It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I apologize for the delay in posting. I fly out tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with the Schrags, and am so excited! Before I spend Christmas in Kansas, I want to give you all an update on Christmas in NYC.

Christmas started November 1st. No one is surprised by this. It seems to be the norm across the country.

CFY has kept me busy through the holiday season. Sometimes I feel like I barely have a minute to remember it's Christmas! Then I walk past Macy's, and I am quickly reminded it's the holiday season.

Katie and I started the holiday season with the intention of seeing the Rockefeller tree lighting ceremony. Big mistake. We weren't really moving quickly that night, and knew we were going to miss most of the ceremony. "No big deal," We thought. "The tree will be lit by the time we get there, and the crowds will be gone." HA! Wrong. The tree was lit alright, but getting off the subway at Rockefeller Center proved to be much more difficult than anticipated. Once we got out to the street, we were like salmon swimming up streaming against a sea of people coming from the tree. All entrances were blocked by police. The tree was closed. We missed it.

Later we went during the day to see it. It was a tree with lights on it. The end.

The first Sunday in Advent, Sara, Katie, Will and I went ice skating at Citi Pond in Brayant Park with the Yoders, a family from church. They  traditionally take the volunteers ice skating every year. It had been awhile since I was on the rink. I fell a couple of times, but it was nothing compared to Will. He took out a child on his way down! See pictures below for the fun times :)

Menno House on skates!

Will about to fall down. Again.
To be fair, this was his first time skating, and he's from Zimbabwe...

Manhattan Mennonite Church had a Lessons and Carols service and Christmas potluck on Sunday. I sang in the choir. It was a great time!

Last night, Menno House had their Christmas party. Laura and I made Spinch-Goat cheese tartlets and Cajun Meatballs. We also had Jovon's famous pizza, Sara's Grandma's notorious Jello Salad, and Leah's stuffed mushrooms. Yum!!

We did a gift exchange. I was lucky enough to get Leah's, "Leah Singz Kitty Krismas." A collection of holiday favorites featuring Leah Zombie Kitty meowing along. Haha! So great :)

I'm looking forward to continuing the holiday celebration at home!

Adventures in the East Village or the day Allison became a New Yorker

My friend HaQuyen and I had been talking about how she wants a tattoo and I want a nose piercing. She picked out the place, and we were going back and forth on dates. On Monday we made it happen.

I have Mondays off, so I spent the day shopping and cleaning. Thanks to the parents, I had some birthday money to spend, and I needed new boots. I went to Buffalo Exchange, a thrift store in the East Village, and bought some great boots, really warm fleece tights, sunglasses, and a pair of Toms. All of under $75. A total steal in the city. I was feeling very proud of myself, and then I realized I have come even closer to assimilating myself to New York dress.

When you get on the subway, all the women are wearing a black coat, black tights, a black skirt and black boots. What did I buy? Black boots, and tights. At least my tights are a nice plum color...still pretty dark. Katie, the other VSer, makes fun of me for being so dark in NYC.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning, and hunting down a Christmas tree for the house. It was a delight! I met HaQuyen at Addiction NYC. We didn't have an appointment, but they weren't too full.

Before I go into the details of the experience of getting stabbed by needles, I need to lay the context of St. Mark's Street.

Basically St. Mark's between 3rd and 2nd Ave has everything a drunk person could want on a Saturday night. From greasy Japanese restaurants to four tattoo parlors, you would be in for a night of mayhem for sure!

HaQuyen went first. It took about 15 minutes to get her tattoo. It looks really good, and is healing nicely. While she was getting tattooed, she wanted me to talk to her to distract her. We talked about the inspiration she had to get it, and then about the tattoo I want to get.

As I was describing it, and giving the context. The artist stopped. I had said after spending time in Israel/Palestine, I really wanted to get Micah 6:8. Mid letter, the artist stops, looks up and says harshly, "I am Israeli." Crap. This was the second time me and my big mouth have to go and say the "P" word in Jewish country. When will I learn?!?!

I say, "Oh interesting. Do you visit?" He goes on to tell me his parents still live there, but he doesn't let it slide. He asks me where I was. I said Jerusalem and Bethlehem. I wasn't about to say Hebron. He said, "That's Israel." If you were in Gaza or the West Bank, then you would be in Palestine. I didn't argue with him, even though East Jerusalem and Bethlehem are Palestinian with Israeli settlers living there illegally. He did have a needle in his hand, and was inflicting pain on my friend after all  He apologized for sounding harsh, I accepted and said it's a touchy subject, and we moved on. The mood definitely shifted after that.

My piercing was relatively uneventful comparatively  except that it hurt a lot more than expected. We then departed to find food and antiseptic solutions.

The restaurant we found was more than we bargained for. I think the best adjective to use would be outrageous.

Picture Japanese folk dining in a cramped eating establishment with walls papered with Japanese Porn, a creepy mannequin watching you from a window, and WWII Japanese war music playing.

The menu was about as tall as my arm is long, and they had pictures of every single thing you could order. Including the bull penis. Too much was happening. See? Scary as all get out. For more entertaining reading about this find eating establishing, see the yelp reviews.

This review does a great job summing it up, "talk about sensory overload. From the giant tanuki statue with the lightbulb eyes outside, to the old-fashioned Japanese music blasting from a bullhorn speaker inside, to the bizarre mannequin scene in their courtyard-like room, there's always something to catch your attention at Kenka. "

  

Happy birthday!

Hello dear readers,

As most of you know, my birthday was last Tuesday. I had a wonderful day :) Thanks to all of you for the lovely cards, e-mails, texts, etc. How did I spend my birthday in the Big Apple?

First thing Tuesday morning, I met up with my coworker Mitchell for coffee at Bourbon Coffee (http://www.bourboncoffeeusa.com/). He had spent a year doing service in Rwanda after his undergraduate, so it was fun to go to a Rwandan Coffee Shop with him. CFY-NYC is celebrating the addition of new values, and this month's value is Embracing Individuality. One of our challenges for the month of November is to go outside the office with folks in the office with whom you normally wouldn't interact. We had a great conversation, and then headed to the office.

I was greeted by streamers galore, and an awkward picture of a very angry cat with a birthday hat on displayed on my desk. It looks like Melissa the Office Manager/birthday fairy strikes again! As the day progressed, I ended up going out for coffee two more times. It was delightful! I didn't have a lot of work to day, so I just hung out with people FOR THE WHOLE DAY. Best birthday present ever :)

I had planned dinner out with friends later that evening. We went to the Magic Sushi Place (to this day, I still don't know the name of it...) and had sushi delivered to us on a conveyor belt. What more can you ask for? Sushi on a conveyor belt? Best ever. At first it was a bit overwhelming, because there were so many choices, and they were all coming at you at once, and they were all yummy!!!!

All in all, I would say I had a delightful 23rd birthday in NYC

Below are some of my lovely housemates celebrating my birthday with me :)