Yohosh: the rest of the trip

Sorry, can't get it together to do a post for each day. Instead, I shall lump together... So after museums and brunches and cocktails on the roof of the Met...

LES Nosh 'n Walk
We met at Delancey & Essex for my signature Lower East Side (LES) Nosh 'n Walk Tour. This consists of me spouting historical knowledge gleaned from my Lonely Planet book and Shira while stuffing our faces with as diverse a grouping of food as we can muster. I changed it up a little this time and we started off at Yonah Shimmel's Knishes, stopping for a quick glance at Katz's windows (Josh is vegetarian, and it would kill noshing for the rest of the day) and briefly grazing at Russ & Daughters, where Lizzie and Josh picked up some halva for their dad, and they noted that the store alone had more Jewish to it than the Golders Green neighborhood of London. At Yonna's we shared a potato knish and two Dr. Browns (black cherry and cream soda) all of which they had never had before. We took in some sights, including two synagogues and all of Orchard St. (I for one would love to stop into the corset shop on Orchard which was featured in the NY Times, but another day). We did the mandatory pickle taste test between Gus's and The Pickle Guys, but as neither of them liked pickles it was a bit of a waste. We then grabbed some donuts at The Doughnut Plant, (ooooh fresh mango) my new favorite tourist sight, and an absolute must for entertaining visitors. From there we headed into Chinatown and I had to work those little side streets in order to sidestep a protest parade for the Falun Gong in order to reach the Vegetarian Dim Sum House which wasn't that much more expensive than the hole-in-the-wall dim sum places around Canal and allowed for us to sit for a bit. From there we walked through the street fairs of Little Italy and joined up with Sam Krentzman for some Rice to Riches. Sam then took us to the artzier area where I got new earrings (hurrah!) and we browsed through hipster clothing.

Sam's Party
That night we regrouped at Sam's Brooklyn apartment. Sadly, Russell had left for the weekend. Sam and his bandmate played some songs, including two oldies but goodies from WUJS days. I didn't go up to the roof, I wisely wore a dress so that I would have a good excuse not to risk life and limb on the crazy ladder next to the stairwell. Rachel Bressler came too, which really made Josh's night. I left relatively early so that....

SOHO
The next day I hung out with Lizzie in SOHO. We had fun trying on ridiculously expensive shoes and stepping in and out of designer boutiques as soon as we saw the prices. Once we found Forever 21 Lizzie was in heaven and I parked myself in the dressing room while she did her thing. We did my mandatory SOHO events; Aroma for lunch and Sabon for a hand wash.

Days Off
I took 2 days off the the Brits. Tuesday I worked my last day at the Museum, finishing up the 3rd of 3 school-museum partnerships (look for the next blog posting on same, if I ever get to it). The other intern, Noah, took me to lunch at this spot I had hear of and never believed really existed; the Burger Joint. It's a campy, roadhouse style burger place in the middle of a shmancy hotel. It's hidden behind a curtain and everything. It was good for lunch in midtown, and if you enjoy a waitstaff that seems barely capable of putting up with your nonsense about not wanting pickles but asking for mayo. On Wednesday I had an interview that went really well, only there was confusion over the timing, so I had to rush to meet Josh downtown to get on the bus to...

DC
First, I highly recommend DC2NY Bus Service. They are conveniently located, well organized, clean, entertaining, and overall worth the money. I was super stressed that I was going to miss the bus, and I ended up making it with the help of a speedy and very nice taxi driver with one minute to spare. So Josh and I headed to our Nation's Capitol and Evan's new home. We met wish Asher as soon as we got there, and he was wearing an Israeli t-shirt! He took us to a nice restaurant called Matchbox where I proceeded to order something so spicy that I honestly couldn't eat it. We all enjoyed our beers and hung out for a bit longer before calling it a night.

The next morning (I stayed with Asher, Josh stayed with Evan) Asher and I headed to the National Geographic Museum to enjoy some photography exhibits. We really walked all across DC as we headed towards the river so Asher could show me where he rowed and we could enjoy lunch on the waterfront. We shared some fried green tomatoes, the best I've ever had, at Agraria, a straight form the fields to your table kind of place, which was so incredibly nice. From there we walked to Georgetown (we laughed at the Abercrombie types forced to wear bright polos in store fronts), where we eventually met up with Evan and Josh to do more sightseeing of the university are and Exorcist steps. We had dinner at one of Evan's favorite restaurants, and were joined by an American colleague of Josh's and her friend. That night we hung out at Evan's and met some of his friends.

Our last day was spent on the Mall seeing as many National Monuments as we could before we completely dehydrated. We hit the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean and Vietnam Memorials. All the while, Josh and Evan took turns playing "I am more ADD than you" with meeeping noises. We then walked across DC one or two more times. We headed back to our bus (which we almost missed because I forgot to convert Evan's "5 minutes" to the actual 30 Earth minutes it would require us to reach our bus. Once again, saved by a taxi. We got back to NY just in time to run through Times Square before Josh went back to Bresslers and me to my very missed bed.

The End
The rest is a bit of a blur. I know Josh and I spent an afternoon and evening together in the Columbia/ Morningside Heights area. I showed him all over campus and treated him to a real delicacy, Roti Roll, which is conveniently located next to Suite, our local drag queen karaoke bar. We took our Roti back to the grass between Columbia and SIPA campuses and had a little picnic. Their last night we met up with their cousin Dan and his friend Dave and I arranged for us to have dinner at The Hummus Place. Honest to goodness, this is always a big hit, whether with the British, Chattanoogans, or Israelis. For dessert we walked up to Cafe Lalo, which I believe only recently reopened from when they were shut down for health code violations (I did not share this with my guests). That night Josh and Lizzie stayed at my place which was quite nice. The next morning Bressler arranged for us to have brunch at Alice's Tea Cup (not always my cup of tea, but it was nice) and then back to my place where Josh fixed up my new computer and they both headed out the door. Once they left my life felt much more stable, and boring.