WICKED good.

This is the story of a tragedy turned into good fortune.  The tragedy was that my roommate Lauren's mom was supposed to visit her a couple of weekends ago, but she got ridiculously sick and couldn't make the trip.  I regret to inform you that she never did make the trip.  However, the good fortune that resulted was the Lauren asked me if I would like to go see Wicked with her and her friend, Daphne.

This show was BY FAR the best show I've seen to date (including Avenue Q, Marry Poppins, and American Idiot).  Everyone has seen The Wizard of Oz - which portrays the Wicked Witch of the West as just that, wicked.

Wicked is "the untold story of the witches of Oz."  One witch, born with green skin is a gifted student but is largely misunderstood.  The other witch, is the most popular and beautiful student in school.  Wicked tells you the story of their friendship, and how they ended up being the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

My favorite part about Wicked was that it tells a story that was untold before this.  There are tie-ins to the Wizard of Oz which, if  you're familiar with the movie, will be easy to catch on to.  Throughout the play, you're filled in on both witches, Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the infamous flying monkeys.

I absolutely LOVED this show.  If you want to see something on Broadway - SEE WICKED!

Positives:  AWESOME show
Negatives:  Lauren's mom being sick = (

The Burning Sensation

Two weeks ago, I and everyone else at Ogilvy received an intriguing email.  Ogilvy was to hold their own Great American Bake Sale to raise money for Share Our Strength, a national charity that works to end childhood hunger in the United States.  The more exciting part?  There was also a CUPCAKE COMPETITION!  The cupcakes would be judged and then the winner would be announced by Sandra Lee, celebrity chef from Food Network and spokesperson for Share Our Strength.

A bunch of the interns quickly formed teams, and the planning began.  Lauren, a fellow intern, volunteered the use of her kitchen to bake our cupcakes, and after that, the hard part began.  What kind of cupcakes were we to make!?  I browsed plenty of recipes online including things like s'mores cupcakes, cookie dough cupcakes, and churro cupcakes.  When we all met at Lauren's house to discuss -- Gabe introduced his big idea... Jalapeno cupcakes.  Most of us were wary of the idea at first, but we decided to give it a shot. 

When we all met again to bake the practice cupcakes, we settled on two test recipes:  Peanut Butter and Garam Masala Cupcakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting, and Candied Jalapeno Cupcakes with Mango Cream Cheese Frosting.

Peanut Butter Garam Masala Cupcakes

While the Peanut Butter cupcakes were delicious, we ended up deciding to make the Jalapeno cupcakes for the competition.

Unfortunately, I couldn't be present for the baking of the actual cupcakes because my roommate Lauren, her friend Daphne and I had tickets to go see American Idiot (blog post later).  However, I did get to help decorate them the next day before the judging!  We frosted the cupcakes and garnished them with dried mango, candied jalapeno tops, and fresh mango puree.  They looked and TASTED soooo good!

Candied Jalapeno Cupcake with
Mango Cream Cheese Frosting

The perfect combination of spicy and sweet, our cupcake was definitely one of the most original flavor combinations.

Sandra Lee came to Ogilvy today to collect our donation for Share Our Strength and also announce the winners of the cupcake competition.  First she spoke about her history with poverty and told everyone about the organization.  Then she talked about the cupcakes that she had a chance to taste that morning.  Finally, she got to announcing the winners.

All of the different cupcake entries

Honorable Mention went to the S'mores Cupcake.  Our team got THIRD PLACE with our Jalapeno cupcake affectionately named "The Burning Sensation."  Second went to Death by Mudslide, and First went to Coconut Dreams.  All of the winners got a signed copy of a Sandra Lee cookbook!

Check us outttt, interns making names for ourselves at big bad Ogilvy = )

The Big TWO-TWO

Well ladies and gentlemen... I've finally made it to the birthday that means nothing - 22!  Every birthday before 22, you have something to look forward to.  You looked forward to being 13 so you could be a "teenager."  You looked forward to being 16 so you could drive.  You looked forward to being 18 so you could gamble, buy cigs and porn (if that's your cup of tea), and vote.  You looked forward to being the long awaited 21 so you could legally drink alcohol and go to bars!  You looked forward to being 22 so you could.... um.... be 22?  Oh yeah, that's right, NOTHING GOOD COMES AFTER THIS!  After 21, you get older and older and typically begin to dread the years that go by!

Proposition:  We need to invent more milestone birthdays!  Like 23, the year where you can.... Okay I don't have anything yet... But I'm going to work on it!

My parents had flowers delivered to work!

Lauren bought mini cupcakes from Crumbs to celebrate! 
Best Roomie Everrrr

 Anyways, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!!

Well the Shake Shack is a little old place where...

I first heard about the Shake Shack through Food Network.  I don't remember which show it was, but I do remember talk of delicious burgers, ice cold shakes, crispy fries, and super LONG lines.  When I told people in New York City that I had never been to Shake Shack, the most common reaction was one of shock and amazement.

This is ittt!

On the recommendations of many New Yorkers, my roommate Lauren and our friends Meylin and Desiree went to the ORIGINAL Shake Shack, the one in Madison Square Park.  Due to the famous long lines of hungry urbanites, Shake Shack has the "Shack Cam."  There is live streaming video of the line at Shake Shack which constantly plays on their website, so you can check the line before you go!

To our surprise, the line consisted of ONE MAN when we got there!  We ordered our food and sat in the park with our little buzzers to await our greasy hangover cure.

Meylin willing her buzzer to buzz.

No wonder this place is famous.  The food was DELICIOUS.  The burgers were so juicy they were dripping.  My recommendation... don't eat anything before you go!  Get there early (we got there around 11:50 a.m. on a Saturday and there was no line)!  Order the Shack Burger and a Peanut Butter Shake, and you'll be good to go for the rest of the day.

Positives:  SHAKE SHACK!  No line, delicious food
Negative:  $6 milkshake?  Come onnnn - The shakes cost more than the burgers!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

My parents accompanied me back to NYC after Sarah's bridal shower weekend!  Sunday night, I was absolutely exhausted due to the fact that I got a total of 9 hours of sleep all weekend, so I left my parents to fend for themselves after we got to Penn Station and I headed home to CRASH.

Monday (my mom's birthday), I had to work, so Deb and Barry explored the city by themselves. I went to their hotel room once I was done working and we headed out with our stomach's rumbling and Grimaldi's calling our names.  I've been talking this place up so much, that I assume their expectations were pretty high, so I hope they weren't disappointed.  We ordered our pizza for takeout and ate down at the promenade.

Tuesday, Lauren and I met my parents after work and we grabbed a quick dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (so New York right?) before heading to MARY POPPINS!  The show was SO good.  I'm not really a fan of people describing things as "magical,"  but that is undoubtedly what this was.  If you're thinking of going to see a show on Broadway, I highly recommend this one.  The story differs slightly from the movie, but rest assured the classic songs are still there.

Megabus... YOU SUCK.

This is my little online rant about Megabus.  The first time I took Megabus to State College from New York City, it was great!  The bus pulled out from near Penn Station at about 7:00 a.m. and got to State College around 11:15 a.m., and we even took a 15 minute stop.  Couldn't really have gotten any better unless I had gotten there early enough to get a window seat!

So when I had to buy a bus ticket to go home this past weekend for my sister Sarah's shower, I thought, yeah, Megabus is only $23, I can work most of the day Friday, take the 4:30 p.m. bus, and make it home by 9 p.m.!

WRONG!

When I got to the bus stop, one of the workers told me that the State College/Pittsburgh bus was running a little bit behind schedule.  It turns out that "a little bit behind schedule" means AN HOUR! You may be thinking, cool it Maria, it was only an hour late.  But that was only the beginning of Megabus' giant fail.

We finally got on the road around 5:30 p.m. and everyone was relieved to be on the road.  Shortly after leaving the city, right outside of the Lincoln Tunnel to be exact, our bus driver pulled that thing over to the side of the road and made an announcement that he was going to turn the bus off and back on again in hopes that it would "reset itself."  What does that even mean?

Turns out the bus was incapable of "resetting itself,"  so we waited there on the side of the road for over 2 hours for a new bus to come rescue us.  The only saving grace was that the girl I was sitting next to (shout out to Ashanti) was a grad student at PSU, and she was SO funny.  For real, that girl should be a comedian.

After multiple buses drove past us and honked, our rescue bus finally arrived and we got on the road yet again.  As the bus driver said, "Well, we're already screwed on time, and I'm sure everyone is thirsty and hungry, so we're going to stop as soon as I see a gas station and then we'll stop somewhere again to get something to eat."  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  We are already running like 4 hours late and you're going to stop to get some cheetos?  Anyways, that being said, I have to commend the guy.  He kept his spirits up even though he had to be just as discouraged with the situation as everyone else.  He actually encouraged all of us to call Megabus and tell them how we felt about that little trip.  I think I might just do that... or get Barry to = )

We ended up pulling in to State College around 2:00 a.m. -- FIVE HOURS LATER than we were supposed to get there.  It seriously reminded me of a field trip in elementary school where our charter bus broke down... it was terrible.  Zach, being the wonderful boyfriend that he is, came to pick me up anyways even though it was SO late, and we got home around 3:30.  Talk about a long day.

So yeah... anyways... Megabus, YOU SUCK.

Avenue Q

This past Tuesday, Lauren (my roommate), our neighbor, Sarah, and I went to see Avenue Q at New World Stages.  We bought the tickets through EHS, our summer housing, so we only had to pay $40.  I first heard about Avenue Q when Duff and the Charm City Cakes crew from Food Network's Ace of Cakes made a cake to celebrate the opening of the musical.  From that, I gathered that it was a comedy, with puppets as the main characters, and it could be a little bit dirty.

 According to Wikipedia, "It is an 'autobiographical and biographical' coming-of-age parable, addressing and satirizing the issues and anxieties associated with entering adulthood.  It's about a kid named Princeton who moves to Avenue Q after he graduates from college.  Throughout the play, he's constantly trying to find his purpose in life.  Anyways, I'm not going to tell you a ton about it.

The verdict?  It was a GREAT show!  It was in fact pretty dirty, well, as dirty as puppets can get I suppose.  "How can puppets be so racy?" you may ask... well, there was a puppet sex scene, a song called "The Internet is for Porn," and a character named Lucy the Slut.   So no, I wouldn't take my mom to see it (those of you who know Deb can imagine why), because I know from 21 years of experience that she does not appreciate that kind of humor.  As for the rest of you, GO SEE IT!  It was a great show and was so funny.

This is what a full time job is like?

I went home for the 4th of July and totally surprised the parents.  They had noooo idea!  I hung out with ZB a lot of course, but go to have some family time too.  It was so nice to be home, but the weekend went by wayyy to quickly.

So now I'm back, and today marked the beginning of week 5 of my internship with Ogilvy!  That means, after this week is over, my New York City adventure will be half way over = (. 

I am realizing that having a full-time job is exhausting!  For the past two weeks, I have worked 48.5 hours each -- which makes for a nice paycheck, but a tired Maria.  With having lots of work to do for my Avon team, and then working on this IKEA Intern Project, it's not uncommon for me to get home after 9 p.m.  Lauren is usually home already, and we are content to eat food, chill on our beds, watch TV, and fall asleep.  When I look back at the recent times when I made fun of my parents for going to bed at 10:00 p.m., the humor turns to envy, and I think to myself, "I wish I could go to bed at 10:00!  I'm so tired!"

At this point, Lauren and I have decided to start taking serious advantage of the EHS events -- especially shows.  Last night, after our reunion and Chipotle date, we bought tickets to see both Avenue Q and American Idiot!  Soooo excited.

As for this blog, sorry I haven't written in so long!  Also, it seems to be having some technical difficulties and not letting some people see all of my posts.   I have no idea what's up with that... but if it continues to be a problem, maybe I'll call someone from Blogger and have to tell them where to put their stupid blog.

Be on the lookout for an Avenue Q review after Thursday's show!

Positives:  Tickets for Ave. Q and American Idiot, nice paycheck
Negatives:  Only 5.5 weeks left!

ZB in NYC pt. 3

This will be the final post from Zach's visit!! After the Mermaid Parade, we headed back to my room to get ready for the night. We made our way down to Old Fulton Street so I could introduce Zach to Grimaldi's! We ended up waiting in line for something like an hour and 15 minutes, then devoured our pizza in about 5 -- it was soooo good!

The view from the front of the line

This guy is the mannn

After Grimaldi's, we walked down the street to the Brooklyn Promenade for the 3rd night in a row.  We walked around a little bit, sat on a bench for a while, then decided to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge!

Afterwards, we waited in line for 45 minutes to get ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory before heading home for the night.  The next morning, we went to a diner for breakfast and I escorted Zach back to Penn Station where the New Jersey Transit took him away from me = (

ZB in NYC pt. 2: Mermaid Parade = Indescribable Freak Show

So, I'll pick up where I left off. Saturday, we headed off to Coney Island, and words can not describe what we witnessed there that first Saturday of summer. The day started off being pretty normal. It took about an hour to get there by train, and once we arrived, we walked around a little bit and decided to ride the Cyclone - a super old, wooden, rickety roller coaster. WARNING: do NOT ride this roller coaster unless you like the feeling of whiplash, spine compression, and/or all around agony. Okay... I guess it wasn't that bad, but if given the choice, I would not ride it again.

Only $8 a ride with a complimentary sore neck

After riding the Cyclone, we waited in line to get Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs. They were delicious, but before we had much time to digest, we lined up along the road for the Mermaid Parade. I must say, some of the sights of the parade had the ability to bring those hot dogs right back up.

The line at Nathan's Famous

Just to back it up a little bit, before we went to Coney Island, we knew that the Mermaid Parade was to be held that day. We realized when we got there that the park and surrounding area was absolutely packed with tourists and locals and mermaids and freaks. We saw signs like the one below and tables selling Mermaid Parade t-shirts. We started to get the sense that this thing is kind of a big deal, but we had no idea what we were in for until we saw the actual spectacle, the people that the Mermaid Parade draws to Surf Avenue.


Among many other things, we saw: men in mermaid drag, mer-dogs, topless mermaids (pasties optional), and mermaid families with baby mermaids in tow. It was quite the experience. These pictures do not do the Mermaid Parade justice. My words don't come close to shining a light on what we saw that day. It's something that can only be experienced in person, and believe it or not, I would recommend that you do!

Overall theme of the parade: BP sucks

Zach had a theory, perhaps because of all of the merMEN dressed as merMAIDS (like the one below), that the Mermaid Parade had its roots in gay culture. This was something that I was not convinced of and in fact thought was downright incorrect. So, we made a little bet; whoever was wrong had to buy pizza at Grimaldi's that night. Who won? Well... Zach bought the pizza.

This guy was SO funny

ZB in NYC pt. 1

First off, my apologies for not posting for a whole WEEK! It turns out that my job and my intern project and everything else is keeping me really really BUSY. Let's just accept the fact that I'm going to average 1-2 posts a week (and I don't want to hear any complaints from my loyal fans! haha). Be prepared for longer posts if I have to recap a whole week! You can split up the paragraphs over the days I don't write if you need a fix.

So anyways, this past weekend, Zach came to visit me = ) He drove to New Jersey on Thursday and took a train into the city, I walked and met up with him after work. Of course when I finally saw him, he was across the road and there were a million cars whizzing past in between us. I had no choice but to dart across, weaving in and out of the cars (Frogger, Maria style). Horns were honking at me, I got hit by a taxi, rolled up onto the windshield, and Zach caught me on the other side. (Actually... we waited impatiently for the red light and finally got to each other.)

From there, we walked to Times Square to take the subway back to my place. We waited for a little bit and a 3 train finally came! The train pulled away from the platform and no sooner did I say, "It takes about 20 minutes to get home from here," when the train slowed, eventually came to a stop, and a booming voice from the speakers said that there was a situation and the staff had to go check it out. You've got to be kidding me. Weekend goal: Make Zach love NYC. So far: not looking so good!

We waited for what seemed like an hour (but what was actually probably 15-20 minutes) before the train started to move again, and we finally arrived safely at the EHS Clark Street Residence (my summer home). I had cooked pasta for us the night before, so we heated that up, ate dinner and wandered around the neighborhood for a little while.

Friday (since I skipped work, with permission), we ate some delicious bagels and decided to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It's only 2 subway stops away from my place, and as soon as we got to Battery Park, we bought our tickets for the Ferry. As you'll see in the picture below this paragraph, we got our picture taken with some guy dressed up as the Statue of Liberty. He practically begged us to come get our picture taken, (no signs, no mention of price), and afterwards, he tried to make us give him $5! Hellllll no. We bickered back and forth with him for a minute before just walking away. Go ahead and chase us in your green spray painted robe... jerk.

Creep.

Soon after, we realized that the line extended the whole way from the ferry, practically around the block, back to where we bought our tickets. With only 3 days to spend together, we decided we didn't want to waste 4 hours waiting in line, especially with the sun that day and Zach's condition (aka, red hair!). We sold our tickets to 2 random people and made our way to the FREE Staten Island Ferry, which provided us with decent views of the Statue and also a nice boat ride! Once we made it to Staten Island, we grabbed an exquisite meal of pretzel dogs and awaited the next ferry back to Manhattan.

On the Staten Island Ferry

...pretty self explanatory

Other events of the day included: going to see Toy Story 3 at a movie theater near Penn Station, taking Zach to Ogilvy to see where I work, and eating dinner at a cute little place near there. We also walked down to the Brooklyn Promenade again (soooo pretty at night).

Saturday we went to Coney Island, but in my opinion, mostly due to the Mermaid Parade, I think that day warrants its own post. Stay tuned for Mermaid Parade = Indescribable Freak Show.


Positives: ZACH CAME TO VISIT, Staten Island Ferry is FREE, Toy Story 3, Brooklyn Promenade, EVERYTHING
Negatives: broken first subway ride, creepy statue man, 4 hour line

She works hard for the money

My second week of work is coming to an end, and so far, I really, really like my job and New York in general! I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I'm working on the AVON account, which I think is so cool because it's a worldwide brand that people actually recognize. Sometimes I seriously get home from work, see an ad on TV, and say to my roommate, "Ogilvy made that commercial!" She's probably getting really sick of it, but I can't help but notice that their work is everywhere. I love, love, love Ogilvy.

As a part of this internship program, we have to complete a project with an assigned team. We found out at our Lunch-n-Learn tuesday that this year, the project is to create an advertising campaign for IKEA! At the end, all of the teams will present to a panel of judges from both IKEA and Ogilvy, and they will decide who wins! The assignment is pretty similar to projects I have done for classes before, but with more on the line, so I'm really excited.

The best thing about this week... drumroll please... ba da da da da da da da... Zach is coming to visit me! He's actually coming tomorrow (thursday) night, and I am SO excited to see him = )

Positives: Zach coming to visit, IKEA project, love work
Negatives: none to be seen!

Subway maintenance will be the death of us

Once again, we went out both nights over the weekend. Once again, we tried to take the subway home. Once again, we gave up and called a cab. For some reason, we can't seem to get it right! There is always maintenance going on during the weekends, which completely throws our plans off. Here's the usual sequence of events: we hopstop directions and write them down before leaving, they end up being wrong because a certain train isn't running/a track is being fixed, we ask a stranger where to go, they tell us the wrong directions, we get lost, we take a taxi. Better luck next time?

Anyways... this past weekend was really fun! Friday, we went to Greenwich Village and wandered around. After accidentally stopping at a gay bar where the bouncer told us we probably didn't want to be, we tried 2 more places and eventually ended up at Down the Hatch -- the place we went once last weekend.

Typical subway pic

Saturday during the day, Lauren and I went to get my eyebrows threaded. If you have never heard of this, look it up on YouTube! It's so nuts -- and hurts like crazy! Then we met our neighbor Catherine at Grimaldi's Pizzeria (voted the best pizza in NY by the Zagat guide). We had to wait in line for 30 minutes, but it was so worth it. Great news for us, it's only about a 10 minute walk! Afterwards we walked down to the Brooklyn Ice cream Factory under the Brooklyn Bridge. The ice cream was a little pricy but really good, and the view was amazinggg.

White pizza... so good.

BK Bridge

Saturday night, we went to this place called Butter (apparently so cool that they go there on GossipGirl), for Lauren's friend Julia's birthday! Reasons why it was cool: we didn't have to wait in line, it was really fun, and we didn't have to pay for drinks (Julia had some connection to a promoter. Note to self: meet more promoters).

Positives: bangin pizza, Butter
Negatives: getting lost again

Intern Scavenger Hunt

As you may have caught in my last post, all of the interns will work on a group project this summer. We were split into our group project teams to do a scavenger hunt! My team consists of Erik, Meylin, Callie, Margaret, Gabe, and myself. The scavenger hunt was interesting and I think we all had fun (despite the rain). We had to take pictures for all of the items on the list and compile them into a PowerPoint presentation to be turned in to Morgan and John by no later than 6 p.m.

Rules:

• All photos must be taken outside of the Ogilvy building
• At least 3 team member should be present in each photo
• You may not use Ogilvy employees to help answer the clues
• Entries are due via email by 6 p.m.

Judging will be based upon:

• Creativity (35%)
• Accuracy (30%)
• Time to complete (20%)
• Presentation (15%)

Clue #1: This account/brand was won in 1954 and has kept Ogilvy clean ever since.

Unilever

Clue #2: Ogilvy's BIG idea in Times Square

The Hershey Store

Clue #3: This campaign made us the first ad agency to win an Emmy

American Express

Clue #4: They held David's pants up on most days

Red Suspenders

Clue #5: Name of our Company Intranet Site; "We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues ________"

Truffles

Clue #6: This client's move to Ogilvy in 1994 made headlines in The New York Times

IBM

Clue #7: In 2005, we won this account, a major Wall Street institution, located in Time Square

Morgan Stanley

Clue #8: Picture that best embodies what you perceive to be the quintessential IKEA consumer

Clue #9: Take a picture of something red... and BE CREATIVE!

We RE(A)D this book by David Ogilvy

Clue #10: Picture that best represents your team

FIRST DAY!

Just as a warning right off the bat, this post is most likely going to be pretty long! I apolozige about the length, but it's mostly about Ogilvy and how awesome it is, so if you're not interested, just don't read it!

I swear, it was impossible to sleep the night before my first day! It was a kind of "it's Christmas and I'm so excited I can't even sleep" feeling, mixed with the paranoia of "Oh shit did I miss my alarm!?" which resulted in waking up every half hour and frantically grabbing my phone. I did in fact get up on time, get ready, and take the correct train! Everyone had to be to work by 8:30 for our day of training. I met a fellow PSU-er, Arielle, in Times Square so we could walk to Ogilvy together, and we ran into Tyler along the way.

We ate breakfast, met all of the other interns, and filled out some paperwork. Spencer Osbourne, who has worked with Ogilvy for 17 years, welcomed us (he was SO hilarious). He gave us some great advice and had the whole room laughing. He also told us that we were chosen from something like 700 applicants, so we should be proud of ourselves!

We spent a lot of time doing tech training for the inter-office communication program called LotusNotes and also learned how to enter our time sheets online. Training was intermixed with a few coffee breaks, chances to mingle with all of our fellow interns and some Ogilvy employees, and lunch!

Rae and Marcus gave us a tour of the building! This place is so full of amazing things:

• A rooftop deck (with SUCH a beautiful view)
• A barber shop (complete with the barber that actually cut David Ogilvy's hair)
• Nurse Penny's office (kind of like a school nurse -- and she has a massage chair)
• A gym for employees (only like $30 a month)
• Eyepatch (their in house production studio)
• An awesome cafeteria and faux Starbucks
• Pieces of art and murals all over the walls
• A bike program (you can just borrow a bike and ride it around for a while!)

The roof!

These pictures don't do it justice.

A cool piece of artwork!

They also told us about different events and networking opportunities:

• Tuesdays@2 - Educational events with speakers from both outside and inside the company
• Professional Networks - groups within the company for different ethnicities and interests
• Wet Wednesdays - Social events sponsored by one of the professional networks, usually 1 every other month which include things like food, alcohol, and entertainment!

We met our business leaders, Morgan and John, who will be our key contacts for anything internship program related, like our scavenger hunt, group projects, and Lunch-n-Learns (every Tuesday we all get together to eat lunch and listen to a guest speaker in preparation for our final projects).

At the end of the day, I finally got to meet my manager, Amanda, who introduced me to other people on the Avon account (my co-workers for the summer!).

Although we had a lot of information thrown at us all at once, and I have over 30 new names to remember (not my strong suit), it was such a great day and I'm so excited about this opportunity!

I probably left out a ton of things we did and people we met, but I just can't remember it all and I'm sure you're sick of reading!

New York City is a Drug

First weekend out in NYC? SUCCESS! With a few minor setbacks. My roommate Lauren's friend Steph stayed with us this weekend because she had some interviews in the city, and it was so much fun to finally go out! The first night we went to a bar called Brother Jimmy's in Union Square. The best way to describe it I guess would be like a college-bar kind of atmosphere, minus the fact that a can of Natty costs $4.50.

Lauren and I before Brother Jimmy's

They were doing maintenance all weekend on the subway right near our dorm, so we got lost and had to ask for directions both nights. Saturday night, we tried to go to this place we found online called Down the Hatch in Greenwich Village. It seemed like it took forEVER to get there, and once we finally got to the door I realized I had forgotten my ID! Epic fail. It was still kind of early (early for NYC anyways) so we went ALL the way back home to get my ID, then made it back and still had a fun night! Shout out to the name of this post, the bartender gave Lauren a single of his band's song, "New York City is a Drug." They are called the Dirty Pearls and that song is delightfully cheesy... hah.

At Down the Hatch

We ended up taking a taxi and getting home around 5:15 a.m., as the sky was getting light. I guess this is how they roll in NYC, but we have already decided we won't survive if we try to do that every weekend!

Brooklyn Heights at 5:15 a.m.

Positives: GREAT first weekend, so fun, met a Bradley Cooper look-a-like
Negatives: Forgot my ID, expensive drinks, got lost again

LOST!

Today started out great. I got up early (well, early considering I don't have work yet) and went to the gym. It's surprisingly really nice! You can tell some of the equipment is kind of old, but the place is huge. Living with EHS for the summer, everyone can get a free membership for their time here, so that makes it even better!

Eastern Athletic Club

After that, I got all ready and embarked on my first solo subway journey. I made it safely to Ogilvy around 1:00 to meet with some of the other interns. Everyone was SO SO nice. We got lunch at a little place down the street and Armaan and Sandy acted as our tour guides for the rest of the afternoon. We went to SoHo, walked around, went to Top Shop (which was super expensive for my taste), then stopped at a little carnival-type game and tried to win some big bucks. The only thing we walked away with was this bit of advice about the number card in the game, "It's like a dress... It's what's underneath that counts!" Then we went to a place called Gatsby's where Armaan so graciously bought a round of drinks (thankss!).

First drink in the city!

At this point, things started to get a little rocky. I decided to head home when we left Gatsby's, so after getting directions from a guy that worked there, I thought I was all set. My fellow interns pointed me in the right direction, and after getting sidetracked in a store (and buying a cute dress) I was on my way. I never found the subway stop near Canal Street that the guy at Gatsby's mentioned, so I ended up asking like 3 random people how to get home, all of whom gave me different, and WRONG, directions. After numerous men asked me if I wanted to buy _______ purses (insert pretty much any designer name), I finally found a guy at some theater who told me to take the A train to Chambers street, then get on the 3 train from there, which finally led me back to my beloved Clark Street.

At least I eventually made it! Some more great news, I can pretty much bypass the walking portion of my commute because Ogilvy has a shuttle from Penn Station! Woo! Also, we're going out tonight, so I'm off to take a nap!

Ogilvy Shuttle

Positives: Nice gym, Met awesome interns, Ogilvy shuttle to work, Cute new dress, Going out tonight!
Negatives: GETTING LOST!

Practice Commute

So my parents arrived at my place around 7:15 this morning to practice my commute. We boarded the subway with no serious problems. My dad nearly caused a domino effect by crashing into some poor girl when we started moving, but other than that, the ride went smoothly. I get off the subway right in Times Square, then have about a 20-25 minute walk to get to Ogilvy. HopStop.com was pretty dead on in that it takes me about 45 minutes to get to work.

First subway ride... SUCCESS

Times Square

I won't get to go into Ogilvy until Monday for orientation, but the building looked so, so nice. I'm super excited to get started but also a little nervous.

Ogilvy!

We got breakfast at the Market Diner right down the street from the office, then headed back to Brooklyn. After a slightly teary-eyed goodbye (on my mom's part), my parents headed home and I bought some groceries at Gristedes. My roommate, Lauren, and I just hung out in our room and took a nap until 8 when we went downstairs for free pizza... only to find that they bought THREE BOXES of pizza for our WHOLE building. Way to go EHS. We walked around Brooklyn Heights a little bit, went to Chipotle for dinner, and settled in for Real Housewives of New York City. We're determined to spot at least one of the housewives while we're here!

Tomorrow I plan to meet up with some of the other Ogilvy interns for lunch, so that should be fun! Then we're going out for the first time for Lauren's friend's birthday, which should be even MORE fun!

Positives: Nice office building, cute diner down the street
Negatives: Long commute, NO FREE PIZZA!

Finally Here!

A wake up from my sister Sarah at 6:30 a.m., 2 trips back to the house for forgotten things, and one pit stop along the way... so begins my summer in New York City. My parents so graciously drove me (and a van full of my stuff) to Brooklyn today to move into my dorm-like room. I risked being laughed in the face as we hauled bin after suitcase after duffel bag into the lobby of the EHS Clark Street Residence. Luckily no one made fun of me (just a few sideways glances), and I actually fit everything into my room (and decided to send a few things home with my parents).

We unpacked all of my stuff, walked around Brooklyn Heights for a while and got some dinner at Monty Q's Brick Oven Pizza. My (and Michael Scott's) favorite New York pizza joint, Sbarro, will have to wait for another day. After getting a public transit ticket and buying a few groceries, I finally met my roommate, Lauren, and got my internet set up.

A park that's right down the road

My dad and I in the park

Taking the risk of sounding like a giant nerd, I will disclose that my parents are accompanying me on a practice commute to Ogilvy tomorrow morning! I hope it's not too terrible since I'll have to make it for the next ten weeks.

So far...
Positives: Liquor store, grocery store, and gym all within 2 minutes! Nice neighborhood.
Negatives: Shared closet, communal kitchen