Junior

I've just finished my third week of school, and I'm somewhat happy/not-so-happy to say that it has finally come on full throttle. I now at least know what to expect for the rest of the year when it comes to assignments, attitudes of my teachers, and class schedule which is nice, but the work is definitely starting to pile up, thus limiting the amount of time I have to write.

I say that things have really picked up now because I had my first test last week and have another 3 this week, and my test calendar should continue in a similar pattern for the rest of the year. I've gotten passed the boring first couple of days where teachers outline the syllabus and tell you that you can only take notes at home on the left-hand side of your notebook (which actually happened, by the way), so at least I'm learning now. The first couple days were also met with a lot of speeches from faculty members all telling us "Guys, you're going to work 749X harder than you've ever had this year. Some of you might die. Seriously," followed by the stress-management and "oh all your teachers are here for you even though they'll be slowly eating away at your soul with work" talks, which did not help me bring down my already high levels of anxiety. That just made me wish I could go back to the days where I would come home from school and watch Nickelodeon all afternoon while eating cheerios and not hating myself.

I went to the Feast of San Gennaro last Saturday evening with a friend, and I hope to have that post out by the end of this week. I brought my camera but it was raining and I didn't want to screw anything up so I took pictures on my phone instead. 

Ciao! (you can see I've really embraced Italian culture)

Fries to Pudding

Last week, in an attempt to fend off junior year anxiety from settling in too quickly, my friend and I decided to explore the East Village and try out a couple of restaurants to eat away our feelings. She had read about most of these places in a Buzzfeed article listing eateries (a word I loathe yet it seems to be the only appropriate one) that make living in New York during a shitty day worth it. Overall, I think the excursion went pretty well.

We started by going to a place called Pommes Frites and bought some poutine (a mixture of french fries, gravy, and cheese). While I've had better poutine, this was pretty close, and the fries were definitely good. It might have been more of a hit had I gotten regular fries and chose one of their various dipping sauces instead, but I'm not complaining.

mmmmm poutine

On our way to our second stop, we passed by "Moishe's Bake Shop," a Kosher bakery hidden behind scaffolding, and decided to go in. We were met by a wide arrangement of baked goods making difficult to choose one thing that I wanted. I eventually decided on a  sponge cake-like thing with cream in between the rolls of cake, filled with jelly and topped with sprinkles. I didn't know it had jelly at the beginning but it didn't make a difference: it was amazing. Perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing was that you got to tell them how big you wanted your piece to be, and the price is calculated by the weight, so you can configure both the size of your snack and wallet to your appetite. I got a bigger piece than I would have liked but it ended up being only $1.50 which is amazing for a place in the city.

delicious pastry of which I do not know the name

My friend and I continued on to a place called Vanessa's Dumplings and ordered their pork and chive dumplings (you get 4 for $1!!!!!!!!!!). The dumplings were incredible and were served quickly, and the price is hard to argue with. I don't know where else you can get a meal for $1 in New York.

FYI the brown sauce on the table is the one for the dumplings

Our last stop on the East Village food tour was to a place called Sugar Sweet Sunshine, and boy did it make our day bright (sorry, I had to). We ordered the Chocolate Chip Extravaganza, which is sort of like chocolate chip cookie pudding. And trust me, it tasted as good as it sounds. I would recommend sticking to a small unless you're really hungry and craving something sweet, as the quantity of the pudding is a lot more than you would think. The employees also gave me a free cookie to go along with it! How sweet!

Definitely the best thing I've had in a while

 Go to all these places!!!!! They're delicious!!!!! I'll write soon!