I got into the airport on Wednesday afternoon (after a delayed flight) and took a lil yellow taxi to Grace's apartment in the Upper West Side in New York City. She lives in this awesome townhouse-style apartment and it is so cute. We dragged my suitcases up three flights of stairs (which felt like death) and then decided we'd go to Times Sqaure and walk around.
We first went shopping at Foot Locker and I got a sweet new pair of Nike Free's to wear as a tourist for the rest of the week. Then we went next door to the massive Forever 21 and Grace and I got the same shirt in different colors. Oh yeah, I can't forget a funny story! I set down my Foot Locker bag and then went to a different section in the store. I realized that I didn't have my bag that I bought only a half an hour ealier and I was starting to have a mini panic attack. We were frantically looking everywhere for it. (I was trying not to freak out because my dear friend Kaitlin, has told me not to freak out for the first few minutes I think I lose something because I usually find it in a timely manner. That has been a great life lesson.) Grace had the intelligence to ask a store worker and we successfully got my shoes back. Exciting stuff. We to Rockefeller Plaza and looked at the GE Building. It was so great to see the real location of one of my favorite TV show's- 30 Rock!
On Thursday, we woke up early (our version of early, 9am) and went to walk around Central Park. Man, the Park is so pretty. Grace showed me around and we went to the tunnel where Chuck and Blair got married in Gossip Girl. After that, we walked towards midtown and ate at Careigne Deli right across from Cariegne Hall. Grace got this massive sandwich and was telling me that it is not the "New York way" to take some of the turkey off, but that she does it anyway. I got these amazing slider burgers and we headed towards SoHo and Chinatown for some afternoon shopping!
I got the most perfect wallet in Chinatown. And that is no joke. I am so picky about how I want my wallets to be (enough credit card holders, not too big, not too small, coin holder, cash
lays flat, etc). Anyway... I found the perfect wallet! I love it so much and I'm definitely bringing it on my mission. I hope it never breaks (or at least anytime soon) because I really do love it that much.
We walked around SoHo, which was so fun. There are so many cool clothing stores around that area and it was so fun to window shop. I did buy one other thing that day, a pair of sweat pants at H&M haha. I'm also considering buying more of those and bringing them on my mission.
After our shopping adventures in SoHo, Grace had work so I just walked around the city near the show I was going to be seeing at 8pm. I ate dinner and tried to act like a real New Yorker (Graces's advice is to put your headphones in and walk briskly).
Around 7pm, I went to be seated for my first ever time seeing "Wicked"! It really getting quite absurd that I had never seen the show. In middle school, my church friends and I listened to the music all the time and my email was even wickedyahwhat@hotmail.com." The show was AMAZING! Seriously. It was such a fun play and it took my breath away! I loved it so much and seeing it alone was definitely worth it.
After the show, I met up with Grace outside the stage door and got some signatures on my Playbill. We also stopped by the "Nice Work If You Can Get It" stage door and got to see Matthew Broderick in person! It was awesome!
On Friday, we woke up and I went to the temple and Grace went to work. The Manhattan temple is so cool. I had read a little about it from this website before I left for New York and learned some pretty cool things about it. It was the second multipurpose temple made (the first was made in Hong Kong in 1996) and it is "virtually a building inside of a building." This is done so that the temple can be quiet, despite the hustle and bustle of New York City. The meetinghouse, distrubution center, family history center, and the temple all reside in this building. The temple was so awesome. I was so blessed to be able to do a session while on my vacation.
After the temple, I took the subway to Rockefeller Plaza and bought myself a ticket to go to the Top of the Rock. While I waited for my scheduled time to come up, I had the BEST wrap I have EVER had. IT WAS SOOO GOOD!! It was a create-your-own wrap at a place called "Just Salads," even though they have wraps too. Anyway, when it was finally my time to go to the top, I was soo excited. The view was so impressive and beautiful. I may not know much about archicture but tall buildings are sooooo amazing. I stayed at the top for awhile and visited all the observations deck.
I also met these interesting Asian people. At first, I offered to take a picture of this Asian couple and that was that. Later, after the professional photographer took my picture, the same Asian lady wanted to take a picture with me. It wasn't that shocking but it was pretty funny. Then she kept saying "QQ" and I was really not sure what she was talking about. They gave me their email address and told me, "Come work in China." Below is a picture of us.
After spending a few hours up there, I went down to the NBC Store to look around and shop. I found some pretty sweet buys and I am not willing to admit how much I spent there haha. I got Kevin a Kenneth the Page bobble head and myself this amazing picture of me portrayed as the famous Liz Lemon.
I walked around some more and waited for Grace to get off of work. I debated going to a muesum or something but I was so tired, I just wanted to take a break. Living in the city, even just for a vacation, is definitely exhausting. I went back to Grace's apartment and her cool roommate, who is an accountant, and I went to dinner at this random chicken place. The food in the City (and I guess most places) is so good but I can never finish all of it.
Once Grace got back, we sat and talked and went to see The Great Gatsby at the movie theater. The theater's there are soooo huge and it was so fun.
Saturday, we woke up and went and bought our student tickets to see "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and got breakfast at Starbuck's in Times Square. Grace left for work and I went to see "Once" by myself. The theater for "Once" was much smaller than the "Wicked" theater, for sure. It was so fun because the actors were on the stage doing a preview concert before the show started. It was so clever how the pre-concert faded into the real show. Every song they sang gave me chills and I was throughly impressed with the live playing of violins and guitars, and especially the movement and dancing with those instruments. The show was a cute story about a couple falling in love, as you can guess- just 'once.' I bought the CD and a t-shirt before I even saw the show becuase I was that confident that I would like it, and I was right!
The show was so fun. I loved all the fun costumes and the set changes. The theater was big like Wicked's, and the sets were grand like Wicked's too. It was such a fun show. Matthew Broderick was soooooooo good in it. After the show, Grace hooked by setting up a backstage tour by an ensemble member. Grace knows her Broadway stuff, and she arranged it by all of us donating to an organization called Broadway Cares. The ensemble member, Paloma Garcia Lee, was so sweet and gave us such a great tour. We got to see the wigs and talk with the wig designers and look at all the costumes and sets.
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