maggied’s blag

Haven’t posted in a while. These past several weeks have been really busy (in a good way). I stopped working my UROP for the last few weeks of the summer, and dedicated myself to freshman orientation (as EC’s Room Assignment Chair and a DormCon Junior REX chair). Considering the fact that REX and the Friday Night Event were two big things on my mind the past few weeks, it feels pretty weird for them to be over. Both went really well, though, and even though term is going to start of hectic, I’m glad it will start on an up beat.

Other than orientation, there were a few other fun things from over the summer. As I mentioned in my previous post, a few of us went to Six Flags New England. It was really fun (we rode what is arguably the best steel coaster in the country) until rain started coming down in waves around 3pm. Can’t win them all, I guess.

A week or so later, Dale, Sarah, Rachel, Danielle and I went to New York for the weekend. We took the Lucky Star bus down to the Chinatown on a Friday afternoon. Even with a bit of traffic we made reasonable time. After leaving the Bowery, we walked through a fesitival that was going on in Little Italy. Lots of people were out eating late, candle lit dinners, and it was very tempting to get some pastries. After walking around a bit, we headed up to my house in Westchester for the evening.

Saturday morning we went to one of my favorite spots for breakfast (the Patio in Briarcliff Manor). Our early start was cursed, though, because after our brief stop over at Starbucks (damn MIT students and their caffeine), we were stuck in the rain. The storm was ridiculous, and my street flash flooded, preventing the Hudson Metro North line from running, and delaying the Harlem line. After a bit of a wait we made it into the city, which showed little to no sign of the storm. Our first stop in the city was Jamba Juice and the candied-peanut stands (mmmm Jamba Juice). We decided to sit in Central Park and finish our drinks. Next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we met up with Vinayak and Charles, who were looking very hipster indeed. They had crazy modern art that I took a few pictures of. By the time we left the Met we were all pretty hungry, so we headed over to Union Sq. Unable to resist, we spent some time in Forbidden Planet and The Strand, which someone I know seemed to really enjoy. Now starving, we went to an Indian restaurant that Rachel had coincidentally also eaten at with her family before (at the same table!). Our last stop before heading back to Grand Central was Times Square. It was really amazing at night. Although Dale was the only one who hadn’t been there before, we all really enjoyed hitting up the M&M and Hershey’s stores.

Sunday I decided it was time for everyone to experience the awesomeness that is New York Bagels, so we walked into Briarcliff and ate a nice breakfast on the benches in town. Fortunately there was no storm this time, and we headed out to the city. Sarah really likes her Jamba Juice, so we stopped there a second time. Dale decided to try a piece of Junior’s cherry cheesecake, and it was really good. We walked around Central Park for a while, and relaxed on the grass watching puppies and families go by. In the early afternoon we headed back down to Chinatown, grabbed some fruit, and caught the bus back. Overall, a really fun weekend.

Dale and I also decided to hit up a few concerts this summer (and plan to go to several more during term, woo!). The first one (since I’ve last posted) was The Faint. The lead singer wore a lab coat and goggles. It was my first show at The Roxy, and it was amazing. They played a bunch of songs from their newest album, along with some of their great older songs. The next night we decided to switch things up a bit and went to TT The Bear’s Place (right next to the Middle East) for my first post-rock show. We went to see Yndi Halda, who were unable to make it due to a broken axle on their van. But Hadoken and Caspian were still pretty awesome. Even though it was a small venue, the sound was massive and really took over you. The last concert was Nightwish, which I went to with a whole bunch of people. It was at The Palladium again (I saw them last October, too) and put on an amazing show. We all left exhausted and covered in sweat after the show. Totally a great way to get ready for term.

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