New York is AWESOME!

Summer's Review: 5 Stars! The people are SO NICE, Manhattan is BEAUTIFUL, there's never a dull moment (ALWAYS something to do), there's SO MUCH VARIETY IN EVERYTHING, and honestly- even though New York has a bad rep for being dangerous, I feel safer here than I do in Miami and LA combined. There are always people around, everywhere. The lights are always on (which necessarily might not be a good thing, but for me it was pretty magical). The scenery is, well, STUNNING. And there isn't just one type of it, either- YOU CAN FIND EVERYTHING IN NEW YORK. The ocean, the park, downtown... almost every type of scenery you can think of. THE FOOD IS GREAT (and no one can match the abundance of it).

The only thing I can say that might deter anyone from going is: prepare to walk. Hard. Do not bring shoes you wouldn't find comfortable after 2 hours of being on your feet.

Ok... before anyone asks "Where are the pictures?" I just want you to know that I am still presently IN New York and am waiting an hour til 4AM when I have to take the cab to Laguardia for my flight home. I could sleep, but I'll be doing enough of that on the plane and I need to use my time wisely since my schedule for the upcoming week is pretty insane, so I decided to write. FYI:

Monday (today)
3PM Arrive in LA
3:30PM Drive to work
1AM Finish work, go home.

Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday
8AM Wake up, get ready for internship
9AM Drive to internship
10AM-3PM Internship
3PM-MIDNIGHT Work

Friday
6:30AM Wake up, get ready for work
7AM Drive to work
5PM Finish work, drive to airport
6:50PM Take flight to next trip

Pretty rough, huh? *sigh* The lazy girl inside me is crying. That's why I decided that I should tell you a little about my New York trip now (since it's still fresh in my mind anyway) and LATER, when I get back from my trip next weekend, continue the story and post some pictures.

Actually, I think I'll only be able to tell you about my first day for now.

Ready? Set- GO.

Thursday
Flight to Phoenix:
-Sit between ambiguous Brooklinite Mark with a sensitive side and Anthropolitic Scientist/Catholic Dave on a mission to prove the world is not 6,000 yrs old.
-Mark tells me I will love East Village. He gives me great pointers on where to go.
-Dave teaches me the ultimate way to do Sudoko. It's a numbers game that newspapers & magazines are picking up to replace the usual crossword puzzle. VERY ADDICTIVE. Angel, I suggest you give it a try.
-We start to discuss our desires to help the homeless and eventually agree to meet up when we all get back to LA with Dave's church for some great volunteer work.

Flight to Maryland:
-Boring and uneventful

Flight to Laguardia Airport, NYC:
-It's only an hour connection so we get a small heli-plane flight. I sit next to an active Marine officer who is going home to surprise his dad on his birthday. Very nice. He had a "Learn Tagalog" book with him because he wanted to live in the Philippines. Weird, huh? He also gave me some pointers on where to go in NY.
-Took great photos of NY from the plane.

NYC 1st Day:
-Cabbie who took me to Dave's apartment was very nice. He went an extra 20 minutes out of the way for free to show me Time Square. HOW BEAUTIFUL!
-David and I rush to the Festival's Opening Day party. I get my first taste of the New York streets (Dave lives in the part of Manhattan called East Village). We see NYU, the subway (OH MY GOD HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!) and rush to the club that's holding the event.
-BTW: WALKING. EVERYWHERE. THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY.

We get to the club and meet up with Peter (who came the day before) and start to mingle with Film Industry/Music/Art types, promoting our film and having a great time. There were two levels to the club and a huge stage, and every single inch of it that night was full of display booths for all of the filmmakers who wanted to push market their screening. (We didn't get a booth because it was *gasp* $600-$3,000 for one). THERE WERE SO MANY FILMS!! As I sold our film I grabbed flyers for some I wanted to check out:

"The Gift of Barong"
A documentary about 2 Filipino-Americans who grew up in the states and were trying to go back to their roots. I met with the filmmakers (all filipino-Americans) and they were so awesome. Some of them were from LA and I exchanged numbers with them so we could meet up when we all got back.

"Getting My Child Back: Fight Autism"
A documentary about a man who explored the world of autism after his son was diagnosed(spelling?) with it. I was a little iffy about that- the guy seemed a little strange to me but I decided I had to see it.

"Grace Quigley"
A KATHARINE HEPBURN FILM!!!! OMG!!! It was the first ever "writer's cut" of any film, and the writer himself handed the flyer to me. Apparently he didn't like the original version of the film and decided to take matters into his own hands. I'm not too sure how I feel about that idea.

Afterwards David (the best tour guide ever, btw) took us to a great restaurant (I'll give you the name later- Dave's asleep right now and I don't want to make a lot of noise looking for the card). I had some SLAMMIN Garlic chicken and got a taste of an authentic Tuna Melt from Dave's plate while Pete's chicken curry was to die for.
Then we went to this awesome bar (again, names later) that had a lounge in the back with red velvet victorian couches, matching walls, ang golden chandeliers and we had a couple drinks and talked. It's nice to see Dave again. (Geez- it's been what, like 2 1/2 years? So you know there was some 'catching up' chatting that needed to be done.)

Well by then you can imagine it was like 4am, and we all had early mornings the following day, so we decided to head back to Dave's apartment.

TO BE CONTINUED...
Next week = tune in for the rest of my New York trip and see some pics! For now, though, I think I'll rest a bit. Night all! See you in LA! :)