THE CRAZY TRIP - After getting only two hours of sleep last Friday night, Meagan, Logan and I left the dorms at 2:30 a.m. in the night to take the metro to Chinatown where we boarded our bus for New York City. The bus ride might not have been the most comfortable, but we made it to the “Big Apple” on early Saturday morning. From here, we took the subway straight to the Cathedral Park station which was the closest to “Tom’s Restaurant”, the famous diner from the TV show Seinfeld. Although the inner settings were not what I thought they would be, the spinach omelette and sausage made for a good breakfast. After this, we went straight to Central Park to see John Lennon’s memorial at the Strawberry Fields. From here, we took the subway and headed towards the Museum  of Modern Art, snapping pictures all this time. The subway system in New York is a lot more challenging and difficult to follow than DC’s, especially for first-timers, but I think we worked together as a team pretty well to figure it out. After spending almost two-and-a-half hours in the Museum (which has definitely introduced a new meaning of modern art for me), we split ways and I went to some family friends from India and get my stuff that my mom had sent for me. We reunited in an hour and ate lunch at Angelo’s Pizza which is a crazy coincidence since we are from San Angelo. Next on the list was a visit to Times Square, which was exactly what I had expected it to be and then the Rockefeller Plaza, where we a took a trip to the “Top pf the Rock” and got an amazing view of the city and definitely some pictures for the collection. Later, we went to the World  Trade Center site, which was not that interesting, so we went to Battery Park instead to see the Statue of Liberty and the waterfalls, only from a distance though. As it was getting dark, we decided to head back to our bus station and caught a glimpse of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge on our way there. After eating at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, we finally bid NYC goodbye and headed back home to DC.

Sunday was “sleep till the afternoon” day as we were really exhausted. Also, Gary threw a party for all the interns which was fun, especially with him playing the lead singer in Rockband J. My friend Nitish from High school spent the night as he was flying back to India on Monday morning. I was glad that he came because I hadn’t seen him since I graduated high school – two years.

On Monday, I just provided a finishing touch to my presentation and practiced it a little bit. The practice session at ACP on Tuesday was long and tiring, but Gary, Kendra and Liz had some good ideas and suggestions which everyone needed. I thought Wednesday’s presentations were a blast. Everyone did a really good job and I hope all the people who attended, learnt something from us that day. To treat ourselves for the good job that we did, some of us went and ate Thai food which was definitely a pleasant experience for me. There is not a whole lot to do at work right now, except wrapping up my project here at NIST.

We are going to try and squeeze in as much sight seeing this weekend as we can, before we leave. It’s hard to believe that the summer is already over, but I guess it’s true when they say “good times go by fast”.