Spring Has Sprung (in my apartment)

While walking home from the Taste of Tribeca fest the other day, it was such a nice sunny, warm afternoon that I was just in the mood for flowers. Since I haven't been very good about planing (I keep MEANING too! I have the party porch AND my fire escape!!) I decided to stop off at a little shop and take a look at their flowers. I found these: cheap, beautiful, and perfectly matched to our colors in our place! Yay for flowers!

International Wall of Post Cards

I've always enjoyed collecting post cards. It's a favorite past time, and I don't really know why, but many many years ago, back when I was goofing around at Michigan State I started to decorate my walls with them. Through the years my myriad of postcards have followed me from place to place, adorning my walls and closets. It usually creates conversations whenever anyone new enters my abode, which is usually fun. I even had the chance to laminate most of them when I was teaching in Korea. My school was cool like that. My friend Lynn helped me.

Anyway, I decided that I'd had enough of my barren closet door, it's so boring. Also I had added to the collection while in Ireland, so I wanted those up, so here it is in all it's splendor: Jane's international wall of post cards!

Taste of Tribeca

I was planning on doing nothing today, just relaxing and getting some work done around my apartment, lesson planning, watching a movie. Didn't turn out that way. My friend Nina called and asked if I wanted to go to Taste of Tribeca. This is an anual even held in Tribeca during the spring/summer that raises money for local schools, and showcases all the fancy restaraunts in the area. I mean really fancy! The tickets were quite steep, but Nina and I decided to both splurge on one, getting 6 different tastes from different restaraunts, and then sharing, doubling our ohhhs and aahhhhs factor. We actually saw Spike from Top Chef (if anyone cares). The highlight was certainly the food though. It was out of this world. Worth every penny! The weather was beautiful, and it was the perfect day for this kind of festival. On top of that, it was sort of a random, unplanned activity, and I love those!
After the food, we headed down the block for a free wine tasting at Chambers Street Wines. Excellent choice, and a good way to wind up the afternoon.
I returned home around 5/6 and was greeted by Dan, in all his trecherous fashion glory. Oh Dan. Well, he ended up fixing his other bike up for me, so perhaps learning to bike in NYC is now possible (on bike paths, I'm not a big fan of street biking). I caught up with this old blog, and then went to a movie with Kate. We saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and it was quite shocking and funny!

In The Heights...again

Dan had gotten tickets to see In the Heights, even though I have gone to see it with my Harlem kids a month or so ago. It was totally different seeing it for myself. I LOVED watching my kids watch it, and seeing it through their eyes, but now it was just me, so I saw it differently. Either way, it was excellent. It's one of those plays that gives me chills during moments. So wonderful! That's why I go to theatre.

It was a rainy day in New York City. Another crazy day for Jane Teacher. The NYSESLAT tests were due today, so I went on a wild adventure through the Bronx trying to get those dropped off. Oy. My job. At least it's Friday!

3 Decker Diner

I had the most horrible day ever, and so I needed comfort food. Kate, Dan and I headed down the street to the 3 Decker Diner and General Store. The sign says it's been there for decades and decades, but I couldn't find any info in an online search other than menus. I guess that's the way with some diner's in NYC. They are everywhere, a dime a dozen, and even if it does have history, they might not be tech savvy enough, or can't be bothered to start up a web page. Perhaps that just makes me a child of my generation, assuming that they SHOULD have a webpage. Guess I'll go have to talk to the owner someday.

I had a delicious omelette, and more, and as I was hoping, it made my day a WHOLE lot better. Dan's chocolate chip pancakes helped too!

Life in the Park

I teach an after school program in Harlem to two of my ESL children, and most of the time I dread doing it all day because all I wanna do it go home after a long day, but the time comes and the boys come and I usually leave in a really good mood. I'll chalk it up to having really cool kids in there, who honestly need the one on one attention, and are pretty much thriving because of it. That makes me feel pretty good, so I step outside seeing almost instant progress.

This is another shot of Thomas Jefferson Park, which now that it's spring is a fun place to reenter the world into after a long day of work simply because it's teeming with people from all walks of life, the people of Harlem, out with their kids, their friends, their boyfriends and girlfriends, their dogs, their teams. Whatever. It's life, and I love to watch that sometimes.

Here is one of the many baseball teams that come out to play in spring.

NYU Knows How to Party!

Grad Alley was tonight, and even though I've been teaching for a year, Dan and my names were still in the program at graduation, because we technically graduated in September. Too bad we walked last year. But that just meant that we got invited to Grad Alley two years in a row. I can't complain. While my parents were here last year for graduation, my mom and I went down for dinner (free food, free EVERYTHING) and had a BLAST! It was so much fun. Danced the night away with our Language people and stayed for the fireworks.

It was just as good this year! We met up with our Brazil girls (most of them were graduating this year) and had a really fun time walking around getting the free stuff, eating junk, watching the street performers, and laughing at everyone in those stupid purple foam hats! Hilarious. We stayed again for the fireworks this year, and then walked up 5th Avenue to Union Square so we could see that the Empire State Building was lit up PURPLE for NYU. I think that's my favorite day of the year to see the ESB. :)