"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. the question is what are we busy about?" - Henry David Thoreau

Straight view of the East river

I learned my lesson from yesterday and I now wake up and leave earlier from work. When I got there, there was just a small line up in comparison to the really long line up yesterday. I ran into a friend and we talked and enjoyed each others' company as we walked through the UN. I started off as the first intern in and did a little bit of work my project, on and off.

Italian Mission was
giving out free
espresso and I just had
to try it!

One of my friends, who is with the French Mission, messaged me because she wanted to show me the UN and take me on a tour (she can take me into areas that I personally cannot get into), unfortunately, because she is a Mission intern, she just had so much to do all the time always. Her meeting, which was supposed to end at 12:30 - 1ish, ended up finishing up at 2. Poor girl. I ended up going to lunch with a few friends in the UN Rose garden, which is, right now, under construction. 

The whole garden outside of the UN is actually under construction now. This is because the UN was undergoing renovations in the last few years to update the secretariat building and others, so not only were people scattered around the city working, but they also built a building in the garden to temporary house people like the Security Council and the Secretary-General and his staff. So

Yes, those are delegates watching football.

now that the secretariat is "all good" again (asbestos free I hope), the build was torn down and the garden is being reconstructed. 

Drinks with a friend !

After lunch, I headed back upstairs and worked a bit more on stuff, but then my French friend messaged me and asked me if I wanted to go on the tour since she was finished with her meeting, so we walked around and made our first stop at the Delegate's Lounge. We had previously tried to go into the Council rooms, but they were all locked or had something going on. 

In the Delegate's Lounge, we ended up stumbling upon another event that the Italian Mission was hosting and got some free espresso (as it turns out I am not a big fan of the bitterness). We sat and talked for a bit and then both headed back to work.

This was "close"

I stayed at work for a while before I headed out with a friend and went to the Irish Pint, a rooftop patio near by. It was busy as all hell, but we managed to steal a few seats and sit down. I gotta say, it was a pretty cool bar. The table we were sitting on had tap handles on it as decoration and even in the washroom, the sink handles were beer handles. We sat there for a bit and another friend saw me, grabbed me and pulled me over to his group of friends and I ended up meeting someone FROM CARLETON!! He had just graduated a few weeks ago. 

So nice! Sponsored
concert of course

The scale of how small this world is keeps shrinking and blowing my mind away.

Everyone was actually starting to leave so I headed out with them and then walked very uptown to
Central Park (I know, eventful day). I met up with a friend and we headed over to the Great Lawn together, sat down on the blanket she had so cleverly brought and we sat with a crowd of at least a hundred thousand and listened to the New York Philharmonic play. They play free every summer quite often.

They were beautiful. 

The view at night is unreal.

Actually, New York plays concerts in the park all the time (for free too!)

I headed home on the subway (which isn't scary at night, at least for me) and headed to bed!

"Spending time outdoors makes you feel great." Elizabeth Hurley

This is a small decimal
of what we originally
walked into

We slept in a little bit today since it was a Sunday morning (even though I totally did wake up super early) and planned to head over to an American Diner.

When we stepped out, we were greeted by closed streets and thousands of Puerto Rican flags. Turns out it was the Puerto Rican day parade. We had just randomly stumbled upon it. It was a bit difficult to get around because they had closed off so many streets (I can see why the gridlock is so bad) so Chris and I went the very long way around, walking past Times Square until we hit the Evergreen Diner.

yeah....

We got seated pretty quickly, and actually, the first thing that Chris noticed was that the menus were really old. How? There was a silhouette of the twin towers on it...

Other than that bump, the food was pretty delicious, we had some normal bacon, eggs and home fries and sat for a bit before we headed out.

We kind of tried to see the Puerto Rican parade, but the streets were closed up so bad we didn't even attempt to try. So we went on our way.

Hit the spot more than it should have..

I brought Chris over to the Rockefeller centre, which was filled with lots of tourists. They had finally switched out all the flags so it wasn't just the American ones flying everywhere (as it was for Memorial day). We went inside (I had never been inside before and I feel like when you have another person with you, it always makes things easier because you go in a group [group mentality man]) and it was quite beautiful actually. There was a lot of art deco style decorations everywhere and I didn't realize it, but the whole lobby and the area around it is actually filled with stores to shop in! Kind of like a mini-department store.

Just roll with it faces

We headed all the way to the back and walked around the NBC gift shop for a bit when suddenly...

A lady who works in the gift shop went up to us and asked us if we wanted to take a tour of the NBC studios. For free.

We immediately said yes without really thinking about what was happening.

Turns out two people who had bought the ticket before didn't show up and they had two extra tickets that were going to waste!

Great timing on our part.

We walked through the security entrance kind of in awe, shock and disbelief that we just got handed two free tickets for a tour of the studios where they film SNL, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.

Outside the Rock

We started off by sitting in this mini theatre room where they gave us a brief history of NBC and their history of filming in 30 Rock. I don't really remember how much I was told since I was still kind of in shock.

We were led around the building by two NBC pages and it was seriously a really cool behind-the-scenes tour. We visited the sets of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Show with Seth Meyers and then Saturday Night live. The seats for the Tonight show are actually made from the same leather seats as the inside of a Ferrari.

Wow.

Unfortunately, we were unable to see the NBC news studio as it was actually in use (they were busy because of the Breaking news because of the earlier Orlando shooting).

It was quite interesting because everyone who was working in the studios were working in these glass areas so tourists (like us) could see everything that they were doing. They were not closed and boxed in rooms.

One of many bridges!

At the end of the tour, we were able to create our own NBC Late night show! It was super exciting (and a bit confusing since I had no idea what was going on and had to kind of go with everything they told me to) and fun. I got to host my own late show! PLEASE WATCH IT. http://onair.thetouratnbcstudios.com/717AB704

After the tour, they let us keep the pins. Chris and I headed out and started our walking up to Central park. We tried to grab some Starbucks along the way, but... their frappucino machine was ... broken.

Bethusda Terrace!

We asked if there was another Starbucks nearby and the guy said across the street.

Literally, across the street. Why is this even necessary?! WHY DO YOU NEED MORE THAN ON PER STREET BLOCK?

Anyway, we fulfilled our craving.

We tried to go through Central Park but it was quite difficult, considering the fact that the whole East side with Balto, Hans Christen Anderson and other things to see were closed off because of the parade. I was quite sad about it but I showed Chris around the other areas and some of the things that were highlights for me when I did my walking tour beforehand. We checked out all the main stuff, like the main promenade, the besthusda fountain, the Belvedere tower, strawberry

Too bad we did'nt get a row boat...

fields, la rambla and more.

We actually walked up to a map in the park at one point at a really lovely older lady came right up to us and asked if she could be of assistance and tried to give us some suggestions and recommendation. So kind of her. We walked around for a bit more before headed over to the metro, hopped in and took it downtown.

We kind of missed our stop because we were checking out stuff online but afterwards, we went back on our merry way.

We walked around for a bit and I realized that we were in the Grenwich village area and I brought
Chris over to Stonewall Inn to take a look at a piece of HISTORY.

The rally to show support, love and solidarity.

Pizza with almost
everything

Outside, I was not prepared for what happened next. But I was honoured to be there. For those of you who do not know what happened, there was a mass shooting - the worst shooting in American history - in a Gay club in Orlando where 50 people died and dozens more were injured. Outside, the Stonewall Inn was a rally, a rally of love and togetherness. Everyone in the neighbourhood had come together in support of each other and those in Florida. It was actually quite beautiful and moving to stand outside and be a part of an event that is so much bigger and larger than myself and anything I've ever been to. It's a very humbling but heartwarming experience. The speeches were beautiful and carried with them an emotion that hit you like little waves on the beach kissing your toes.

Chris and I left after a little while, as there was more for us to see and we headed over to Joe's Pizza, which is in the neighbourhood and grabbed a pizza pie and oh my god, Chris went hard. He ordered the pizza with all the toppings and, my oh my, did they oblige. They went super heavy on the toppings, to the point where you could just BARELY see the cheese underneath. It was pretty damn good.

Beautiful sunset

Chris and I walked a few blocks over and I showed him the highline (which he loved, I mean who doesn't love it) which is an above ground park! We walked and walked until we found a nice place to sit and eat our pizza. It was pretty filling and delicious, just kind of overflowing with toppings, to the point where we looked like pigs eating because the toppings kept falling off.

We then grabbed some gelato from the place close to us which had a lemon/orange sorbet (Chris loves citrus fruits) and sat down at ate it for a bit. The gelato we got was actually the exact same gelato that was being served by the Italian mission!

Empire State on the
Rooftop!

But the gelato. Bad idea. The highline is right by the West Coast of Manhattan island... so you can imagine how windy it is. And it wasn't just wind, it was the kind of wind that really hits you hard and gets straight into your bones and freezes you. *Shudders thinking about it*

We walked down for quite a bit and felt the sun go down. It was quite beautiful to see.

Afterwards, we looked for a metro to go to, but realized it would be a nice walk since the weather was nice and it wasn't rainy. We headed up and bought some flowers and passed by Madison Square Gardens and then headed home.

:D

At home, we sat down for a little bit and then headed over to to Refinery Rooftop where we got to sit outside for maybe 10 minutes before they had to bring us inside because they had a noise thing that started at 11pm. But we got to be outside and have a really
sick view of the Empire State building!

We sat there for a bit, talked and then headed home and to bed (we didn't watch Game of Thrones this week).

“Let the park live in you until it sings you a song.” ― Zack Love

The fountain

The weather was a bit murkey this morning. Lots and lots of rain.

And of course, I had a walking tour lined up. A few of my friends who I had invited bailed on me so I had to go on the tour by myself, but it was okay! Totally worth it.

It was a four-hour walking tour through Central park and we didn't even hit up half the park.

Insane.

Balto the dog and
this is what Shist
rock looks like, has
layers and layers of
rock

We started off in the square in front of the Plaza hotel and only about 8 people showed up for the walking tour - to be fair though, the weather did not look promising. It was very dark and I definitely felt some spitting when I walked by.

As we were standing in front of the plaza square, we were told a bit about the history of the square. The Plaza Hotel was actually named after the square and the gigantic beautiful fountain in front of the square. It is called the Pulitzer Fountain. Right behind it was the Vanderbilt mansion.As I found out, Pulitzer did not like Vanderbilt and Pulitzer made the statue, modelled after Audrey Munson, face away from the Vanderbilt mansion, so that the butt was always facing towards the mansion.

The bridge is beautiful

How charming. We started off by learning that all of Central Park - it's all 'fake.' Fake in the way that

it is not natural at all, everything in the park was strategically placed and put down in a specific way and order - none of it is "natural" grown. But I kind of like it like that, it looks great.

These tiles have names
of people and how much
they've donated!

So history of Central Park. Originally the city wanted to make some sort of public space for people to enjoy and relax in, so the city didn't choose people to 

design Central Park - at least not initially - the city actually launched a contest for designers to design the park. In the end, they chose the design from Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Now their work was split into two - whereas Olmsted designed more of the greenery, Vaux designed the foundation and the buildings.

Now this may seem like a rip off for Olmsted who had to design the entire 843 acres full of trees, parks, etc., but if you think about it, Vaux and Olmsted couldn't agree on what kind of bridge they wanted so every single bridge in Central Park is completely different. Yeah. Trees take a lot of work - but so do structures.

THERE WAS A SEA
LION IN THE ZOO

As we kept walking, the weather only got nicer and nicer, to the point where the sun came out and I got sun burned... again. 

I learned that Central Park is not a cheap place to upkeep. As I mentioned before, it's about $1 million a week, $52 million a year and a single tree costs about $1000 a week to upkeep. Although the website said it was $65 million. Now this park is owned by NYC, however, most of the funding from the park does not come from here, instead, the Central Park Conservancy actually provides 75% of the Park's annual operating budget. This money comes from donations, gifts, and when people buy things like benches.

The cute little watch
tower with the figurines
that dance in a circle

You can actually buy a bench in Central park and name if after whoever if you want to - but you'd have to pay quite a bit. It is from this generosity that the park is able to maintain itself.

Now for those of you who think this is insane - yes it is- account must be taken in to think about the fact that there are literally thousands of people who go in and maintain the park, throw out the garbage, put in the flowers, etc. It's going to cost a pretty penny.

Rent chess and checker boards

The park is open every single day from 6am to 1am and it goes all the way from 59th street to 110 street. 

We walked by the New York City Zoo, which is something the people of New York really wanted and it was originally free - until the upkeep got too high. They have lots of animals there and it was quite cute with so many kids running around on Memorial day. 

The Mall, so beautiful!

There was a clock tower up top with animals that went around when it hit a certain time. In the summer time, the animals and the music that plays with them is done electronically, but in the winter time, it is done manually - so sometimes in the

winter, it won't go off. 

This whole (South East) corner  of the zoo is actually really the Children's corner because of all the zoos, playgrounds and other fun things for them. 

Right by the
Bethusda fountain

Now Central park is very upper Manhattan, and during the 1800s and 1900s, most people lived in downtown Manhattan, so getting all the way up to Central park was a full day activity. People wouldn't just go in and then leave after 10 minutes, they would go there and stay for quite a while. 

Everything becomes
a tourist gift shop

So there needed to be a place where they had drinks, snacks, etc. For the children, they always believed that kids need milk. So they created this building that served milk for kids. Eventually, later on, it started serving beer for the adults, but it got shut down (too many drunks I guess) and is now a tourist/gift shop (I mean what else would you turn old buildings and structures into?). 

There is a very quaint building along the way where you can actually rent out checkers or chess boards or some sort of game board so that you can play with a friend! How cool is that?!

Alice in Wonderland Statue

We walked over to the only really straight road in Central Park, the Mall where it looked like a beautiful courtyard to walk down. Back in the day, New York was a place to be seen and this street was a great place to be seen. So after church on Sundays, people would go on their "Sunday walk" where their drivers would drop them off on one side of the Mall and while these people walked down in their beautiful attire, dresses, etc., the drivers would drive in a semi-circle and meet them on the other side, That would be their walk.

The fountain and the Angel of Water,
the only statue in the park commissioned

In the Mall, there were statutes facing either side - as I found out, every single statute in the Park has been donated by someone or another and in the Mall, it's actually called the Literary Walk, because of the amount of artists and writers there. The only one-off is Christopher Colombus being is there. There has only ever been one that was commissioned by the Park.

Concert area, behind
is where the GMA
Friday concerts are

We walked down the Mall and ended off by Concert area of Central Park, Rumsey Playfield, where, originally, the only concerts that were allowed were classical

ones - very hoitey-toitey. Now a days, there are many concerts in the park, including many free ones on Friday mornings hosted by Good Morning America.

We kept walking until we reached the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, and let me just say, walking through and under the stairwell to get there is a wonderful experience. It is so beautiful and the ceilings are well decorated.

While our group was there, there was another group singing and holy crap were

Strawberry fields!

they good. The acoustics are wonderful in there and usually it isn't just a random group of nobodies singing - it's usually a professional group or one that is very experienced singing. Today we heard a beautiful choice.

We finally got to the one statute in the park that was commissioned, the Angel of the Waters, which was dedicated in 1842 and the fountain dedicated in 1873.

Imagine memorial 

We walked past two more statutes, the Statue of Alice in Wonderland and the Statute of Hans Christian Andersen, both of which are meant to be for kids to climb and play around - they're meant to be fun.

We next walked by the Loeb Boathouse, which is this beautiful boathouse in the middle of Central Park where you can actually rent out boats and paddle boats and just pretty much go. It's a beautiful boathouse and can actually be rented out for Weddings (The literal wedding, not the reception, you go, you get married, you leave. Seriously). 

We walked down all the way until we reached Strawberry fields which was dedicated to, of course,

The bridge has an amazing view.

John Lennon. Strawberry fields is a designated quiet space, so no loud music, parties, BBQs or anything like that. About 120 countries actually contributed in some way shape or form to the garden. 

When we got to the part where it was dedicated to John Lennon, I gotta say it was pretty nice, there were people singing songs, playing guitar and the Imagine stone was beautifully decorated.

Meant to be a "getaway"

We walked across the Bow Bridge, which has the most amazing view of the Park, every other view is overrated. You could see the boat and the lake perfectly.

Afterwards, we headed down the Ramble for a bit and it was quite a nice way to just keep walking and just get completely lost in the beauty of the nature of it all. It looked quite natural and pretty to walk down.

We walked by something that looked extremely out of place, it was an Obeliesk in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I was so confused. Turns out, this was taken to New York and it took dozens of days to drag it from the bottle end of the city all the way to Central Park! They had very carefully pulled it up with horses and in the 1880s, Egyptology was all the rage among the upper classes. Although this structure was from (estimated) 1450 BC, they called it "Cleopatra's Needle" becuase of their strong association with Cleopatra. 

Belvedere Castle,
which is also where
they do the weather
forcast!

As we were walking, I noticed a gigantic beautiful castle looking structure and as I found out, it was the Belvedere castle, which is open for everyone to go up and see! From there, you have a great view of the park, the top of the trees, the nature and the turtles. I could even see the Delacore theatre, which is where they do Shakespeare in the park! 

Speaking of Shakespeare, we walked through the Shakespeare garden, which was made up of flowers, flora and fauna that were mentioned by Shakespeare in his books. Let me just tell you - Shakespeare mentioned a heck of a lot of flowers.

While walking, I didn't even notice until the tour guide pointed it out, but there are numbers on every pole in Central park to show you where in the park you are (so you can't get lost). 

Shakespeare park!

All in all, I had a great tour and learned a lot, and it was completely meant to be - the sun came out and I got to enjoy the beautiful weather in the park! I even made friends with a local in the park who told me some more fun facts about New York.

I headed home and spent the rest of the day trying my best to update everyone on my adventures on this blog (I am so behind, I am so sorry). 

“I love New York, even though it isn't mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.” ― Truman Capote

The whole station is filled with acorns
and oak leaves

I was so damn exhausted today. I don't think I've been this exhausted in a really long time. I woke up because of my alarm, thank god, and just felt so tired. But I couldn't sleep in, I had another wonderful day of sightseeing lined up! First off, another walking tour at Grand Central Station for 10am. Bleh. But not bleh because I get to learn even more! I had another walking tour, but this time of Grand Central. I want to learn as much as possible about the city  It was honestly one of the hardest thing to do - get

This clock is worth $14 million...

out of bed, my whole body was sore from walking around for literally almost 10 hours yesterday. It didn't want anymore but I knew I had to push! So I got up after lying in bed for like 20 minutes, made myself something to eat and left.

Used to be the center
of NY!

It was my first time in Grand Central. Although I had come in from LaGuardia through the #7 train, I totally skipped it and went straight to my place. Today, I got to really look around and appreciate the station and learn a LOT of history about New York. Like, did you know that Manhattan comes from the Algonquin words "Manna Hat tat" (I'm definitely spelling that wrong, I'm sorry!!) which means island of many hills. Which makes sense, since going uptown is going uphill! And the Bronx is called

Made perfectly acoustic,
you could hear corner to
corner. 

the Bronx (no one else is called "The Queens" or "The Harlem (comes from Dutch Harlem btw)" comes from the Bronx family which used to own that land! How cool is that?! On top of this, the opal clock in the middle of Grand Central is actually worth almost 14 million dollars. Because it's made of opal - not glass. Grand Central was originally named Grand Central Terminal because it was meant to be the "end of the world." This is where you end and stay. All over the terminal, there are a bunch of oak leaves and acorns. This is because the person who helped build most of the railways, Cornelius Vanderbilt, believed strongly in them.

The world's first digit
clock in Chrysler building

Vanderbilt was born on Staten Island and given a rowboat for his birthday. He would row people from Staten Island to Manhattan and vice versa. He charged a nickel. From this entrepreneurial spirit rose a business tycoon. He believed that, parallel to his rowing business and then later railway, something as small as an acorn could one day grow into a big strong oak tree. And that it did. Honestly, that tour taught me so much about Grand Central, for example, the lights are made very specifically so that you feel welcomed, and at home. They are bright and warm.

We then headed over to the Chrysler building, which, as the Central station was meant to be like a step into the future with trains,  the Chrysler building was meant to be that with planes. It was a truly beautiful and big building. Didn't realize it but I passed it through to work many a times and didn't even notice! The cool thing desk was the world's first digital clock. How cool is that? I was in history.

Super expensive old
school parlour bar

Inside of the Chrysler

was that when it was first built, it was the tallest building in the Western hemisphere - until the Empire State came up. But that only lasted for about 40 or so days. The Chrysler building pulled out a long needle point and built even higher! Crazy. Downstairs in the lobby of the building was beautiful. Inside, above the security

We kept walking around and exploring different parts of the same area, from going down to train tracks, to checking out the Grand Central market (Which is ridiculously expensive, like a baguette is $5) and just learning more. There's a really delicious cupcake place that I will have to try sometime this trip! For example, inside the station, up top is a beautiful painting of the stars and constellations. One problem - it's backwards! (But not from the point of view of God). If you look all the way near where the picture of cancer is, you can see a dirty black spot. Wondering what it is? Look no further! It turns out that back in the day, people were allowed to smoke cigarettes and cigars inside the station. So they did, and it meant that the ceiling was disgusting, black and full of ash. During the restoration in the '90's, people

Busy, beautiful day!

actually took soap and sponges and cleaned it all - well almost all of it - they left that one spot as a memory and a keepsake. Super cool right?!

Start of Central Park

And downstairs, there is an oyster bar that is just as old as the station! And right in front of it, is this area, this cool tiled roof that creates sound. If two people stand on opposite corners, they could whisper and hear each other perfectly! THIS IS EVEN COOLER, HOLY CRAP NEW YORK, WHY ARE YOU SO COOL AND FULL OF HISTORY. Upstairs, there is another really cool bar, it's old school and will not let you in with anything but formal attire. In front of this bar, there's a small room that is under renovation. It has lights hanging down in the shape of what? You guessed it - acorns. The trend continues. It was just such an amazing and wonderful tour to go through. I really would recommend it if you would like to take a look at history and how history is formed.

Found this on my way
up to the park. It's
iconic or something

What's really interesting is that New York was really built around downtown, close to the water. And they really wanted to build it up higher and more north. So putting in a railway station would move

the city more north! For a while, the station was the center of New York, until Times Square. It was moved up here because of Broadway. Most of the city is built on schist rock, so the foundation

is extremely sturdy. I also found out that the mayor at the time (don't ask me when) wanted to make New York a world-class city (it is now, with almost 8 million people), and since they had the train station, they just needed a few other things, such as parks (did you know that Central Park is $1 million a week to upkeep?) and a library (Which I passed by later on and is completely fantastic). There's just SO MUCH that I learned that I cannot even begin to elaborate on!

**Friends**

The city is just amazing. There is so much more information I found out that I just can't write down and I just can't remember properly. Looks like you'll just have to come and see for yourself!

In the park!

After the tour, it was about 12pm, so I headed back to the apartment, called my mom to wish her a happy mother's day and just conked out. I was so tired... My alarm woke me up again. But when I woke up, it was beautiful and sunny outside! So different from the weather previously. It was perfect as I was walking up to Central Park to meet up with friends (Yes I have friends, thank you).

Beautiful day.

As I was walking up the street, I saw many really cool things. I was just walking up the street, I saw the Rockefeller Center and it was beautiful. It had so many people in front, it was gorgeous and there were dozens of people sitting outside as well as in and around the restaurant downstairs! It was really nice to see. I met up with my friend, who is interning at the French mission to the UN and her friend too! 

"Afrobats"

We walked around Central Park, saw a bunch of beautiful sights and even accidentally walked into a Japan day! It was really interesting to see how much they were trying to spread their culture and stuff around. And it was so beautiful, I loved the weather so much. Afterwards, we saw a bunch of people congregated around an area of the park so we sat down and watched the show! 

The resevoir

It was actually so funny, it was by a group of guys called the "afrobats" and it was really well done. They definitely practiced a lot and their jokes were so good. It's interesting in the States how open they are with the idea of race and making racist jokes. It was interesting to see. We walked around for a bit more and then found the beautiful reservoir in the middle of the Park and walked all the way around it! My, my was the view beautiful. We then headed over to the side of the park where there was a bench and we sat down and just enjoyed each other's companies.

Nathan's since 1916

At around 6ish, we all headed our different ways and I walked down back home. I tried Nathan's which was one of the oldest hot dogs places in New York. It was delicious. Seriously, fries and hot dogs. I then headed home and headed back to sleep.