Upcoming trip to NYC and Stern

I scheduled my Stern interview for a couple weeks from now. It would have been nice to schedule the interview sooner so I can hear back sooner and start making plans if I get good news. But my friend who I’ll be staying with can only host me on that weekend and I don’t want to go to NYC just for the day or have to stay in a hotel. Plus my friend lives in the west village so I can just walk to campus. I love going down to NYC for a weekend; it’s so convenient to do so from Boston since round trip tickets on Greyhound are only $30.

In my two recent trips to NYC, I visited:

- Rickshaw Dumpling Bar: a fast food dumpling restaurant started by a Stern alum. Ambiance was nice for a fast food place. Like the concept. Dumplings weren’t as good as the Mandoo Bar in Manhattan Koreatown.
- Lederhosen: German restaurant in the west village. Great German beers. Five different varieties of sausages. Sauerkraut. I LOVE sauerkraut. Best part is that it is relatively inexpensive considering its location and high quality of food.
- Mamoun’s Falafel: Very close to NYU campus. A tiny falafel stand. Excellent food. My friend at NYU Law took me there. I also LOVE falafel. If I go to Stern, I will probably eat here at least once a week.
- Magnolia Bakery: Made world-famous by Sex and the City. My wife had very high expectations. Unfortunately, we were both disappointed. We’ve been to Buttercup Bake Shop on a previous trip to NYC and thought that was better.
- John’s of Bleeker (pizza): I think our experience would have been better if we ate there but we decided to take out instead, since the line of people waiting was really long. It was good. NY pizza is starting to grow on me, but I will always like Chicago-style pizza more!
- Apple Store manhattan: I’ve never been to any store like this. Absolutely stunning. I LOVE Apple. One of my dream companies to work for.
- Teany Cafe: tea shop formerly owned by Moby. Cool tea shop. We actually didn’t know it wasn’t owned by Moby anymore until we got there. We still had a good time.
- Heartland Brewery: cool brewpub in Union Square. Great beers. Might need to visit this place regularly after long days of classes and studying.

For this trip, we don’t have much planned so far. The only thing on my schedule so far is a trip to a Korean fried chicken place. There was an article in the NY Times last week about Korean fried chicken. I’m fascinated. Oh, and I need to get a NY hot dog. And a burrito.

We will also start our process of finding a church to attend. We’ve attended Sunday service at Redeemer before. I thought it was just OKAY. A lot of people like the pastor’s preaching. My friend recommended that I visit a punk church. Yeah, you read that right. A church with punk kids with a punk rock band. Maybe I will visit it sometime later, potentially as “research” for a project in an EMT class I take at NYU. I like rock bands in church but I also like big-ass pipe organs that make the walls of the church shake.

Even though I did an official class visit before I applied, I’m tempted to visit another class just because I learned so much during my last class visit! (I’m not REALLY going to visit another class.) I visited a class about international macroeconomic policy and learned a ton about exchange rate regimes. It was fascinating.