Afternoon near Washington Sq Park

Cozy place to meet: Camaje

Mother Duck for a Day

Recently, I volunteered to be a guide to groups of students from the University of Texas at Austin, my alma mater, during their Spring Break trip to NYC to learn about their prospective fields.  Being a mother duck to 13 other souls in crazy New York City, in and out of random subway stations, up and down unfamiliar streets, was fun and exhilarating. Fortunately, no one was left behind or mugged and I didn't get us lost. So it's a good thing I've explored the city so much during the last six months!

The NYC UT alumni chapter, Texas Exes, puts together an amazing lineup of meetings and info sessions with competitive NYC companies. Students visit the workplaces, ask lots of questions, and some of them get on-the-spot interviews (and nail them!) for internships. I am pleasantly surprised at how many UT alum live & work in NYC, across many, many industries such as media, visual arts, advertising and journalism.

This slideshow sums up the outings for the day! Click the Qwiki link below to play.

Play the Qwiki

Blizzard NYC 2013

New York City with lots of snow! After the storm Friday, Saturday gave way to sunshine and beautiful powdery snow. 

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Walking in the Bronx

Bronx streets

Clearing skies in the Bronx 

Sunshine in Central Park

Snow covered Ramble in Central Park

People everywhere to see the snow in Central Park

Two Three Island and Orchard Beach, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, New York

The largest park of the five boroughs, Orchard Beach in Pelham Bay Park, is a favorite destination for thousands of sun seekers during the summer months. However, I visited on a stunningly beautiful, densely foggy day during January. The scenery was eery and enchanting with only a few joggers and lots of ducks, seagulls and Canadian geese. During low tide, the walk to Two Three Island was accessible and worth the trek.

The dense fog made it seem like a dream

One of a handful of people seen during the morning

Orchard Beach sits empty in January

The trek to Two Three Island

Through the trees and down the path to Two Three Island

The seagull sits on a seemingly floating rock

Two Three Island falls into the fog filled bay

Manhattan Bridge

To see great views of lower Manhattan without the crowded chaos of Brooklyn Bridge, I recommend walking across Manhattan Bridge. Cyclists have a dedicated lane on the north side while the walkway on the south side is for pedestrians only. And there are few, if any, tourists. If you don't mind the roar of the subway trains every few minutes, it is worth the spectacular view of Brooklyn Bridge, DUMBO and Manhattan. It's worth the 1.3 mile walk across.

View of Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan over East River

Graffiti written over bridge plaque

Plenty of room

Bridge details

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View from bridge on Manhattan side

Rooftops below the bridge, near Chinatown

Why New Yorkers Are in Great Shape

Bodega, Nor'easter & How-sten Street

Bodega. Nor'easter. Houston Street (pronounced How-sten). I'm not in Kansas anymore. Or rather, Fort Worth, where we actually moved from. Nope. Definitely landed on a new planet. From Cowtown to the Big Apple. I've had to learn a few new things.

I have visited Houston (pronounced Hew-sten), Texas, as a child and as an adult. It is the largest metropolitan area in Texas. I attended Sam Houston High School. You can hunt in the Sam Houston National Forest in south east Texas. It's fair to say that the pronunciation of Houston is burned into my vernacular. In NYC, when I first heard the subway conductor say, "How-sten Street" while riding the Number 1 train, I was perplexed. It is spelled the same way, but pronounced so differently. Where was I? I have tried to pronounce it the NYC way, but I feel ridiculous. Not sure I'll be able to adopt that. 

In Texas, if you need to go to the corner store, you call it that. "I'm going to the corner store." It's a store. On the corner. Simple. In NYC, it's called "bodega." Spanish for grocery store and specialty wine store. When I first heard of bodega, it was a radio news clip mentioning where someone went for help after a mugging, so I thought it was a counseling center or something. But then a friend mentioned stopping at the bodega to buy a newspaper. And then it became clear. Glad to get that straightened out. 

The weather here has fluctuated between perfectly calm and sunny to terribly disastrous and miserable. And I've been told that is not normal. After the first week of moving here, there was a tornado along Long Island Sound and Connecticut. I thought it was normal, being a Texan. We replaced the roof on our house this year because of hail damage from a normal, typical Texas tornado. And then Hurricane Sandy hit the North East coast October 29th. That was terrible. And then a week later a nor'easter hit the area. Hurricane I get, but a wha? Nor. Easter. Had to look that up on the weather websites. It's when forces of varying pressure slam into each other at the same time above the North East. Cold Arctic air from the Atlantic mixed with warmer Gulf air from the south mixed with air from the Ohio Valley area. Crazy wind, crazy precipitation. Six inches of snow fell in a few hours. 

So now I know that when you live in New York City you go to the bodega and stock up before a nor'easter. Very useful info. But please don't give me directions to "How-sten" St. You will see this sweet, southern gal cringe with distaste, cover her ears and walk away humming the tune of Texas, Our Texas.