Museum of Natural History

I had been planning all weekend to go to the American Museum of Natural History. What can I say, I am a bio-nerd at heart. The museum is home to some great animal exhibits, dinosaurs, rocks and gems, meteorites, dinosaurs, and early humans. There are also some really cool cultural exhibits. I had s specific image of what the museum was going to be like from the movie "Night at the Museum." But it is not exactly how it is portrayed in the movie. Even so, the museum is a very cool place and great for all ages.  Here is a little taste of what you will find at the museum:

Velociraptor

Oh hey, it's my Dad! 

Aztec artifact

Lucy!

The Giant Blue Whale!

Mammoth

An ancient Elk, the antlers were gigantic!

Triceratops

 T-REX!

Rockefeller Center

While we were waiting around for the lottery, Sophia and I decided to explore Rockefeller Center. On our short walk over from Broadway, passed the Radio City building and NBC studios.

When we got to Rockefeller Center, I was caught again thinking, "wow I am actually here." It is one thing to see a place a million times on TV, but a totally different experience to be there in person. It is just crazy.

After wandering around for a bit, we decided to walk over to Fifth Avenue, and go to Sak's.

This store is ridiculous. They have collections from all the top designers, and everything in there is crazy expensive. One completely normal looking scarf was $750. I mean really? Spend your money on better things people!! There was also this horrifyingly ugly red fur coat that was nearly $8000. Now, there were some absolutely beautiful clothes there, I can't lie, but paying for just one thing would wipe out my entire savings. These are some of the pieces that absolutely loved:

Michael Kors

Burberry

The most beautiful Burberry coat I have ever seen. 

One day, Two shows

Since the beginning of my trip, I have wanted to go to a Broadway show. New York is probably one of the best places in the world to see theatre, with tons of shows running everyday of the week. 

I asked around to find out what the best show to see is, and I got an almost unanimous "Wicked." The story is the prequel to the Wizard of Oz, and tells the story of the two witches Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (Glinda the Good) and their unlikely friendship. As one of the most popular shows on Broadway, good tickets go from $150 and up. Now, I only get $140 a week stipend, so I had to figure out another way to get tickets. Some of the big shows on (and off) Broadway have a lottery. The way it works is that you show up 2 hours before the show, put your name on a card, and hope that your  card gets chosen. 13 people win front row tickets for only $25. Now, the lottery is well know, and highly coveted, so nearly 150 people showed up. As you can probably guess, I didn't win. My friend and I were not going to give up so easily though, so we went inside to see if they had any student discounts. Sure enough, we were able to get seats on the bottom level (which usually starts at $156) for only $66. Granted we were all the way in the back, but I still felt like we had a great view of the stage, and boy was it worth it.

The amazing Wicked stage

 It is by far the best show that I have ever seen (I can only compare it to Billy Elliot though so don't take my word for it). The show is funny, witty, dramatic, romantic, and has amazing lighting and effects. I would recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in New York. We went to the matinee showing, so we got out a little bit before dinner. After grabbing some quick food, we heard that RENT (now an off-Broadway show) was also having a lottery. So we said "what the heck? We might as well try while we are here!" And what do you think happened? Both of the friends that I were with won, and one of them gave me their extra ticket! We got front row seats to see RENT, ridiculous! 

I could literally see the sweat on the actors' faces, see their singer's veins popping out, and even look them in the eye. It was a surreal experience, and one of the best I have had here in New York. I mean who gets to see two Broadway shows in one day? 

My friend Sophia and I - Playbills to prove it!

Times Square and Grand Central Terminal

Things are starting to get really busy as my program is getting close to finishing, but I am determined to get posts out, even if they are really late. Last Thursday, I went with a group of friends to the midnight showing of the Dark Night in Times Square. We decided to go early so we could get dinner and fart around before we had to be at the theatre. We ended up taking the Subway, as usual, but instead of doing a straight transfer to the next train, we walked up so that we could see Grand Central Terminal. It was pretty surreal being there. I mean it's one of those places that you see all the time in movies, but it is an entirely different experience to be there is person.

After being a typical tourist and taking tons of pictures, we took the shuttle to Times Square. Walking around Times Square, we passed by a Famous Ray's pizza shop, a place that my dad had recommended to me before coming to New York. I was not completely sure if this was THE famous Ray's, but the pizza was great either way. After dinner, we went to check out the Hershey's store. As in an entire store of chocolate and candy. Let's just say I would not walk in there if you have even the slightest addiction to chocolate. They sell the world's largest bars of chocolate there, weighing in at a whopping 5 pounds. It would probably last you the rest of your life.

They also have a secret staircase that you are, technically, not supposed to touch, but I did anyway :)

 Kid in a candy store--literally. After the Hershey's store, we walked around Times Square, which is even more beautiful at night when all the huge billboards and jumbo-trons are lit up against the night sky. 

To end off our night of healthy eating we walked to the Coldstone's that was in front of our theatre and treated ourselves to some very good for you ice cream. By that time it was about 10:30, so we headed into the theatre to get our seats. A few hours later the show started, and I am sure if you have seen the movie you would agree that it was fantastic. We ended up getting out of the theatre around 3:15 in the morning, and getting back to the dorms around 4. Did I mention I had to work the next day? :)

Fake it till you make it

On Monday, the program had the official group picture day. So we were all required to wear our white coats. I am going to explain a little bit about the importance of the white coat in the doctor's profession. When you enter medical school, there is an official "white coat" ceremony, where you are officially inducted as a medical student. The coat is short, like a regular jacket, distinguishing you from the "real doctors." Once you graduate from medical school, you get an upgrade to the long, white coat that we often associate with doctors and researchers. The funny thing is that for the program, we were given long white coats. Our picture session was only 15 minutes after our last class for the day, so many of us walked over wearing our white coats. It was really interesting to see the reactions of the doctors and regular people walking through the hospital. You could tell from the puzzled/amazed look on their faces that they were thinking "how is she so young?" Well even though I am not an official doctor, yet, it was really cool to wear the white coat and pretend for a day. It is crazy to think that someday soon, it will be for real.

Astoria Sunset

On Monday I went with a group of friends to check out Astoria, which is a town in Queens. We started off the night by getting some Moroccan food, which was pretty good. After, we walked around some more and searched for some ice cream because it was about 95 degrees out. The best part of the night though was walking to Astoria Park, which looks out to the Hellsgate and Tristate bridges. We got there just around sunset, and I was able to catch a few beautiful shots as the night went on. Here are some of my favorites:

5th Avenue

The avenue comes with quite a reputation. 5th Avenue is home to some of the most expensive and unique stores and sites in the world. Walking just a few blocks will take you past the Tiffany's flagship store, Armani, the Trump Tower, several gothic style churches, and of course, Sak's fifth avenue. I went to explore the famous avenue with a few friends in the program on Thursday night. We took the subway from the upper east side and ended up coming out by Central Park. There was a beautiful view of an ivy covered bridge that I had not seen in the park yet. 

As we walked toward 5th avenue, we passed a beautiful statue, and a ritzy hotel characteristic of the area. 

We continued walking and came across the 5th avenue apple store, complete with a huge glass cube. You couldn't miss it if you tried. 

Right next to the apple store was F-A-O Shwartz, the world-famous toy store. As soon as I walked inside, I turned into a little kid, as usual. There were hundreds of detailed stuffed animals, and some of them were nearly $2000! 

As we made our way upstairs, we found the giant piano from the scene in the movie "Big" where Tom Hanks plays chopsticks. It was so cool to be in a place featured in a movie!! 

The store also had some amazing lego models, such a lady liberty herself (still working on getting to see the real thing!) 

There was also a giant (fake) fossil, and I couldn't resist :) 

After messing around in the store for a while longer, we decided to return to our adult lives and walk down to the famous Halal street cart on 53rd St. This halal truck is supposed to be the best in New York, as you could tell from the crazy long line. But we waited like good tourists, and I have to say it was worth it. After fueling ourselves up, we were ready to hit 5th Avenue and go shopping. Of course most of it was window shopping, but there are also reasonably priced stores like H&M, Uniqglo, and Zara. While walking the streets, we walked past several gothic style churches that are characteristic of New York Streets. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral 

They have elaborate stone and metal work and stand out next to the relatively modern buildings they are sandwiched between. The most iconic of these churches is St. Patrick's Cathedral, which, unfortunately was under construction so we could not go inside. But the avenue provided many more site seeing options. We passed by several famous hotels, as well as the Trump tower:

Trump Tower

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am a big fan of Audrey Hepburn, so it was really cool to go to the Tiffany's flagship store and stand in her footsteps. Overall, it was a really fun day seeing the iconic 5th avenue...and practice my window shopping skills :)