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| 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
interesting morning, to say the least.
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| In the TCC. |
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).
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| 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
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| "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
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.
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| View of the UN, Secretariat and East River. Best party ever |
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
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.
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| Enjoying our open bar |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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)
