"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)

"We live in the age of the refugee, the age of the exile." - Ariel Dorfman

Beautiful made in
Guatamala

Today I got to work and it was quite quiet, something different than normal. 

I bought flowers in the morning for a co-worker and that was about the busiest I was all day. I worked on some menial stuff, tried to make myself my own work and then headed out for lunch with a friend to the UNICEF centre. Halfway through walking with her, I pulled out an ice cream cone and she literally burst into laughter because she could not believe I had just pulled out an ice cream stick out of my bag. #WendysBag

We noticed that UNICEF was having a 75% off sale so we dropped in, but it was almost empty. I talked to the guy at the register and he told me that the store was just simply not making enough

The platform for it

profit and they were going to close by Friday at lunch. 

It's kind of sad to hear that, but apparently their website will still be up and running and they'll do shipping rather than having a physical store. 

I bought some change purses that were made in Guatemala and then headed back over to work where I did a little bit of stuff and then we took a break and wished our co-worker a happy birthday! We sat and talked for a bit, took some photos and then went back to work.

The man fighting
for rights

I stayed back at work for a bit since there was a reception coming up later that day that I wanted to attend for World Refugee day. It was downstairs in the m
ain Visitor's lobby (I assume so that everyone, even visitors could see it). And I waited there with my colleague to try to get a photo with one of the guests: Ban Ki Moon.

The speeches were quite wonderful and I really enjoyed the unveiling of the Refugee exhibit that they were there for. They had pictures and photos in the main hall for visitors to take in as well as a gigantic container where you can go inside and actually talk to a refugee somewhere in the world. It was pretty amazing.

Food made by refugees!

We had a few more speeches from other refugee groups as well as a USG for DPI. It was a truly great event.

After the ceremony, I went to find my friends and talk to them about the exhibit. It was pretty cool.

Of course, at the end of every reception opening... there was an open bar and food.

My photo with him :D

The food this time around was quite interesting! All the food that we had was made from Refugees!
There was a lot of Middle Eastern and Nepalese food there. It was delicious and so well made. I really appreciate the reception providing us with it.

My friend and I headed over to Bryant Park where there was this really cool event called "Movies in the Park" and they were playing the movie Ferris Bueller's Day off. 

We managed to find two seats in the crowd, grabbed some drinks and chairs and sat down and enjoyed the movie.

Movies in the park! :)

I gotta say, it is amazing being a part of something that is so much bigger than myself. When the music in the movie started playing, people actually got up and started
DANCING during scenes where there was music! It was so fun to watch! And people danced hard.

It was a bit difficult to hear, however, they had subtitles under the movie screen (which was also hard to see) for all to hear and enjoy. 

After the movie, I took my short walk home and crashed into bed.