Weekend in review

I'd say the first day of interviews went well. My very first one of the day was one my first choice positions, and remained so after the interview. Unfortunately, over 2/3 of the Fellows attended as well, so I'm sure many of them are just as excited. Luckily we have a billion more days of interviews left. It was tough to get from one to another on time, since the appointments were half an hour apart, most of the supervisors ran over their time allotment, and none of us really knew where we were going. By the end of this, I will know lower Manhattan like the back of my hand, however. It's a nice introduction to a part of the city I didn't spend much time in last year. There's no better way to get to know an area than walking it (and getting lost in it...and found again.)

My first full weekend here has been pretty productive. On Friday night, Maren, Erika and I ate at an Indian restaurant in our neighborhood. It felt weird to be sitting in a restaurant like a normal person with the two of them, since we are so used to being volunteers with no disposable income. It was fun! Mm, and tasty... That's one of the things I am looking forward to about not being a volunteer. I'm certainly not going to go crazy or anything, but New York is famous for good cuisine and hopefully I can take advantage of that from time to time. Sunday night I met Naomi, a friend from Westerville, at a restaurant in Park Slope (our affluent and brown-stoned western neighbor) for crepes, and it was also tasty.

Saturday morning, I resumed the road race streak to complete number six of the required nine to qualify for the 2008 marathon. Getting closer! I spent the rest of the day doing things in the neighbhorhood: I walked to the main Brooklyn library (which is huge and majestic and only five blocks from my apartment!) to get a card (I'm now a card carrying member of all five boroughs...), bought a router (internet in my room, coming soon!), went to the hardware store, and finished setting up my room (there was no time during the week; I was sooooo tired after each day). So there you have it. Nothing terribly exciting, but I'm excited nonetheless. Oh, and we managed to get a couch! A dingy couch we found on Craigslist from a sketchy Argentine named 'Fabio,' but a couch nonetheless. We paid $60 for the thing, plus delivery, so the price was right, and it can always be spruced up with a cover. Our living room is finally becoming a common room, with a TV stand, coffee table, kitchen table (sort of - we're using a plastic 'garden table' and wheel in our desk chairs when we want to eat a meal together...) and some lamps. We're well on our way...

Btw, I'm still basically camara-less although I am dying to put up pictures of the neighbhorhood, so hopefully I can get something figured out soon. Photos make life much more interesting.

And our internet is up and running! This this rambling post with many parenthesi. But now, bedtime! Big day with five more group interviews tomorrow.

Have a good one,