NYC: Day 1

I got in late last night, about midnight. Would have arrived earlier, but the flight was delayed because of "wind"—yeah right. Mandi picked me up from the airport and we grabbed a wild cab ride into Manhattan. Mandi directed the cabbie straight to Pommes Frites (pronounced "pom freet"), a niche restaurant devoted completely to french fries and 25 awesome, heart-stopping sauces. We ordered the medium-sized fries (actually quite huge) and three sauces—sweet mango chutney mayo, smoked eggplant mayo, and, I think, rosemary garlic (obviously the least memorable of the three).

After devoring most of the fry cone—I felt absolutely disgusting at this point, but also very satisfied—we walked back to Mandi's dorm.

The next morning, Mandi had ethics class. I went with her to get the true NYU experience. Class was pretty staightforward, getting to class was not. It wasn't far, right across the street from the dorms. We hurried past the security guards, who check all students for ID as they enter the buiding. We could have signed me in as a guest, but didn't have time. Luckily, throngs of students were coming and going, so, being undeniably college-looking ourselves, we blended right in.

Completely foreign to me was the need for two sets of elevators: one for odd floors, one for even. We stood momentarily in line for the elevator—another first for me—and took a crowded ride to the 8th floor.

After class, Mandi took me on a tour of the Washington Square area. We stopped by some of her favorite places — Shakespeare and Co., American Apparel (sigh, of course), and Think Coffee.

I was very impressed with Think, a college-y coffee bar that turns into a real bar at night. It had that great, artsy atmosphere I alwasy look for in a coffee shop and reminded me a lot of Lux in Phoenix. Think was about twice as big but just as hipster.

Mandi also showed me all the NYU buildings like Bobst, the impressive, sheer-red library, Stern and Tisch, the business and art schools, respectively, and the law school. Then, we went to Tea Spot, a loose leaf tea house right next to the square, where I had a phenominal pumpkin-cream boba drink.

Hungry, but not looking for much, we stopped by the vegitarian-friendly Dosa Cart and grabbed some Indian dosas (dumpling-like things with pesto and chuntney sauce!).

I accompanied Mandi to her second class that afternoon, Letters as Literature. It was a much more intimate class. Afterward I met the professor, thanked her, and talked a bit about school.

Later for dinner, Mandi, Brooke—Mandi's roommate—and I headed to Caracas Arepa, a Mexian-food place. I got a kick out of the street address: 93 1/2 East 7th Street. We got yoyos, fried sweet plantain balls Mandi had been raving about all day. They were, as forewarned, awesome; I've learned over the years to always trust Mandi on everything food realated.

That night Mandi had to practice for mock trial, which was fine with me because I wanted to see her mock. We were a bit late because we ran into one of Mandi's friends in the square, but ended up being fine. Even after wasting practice time to hang out with me, she nailed her part. Apparentely not much of the team could make it that night, so I got plenty of time to watch her practice.