These Are A Few Of New Yorkers' Favorite Things

Every city is known for certain food: Philadelphia has its cheesesteaks, Boston has its clam chowder, New Orleans has its crawfish. However, if I had to pick one thing New York is known for, I'd have a pretty hard time. While the most common answer would probably be pizza, there are a few other random things I've noticed New Yorkers are obsessed with.

Frozen Yogurt. I'm partial to Pinkberry, but there are thousands of places in the city that are the exact same concept. It's not that bad for you, especially when topped with fresh fruit instead of chocolate sprinkles.

Cupcakes. Of course everyone loves cupcakes, but New Yorkers seem to be particularly obsessed with them and there are fancy cupcake shops every where you look (Crumbs, Magnolia Bakery, etc.)

Bagels. I'm pretty sure people in the South don't even know what real bagels are. True story: I had friends home from school for Spring Break and they really didn't know what to do when my mom brought us home a dozen bagels (we all know Florida is more similar to New York than the South when it comes to food/just about everything).

Falafel. I'll be honest, I had my first falafel experience last night so that may be why I felt the need to include it in my list. There are stands on every corner, they're super cheap and soo good! Side note: gyros are equally as cheap and delicious. 

The list goes on, but these are a few of my favorites that I've noticed seem to be widely appreciated throughout the city. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to end this post before I try to eat my computer screen...

One Month Down, Many More Fabulous Ones to Come

I can't believe I moved to NYC a month ago today. In some ways, that month has flown by since I've been so busy, but in other ways I feel like I've been here forever! That first whirlwind week of furniture shopping, apartment decorating, and settling into the city seems like ages ago. 

A lot of people lately have asked me how long I've been in the city, I feel weird saying a month since I feel like I've been here so much longer.  After living here last year, I knew the basics of what to expect so it was an easy transition.  Maybe that's why people are surprised when I tell them I've only been here a month - I'm not stumbling around wide-eyed, taking everything in - I've done this before.  Sure, it was only three months last summer but it made all the difference in the world. Not to mention, I've known in my heart since last summer that I would be back here after graduation so it just seems so natural for me to be living here.

It's nice finally feeling settled, and I really feel like my apartment is home. It's so tiny and cozy, I really love coming home to it and knowing that of all the crowded craziness of the city, there is a tiny little piece of it that's all mine. My internship is going great, everyone is so nice and helpful and I really feel like I've got a good handle on my accounts.  I'm having a blast exploring, going out and meeting people. I really couldn't ask for anything more right now, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be living the dream I wanted to live after college, as cliched as that sounds. Living in a small studio and living paycheck to paycheck may not be "the dream" most people have for post-graduation, but it's all I've wanted since last summer.

Southern Hospitality

After work on Wednesday, I got to go to my first "SEC Alumni Happy Hour," which I've heard about for months now.  I gathered up as many of my SEC friends as I could (okay, so they were all UGA or UF alums/students but I tried) and off to Soho we went.  The happy hour felt like a big tailgate, I really felt like I was back in Athens! It was so fun seeing people I knew, and got that same feeling that I have had so many times at games, home or away - the SEC is one big family, filled with love/hate relationships. Football brings a healthy amount of friendly rivalry, and there will always be trash talking between schools in the same conference, but when it comes down to it we were all just there for a good time.

This all seemed perfectly normal until I told a friend that I was going and he was confused by the whole concept... "There's a happy hour for your conference? Do other conferences have this?" It never even occurred to me until then that they probably don't. The SEC is the most fun conference to be in because it's a big social network.  Being around people who had the same traditions as I did in college made me feel right at home. Stepping into Firefly that afternoon made me feel like I stepped out of NYC and into the South! While I'm absolutely loving every minute of being in NYC, it's good to know there's a big group here to hang out with that knows the meaning of southern hospitality and won't make fun of me when I let "yall" slip out.

Always Carry a Camera, Volume II

Another week, another collection of random pictures.

I pass this every day on the way to work and really wonder how nobody has realized "mistakes" is spelled wrong.

Gramercy Park, the beautiful park right down the street from my apartment that you need a key to enter.  I'll get in there one day...

"Tiles for America," Greenwich Village.

Only in New York... clothing stores for dogs.  I guess they're getting ready for the 4th of July?

Not really sure what this means, but thought it was cool regardless.

Questionable ad for a wine company. Apparently if your small child likes it, that means it's good wine?

Twitter Does it Again

I've been contemplating all week if I should write something about the whole Twitter/CNN situation but haven't yet because I (a) just haven't had the time and (b) don't feel the need to "re-invent the blog post" so to speak, since there are so many great articles out there already (check out The Power of Twitter, written by a PepperDigital co-worker, or scan through the latest New York Times articles - there are new ones every day!).

The bottom line is that Twitter has once again made a huge impact on current affairs, and continues to beat out traditional news as a means of communication. We saw this a few months ago with the first pictures of the U.S. Airways crash being posted to Twitter before they made it to a broadcast news station. Today, Twitter once again "beat out" traditional news with the quickest updates on a story that hit close to home for me. Or should I say, close to my old home.

Having gone to the University of Georgia, I fell in love with the sweet little town of Athens over the last four years. Athens, affectionately known as "the Classic City," has an amazing downtown scene with tons of old buildings and hundreds of years of history. There are so many landmarks around the town that are well-known and loved by students and locals alike, but today there is one less.

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was check my e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook like I do every morning (okay, after I hit the snooze about 4 times - Fridays are rough). One of the first tweets I saw was about the Georgia Theater catching fire. WHAT?? I was immediately wide awake and began frantically searching the news for more information. (For those of you who don't know, the Georgia Theater is an old movie theater in downtown Athens that was converted into the most popular music venue in Athens, with headliners like R.E.M., Widespread Panic and other Athens legends over the years.)

I first did a Google News search to see what was going on... which gave me frustratingly few details (the theater caught fire this morning, more information to come..).  So, I posted a question to Twitter...

... and within minutes had responses from complete strangers filling me in on what had happened.  All morning, people have been posting live updates, pictures and videos.  Even now, there are few details to be found on traditional news outlets but Athenians continue to post the latest snippets of news on their Twitter feeds.  

When the U.S. Airways crash happened, people started saying that "it would only be a matter of time" before citizen journalism truly overtakes traditional media.  Where do we officially draw that line? Did it start to happen with the Twitter picture of the U.S. Airways plane down in the Hudson River? Can I say today, since I have relied solely on Twitter and have stopped bothering checking the local news sites, that Twitter has actually taken over? Or what about the situation in Iran, where citizens there can only rely on this one means of communication and all others are blocked? When will people stop saying it is "going to happen" and realize it is actually happening before our eyes?

Just a Poor College Graduate...

It seems like there has always been a stereotype of poor college students.  You know them, they eat pizza and Ramen noodles and go to whatever bar is serving penny beer that night.  It may be a newly emerging phenomenon, but why does nobody talk about poor college graduates? I guess up until recently it has been expected that the cheap lifestyle ends once you get a diploma and make a seamless transition into a career.  

Let's be honest... how many 2009 graduates actually jumped right into a full-time position?  I have quite a few friends who did, and I'm so proud and happy for them.  But of all my friends who just graduated, a ridiculous number of them are living at home or going to grad school.  These are the options if you can't find a job: either live with your parents (I couldn't do it), incur even more debt at grad school (hellooo, why do you think we're in this mess?), or throw yourself into the real world and try to make it.

I fit into that last category.  Maybe it wasn't the smartest financial decision to move to the most expensive city in the world right after graduation, but what can I say... I'm an optimist.  And I'm determined.  I know I'll make it and one day look back on my poor college graduate days and laugh.

For now, I'm enjoying being a poor college graduate.  I'm okay with having a budget, I think it's a right of passage.  I'm 21 years old, I don't need a huge apartment with a doorman on Park Avenue.  I don't need to go out for nice meals every night and go shopping on 5th Avenue.  I happen to love my tiny studio apartment that's still barely furnished, buying groceries from Trader Joe's and looking for sample sales to buy clothes.   

Always Carry a Camera

I said I was going to start taking more pictures of random things that catch my eye around NYC, so here are a few from the week...

One of the amazing parks right by my apartment.

The Flatiron Building, my favorite building in the whole city.

Only in NYC can people walk around this and not get strange looks.

Big Apple BBQ... good in theory, but a bit of a letdown.

Washington Square Park.

I love this, it reminds me of something from Europe.

Random festival in Washington Square Park.