A Week in New York: Or, I Am So Sick of That Jay-Z/Alicia Keys Song

When I left Tanzania at the end of June, I flew to New York so that I could be part of my college roommate’s wedding on July 2. The day before the wedding, Siobhan (my friend and the other bridesmaid) and I were taken to the Indian part of north Jersey and we got henna (called mandee in Hindi) on our hands. Here's a picture of my hands as I waited for the dye to dry so I could brush it off:

And here's what it looked like after it darkened a bit. I like how this photo also shows off my watch tan:

It was a (very) abbreviated version of a Hindu wedding, so I wore a saree (all the Indians I know spell it with 2 “e”s rather than an “i”) and helped tie a necklace onto the bride. It was really nice to catch up with a couple of my best friends from college, and it was a fun wedding as well. Here are a few pictures, courtesy of the mother of the groom.

So congratulations to Vidya and Steve!

After the wedding, I stayed in New York for a couple more days just to get to know the city a little better. Big thanks to my friends Sara and Johnny, who live in NYC, gave me lots of good directions and information, and found me a very nice place to stay.

I took the subway many times – it’s pretty efficient, but not that cheap. However, I experienced a bit of sticker shock with pretty much every price I saw in NYC, from bottles of water to cab rides. The best price I got was on a pair of pants I bought at the Gap in Times Square. Anyway, I saw Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza. Siobhan located the original Saks Fifth Avenue store, so I took a picture in front of it because my mom is always telling me how great the store is. But I still didn't go in.

I went to the American Museum of Natural History (exhaustingly large) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (masterpiece overload!), spending pretty much an entire day in each. I went running in Central Park, which is a great place to walk through and hang out.

I even got to watch some pretty good tennis one evening when I went to a World TeamTennis match, featuring the New York Sportimes playing the Washington Kastles.

Now, I like tennis far more than the next person, I’d say, but I’m not a fan of team names that are made-up words or intentionally misspelled real words. Also, the Sportimes mascot was a giant fuzzy tennis ball named Tennis the Menace who looked a lot like the Capital City Goofball, only green. I forgot to take a picture.

In club tennis at Stanford, we played with the WTT format, but it wasn’t exactly the same. The most notable player in the match was Leander Paes, who was playing for the Kastles:

The Kastles also had Rennae Stubbs and Murphy Jensen (he was their coach), so they were by far the more accomplished team when it came to doubles play. And yet they lost the mixed doubles set and the men’s doubles set! Paes really had an off day, but considering he had won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title 2 days prior to the match he had a pretty good excuse.

By far, the most exciting event I watched happened on July 4^th. No, it wasn’t fireworks; it wasn’t a parade; it wasn’t anything like that. I made sure to get myself over to Coney Island to watch the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, featuring defending champion Joey Chesnut. I got there about 2 ½ hours early, and still had to wriggle my way into a spot where I court sort of see the action. The MC who made the introductions was pretty hilarious, and said all sorts of mock-serious things like, “None of us will leave here the same person…we will be transformed by what we witness!” Here are some pictures from my vantage point - first, a shot of the massive sign just to my left of the stage, featuring a countdown clock, enormous pictures of people cramming hot dogs in their mouths, and hot dog eating world records.

Very near me, the good people of Pepto Bismol had set up shop. They were an official sponsor of the event, and were giving away Pepto thunder sticks to anyone and everyone.

And here's one of two hot dog mascots, dancing onstage before the contest.

Finally, the contest itself:

I didn’t even see when the police came and got Kobayashi when he tried to get on the stage – I saw a bunch of police, but I couldn’t see exactly what was happening. I think it’s pretty ridiculous that he wasn’t allowed to compete anyway, because he didn’t sign a contract with Major League Eating. I mean, really??? That’s just absurd. The guy’s won the thing like 6 times and he doesn’t get to participate because he refuses to be affiliated with a certain organization? Ridiculous.

I also like this picture, of a Nathan's employee who's super-pumped about his role cleaning up after the carnage:

So those are some of the highlights of my trip to New York. I flew back to Fort Worth on July 7^th and spent a couple weeks relaxing at home before leaving for Peru on the 20^th. I’ll put all the details about Peru in my next post!