This may have been one of the fullest days I've had since moving to the city. It began at 2 in the morning when my crazy landlady woke me up by coming in and rummaging around in her storage room downstairs. Then I tossed and turned until 7 a.m. when I finally woke up, roused my friends, and we all went to Sarabeth's for breakfast. Delicious! And our waiter was so cute.
Then we walked our full stomachs down to 65th street to see the temple, because Helen had never seen it. Next, on to the MoMA, where I finally saw the Seurat drawings that are only on display for a few more weeks. This was a truly amazing exhibition, and I plan to go back and look at it again. Also amazing were the prints of Lucian Freud, which astounded me. And it was so cool because in some instances, they had the big copper plate on display alongside the resulting etching. However, I was taught that you had to bevel the edges of your copper plate or else you'd cut through your paper and your expensive felt pushers, but his edges were not beveled or sanded in any way whatsoever. I don't understand.
After that we went to Chelsea and walked around, like cool people. We had lunch at City Market--more delicious food, including some fabulous chocolate cheesecake. We did some Christmas shopping around there, and then headed over, with the rest of the tourists apparently, to Macy's. We didn't even go inside because the crowds were just too thick, but we looked at the windows, which were so fun--full of animatronic Santas and whimsical dreamscapes.
More shopping was to be had at the Virgin Megastore, and then we headed to Chinatown. We wandered, looking at all the street vendors, funny shops, and vegetable and fish markets. Now I know where to buy my groceries! If only I spoke Chinese, like Sarah. It was so fun to see her talking Chinese with people, especially at the restaurant where we ate dinner. It must be such a novelty for them to have a tall white American girl suddenly speaking Chinese to them. Our Chinese dinner was so delicious, and there were even leftovers for me to enjoy tomorrow for lunch! My fortune cookie said, "A cake awaits you," or something like that.
I didn't come across any cake, but our next stop was in Little Italy, or maybe its more Nolita... We ate dessert at Rice to Riches, a place that ONLY serves rice pudding, in an uber-chic shop with space-age decor and cheeky sayings all over the walls. In dozens of flavors, though, and with different toppings. It was delicious! My flavor was called Sex, Drugs, and Rocky Road, and there's nothing else I need to say about it than that.
By that time, we were so stuffed we could hardly walk, but we continued shopping in the little stores around Chinatown, because Helen wanted to find the perfect church bag. Finally, in one store, Sarah asked if they had a "secret room" and they took us up a back staircase to an attic filled with name-brand knockoffs with huge Chanel, Gucci, and Prada labels. There we found a nice bag for Helen, and laughed at the irony that she was buying a fake for church.
The girls were so exhausted by that time that we headed over to Chrystie Street where they were able to catch the 8 pm Chinatown bus back to Boston. I'm sure they're fast asleep at this moment, on their way home. I'm sitting here waiting for my family to arrive now--they should have been here hours ago, but there's probably a ton of traffic coming into New York. But I can't wait--it's going to be such a fun Christmas week!
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