Lunch Break

My internship is going great. This week was the first week where I spent the whole day at the Watson and didn't do any off-site processing. Instead, I was taught some new skills including labeling new books (slightly harder than it sounds) and reclassification. Learning how to reclassify was really cool because it tied together a lot of concepts that I've been learning about in my cataloging class.

This week I did some shopping and art-gazing while I was on my lunch break. I went to go check out the Victorian Photocollage exhibit and the Rodin sculptures.

Cupid & Psyche by Rodin

Spring Break Plans

During Spring Break (March 15-19), my dear friend Michelle is coming to visit me from Seattle. Michelle and I got to know each other during our semester abroad in Grenoble last year. Since we had a similar class schedule and similar hobbies (shopping, eating, and going out) we got to spend a lot of time together and I've missed her since returning back to the motherland.


We have a lot of great plans for when she is here, but I am most excited to go see Avenue Q, the deliciously offensive Off-Broadway puppet show. Other destinations include the Met, MoMA, and Rebel Night @ Otto's Shrunken Head. I will let you now how the visit goes!

Brunch: Rocking Horse Cafe

This past Sunday we went to brunch at the Rocking Horse Cafe, a "Mexican" place. I don't like Mexican or Tex-Mex to begin with so you can imagine that I was not stoked on the idea of eating Mexican east of the Mississippi. I had the Huevos Rancheros which were okay. I've had better. Again, I forgot to take pictures which is too bad because the place was adorable. When Mindy ordered the Croque "Senor", the waiter's eyes got big and he warned her that that particular dish was extremely spicy to which she replied "bring it on" (essentially). She took one bite and was annoyed to find it wasn't spicy at all. Oh East Coasters.

Despite the quality of the food, the quality of the company was superb. I love this tradition that we have.

Trendsetters

I just wanted to note that last week's brunch place, Sanctuary T, was featured on this week's episode of Kell On Earth. I have a feeling that this place is about to blow up now due to the publicity, so I just wanted to put it out there that, we were there before it was cool.

Just call us trendsetters!

Brunch: Santuary T

Every Sunday I go to brunch with some of my girlfriends. My mother suggested that this would make a great topic for my blog. Today we went to Sanctuary T in SoHo. Unfortunately I didn't remember I was blogging about it until after I finished my dish.
What you are not seeing is the remnants of a Banana-Caramel-Nutella Crepe. It was so good I had to stop myself from licking the plate. Lis had the Bacon-Egg-Goat Cheese Sandwich, Mindy had Eggs Benedict with Lox, and Madhavi had the Fresh Fruit Crepe.

The restaurant was right off of Canal Street which divides SoHo from Chinatown. We decided to do some junk-jewelry shopping. The secret to Chinatown? Pretending that you aren't interested in the item you want. The vendor dropped my new sweet bling from $10 to $8. It's a snake, in case you can't tell.
Lis headed off to work, so Mindy, Madhavi, and I headed uptown to help Madhavi shop for her upcoming MBA interviews (we were not successful). On the way they introduced me to The City Bakery which has famous hot chocolate. Really, hot chocolate is a misnomer, its more like liquid chocolate sludge. They also have a Hot Chocolate du Jour. Today's was "Sunken Treasure" which had a chocolate truffle, a piece of toffee, and caramel coral at the bottom of the cup. Then they poured the sludge over it, topped with a house-made marshmallow.
They had also decorated the place with "Marshmallow Curtains". Yes, those are real marshmallows.

Between the crepe and the liquid cocoa, I quickly entered a sugar coma. But oh, so worth it.

Trip to the Aquarium

Two weekends ago I went to the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium in Riverhead, LI with Uncle Joe, Carolyn, Melissa, and the babies! We had a really good time.

New Semester

I haven't blogged in over a month...my apologies! My computer crashed over the break and its still not working :(. I'm sending it to the service center next week, so hopefully it will be up and running again shortly.

I had my first week of classes this week and they were great. This semester I'm taking Knowledge Organization (Cataloging), Tech, and Online Database Searching...its a very technology-based semester! I have a term project for each class including cataloging a personal collection of my own, building a website, and researching a real information need for someone I know.

I also started volunteering with NYCares, an organization which staffs different organizations (everyone from soup kitchens to the NYC Marathon) with volunteers. They currently have 48,000 registered volunteers. The project I am doing is called Culinary Explorers, which is teaching underpriviliged kids 8-12 how to cook. Last week we made southern-influenced food including Un-Fried Chicken, Chipolte Mashed Sweet Potatoes, and Cornbread.

I also had my first day of work yesterday! I am working as a graduate assistant in the Pratt Institute Admissions Office. Yesterday I spent the whole day alphabetizing incoming materials (including transcripts, portfolio evaluations, letters of recommendation, SAT & TOEFL scores, and more). I'll be working Mondays and Fridays that the Pratt Brooklyn campus.

It was a very busy first week to say the least!