“We’ll meet again, Don’t know where,don’t know when, But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day.” - Vera Lynn

IT'S FINALLY FRIDAY!

Also ha, Boris
Johnson showed up

Unfortunately - my boss didn't come in so my Friday wasn't the greatest in terms of doing anything substantive or really, anything at all.

So I just sat around and just did some reading about SEA...I was trying to learn more for myself.

At lunch, I headed out to coffee and talked to another girl from Canada and just sat around and talked to her. It was a good break - and a good way to learn from someone else and their experiences.

Afterwards, I met up with another friend and we headed over to a small area where there was a bunch of seating by his work and we sat and talked for a while.

That's the president of the General
Assembly!

I got to see a lot of people today at lunch. But also I realized that the sun not only kind of sucks the energy out of me but it actually gave me a huge headache afterwards - maybe I was just dehydrated?

The weather's too hot outside man.

I sat around work til about 5:30 reading more about SEA and reading some academic papers, but most people in the office had left since our big head honcho boss told us that we could all leave for 3pm because there just wasn't work to do. It was nice.

So I headed downstairs to the main area, outside on the patio beside the UN building where we were going to a farewell party for a UN Security Guard who had been working at the UN since he was 18. EIGHTEEN.

That's insane. He was dedicated to his job.

I could tell that everyone loved him.

We had a bunch of food, drinks and great music to both dance to and enjoy! I danced and had fun with

Farewell, farewell

some friends and made some new security officer friends (this is how you do it right?). One of them even ended up giving me a really awesome security pin!

Afterwards, we headed out to my friend's place in Brooklyn where she was having her farewell party on the rooftop, and then afterwards, we headed out to a bar where I didn't end up getting home until 4am.

All in all, a bumping evening to make up for a boring morning/afternoon.

"The twists and turns of your life can be so unexpected, and that's a good thing to learn. " - Christina Baker Kline

Quite an uneventful morning - although my boss was here so it was quite busy, people were running around, meetings were being had...

During one of our meetings, it got cut off by another meeting and my boss asked us to stay so we could discuss afterwards... so I didn't get to go to lunch.

Oh well.

Bomb scare

But I did run into someone from the Canadian Mission, so I walked with them for a bit, got to talk to them and then as I was leaving, ran into ANOTHER person from the Canadian mission so we stood and talked again for a bit and then as I reached the elevators, I ran into another two people from Canada.

It was a good day for me to meet my people I guess (-we're everywhere-)

I headed back up and worked a bit more on my projects before it hit about 5 and I headed back home to grab a sweater and drop off my stuff.

As I was walking towards the usual intern bar...So many of the roads were completely closed off. Completely.

There were about 4 helicopters in the sky.

Outside for Shakespeare

There were at least 8 cop cars that I could see behind the police tape.

There was a fire truck and a paramedic.

There was bomb squad.

And a fruit stand guy who was stuck behind the police tape (trapped forever haha)

The building where the interns go to drink is actually in the same block as the Israeli Mission and apparently there was an unidentified package in front building so... everything was shut down.

At the same time, there was another bomb scare at Times Square and Colombus circle (but the same guy) and I gotta say, this city is scary with its reactions to threats.

At the bar :D

And they get a lot of threats.

I met up with a friend and we decided to go over to another local bar (that does $3 bottles, it's very divey) and waited until the drama died down.

We headed back over to the other bar afterwards and it was empty because of the scare.

Afterwards, we headed over to the park, where there was Shakespeare in the Park (Unfortunately I don't know "As you Like it" quite well so I ended up leaving a bit early.

"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much." - Donald Rumsfeld

I woke up feeling much better this morning and headed out on a nice walk.

Unfortunately, I was an idiot and forgot my badge and had to walk back home. Thank god I live a walkable distance and didn't have to depend on the public transport system here.

After my kerfuffle, I got to work and some guy in the line behind me told me "you can just go you know, you don't have to wait for the security officer" and I told him I was fine with waiting (I've also been yelled at before for going without the Security Officer's permission) so he pushed me out of the way and went...

Could tell it was going to be a good day.

I got into the office and did some work that I needed to do for a survey project, met up with someone from another department to discuss it and then headed over to the International Peace Institute.

For those who do not know what it is, it is a really cool kind of like think tank organization that hosts a lot of really great events (such as a question and answer period with potential SGs!).

At the International Peace Insitute, they were having a large event on ensuring that No one is Left Behind: A High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Refugees.

It was my first time in the building and it was quite small, I must admit but it was very very nice. It was packed - filled to the brim with so many people I had to stand with about 30 others outside and the room was overflowing!

They had some great lunch for people, sandwiches, pasta and salad... and oddly enough they had bottles of Voss water for people. If you don't know what Voss water is, it's Norwegian water that is about $4. Yeah. A bit ridiculous but, hey, fancy Scandanavian water.

The event started about 25 minutes late (not a UN event unless it starts late right?) and the first speaker blew my mind away. He was the Minister of Agriculture and Environment of FINLAND AND HE WAS SO GOOD. He had a great speech and he got right to the nitty gritty and started telling it as it is, how countries aren't doing enough and how their sovereignty is more important than people's lives, etc. and it was great. I really enjoyed it.

Afterwards, I ran back to work and tried to do as much as possible before I got off work.

It was a fairly uneventful day. I walked back home and actually read quite a few papers on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse and women peacekeepers for a paper I want to write (if you have any suggestions of any academic work, please throw it my way).

And I pretty much studied all night. woo!

“I can’t remember all the times I told myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.” - Counting Crows

Today was a day full of work and other stuff. We had meetings and I had lots of editing and other to do.

So buttery

The meeting ran very long and so by the end of it, I just needed a break and went for a nice long walk. Very long walk. I went all the way to Bryant park and saw so many people sitting, enjoying their lunches, listening to piano and I even saw a knitting club.

Seriously, Bryant Park is definitely my favourite park in New York.

I walked back to work and did a little bit of reframing and editing. Seriously, it was a pretty dead day at work. Nothing really important happened.

I headed out for my own personal networking meeting really quick and then ran back to work (crying while I ran because I was wearing heels).

As I was finishing up work at the end of the day, my boss came in and told us we were all leaving the UN to go for drinks...

..So we did.

Empire state <3

We headed over to a French restaurant up the street and it was quite lovely. We had sangria, escargot, Croque-monsieur, salmon and tuna tar tar, foie gras and it was simply delicious. It was to celebrate a co-worker's birthday as well as to have a happy belated 14th of July (Bastille day as we call it).

After the lovely dinner, I headed over to my friend's rooftop where we said goodbye to one of the longest staying interns here. It was beautiful as we talked and enjoyed with the background of the Empire State Building.

“There is no ‘Plan B’ because we do not have a ‘Planet B.’ We have to work and galvanize our action.” - unknown

Someone else's photo of Stevie

I woke up at 7am this morning to head to Penn station and drop my visitor off. It was a hot and arduous walk and actually, it is also the exact opposite way of the UN.

I had to carry my dress shirt and blazer because of how scortchingly hot it was outside... I couldn't deal with the heat.

I headed over to work, worked on a few projects and then tried to slip myself into the conference for the international day of Nelson Mandela... where STEVIE WONDER WAS A GUEST AT, but unfortunately, my work came first so I completely missed it. Oh well.

At around 1, I went down to volunteer for the Partnership Exchange which was supporting the Sustainable Development Goals through Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships - Ensuring that No one is Left Behind.

I did some pretty menial stuff at the start, giving out passes, guiding people through the building, bringing through guests. But all in all, it was a pretty great experience, I got to meet other people,

Yeah!

network and I surprisingly learned a lot about Partnerships, businesses and corporations and all the different ideas and thought they have on changing the way business works.

It's been really amazing to see so many business places really embrace and take into heart the SDGs.

Unfortunately, I was called back up to my office during my volunteering, so I had to head back up and work on my project.

After work wasn't too exciting, I headed out to pick up something from a store and I was meant to go watch the Omen with some friends, but it didn't work out, so I ended up going back home, skyping and relaxing!

“The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” ― John Updike

Today I actually ended up waking early again but not as early as usual. The weather was still brutal (how can anyone deal with 30+ humidity weather for this long??) outside.

I ate a little bit of breakfast, watched one episode of Scrubs and then headed out.

I went for a walk (as usual) but this time I went north instead of my usual South. I headed up all the way to 78th street and on my way there, I walked through a gigantic streetfair on Broadway and found the theatre where Stephen Colbert films (I need to go back and live there. I need to be near this.)!

It was quite a nice walk - would have been nicer if it was cooler but it was nice nonetheless.

I walked into a few food markets as well, where people were selling organic foods/goods and there were so many people out there buying stuff.

Chess tournament

It was my first time walking around Upper West side and, man, is it nice. It's a very residential looking area, but not like the East, since there were many indie cafes and small restaurants. 

People were out with families and dogs... It would probably be a nice place to raise a family. 

I walked over to the Grand Bazaar, where it was in the playground of a school yard and there were vendors selling antique items both in and outside of the school as well as indie food and drink places. It had a really cool garage sale feel.

Haagen Daaz was actually there, giving out and promoting their brand with free ice cream (I swear all they do when I see them is give out free ice cream).

After my nice visit, I walked back down Broadway to meet up with my visitor and down the street,
there were many more stalls and trucks that went up.

One actually caught my attention quite quickly... and I had to grab it. 

I found the Late Night Show!

It was the Economist and they were also giving out free ice cream (This would be my fourth free ice cream of the last 36 hours) ... and free bugs.

Yes, bugs. On top of the ice cream as toppings! They had crickets, meal worms and other bugs that they topped off with.

I could see that everyone in the line was very apprehensive and kind of disgusted... but I was super excited. 

Whereas I could see other people brushing off their toppings, I asked for some of everything.

Ice cream - Does it bug you?

It was quite cool, the Economist had actually ran a story about the perks of eating bugs and how healthy and high they are in protein and how low they are in carbs. They also emit a lot less CO2 than it takes to make cows. They're probably one of the next best snacks there is - that is, if people can get over themselves and eat it. 

Honestly, it tasted like crunchy corn puffs. There was no flavour and it isn't bad for your body.

I walked down all the way to Hell's kitchen and we headed over to Hell's Kitchen Flea market. It was kind of smaller than I thought it would initially be and I felt really bad for the vendors who had to stand outside in the heat to sell their items. At a few points, I touched the jewellery and metal and they were selling and it was on fire-burning hot. I couldn't imagine sitting there all day, even with the onnings up.

It was indeed a vintage flea market, there were items and things everywhere being sold - from old army medals to jewellery, to African inspired art work.

It was quite nice.

Afterwards, we decided that we needed a bit of a break from sightseeing and we went shopping. Yes. I went shopping. I wasn't huge on it, but because she had seen that there were sales all over the city, she wanted to check it out. We headed over to a few stores where I made some work purchases (stuff for work - and only got 3 things) and surprisingly, I got pretty much almost 80% off some stuff. literally. For sale items were dropped down to a low price and then some stores were doing 30-60% off the lowest sale price.

I asked a sales associate about it because I had not seen stuff be sold for 60% off the lowest price and

I love food.

she told me that around 4th of July, a lot of stuff starts going on sale as they have to get rid of that season's clothes to make room for next season's. They sell stuff for as low as possible around this time and the only other time they bring up the discount that high is around Christmas time!

Good timing for me, damn. 

After a long day of walking around for stuff, we headed over to Baohaus, a Taiwanese place that sold Taiwanese buns and homemade taro fries. 

It was pretty delicious. 

Afterwards, because we were still hungry and because I felt like every person who ever visited New York should eat at Shakeshack.

So we headed over to the one in Madison Square Park, which didn't have too long a line up and sat down. 

I got a normal burger and it was delicious. Their fries were crispy and their burger was soft and good.

Baohaus baos

As we sat down, I was told more information about the area. Such as this: The Flatiron building was one of the first original skyscrapers! It was built in classic art deco style with beautiful carvings on the outside of the building. It was built as a triangle instead of a square so people were really scared that it would blow over. Silly 20th century people.

The building with the clock tower on the east side of the Flatiron building used to be decorated just as beautifully as the Flatiron. But then it went through renovation and they stripped the building of all the carvings and decoration. It was a travesty. The clock was actually built to be based off the church clock towers in Italy. The building used to be offices but now it was a building used as a hotel. On the top floor, where the windows and the roof is, people rent it out (and it's ridiculously expensive).

The building beside it was meant to be about twice the size as it was today. Unfortunately, as they were building it up, halfway through the construction... the stockmarket crashed. And they had to stop building. Whoops.

I also found out a bit more about the Rockefellers! 

So (and I am paraphrasing so bear with me), the original Rockefellers founded what is now known today as standard oil. Around the time that they founded this, they were using this oil for gas lamps... but you know what else was becoming popular? The modern automotive... which ran on? That's right, GAS! 

The Rockefellers made it big. They had a great product and great timing to go along with it. 

JD Rockefeller Junior was even better. He was a huge capitalist but a great philanthropist at the same time. During the building of 30 Rock, the depression hit, and instead of pulling his money out like everyone else did, from what I heard, he single handedly provided almost 75,000 jobs - even though his family estate had lost HALF their wealth. Insane.

He helped fuel the economy again.

Afterwards, we headed home and went straight to bed.

"Ten kilometers away, the lights of New York glowed on the skyline like a dawn frozen in the act of breaking." -Ci Arthur C. Clarke

Today was a good day to sleep in - Right?

Wrong. It was so humid and disgusting out that I was sweating when I woke up.

City of Water day!

I got up and ready for the day and started the day off by watching a documentary on sexual assault on campuses. It was called the Hunting Ground and it was quite depressing to read about Universities and their response to sexual assault and rape.

Probably not the best way to start off a day but quite informative way to start it off.

On the island!

I headed out and walked down past Madison Square Park, walked around in it, past Union Square Market, walked around it, all the way down close to Battery Park where I waited for someone to catch a boat to Governor's Island!

Governor's Island is quite nice, it is a small, very walkable island with a beautiful park, lots of pretty

buildings, a great area for concerts and a field of hammocks.

Yes, a field of hammocks. It is quite cool.

New York Skyline from Gov. Island!

There was even a jail house that was open for everyone to go and explore and learn a bit of the history behind it.

What I went for that day though was an event called "City of Water" where they were doing a bunch crafts and other stuff. We got there pretty late, but still got the gist of everything and just walked around the island.

of water related activities all over the island, including cardboard boat races,

yummy :D

There were events everywhere on every corner and it was cute seeing all the kids run around.

I gotta say, for everyone who says that you should take the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of liberty, they are wrong.

Go to Governor's Island, where there is a perfect and beautiful view of the statue (and you aren't moving), Manhattan and all the area around it. It is gorgeous-even though it did rain a lot.

So good

We hung out there for a while, and then tried to catch the ferry (I say tried because it is so difficult to first try - everyone is trying to get onto the ferry). We couldn't, so we stood in the rain and waited for the next one.

actually get it on

Afterwards, we headed over to a Chinese restaurant, where we ordered some wonton and duck noodle soup and fried noodles.

For my first time trying Chinese food in Chinatown, it was pretty good.

Afterwards, I headed home (it was quite late) and watched another documentary about North Korea (I am actually the coolest person) and some episodes of Scrubs before calling it a day and heading to bed.

"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream. And that's kind of the same thing." - Unknown.

Today was just as bad weather wise as it was yesterday.

They had America flavoured...

As I was walking over to work, there was a Basket Robins on the corner of the street and they were handing out free "ice cream pizza" and "patriot ice cream" (Really, different flavours of sorbet in different colours). It was quite a nice way to start my day!

During the time I was in the office, I was doing my work, but at the same time, Once an hour or so, I would click on UberEats. 

Why?

Because free Magnum bars, that's why.

Yes. That's right, for national ice cream day, Magnum partnered up with UberEats and delivered 4 free

Ice cream :D

Magnum bars to people across the city. 

This was the most exciting thing that happened at my work today. 

It was pretty hot, about 32 degrees with humidity, and UberEats had bikers biking around with these ice cream bars. I can't even believe how crazy that was. It also took me about 2 and a half hour before I finally had an uber biker deliver the ice cream to me.

But it was well worth it, double caramel ... *drools*

Magnum bars promised!

I gave away my three other bars (for the sake of my waist and because who actually needs 4 ice cream bars) and went back to work after a nice brisk walk out. 

At the end of the day, I started walking over to the other side of the city on the West end to a nice rooftop/bar/club area where there was a huge United Nations Association of New York event happening.

I got this finally!

It was in a quite nice venue and it was interesting because there was a huge mix of people, from people who were very dressed up to people who weren't dressed up at all as well as age ranges from around my age to late 50s just networking hard. It was interesting.

Afterwards, my friend and I headed back over to the UN and headed up to the Delegate's Lounge
where we stood around, talked to people and just enjoyed the company. It was my first time actually staying there until closing time. 

Since it was closing time, I went back home and relaxed a bit before heading to bed.

“Je suis comme ça. Ou j'oublie tout de suite ou je n'oublie jamais." Samuel Beckett

Yesterday was a bad night and this morning was a bad morning. The heat was too much for me and I couldn't fall asleep. In the morning it was so bad I woke up sweating. At 6am.

I lied in bed, read some news and did nothing for a bit. Then I was so bored I got up and started getting ready for work (in this original post I actually wrote school - this is how tired my mind is).

I mean - aside from the burns on my fingers.

I actually burned some of my fingers pretty bad on a pot at home so when I got to work, I asked around for a first aid kit.

Turns out none of the floors have one. If I want a simple band-aid, I'd have to go down to the fifth floor medical floor. I just wanted some burn cream so they sent me down to the Medical unit.

It was my first time there. In fact, I think it was one of the first times an intern or anyone I have actually ever known working at the UN had to go to the medical unit. It was interesting. It was super early, around 8:40 so when I went in, the guy told me I could either wait 20 minutes for the nurse to come back or I stay until 9, so I left.

Cheese and fruit and champagne :D 

At around 9, I went back downstairs and had to wait to see a doctor (yes they sent me to a doctor even though I literally just asked for burn cream like polysporin) who pulled out a chart and started asking me what was wrong.

I explained to her what was wrong. She just looked at me, put away all her charts and just gave me the burn cream. I think she was a bit disappointed (I wonder how many people actually know about the medical clinic, let alone go there?)

She actually applied it on me so I was quite grateful.

Afterwards, I did a little bit of work and then headed over to a nearby coffee place to meet with my professor.

When I got there, he was having a meeting with a delegate from a large state. And he had already had meetings with several other Member States.

I feel like I was the only person he met up with that wasn't a country or member state...

We had a very good, short talk and then afterwards I had to run off to a meeting (busy, busy in the life of a UN intern).

Drinks at the DL

I went back to the office and worked on some research for one of the big projects I was doing until about lunch. Didn't actually end up taking lunch since it was so busy in the office...

Afterwards, we put out surprise cheese, fruits and prosecco for Bastille day for our French colleagues in the office. It was pretty jolly.

We cleaned up and worked a bit more. Afterwards, a colleague and I headed over to the Delegate's lounge where we enjoyed some French special drinks and sat around and talked for a bit. 

Afterwards, I headed over to meet up with some friends at the bar where we sat around and enjoyed each other's company.

I headed home but had to wait to be let in, since I had a visitor who had my keys, and it was the first time I had ever been so harassed on the streets, I had three people tell me to "smile more" and make unnecessary comments as well as try to touch my things. 

I cannot believe how disgusting it was. Do people really think that is justifiable at all? Like that's okay? It's not. 

Kind of a bad end to a good day.

“I like it when somebody gets excited about something.” ― J.D. Salinger

Prof Milner and I!

This morning I don't think I've felt so much excitement in a really long time - one of my professors was coming to de-brief the UN in advance of the September Summit on refugees!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!

So I made sure to e-mail and take some time off work so I could sit in on the conference and enjoy.


I did a little bit of work in the morning and then when 9:50 came around, I headed straight to the conference room, excited to go see him speak (Like a proud student).

In GA, just hanging

A few of my friends with the missions were there and it was super cool to sit there and tell them "Oh yeah, that's my professor btw." I felt super insanely cool. It was awesome.

Well, 10 rolled by... then 10:20... and then he showed up - gave me a wave and it was great.

Ottawa, in a way is home to me, since it's somewhere I've lived for so long and felt so used to and accustomed to. So having my professor come to the UN and speak felt like a little piece of home. It was nice to see a familiar face - especially at work.

Yup.

I went up to him afterwards and gave him a big hug and then had to bolt - unfortunately I had another meeting (busy, busy).

I ran over to UNFPA, which unfortunately is in another building far away from the Secretariat, who
was doing a session on careers in the UN and different tips surrounding it.

He took the selfie. <3

It was a pretty okay meeting, I felt like I was a bit more informed (after talking to so many people) and then headed out (since I felt like I had missed so much).

I ran back to work, did a little bit more stuff for my projects and then was called down to another meeting to drop something off (I guess this is going into too much detail, eh?) and met another friendly Canadian! Networking, I can do it -kind of.

Went back to work, hung out for a bit, did some more work on different formatting ideas, waited outside for my professor, unfortunately he is such a busy guy, we had to post phone the meeting. Afterwards, had some wine and cheese with our USG and the whole office, went for a quick drink and then headed home!

In the past, people were born royal. Nowadays, royalty comes from what you do." - Gianni Versace

Another Monday another start of the week. This Monday... marks exactly 18 days left of working at the UN. I cannot even believe how fast the time has gone by and I'm so glad that I have written so much of this down so that I can reflect on it.

I cannot believe how much I have already done. I am completely blown away. I feel like I've really worked hard on my projects here and I've also experienced almost all of New York city. It's been seriously amazing.

At work, I pondered a bit about the end of my internship and how I would feel (immense sadness, in case you were wondering) and worked a lot on more formatting (I am the word queen).

The queen looks beautiful. Trust.

At lunch, the Canadians and I went out to lunch again, this time joined by the French, American and Iraqi forces. It was quite fun, we sat, talked and laughed as we made new friends. My lunch was pretty boring - a wrap. I usually bring lunch almost every single day of the week since it is not only cheaper - but it is significantly healthier than the food I would be eating (coughdollarpizzacough) if I went out to buy stuff.

Though sometimes I'll grab soup, which is fairly healthy and not too expensive. I just try not to eat at the cafeterias here since they're all weigh by pound, which makes lunch pretty much cost $10 a day. That's about $50 a week simply for lunch. Could buy groceries instead (or 50 slices of pizza).

Afterwork, I headed down the stairs to the ECOSOC room where there was a meeting that was hosted by the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG as we call it in 'UN lingo') of Children and Armed Conflict as well as the Kingdom of Belgium (I didn't know they were a Kingdom either!).

I sat there and listened to the panelists speak as well as a child soldier who gave us first-hand experience about his life as a child soldier. It was heartbreaking to hear.

Child soldiers are one of worst things out there - to completely strip a child of their innocence, their childhood and their education- that's just disgusting and horrendous. No one should ever be stripped of their own childhood. And no child should ever have to learn how to operate a gun or kill another person.

No child. Ever.

Of course, another person who felt very strongly about this was the Queen of Belgium herself, who was at the meeting!

I had the chance to shake her hand and take a very sneaky photo with her.

After work, I headed over to a co-worker's house for an Ifar dinner (for the end of Ramadan) to see everyone, drop by and say hi!

I had to leave as I had made prior plans before. I was cutting it really close, since I was by Upper Manhattan and had to run down to Chelsea so I JUST barely made the train after running and speed walking and headed down to Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre which is "An underground organization that tries to undermine society by spreading Chaos."

It was a pretty promising title. Since they did improv comedy and I do improv comedy... It was a perfect place for me to be!

The whole bar!

It was actually interesting because the whole improv troupe was actually girls! In fact, the whole night was female comedians. The whole place was so packed and I just BARELY made it to slip into line with some friends who were picking up tickets and I was lucky enough to get a seat.

The improv segment was okay - I wasn't super impressed but I enjoyed it. However, the act afterwards, which was when they were all doing a planned skit called "Balls deep," which was a series of sketch comedy acts with girls pretending to be guys was excellent. I don't think I've laughed harder in a really long time. I enjoyed it so much.

Afterwards, my friend and I headed out and grabbed some groceries from Trader Joe's, which, on a Monday night, was the MOST packed I had ever seen it. It was ridiculously insane. I could not believe how many people there were! But the line moved fast so it was all good.

Afterwards, I walked home, put my groceries away and put myself away into bed.

"Culture drives great results." - Jack Welch

Today I woke up kind of late and cleaned up around the house. I was a bit tired so I wanted to rest a bit, but there was stuff going on!

I made myself some breakfast, watched some more Scrubs (I just love cheesy stuff like this) and then headed out.

It was a dark and busy Bastille day celebration...

Today, right beside the park, was the Bastille day celebration! I walked up the street, enjoying the view and the weather and met up with a friend. We walked through the crowded streets, tasted some delicious samples and kept walking.

It was packed with so much French spirit! Especially because the Euro cup was on and France was playing against Portugal. There was a huge TV set up on the other side of the festival, where people were all sitting down enjoying the show. It was quite cute but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was less packed with people... But it was still nice to walk around, listen to the legit french accents and all the people selling french food.

How did I know that it was real french food? They took a huge piece of butter and smeared it between the pan and the crepe while they were making it. Too hardcore for me man. Too hardcore.

And I still wonder how they're so fit!

Afterwards, I took the bus down and walked around for a bit before hopping onto the Subway to Williamsburg where I met up with a few of my friends (again, Canadians, I guess we all just miss home?) and we headed over to the GiglioFeast held every July. In case you are wondering, this is what the site says about the Festival:

"The story, which is passed on through the generations on both sides of the Atlantic, is that around 410 AD, North African pirates overran the town of Nola. In the chaos, Bishop Paolino was able to flee into the countryside with some of the children. Upon his return, Paolino learned, from a sobbing widow that many of the young men, her son included, had been abducted into slavery. Moved to compassion, Paolino offered himself in exchange for the boy and was ferried off, a prisoner of the brigands. While in North Africa, word of the courage and self-sacrifice of Paolino spread and became known to a certain Turkish sultan. Taken with the tale of altruism, the sultan intervened, negotiating for the freedom of this holy man. Through the sultan 's efforts, Paolino and his paesani, were freed.

FRIENDS :D Behind us there is the tower

Overjoyed by his safe return, the entire town greeted him carrying lilies, symbolic of love and purity. That joyous homecoming jubilee is considered the very first observance of what would develop into an annual sacred event. Through the years, various trade guilds farmer (ortolano), butcher (beccaio), tailor (sarto), breadmaker (panettiere), blacksmith (fabbra), cobblers (calzolaio), deli merchants (salumiere), and wine makers (bettoliere) ) began to compete to produce the most sensational display of lilies. Over time, these displays became more flamboyant.

Today, although still called lilies (gigli), they have evolved into huge flower-laden steeples of wood, 82 feet in height. In Nola, these gigli structures and a boat (la barca) are carried through the streets on the shoulders of hundreds of men, in remembrance of the return of Paolino to Nola. The atmosphere is quite competitive and each guild hires the best lifters they can secure, because the carrying of the gigli is judged. Creativity of construction and musical accompaniment is also scrutinized even after the formal competition ends, and the men of Nola carry and dance the gigli throughout the night."

Add caption

We went over and saw a tower up top with people singing on it... but also a fake boat where people were singing and playing guitar! It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, the festival itself was super small, with mostly like touristy food carts and carnival games (that are totally a rip off, my friend shot a whole star except for ONE small corner and he didn't get a prize).

We decided to head out after that and grab some food to eat. We headed to a place called Pop's which has a lot of comfort food so of course, I ordered some cheesy fries (with 'American' cheese) and some BBQ wings.

We grabbed some drinks and headed up to a friend's Rooftop where there was another party going on.

We played some card games and then the other party came over to hang out with us and talk. It was a pretty good time sitting around, talking and just enjoying the atmosphere.

Great way to end a week with the relaxation.

"I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island." Thornton Wilder

Cool, but empty if you go too early

I woke up fairly early this morning and I ended up doing laundry stuff for almost two hours.

Yes. Two hours (Well I mean I was watching Scrubs a lot too).

I had to rehang laundry, fold stuff up and then iron so many clothes (I don't like ironing, it's actually the worst).

My friend messaged me since we were all going to go to Coney Island but it would take a STRAIGHT HOUR to get there.

I LOVE FUNNEL CAKE

But what's even more odd is that my friend, who lives in Brooklyn (which is where Coney Island is), had to train over to Manhattan and then train back over to Coney. Ridiculous, seriously, they need to build a new Subway line that actually connects more of Brooklyn in a way that makes more sense.

I took a bus down (since there were two other things I wanted to take a quick look at) and ran into the Arab Festival on my way there as well as the Wiccan festival, where people were either all dressed up or pretty much doing what they usually do.

It was their 100th this
year! So they actually
sold their hot dogs for
their 1916 price 5 cents
for just one day

Both were really cool events, but I think I went there way too early because there were close to no people hanging out at the festivals... But the food looked and smelled amazing.

It was too bad I made myself breakfast - I'll have to think twice before making breakfast again!

I hopped on a train to Coney Island (if you take the bus and then the train, you have a two hour free transfer!) and sat there for about 40 minutes reading this book, called "You are a Badass." It was supposed to be one of those self motivation books, but I saw it more as a cheesy book... I mean a lot of the things that were written in there weren't super substantial or thought out and I felt a lot of it was mostly common sense. Oh well.

When I got off, my friend and I were kind of hungry so we went to Nathan's

This tiny thing held two people
all the way under water.

(yes, the original hot dog place in New York) and grabbed some cheesy bacon fries, hot dog and onion rings. We sat there for a bit and then met up with (another Canadian) friend and then walked around the Amusement park.

The park and attractions themselves were quite old but they looked so fun. It wasn't packed (especially for a Saturday afternoon) since the weather didn't look that nice and even I had to pull out a sweater (earlier on in the day, I had worn shorts but quickly realized my mistake and switched into pants and grabbed a sweater) and wear it.

A lot of it got destroyed during the hurricane..

We walked a lot on the boardwalk, just talking and enjoying the view until we headed back to meet with (yet another Canadian) friend. We all went to the first place we saw and grabbed some funnel cake.

It was amazing. Tasted like childhood and diabetes.

That was... until we just ate too much of it. It was a surprisingly big portion and I swear I was 20% funnel cake when I finished up.

We headed over to the pier, which had a gorgeous view of Coney Island, the beach as well as the whole amusement park and just admired the view for a bit. It was quite nice just walking and enjoying.

Happy happy! Except buddy in the top left.

Afterwards, we decided that our tummys were settled and we headed over to the gigantic ferris wheel because at the front, the slogan of the wheel was "We don't make 'em like this anymore!" Which ... I mean... is this a good thing? Is this something that you should be proud to advertise? I don't understand why it was up there.

and bought our ($8!!) tickets. It was interesting

We decided not to go on the regular seats but the ones on the inside that actually sloshed around and fell forward and backwards like rollarcoasters (best of both worlds right?).

It was pretty awesome. We could see everything and it was wonderfully high up. I really enjoyed being up there and enjoying the ride.

Unfortunately, it came to a quick stop - two rotations around and we were done...

The beach.

We headed back to Manhattan afterwards and I talked to my buddy, who told me about this really cool idea about public and private partnerships in terms of housing and having private corporations or condo companies build things like shelters (for example, there is a condo in Leslieville being built that is also rebuilding the Red Door Shelter there, [which is awesome, since it is a women's and children shelter, but I wish other shelters recieved as much support as this one did]).

When we got to Manhattan, we chilled for a bit before going out to buy drinks, flowers and cupcakes for a friend's birthday!

Our friend lived in Upper Manhattan and he invited us over to see his big, beautiful insane apartment. It was gorgeous. To say the least.

We drank, sat around, talked and just enjoyed. At one point I just started feeling cold and my friend had walked over in the rain, so we sat by the "fire" which is an electric one and just enjoyed the heat while we ate pizza and enjoyed.

At one point, someone said that they didn't see colour, so we named me the blob.

So anytime I spoke, the blob had spoken. It was pretty hilarious actually.

I ended up ubering home from a long and wonderfully fun night! (Walking was too much after a day at Coney Island)

"I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party." - Ron White

She took me out for
a burger :) 

Today was a good way to a very relaxed week. I went in early, did some work by formatting of some documents (they figured out I'm pretty good at formatting stuff and Microsoft word so this is pretty much my whole life now).

At lunch, I met up with someone who I had met randomly in the General Assembly halls! She noticed my Canada pin and just had to say hi to me. So I just had to say hi and e-mail her back.

She's actually super cool, she's working with an observer organization and used to be a former MP and held several Minister portfolios. Best part was, she was so easy to talk to and super down to earth! The only issue is that it was a bit hot outside... Like swelteringly so.

Afterwards, I headed back to work, and although I have been getting a lot of

Oh my lord was there
just so much food.

small projects, I don't have too much long term stuff going on with my life right now. So it's some pretty sporadic work where I do what I can when I can and then I have long periods of downtime. Makes me feel kind of useless so I've just kind of taken it upon myself to, when I'm at my desk and not trying to attend a cool conference, I just look up issues related to sexual exploitation and abuse. It's been pretty good to read about.

Afterwork, I met up with a friend who was going to be interning at the UN and started his first day on Monday! So I knew I had to make his first day in New York a memorable one.

I took him on a bit of a mini tour of Mid New York, through Grand Central, Bryant Park and some other places. It was a good but a short tour. We headed over to the UN after the tour, met up with some of the Canadian Mission interns and went in (since you have to find someone with a D badge to let you in). We had to go over to the

Beautiful view of the building I work in!

other side and grab some "Delegate's Lounge" passes and give our IDs, but we didn't even end up going there.

Instead... We went to the Dining Room. Where there was a HUGE party for Venezuela.

Their independence day was on the past Tuesday, right after Fourth of July, but because it was so slack (and because Venezuela parties so hard) they planned their party for Friday night!

It was pretty amazing. I'm lucky I went with my "diplomat friends" (they're interns at their own missions but they get a D badge because they've gone through all the proper security and they work for the mission) since I got in with no problems.

Some of the Crew

As I went in, they gave me a bar of chocolate, a calendar and ... oddly enough, a Venezuelan DVD

(That I need to watch ASAP, I mean, that's pretty cool right?).

It was decorated beautifully, with the colours of the flag (red, yellow and blue) and there was lovely live salsa and dancing music, open bars and a table full of Venezuelan food on top of the appetisers that were being handed out. It was pretty bomb diggity.

More of the crew <3

I got to introduce my friend to a flurry of other people (don't think he remembers half the people's names) and danced and talked for a long time. Oddly enough, this was the first party where I was stopped so much by people wanting to talk to me *weirdos.*

I headed home after the few hours there and skyped with loved ones and then did my laundry. Not an exciting end to an exciting Friday, but a solid need-to-do kind of end.