4th of July in the Big Apple

I've gotta say, New York is the place to be on the 4th of July. I started off the day by going to central park with two of my friends to lay out and (try) to get a little bit of a tan. Obviously I take after my dad, and my tanning skills on a scale of 1 to 10 are about a 2. I was out there for about 45 minutes and got a shade darker, which I considered a success. Central park on a sunny day is one of the most beautiful places I have seen so far in New York. Everyone was out enjoying the sun and the company, and it was nice to just sit and relax with friends.

After the park, we got the bright idea to make one of those cute american flag cakes like you see on the cover of magazines for a BBQ we were invited to. So we headed to the grocery store and bought the cheapest vanilla pound cake we could find. We also picked up some cool wip. The nice thing about new york is that there are fruit stands everywhere that are super cheap. So we picked up some strawberries for the stripes and blueberries for the stars. We went back to the dorm to assemble the cake, and I was very proud of our creation.

My new friends Soraya and Aisha, and our cake!

As soon as we got to the BBQ, the cake was a huge hit, and was gone in about 10 minutes! We spent the next couple of hours hanging out and talking with a big group of people from the research program, as well as the first year medical students who organized the BBQ. It was really fun to let loose and enjoy being outside. After the BBQ, every relaxed and recharged for a bit before we heading over to the west side to watch the fireworks show. We stopping into a mexican restaurant to grab dinner, but there was terrible service and we had to scarf down our food to make the fireworks show. The streets were packed with people so we could only see a small portion of the fireworks from our spot in the street. But it was worth it.

The show was about 40 minutes long and included classic fireworks, waterfalls, smiley faces, and hearts. It was really amazing to be able to experience the 4th in New York. They know how to do it right!