"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.

"My life is not that glamorous. I actually live a pretty simple life, really. I just work. I don't have time to do all these glamorous things. I just do my thing, just work." Olga Kurylenko

He came all the way to see me!

This morning I walked into work pretty pumped since I was going to leave early. I headed over to work, started doing my own thing, skipped lunch and did as much work as I possibly could. The morning was quite hectic as I had to put together some materials for a huge meeting my office was about to have with the EOSG.

I got called out a bit early so I could go out and find some office supplies (that were not available at my office) and then headed over to another place to pick up some plants... It was an

In the TCC. 

interesting morning, to say the least. 

After doing my work and then heading over to pick up supplies, I walked over to Grand Central Terminal to pick up Chris! We met up at the Opal clock (that's worth millions of dollars) and just stood there for a bit (I hadn't seen him in over a month). 

Two loves of my life.
And Chris

I grabbed him and then took him home to drop off his stuff and then we headed over to the UN! There, one of my colleagues was kind enough to bring us both upstairs and then we took a mini tour of the building with Nan and Chris bought some goods. He saw a bunch of the artwork and the Trustee Council room which was empty. Afterwards, Chris got to meet everyone who worked in the office (except for the USG). We headed over across the road and went into a building where the night before, my friend with the

"Day of Portugal"

Portuguese Mission invited me to a Portugal day celebration! I hadn't RSVP'd so when I went up to the guy, I showed him the online invitation I got and told him I RSVP'd late and he just told me "it's ok, 12th floor". I'm sure my UN badge had something or another to do with this...

We headed up to the 12th floor and there, we were greeted by a bunch of large posters celebrating

View of the UN, Secretariat and East River. Best party ever

Portugal day and, knowing no one there (The person with that Mission wasn't there yet and my friend who sent me the invitation information wouldn't be there all night since they had work to do), I headed over to the balcony where I stood and talked for quite a while.

The view was completely and utterly spectacular. It was a view of the East River with a perfect shot of the UN, Secretariat and all the (empty) flag poles. I was lucky it was so sunny and bright out, since it gave me the best view of the UN and beyond.

After a little while, we headed inside, where it was starting to really fill up and as we walked in, there

Enjoying our open bar

was an open bar with orange juice, red wine and vino verte (green wine). We grabbed a glass each and walked around to take a look at all the decor, the piano and the flags all around. We stood for a bit by the piano and had an excellent view of the proceedings when they started.

Unfortunately, quite a lot of it was in Portuguese. I caught a few words here and there (English really does steal from every language, doesn't it?) but I didn't really get the gist. There were a few speakers throughout the night and some of them actually did speak English, which was nice to hear. After the speeches, we were delighted to hear some musical accompaniment by a Portuguese student playing on piano. As we walked around, we were served many Portuguese dishes, including deep fried cod balls, Rissóis de Camarão (Portuguese Shrimp Dumplings), Black-eyed beans salad and pasteis de nata (egg tarts). It was a delicious night. Before we left, everyone got a small "Portuguese day" gift bag with catalogue stuff, a mouse pad and a box of "science (the event was cosponsored by a Science and Tech Organization)." As we left, I ran into my Portuguese friend and thanked him for the night and left him to his party and thanking delegates.

On the Patio of the Delegate's Lounge

Afterwards, Chris and I headed over to the UN where we were let in by my friend from the "Mission of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta." Yes that is a thing. She led us into the Delegate's Lounge and since it was so many people's first time there, I had to show them how to get in.

When we got up there, the weather was beautiful! So there were many people both inside and outside of the Delegate's Lounge just relaxing and enjoying themselves. It was the first time I had been to the DL and there were that many people.

Dinner was SO GOOD

I ended up pulling Chris all around the outside patio and inside of the building to show him around and see all the different people, artwork and other stuff around the DL and I'm sure he loved it, hanging out at the "local" UN drinking spot and seeing everyone talking, enjoying and unwinding after a long week. I got to talk to quite a few of my friends (introduce them to Chris) and found out that they had actually been in meetings all day long and my heart is actually crying a bit for them since a lot of them, at the missions, have to stay really late - like sometimes 8 or 9 pm late.

Corner to corner!

Afterwards, Chris and I headed out of the DL to meet up with some other friends (yes busy day) where we grabbed some late night dinner and drinks at a local and delicious restaurant/bar in the neighbourhood. We were sitting in an area that was both half in and out of the restaurant, and we ended up not only watching part of the football game, but also watching an arrest scene... We got to see cops run down the street, arrest someone and then spend about 30 or so minute writing down the arrest. Chris really got the full New York experience today. 

It was interesting. To say the least.

Afterwards we headed home from the fun night and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We dropped by Grand Central Station (since earlier we wanted to try this) and we went downstairs where it was mostly empty and did the WHISPERING WALL!! This is right in front of the Oyster bar and it is engineered so you can whisper into the corner and hear the person on the other corner perfectly fine! Actually many guys propose to their girlfriends this way... (wink wink)

"Brooklyn, it's a great town, a great city. It's New York." - Patrick Ewing

The Cathedral of
Commerce

Today started off pretty damn early (well for a weekend). I had to wake up so that I could get up and leave for about 9am to get to my walking tour at 10am. Now some people may ask why I don't take the subway (As I found out later on Sunday a bunch of lines don't actually run on the weekends so that's one reason) but my main reason is that I want to know this city. I want to walk around, I want to see the building, I want to get to know the area and explore.

The NY skyline, will change in the next
15 years. 

Not bragging - stating a fact, I have quite a good internal compass and sense of direction. I almost always know where I am and where North faces (to those youngin's with them Zphones and samdsungs and whatever, that's more important and reliable than your google maps). I find that going around, seeing things and looking at the city will help me know it and understand it better than if I was under it. Plus it was a beautiful day (so beautiful that I would later get a sunburn).

They called it Pearl
Street because it is
where Oysters came up

I met up my tour group today at 10am to do the tour of Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO. I actually had the same tour guide as I did last week so I was quite happy and excited - I knew that he knew his stuff and was well trained.

City hall! It has an orange flag outside
because of the Dutch! Also the back
was quite ugly because they assumed that
people would never move behind the building

We started off with a bit of the history of the city (which I get a brief of every single time I go on a tour) which I drowned out a
bit but snapped back into attention when our tour guide started talking to us again! We started off by learning a bit about the Woolworth Building, which for a very long time was the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere until the Chrysler building was built! It was also known as the Cathedral of Commerce because of it's neo-Gothic style. 

Beautiful wavy building.
First few floors are actually
public school!

It was pretty cool because it was also one of the first times that people could actually walk around and pick and chose clothing to buy. Before, they would ask the reception desk for a specific article of clothing and size from them and
that was when they'd buy it. Now, people could see these clothing articles and walk around the store with it. It made them more likely to buy it as they would walk around the store with the clothing, almost as though they owned it. Those clever tricksters. 

They had love locks..
but some people
put in love headphones.

As we were going over the bridge, we stopped (which was brutal because it was SO SUNNY out) and talked about the people who had built the Brooklyn bridge. Initially, the bridge was to be engineered by Chief of Engineering, John A. Roebling. However, just a few weeks in, he passed away from what was originally an amputation that would later turn into tetanus and death.

Beautiful plaque for the Roeblings

When he passed away, his son, Washington Roebling took over the bridge. Unfortunately, this Roebling developed caisson disease, which affected him so badly that he became bed-ridden. He had to give his wife, Emily Roebling the plans for the bridge. Emily Roebling ended up going above and beyond. She went took over all the duties and become the first ever woman field engineer. She took over duties like day-to-day supervision and project management. She dealt with politicians, engineers and all the work that was associated with the bridge - all to the point where people actually thought she was behind the bridge's design. When the bridge opened up, she was the first person to cross it by carriage. She ended up studying and excelling in engineering and math. 

Halfway across the bridge

The memorial building in Brooklyn
with people hanging outside. 

We looked at some other buildings that were on the horizon and spotted the beautiful One World Trade Center (some people call it the Freedom Tower but it is not officially called that for fear of retaliation and fear that it may become a target) and I found out that it is exactly 1776 feet tall. Important because that was the year of independence for the United States.

This is the corner where Clinton has
the headquarters for her elections

It's interesting because before, the Chrysler building and 40 Wall Street used to battle to see who was tallest (So I told you about how the Chrysler building, after 40 Wall Street was built, had secretly built a needle in their basement and 3 days after 40 Wall Street was declared the tallest building, Chrysler put up the needle). Both sides argued about the issue of structural integrity and whether or not it counted as the tallest building if the tallest point did not count towards anything.

In Brooklyn Heights! :) 

After the Empire state Building was put up, the argument was over. Unfortunately, the Empire State building has had several suicide attempts. One in particular, was interesting. Because the building is so far up and kind of isolated with very few tall buildings around it, it creates a massive wind tunnel. One such woman tried to attempt suicide and as she jumped off, she was pushed back into the building by the wind. New York wasn't done with her yet.

This was owned by the
Roeblings. but it was
torn down by the
Jehovah's Witness...
which is where they
started wanting to save
historical monuments

It's interesting because the classic New York skyline will change soon. In the next 14 years, New York is expected to gain 30 new skyscrapers. On top of that, they're planning on building one in Brooklyn as well.

As we walked over the bridge, the tour guide mentioned Governor's Island which was originally called "nut island" because of all of the nuts there. Apparently it is also a very swampy and gross area to be around.

This was originally named after army
men, however, the Queen was mad and
renamed all the streets. No one knows
what they were originally named before.

While walking across the bridge, we were told that some IDIOT decided to run across the bridge and scream that the bridge was falling because it was shaking a bit (it's a suspension bridge what do you expect?). People stampeded, some were seriously injured and at least 12 died in this stampede and for a while, people refused to get back on the bridge. It wasn't until P. T. Barnum decided to lead a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn bridge to prove the stability of it. Man, how cool must that have been? 

Beecher

We talk a bit more about the area around us and learned the name "Robert Moses" who was a very integral part of New York city (As I found out, Brooklyn merged with NYC in 1899). He designed many buildings, planned 150 parks, many bridges as well as the roads and highways. He really wanted New York to become a car city but, as we all found out... He couldn't actually drive himself. He was very against subways and public transit, which is ironic, because with the way New York is built, there is just simply too much gridlock! New York's grid system may seem smart to many as it is very easy to
know exactly where you are and how to get back home, but with the grid system, even though only 18% of New Yorkers own a vehicle, the traffic is HORRIBLE. There are simply not enough alleyways to actually have cars go out and so when a street is closed down, it is terrible congestion. Not to mention the roads are simply not big enough. 

Plaque for Jackie
Robinson

As we walked around the Brooklyn heights side, I found out that every Little bit suspicious here... presidential candidate has some sort of tie with New York. Clinton lived in NYC for 90 days, making her eligible to run for governor, Trump was born in Queens and Sanders was born in Brooklyn! Clinton's electoral headquarters is actually in Brooklyn, on the corner of Clinton and Tillery street.

We walked by this huge statue and here we saw this amazing man named Beecher. Beecher was an abolitionist and his church was almost like the Grand Central of the Underground railway. He helped hundreds of slaves escape and for that he is someone to be proud of. He was also extremely progressive, stating that said evolution and Bible could Co-exist. Back in the 19th century. 

One of the first fire
departments to respond to
9/11. The 8 stars are for the
8 firefighters they lost.

We walked back down and found a plaque where the old Brooklyn dodgers used to play - more specifically, the team that Jackie Robinson used to play with. They were called the dodgers because they dodged trolleys back in the day. Some may argue that this is where the Civil rights movement started, when they realized that blacks could play baseball. 

These railways were active
only just a few years ago!

We then found out about the battle of Long Island between the British and George Washington (Who only had one natural tooth by the time he was president). On one foggy night, on Brooklyn, while the Americans were pushed all the way to the edge of the island, the British were camping out, waiting for the fog to lift. Washington, knowing that if they lost that night they may lose the war, lit fires and covers everything in cloth (books, horse hooves) and sneaks
across to Manhattan. Had they been captured, the war would have been over. 

In Trader Joe's

On our way down, we saw a difference in the housing, there were many houses without stoops, which seemed so odd to me because everyone had stoops. The reason for this was because if there was a stoop, then garbage would not fly into
your door. 

As we were walking, the tour guide explained why it was called "DUMBO" - Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. They're starting to call the area under Harlem "SoHa" for South Harlem.

This city man.

All in all, it was a pretty great walking tour. Seriously recommend Free Tours by Foot if you are ever visiting New York.

Up on the rooftop <3

I headed over to Trader Joe's afterwards to buy some groceries (honestly just chips and dip don't judge me) and then walked back to the subway to head back home. It was honestly so hot and sweltering outside I almost felt like I was going to pass out. Protip: always wear sunscreen. I failed to do that and got mighty sunburnt. It was horrible.I went home and rested for a little bit before I headed out again later that night. It was my french friend's birthday that night and she wanted to have a nice party on her rooftop. 

And so we did. 

The Empire state under
the Brooklyn Bridge!

She brought us food (she made salads, hummus, guacamole, etc), drinks and a bunch of french people - it was pretty cool. I had a great time just sitting on her roof top and I had a deal with all my french friends, they would speak to me in English and I would speak to them in French. That way everyone remembered and everyone benefitted by being able to understand each other. 

Taxi'd back home after a safe and fun night!