YOU SEE, Andrew knows the woman I'm renting my current room from. In fact, Andrew spent almost a year in this very room while he attended Columbia. Since he—and apparently his entire family—are still close with the woman who owns the apartment, he was able to ask if it was available and put us in touch. And here I am! He treated me to bubble tea, a taxi ride, and dinner tonight (my first Greek restaurant!) and now that I think about it, I probably should have done the treating... I'll make it all up to you, Andrew!
Anyway, the room is a nice size. (Pictures available in previous post.) The bathroom isn't too far away and neither is the kitchen. My roommates are an older, retired woman with a passion for conversation, education, and little dogs and a bio-medical student here on a grant or scholarship or something. We haven't gotten to talk much, but he seems nice. Very quiet, which is just fine with me. One complaint: My desk chair isn't too sturdy. It's very loud and tilts to one side, but the presence of the elevator in the building evens the score. ;)
THIS NEIGHBORHOOD is incredible; I would live here if I could afford it. Matt and I will be looking at places north of here tomorrow with a broker, but it's nice to know that Morningside Heights exists. This is a different kind of New York City. A calmer, younger, and more comfortable part, in my opinion. A part I could get used to very easily, but I need to be careful. I know this is—unfortunately—out of our budget... For now.
Anyway, if you walk out my building and go left, you'll hit Riverside Drive and a beautiful path/park that runs along the Hudson River. When it's not a billion degrees outside, I'll head down there for a walk/run and take some pictures. If you walk out and turn right, then go left onto Broadway, you'll wander onto Columbia's campus. In the 90° heat, Andrew showed me around campus. He's like a living, breathing encyclopedia, so I learned all about dates, riots, roads, and buildings. He also introduced me to bubble tea. Thumbs up.
Then we went to Kefi, a Greek restaurant, and had some really good food. At a decent price, too. After that, we walked to Lincoln Center, where Andrew promised to make me a cultured New Yorker. I flashed to Jen Lancaster's fifth memoir, My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover If Not Being A Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or, a Culture-Up Manifesto. It's a great book—read it if you like to laugh. Read all Lancaster's stuff, including her blog, if you like being entertained and are a fan of witty footnotes. (I am.)
We ended the night crossing through Columbus Circle, missing our subway stop at 116th street, waiting for a train in Harlem for ten minutes, and then stopping in a 24-hour grocery store a block or so from the apartment. And now I have lunch and dinner for the next two days and a few Life Waters to hold me over in the meantime.
All in all, pretty good first day in the city. Tomorrow will be interesting... Boyfriend's coming to town! :) And we're looking at apartments! Doubt we'll find anything right off the bat, but it should be an interesting day. I hope to take him to Chelsea Market, where I'll share all the wisdom Andrew shared with me on St. Patrick's Day when I visited him and got pinched by a drunk girl. Yay!
A few pictures from today? Why, sure. Click below!
My tour guide and BFF!! lol.
The moon.
Stole from Andrew's FB.
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