the area that day. Luckily, for reasons unknown, both of them avoiding entering the buildings that morning.

I'm sure there are millions of stories just like hers in which loved ones mysteriously avoided the horrific day.

Battery Park City is such a fantastic area. It seems like it doesn't exist in the same place that the smelly, muggy, smoky, rude-pushing area that we are used to, does. It's open, beautiful and surprisingly clean feeling. I loved walking along the water, feeling the breeze and smelling the salt which I have missed dearly this past month.

[Across the river is Hoboken, NJ]

I like this picture. For two reasons!

[Below: Irish Memorial]

[Below: A park that M.E. really enjoys with neat sculptures!]

After the three of us were practically melting, M.E. took us back to her apartment. Holy Cow. When she said she loved the view, she wasn't kidding. From their 22nd floor apartment [which is beautifully and simply decorated] you see Lady Liberty, Ellis Island, New Jersey as well as the numerous cruise ships that pass through the Hudson daily. I could have stared out that window all day! But we didn't. It was so kind and lovely of her and her parents to invite us into their home. Not only that but her father convinced us to go to dinner with them and was not going to take no for an answer.

 [View from the dock]

 [The Statue of Liberty is the tiny stick in the center of the photo. Just in case you were wondering.]

 We had such a nice Sunday with Mary Elizabeth and her family. I'm going to miss not seeing her everyday at school : (

***

Today was a very sad day at The Ailey School. Denise Jefferson, the director of The Ailey School passed away on Saturday evening from her long battle with ovarian cancer. She will forever remain in the hearts of those who knew her. Her dedication, love, determination and willingness to educate her dancers will continue to flow through the studios at Ailey as well as through the bodies of dancers around the world.

Rest in Peace Ms. Jefferson.

Click here to read a lovely article in memory of Ms. Jefferson.

***

In response to those who were wondering..

the pastries from Carlo's Bake Shop were probably as you imagined.

Absolutely Amazing!

I might convince the boyfriend to take us when he comes next weekend ; )

***

Oh! Please let me know if you would like to attend our Summer Sizzler show! I have four reserved tickets for the show on Friday, July 30th at 4:30 pm. I will lose them if I don't buy them by this Wednesday!

Ok. Alright. I'm done for real now.

Wow I didn't realize how many asterixs I was using.

I apologize.

Finally Friday : )

I love this picture for several reasons.
Some obvious.
Some probably not so much.
Please enjoy it for what it is.

***
Going to bed early tonight & sleeping forever. Because it's Friday. And I can!

Week four - in an organized list form..

cause that's the way I am.
And lists make me happy:

Ballet is still a little irritating.
However, Mr. Atwood's animated personality as well as his ability to sing in a combre back, continues to keep me thoroughly entertained.
Dunham still makes me cry [Not exaggerating. I'm super discreet].
The thirteen-sixteen year old dancers in my class still don't have spacial awareness.
Body conditioning is relaxing & Mrs. Amos's witty comments make me smile.
Our apartment is so much cooler than three weeks ago. We turn the AC once in a while.
The television has a cord now so we can at least watch movies.
Speaking of movies, we went to a thrift store today and I bought "Top Gun" on VHS for $.50!
I also bought "Hairspray" on DVD for $3.00!
West African is so much fun, but when it's 3:00 and time for class I'm so exhausted.
Sometimes it's a piece of cake to walk up the five flights of stairs. Most of the time it isn't.
However, the fourteen block walk [sometimes sprint] to and from Ailey is easier now, and considered a separate workout in our book.
I love exploring The City, and yes, sometimes Union City for new/interesting places to eat and shop!
I can't stop thinking about how delicious the tea & goodies from Alice's Tea Cup were.
I want to go back real bad.
Too bad they don't deliver : (
It's hard to believe that we only have two weeks left of classes.
I'm excited to perform in the show. Although everyone is clueless as to whether or not we have classes that day and what time rehearsals are.
I miss my family.
I miss Western Mass.
I miss my kitty Amber!
We've spotted a black & white kitten hanging around our apartment a couple times and are tempted to take him & love him since he seems lonely.
I surprisingly still have money in my account [I thought for sure I'd be in the negative by now].
I've been getting really excited that 1) I don't have to go back to school, and 2) I have a job doing what I love!
We've seen famous faces while at Ailey [Company members galore & Judith Jamison]!!!!!!!
I really love cold showers & usually take two a day. It's the only faucet in the apartment that doesn't constantly produce hot water.
Frozen grapes are SO good.
Thankfully, we haven't missed a bus or dance class since that day during our first week.
We've only gotten caught in the pouring rain once or twice, and it was after class so we really didn't care that we got wet.
I feel really old when dancers in the class talk about how they are going to be Juniors or Seniors in High School!
I'm still shocked that I am dancing at Alvin Ailey.

I am so blessed and thankful to my family & friends for supporting me in every way possible. You will never know how grateful I am & always will be for this experience. I love you all!

****

Things I want to do in the next two weeks:

Go to "Carlo's Bakery" [from Cake Boss on TLC] it's in Hoboken NJ, which is the town over from us!
Go to a Yankee's game!
Visit The Museum of Natural History because I know that I'll love it!
Take a trip to see our friend Mary Elizabeth who lives in Battery Park & see Ground Zero.

[I apologize for the list form. It makes me feel organized, and when I'm really tired and try to blog, I end up blabbing or forgetting what I wanted to say]




I really love this quote!

I hope everyone is enjoying summer. It will be over before we know it.
15 days till I get to see all of your beautiful faces again!

Watch & Love

Today started out not so well. By 6:30am I was,

frustrated
hot
dropping everything
very hot
and in a
mad-at-my-hair-for-not-cooperating kind of mood.

I was even more angry with about the fact that I was getting upset about my hair. Especially since I hadn't even made it out of the apartment.
Then I found my happy place.
It started with the air conditioned bus, followed by some really good leftover pizza, laughing in West African [mostly at myself], a glass of wine, freeze pops.. and this video!

I hope that it also solves whatever mood issues/hair dilemmas may have had this morning!

Enjoy : )

A trip to Wonderland!

I had such a wonderful weekend filled with scrumptious food & lovely friends.
Dana arrived Saturday evening since he had to drive a client to JFK airport, so he decided to make a weekend out of it! After strolling down the streets of Union City, [since he, for some reason, was very intrigued by all the Spanish stores] we decided to take advantage of his transportation and get some dinner.
We ate at Madison Bar & Grill in Hoboken [a ten minute drive] since Christine and her friend Kate said how wonderful it was when they went. I had chicken stuffed with spinach, goat cheese and pancetta with mashed potatoes. I thought it was the best thing I had ever tasted..

Until..

Alice's Tea Cup
Today we took a trip to the Upper West Side of Manhattan to meet our lovely friend Mary Elizabeth. We hadn't seen her since before our graduation, so it was very nice to catch up over the most delicious tea, scones, sandwiches and desserts that I have ever tasted! Here are some of the photos that I took, however you must look at my lovely roommates blog, because she took more than I did : )








YUP. That's my boyfriend..

***

I've been getting mail from my lovely friends and family. It really makes me happy to receive cute notes and hand drawn pictures : )

Thanks again momma for sending us food & wine. We've almost eaten all the Popsicles already.. haha!

I apologize for this posts' length and lack of detail. I try to take advantage of boyfriend time & therefore my blog is sacrificed. I hope you all understand : )

What did all of you do this weekend? I'd love to hear your exciting summer stories!!

Three amazing weeks left!

"Whooah, we're half way there"

Today was a good day. Possibly even a great day!

I owe it all to my travel mug of wonderfully, delicious coffee. At least that's what I'm holding responsible. For now.Usually I don't bother to make a pot because I know I will have to go to the bathroom the second that I'm finished. [I'm not exaggerating. I promise]. But this morning I was craving it, despite the heat in our apartment. We'll see how my accusations play out for the second half of my summer here.

I've been getting frustrated in my both Ballet and Dunham for several reasons. One. People don't try. I've mentioned this before and I still think that they just don't care. Which is completely insane to me considering we are at The Ailey School. Anyway, today our Ballet teacher was seriously picking on this one girl. I've noticed her in class before, looking as though she has never taken a day of Ballet in her life. Mrs. Marino walked over to her after the second exercise at the barre and plainly said, "Why do you do it like this? [Demonstrates a sloppy tendu]. Are you tired? Are you bored? [The girl shakes her head no]. Good. Then do it right. Like this. Show me that you want to be here." I am glad that she is finally calling people out and making them do it correctly. Our Dunham teacher, Mrs. Peters did this today as well. [I guess they wanted to wait until we all got the first week of classes under our belt?] In previous classes, if one person messed up, then we would have to repeat the entire exercise until no mistakes were made. And they aren't easy exercises people. They hurt our backs, our hips, our butts, our hamstrings, even our teeth. Any body part you can think of, hurts. Like you can't even imagine. So during one of the exercises, after Mrs. Peters repeated the same correction over and over, she told everyone to rest a minute and singled out the one girl. [Different girl than in Ballet]. It was like she wasn't listening to the teacher's corrections. And they were pretty straight forward things to fix. Things that she has been saying since day one of this class. I sort of felt bad because she must have done the excruciating arch backwards ten times before Mrs. Peters thought it was acceptable. However, the rest of us were doing it correct, so I was thrilled that we didn't have to strain ourselves anymore than necessary.
At the end of both of the classes, we even did something that was almost fun! Believe it or not. In Ballet, we were asked to form a line of dancers who had yet to be in the front. Previously, Mrs. Marino has hand picked people to be in the front line, second, so on and so forth. Which is the second reason I have been frustrated in class. I raised my hand and placed my self front and center. I wanted her to see me because that when she pays attention to you. There were a few times when at the end of our exercise, she looked at me and said, "That was good. Good." I tried to secretly soak in the praise but I'm pretty sure that the huge grin on my face gave it away.

That's why today was such a good day.
Thank you wonderful coffee!
I will see you tomorrow morning at 7:00 am!



"I'm changing. I don't know exactly how yet, but I'm so excited to find out."

Day twenty.

It's was/still is about 100 degrees in NYC today. Waiting for the bus wasn't too torturous this morning because that side of the street is in the shade at 7:30 am. However, we are still confused as to why there is a bus schedule, when they don't show up on time. We got to our bus stop at 7:20 am to get on the 7:30 am bus. Well, it must have come before we got there. Which doesn't make sense to us. When we finally saw the number 156 [our bus route] it was 7:44 am - we assumed that it was supposed to be the 7:49 am bus. Do you see the problem?? Regardless of the bus drivers incapability to tell time, we made it to Ailey on time.
But seriously why even print out all those schedules?!

Ballet class was slightly less annoying today. Mrs. Marino actually corrected me and maybe even complimented me. She walked over and said in her Argentinian accent, "You are not using this [pushing on my stomach]. You need to pull it up. You have nice legs, but need to use this and flatten your hips [I fidget]. More [fidget again]. MORE [fidget again]. There. Good."
It is typical of me to only focus on the correction and completely tune out whatever compliment is twisted in between the teacher's words [in any class]. It wasn't until after, when Alivia mentioned that Mrs. Marino corrected me, that I realized she had actually said something nice.

After class, we sat at picnic table on the patio [see first pictures in previous post] and watched a ballet class while eating our lunch. While I was reading my book, I would glance up every so often to see what the students were doing. Pirouettes. Waltz. Adagio. Pique turns. I become jealous and a little upset. Our ballet class is nothing like what I was watching [last week, while watching the same class, Alivia and I decided that it was probably level 4.. we are in level 3]. I know that I could do everything that they were doing in that class. The teacher seemed so concerned with their transitions and quality of movement. Something that we are seriously lacking in our class. I want to dance. And glide across the floor like they do. I respect the faculty and their decisions during placement classes. However, I know that I could be doing more and I can't help but feel a little bummed. After placement classes and during orientation, the faculty members kept repeating, "Just because you were in level 10 at your school, doesn't mean you will be here. The teachers here at Ailey know what they are looking for and will place you accordingly." I remember thinking to myself, Of course. That makes sense. We're at the best modern dance school in the world. It doesn't matter to me what level I'm in. I'm just happy to be here. Most of this statement still stands true for me. However, I think that no matter how good of a dance school you go to, sometimes, one or two out of the five hundred students will get placed incorrectly.
There's nothing I can do except dance the best that I can. That's what I came here to do. And that's what I'm going to do.

Dun, Dun, Dun-ham [said in a deep voice]
Honestly, it was better today. Instead of falling over after she said, "Hold it" 8 times, I might have made it past "Hold it" number 10 or 15. I felt satisfied. Until she told us to lay down, bend our knees with our feet flat on the floor, and to put our palms face down next to our ears. "And push up." [Into a back bend. You make an arch with your body - hands and feet on the floor]. Ohh Noo! All I could do was close my eyes and breath deeply in and out like I never have before. I concentrated on my breath and the fact that I couldn't see anything. I'm not sure if it helped. I think I feel a lot better about the class when I don't analyze anything that happens in that hour and half. I just leave it in the LLC and pick it up again on Thursday at noon.

**

Something that has been irritating me a little:
I keep seeing people updating their twitters and facebook statuses with "By the pool all day." Or, "It's sooooo hot." Ughhh. Please. Come to our apartment in Union City. Walk fourteen blocks to class with the sun beating down on you. [I apologize, the heat makes me really cranky].
I don't think I would appreciate a pool anymore than I would on a day like today.

Try to stay cool everyone.
If you have any tips for staying hydrated/cool/sane in this crazy heat, please let me know. You can comment anonymously.Just tell me who you are at the end of your comment!

**

I meant to do write this in my post from the weekend - but I forgot:

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
To my Momma, Dad, Seester, Gramma & Uncle Scott - for sending us yummy treats, things I have forgotten/need, mail, alcohol and toys to keep us entertained.
& to Dana for bringing it all down when he visited this weekend.

It was greatly appreciated : )

**



- Inspiration for this week -

A whole bunch of photos/Weekend with Boyfriend/America's Birthday

Successful first week of classes. Boyfriends [!!!!!!] came to visit.
What a wonderful way to celebrate America's Birthday!

Pictures from the patio behind Ailey. We like to sit out here during our breaks - The windows look into two different dance studios. It's fun to watch them : ]

*****

This weekend, our boyfriends came to visit us. I haven't seen Dana since he brought us down two and a half weeks ago. I was definitely in need of some boyfriend time. And I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Saturday, Dana arrived around 4:30 after a pretty long trip. He got a little lost in Southern Connecticut, but was able to use the GPS on his phone to get him here. Once we carted the various bags of goodies from my family up the five flights of stairs, we took the bus to Manhattan for dinner. Off of 9th Avenue, there is a road called "Restaurant Row." There are all sorts of places to eat and despite the business of the street and closeness to Times Square, it's a cute neighborhood. The restaurant that we ate at is called "Don't Tell Mama." We decided to go to this particular place because the previous night, we had wonder through and thought that they offered a pretty good menu and fair prices for NYC. For the most part, we were right. A few things bothered us about it, however. First of all, there was a musty sort of smell. We debated the possible reasons and decided that it had to do with the building and how all of them on the street are built on top of each other, which gives no possibility for air circulation. And the restaurants are in the lower part of the building (you have to go down a set of stairs from the street to get in). Whatever the real reason was, we thought it smelled a little bit like cats. Once the drinks came and I tasted my "Socialite" cocktail (recommended by the waiter) I didn't mind paying $12 dollars for it. It was soooooo good : ) Our meals were delicious, except they messed up Alivia's dinner. She asked for the sausage on the side and they put it right on top. That was a little disappointing. However she didn't want to make a fuss and ate what she could (I would have done the same thing.) When the bill came we laughed about how the garlic bread that they offered before our meal was $6 and how they included gratuity which was $25. HAHAHA! If it were up to us, we wouldn't have tipped them that much. Regardless, I think we all had a great time. It was nice to spend time with everyone and actually sit down and relax. I didn't mind being waited on either!
We came back to our sweltering apartment, played cards, laughed, took pictures and had a wonderful time just relaxing together.

We kept passing around these funny glasses. You look good babe!

*****

On Sunday, we went to Central Park for a picnic. It was so wonderful, however very, very hot and sweaty. Once we put the sheet down in the shade and laid down though, it was pretty comfortable.

Statue in front of Central Park

In front of Trump International Hotel & Tower

[We don't know these people, I was just creeping!]

We spent about three hours at the park just relaxing and left to come back to NJ for the fireworks later that night. The walk back to The Port Authority was long and hot. I could tell that we were all exhausted. Once we got back we all went straight for the air conditioned bedroom and took naps. We wanted to be fully rested for the wonderful Fourth of July fireworks on the Hudson River.

But they were more than wonderful.

We walked down to the river around 8:30 [only about five blocks from our apartment]. We were very grateful that we didn't have to go into Manhattan to see them, and honestly, I think we might have had the best view. No obstructing buildings or trees in the way.

They were simply beautiful. They were by far the best fireworks that I've ever seen. As they should be. They were in New York City.

I took a few still shots, but felt that I couldn't capture the enormous sparks of light without filming some of the 45 minute show. So I did.

[Empire State Building decorated in Red, White & Blue]

Butterflies

Today we are just hanging around. Doing laundry. Blogging. And watching movies.

Four more weeks.