"Performing live actually thrills me. Just get me a stage, get me a mic, and I'm going to be happy." - Rita Wilson

Today was the first day back from the long weekend and man - people were grumpy.

THESE BENCHES ARE LITERALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE INTERSECTION?!

There was quite a long line up at the metal detector (yes, as a lowly intern I do have to go through the metal detector every time even though everyone else [including interns at the permanent missions] gets to go in through the normal doors) and as a "staff" or "staff affiliate" I walked through the huge crowds this morning (don't these kids have school?!) and went straight to the back and by the metal detector. This lady cut in front of me, grabbed a basket and started to take off all her metal stuff when I was already so I said "excuse me" and she snarled back "Excuse me what?" and so I just put my stuff in front of her and walked through the detector. Don't think she was too happy but I mean I was ready.

The security officers then yelled about me waiting for my friend in line and kicked me out.

Love these books

Hot weather doesn't seem to do anyone much good, does it?

I walked into the building and talked to my friend for a bit (he works in the giftshop) and then headed

over to work. I was one of the first ones in so I sat down and got right down to business.

We had a few meetings today with some Core working groups. Nothing too exciting, just populating some charts with some -confidential- data and information (How cool am I, seriously).

During my lunch break, I was sitting around on my phone and I joined yelp for

the first time! I figured, I blog anyway, I write a lot about things I learn and things I experience here for my friends and family, I may as well write for other people and give them my pure and honest opinion about places.

HA, I wish i had more money to buy this stuff.

On top of that *Life pro tip here* if you write good reviews often and frequently, you can become an *Elite* member and that means that you will not only be an elite member, but you also gain access into several exclusive parties where you can try the food and drinks so that you can be one of the first people review the place! How cool is that? I recommend everyone try it.

Afterwork, I actually planned to go home and rest, write up in the blog, but I got pulled away by an invitation to go down to the Lower East Side to go to a cafe/bookshop called Bluestockings.

So I hung out and saw a friend when I got home and then changed into a different outfit (I was going to a hipster cafe, I wasn't about to go in with UN formal work clothes on). I walked down and really

enjoyed my view and the weather (even though it was crazy hot).

Great singer. Really great local singer. 

When I got there, the street was really cute, the area is quaint, busy, with so many people. It's definitely one of those areas where it's artsy, not hipster. People are artsy, free spirits and they do things because they really love it, not because it's cool or in style.

While walking down, there was this really cool intersection on a big road and in the middle of the intersection was benches. For people to sit on while traffic and life goes on around them. It is such an amazing experience to just sit there and enjoy.

I found my friend there, we sat on the bench and talked for a bit before we headed into the bookstore for their gay/trans open mic night. When we went in, I was blown away by the amount of really cool feminist, gay, activist books in there. It was just a cool atmosphere and everyone was just doing their own thing without caring about anyone else.

It was refreshing.

We took a seat and listened to three spoken word artists (I clapped, I didn't snap, I'm sorry) and a singer. They were all so creative and wonderful in their own respect. All their spoken word poems were about things that really affected them mentally and physical and the singer, gosh she was just amazing. Her voice was wonderful and her songs had sad lyrics but a really great hip beat behind them.

The whole experience was surreal. At one point I just couldn't believe that I was in New York, sitting in a real artsy, laid back, just really "cool" bookstore/cafe listening to some awesome spoken word and live music.

I'm so lucky to be here.

My super hipster photo

"The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul" - Shanna Rodriguez

Raining on the square

Today was a stupidly early wake up time. 6:00am. Too early for sleeping and eating late... but I had a good reason! Today at around 7am I was going to be admitted into the NBC studios to get into the studio for Good Morning America to meet and be there for the live filming and interview of X-Men Apocalypse.

Unfortunately, as I was walking down the street towards Times Square, it was raining pretty damn hard. As I approached the square (my first time there actually), I saw that there was a very long line up. It was good that my friend was already there waiting for me in the queue. Unfortunately, she did not bring an umbrella. Her reasoning was that she did not want to bring one because she did not want it to feel like Belgium. Silly reasons from silly friends.

We finally got in about an hour and a half after they told us to arrive (and about an hour after the paper said they'd close the line up to everyone) and were screened by the metal wands at the door.

Ballin'

When we got upstairs, part of the cast of X-men were already there taking selfies with selfie sticks.

James McAvoy was there. So were 4 other cast members.  It was cool. I stood at the side since I wasn't really sure where I should have gone and kind of backed up a bit. People were quite dressed up for it whereas I was wearing a blazer and dress pants (oops).

He plays young Cyclops

It was really cool being in the studio and seeing how much work went into a just 5-minute segment of interviews. There was makeup, hair, camera men, some other guys telling people what to do, people with clipboards...seriously a lot of people. So much goes into a few minutes.

After the very brief filming, I took some photos with some of the actors/actresses and then headed out back to the UN. But before I left, they gave me tickets to go to the pre-screening of X-men the next day! So cool.

I am so lucky that there is so much so close on the island of Manhattan where I can go out and explore!

The cast

Work was interesting, there were meetings and other things to do. I had a meeting with some personnel in UNDP and headed over to the other building (UN has quite a few buildings, not just the Secretariat one) to speak to them. In true UN fashion, no one expected me. I called up and was told that I slipped their mind. Woo. Went back to work. Did my thing.

The Set

Today though, I stayed a bit later so I could hang out with a friend. They had invited me over to their home (very kindly) and I got to enjoy a wonderful night of homemade dinner, great company and

enjoyable television (where they talked about travel and food). I walked home pretty late but content with the improved friendships I made that day.

"Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time." Gerald R. Ford

I am a bit overwhelmed by how much I love this city and how much I feel like I've integrated in. I feel at comfort here, but not too comfortable - still challenged. I feel good. I also feel like I'm not getting enough sleep - which I'm probably not. There's just so much to do here! And with a lack of homework I have my evenings free to fill them up with friends and events and things to do! There's just so much to see and do here and I just don't want to stop. Part of me won't let me because I know that I'm only here for such a finite amount of time and there's so much for me to do.

The place setting and flowers were beautiful!

Even though I arrived only three weeks ago, I feel like I've been here for a while. I feel like I know the city and the things here pretty well. I fell the history, culture and atmosphere really surround me and take me in. It's actually a really great feeling.

So today was another Monday blah. But it wasn't too bad. I took some photos in the morning and went into work and did some work on specific things. At lunch, I went outside and really enjoyed the weather! I met another Canadian friend (who we actually have a mutual friend with) and we headed out to sit and just enjoy the weather.

Dinner! :) 

At work, I worked on my project again before it was home time. I headed home and clean up a bit, worked a bit on my blog, tried to take a nap and before I even knew it, it was already 8pm! My friend headed over to watch some Game of Thrones (I've never cried so much for a fake character so much my whole life) and afterwards we cooked dinner together. We had some really delicious tilapia fish with fresh key lime pie. To die for,

It was actually really lovely, my friend, my roommate and I all sat around and we talked about anything and everything. I really enjoyed their company. All in all, a good and relaxing day.

"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." - Colin Powell

Mondays are super blah.

Today I didn't have much work to do other than my normal project and some notes. So it wasn't all that exciting. Around lunch time, I went outside simply so I could walk around. Man the weather has really plummeted down and it was cold!

On my walk out, I actually ran into another intern who's mom came to town to visit (how sweet is that!). We talked for a bit and it was really nice to just be able to run into someone in the city. I'm already integrated! Haha.

Dinner! So delicious.

I went out to buy some flowers for my supervisor and then headed back through the security where the security guard jokingly took the flowers, said thank you and left. He was a funny one.

I spent the rest of the day working on my project. I couldn't actually leave because there was a big meeting happening behind me and I was kind of scared of leaving with all the High Level people behind me in the meeting.

When I finally did get to leave, I went over to the dollar store by my house and oh my god did it have SO MANY ITEMS. I could not believe how much it had, they even had frozen produce and things like cheese and yogurt. Just wow. It is amazing.

I headed home and got some food ready and baked TWO PANS of food for myself and my roommate. Whoops, may have been a bit over excited. We had dinner together with another friend of hers, had some white wine and for dessert, some peanut butter cups and chocolate almonds! It was super delicious.

All in all, a good day. Work is wearing me down a bit but the nights after, walking back home in a crowd of people that just have this amazing one track, goal orientated mind, where they walk so fast and are so determined... that's a really amazing atmosphere to be around. It's actually more inspiring than I thought it would be. It's nice and really keeps me going. I think just being around people who are so successful and so driven makes me even more determined about my job. It makes me want to be more and experience more. It makes me want to go out, conquer the world and be everything that I could ever want to try to be! It's an amazing feeling.