BUSY WEEK (...I only blog when they are). On top of what I mentioned before has been piled a visit to the Brooklyn Bridge (cliche, but still one of my favorite spots in Manhattan when you walk out to the middle before looking back at the skyline), applying for jobs, a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (can't compare to the ones in the Lou!) a weirdly trashy mermaid parade on Coney Island (at least mildly amusing until a kid started projectile vomiting into the crowd right in front of me), a comedy show at Amy Polar's former club (Upright Citizens' Brigade-only one guy was funny and the others were unbearably crude), a visit to the Whitney museum, jazz in a park near the Hudson River, tramping around Brooklyn trying to get directions to an outdoor concert (try watching your friends ask "which was to go to cross the river" when you're here and see what kind of looks you get), atrip to ToysRUs in Times Square (turns out Obama was right down the street!). Some of us had the idea that it would be AWESOME to take advantage of the long sometimes-dark hallways in Sama to start a laser tag league. So Alex, being epic as he is (imagine a gentlemanly Gene Kelly who sings Phantom of the Opera in the stairwells but also has mad science skills and an equally epic girlfriend) ordered some on eBay and they arrived yesterday. My aim could use some work but yeah. We so excited.


The best thing is that I believe all of the afore-mentioned were free! (Well ok-the best part is that I get to do all of it with my NYU peeps, but the fact that it doesn't break the bank helps.) Summer in NYC is great for that, and my roommate Claudia is a champion bargain-hunter. But I have been doing A LOT on top of my internship so today I'm taking it easy. Started the morning with Starbuck's (ordering a non-fat Java-Chip Frappacino but asking for whipped cream on top defeats the purpose, doesn't it?), and plan to curl up in bed and hide from this dreary day. And I'm not getting up until my mind quiets down (these tangental thoughts (expressed in blogposts through excessive parenthetical statements) are driving me crazy).

PS-I'm being caught off-guard when various NYU staff realize I'm from Abu Dhabi because the general response is, "Oh! ...You're one of them!" Yes. I am one of them. For better or for worse, 'til graduation do us part. I'm sure they're just curious (I would be. I can be nosy as all get-out.), but when they just leave it at that I feel like I should pull out an abaya or start spewing Arabic in answer to the inquisitive looks on their faces. Oh, well. So much for New York being anonymous.