Brecon 3rd and the City
Last weekend was a really fun weekend because all of my girlfriends from colleges came to NYC and we had a marvelous weekend together. Well, I should be more specific. One of my best friends, "E", is leaving us to study in London for a semester. I am so happy for her, but I will admit, I am also green with envy! As a lovely send off, E organized a farewell party where she invited her college friends, high school friends, and other friends. There were A LOT of us, but we had a really lovely time in Brooklyn.
You may be confused by the title of this blog post. Allow me to explain. My freshman year at Bryn Mawr College, I lived in a dorm called "Brecon." It is a lovely old house, but it is a bit far from campus and slightly secluded. In the dorm, I lived on the third floor. At Bryn Mawr, we have something called a "customs group", and essentially what that means is that, all of the freshman living on a specific floor get to meet the other freshman within their customs group and make friends. The idea is to ease the transition process for new students. All week you attend orientation with your customs groups and you really start to get to know one another so that by the time school starts, you feel at home. Each customs group is overseen by 2-3 customspeople, who are usually sophomores living on the floor. I was a customsperson in Brecon my sophomore year. Now, "Brecon 3rd" is what my girlfriends/customsgroups calls itself. Here it is almost five years later, and we are still best friends, as if we were still freshmen!
In addition to myself, "Brecon 3rd" consists of about 8 of us. It is so amazing to see where we all are now. As mentioned earlier, "E" is going to London to study art business with Sotheby's. My friend "Aa" is currently in her second year of law school in Pennsylvania and my friend "R" works for one of Alaska senators in Washington DC. (R is originally from Anchorage). My other friend "A"does software development at a big company in Pennsylvania, whilst my friend "S" works in a urology office in New Jersey. Three of our friends couldn't make it to our reunion, however, they are also doing exciting things. "K" is currently in her first year of medical school in Michigan, "E" is now working for a new foodie review website (like yelp) in Manhattan, and "D" is working in a law firm(?) in Los Angeles. I will admit, D lives in LA, and I have been delinquent in keeping in touch! As you can see, my friends are all over and doing a lot!
So, the weekend was filled with gossiping and catching up. Most of us hadn't see each other since Aa's birthday in July! Some of us arrived Friday night, but our reunion wasn't complete until Saturday morning.
Saturday morning was dim sum in Chinatown! Yummm. E and I decided to take everyone to the place that we have eaten at frequently called, The Golden Unicorn. Great name, right? The food isn't bad and the place is quite nice. Between our bursts of laughter and conversation, our eyes would glaze over after trays and trolley's of delicious foods passed us. Something both hilarious and upsetting that happened frequently, was that I was mistaken for being Chinese by the waitstaff. Every time one of my friends asked what something was, the waitstaff either spoke to me in Chinese, assuming I would translate, or just stare at me as if to say, "I don't speak English, so you explain." I had to explain MANY TIMES that in fact I am Japanese, NOT Chinese!!!! You can't make this kind of stuff up!
After dim sum, we decided to stroll from Chinatown to Union Square! It's not impossible, but it was quite a long walk and I had made a bad decision to wear heeled boots. Half way through the walk, I was practically hobbling! Still, it was a lot of fun to walk through Chinatown/SoHo/NoHo etc...
On our way to Union Square, we passed my apartment, so we went there a) so I could change into sneakers and b) some people needed a bathroom break. A win-win for all. It was also nice to show my friends where I live. They all liked my apartment very much.
After a quick look at Union Square and a coffee break, E suggested that we visit the High Line. The High Line is a very unique 1 mile long linear park located in the meat packing district. To quote wikipedia: "former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway." I knew of it, but had never walked it, so I was quite excited.
You may be confused by the title of this blog post. Allow me to explain. My freshman year at Bryn Mawr College, I lived in a dorm called "Brecon." It is a lovely old house, but it is a bit far from campus and slightly secluded. In the dorm, I lived on the third floor. At Bryn Mawr, we have something called a "customs group", and essentially what that means is that, all of the freshman living on a specific floor get to meet the other freshman within their customs group and make friends. The idea is to ease the transition process for new students. All week you attend orientation with your customs groups and you really start to get to know one another so that by the time school starts, you feel at home. Each customs group is overseen by 2-3 customspeople, who are usually sophomores living on the floor. I was a customsperson in Brecon my sophomore year. Now, "Brecon 3rd" is what my girlfriends/customsgroups calls itself. Here it is almost five years later, and we are still best friends, as if we were still freshmen!
In addition to myself, "Brecon 3rd" consists of about 8 of us. It is so amazing to see where we all are now. As mentioned earlier, "E" is going to London to study art business with Sotheby's. My friend "Aa" is currently in her second year of law school in Pennsylvania and my friend "R" works for one of Alaska senators in Washington DC. (R is originally from Anchorage). My other friend "A"does software development at a big company in Pennsylvania, whilst my friend "S" works in a urology office in New Jersey. Three of our friends couldn't make it to our reunion, however, they are also doing exciting things. "K" is currently in her first year of medical school in Michigan, "E" is now working for a new foodie review website (like yelp) in Manhattan, and "D" is working in a law firm(?) in Los Angeles. I will admit, D lives in LA, and I have been delinquent in keeping in touch! As you can see, my friends are all over and doing a lot!
So, the weekend was filled with gossiping and catching up. Most of us hadn't see each other since Aa's birthday in July! Some of us arrived Friday night, but our reunion wasn't complete until Saturday morning.
Saturday morning was dim sum in Chinatown! Yummm. E and I decided to take everyone to the place that we have eaten at frequently called, The Golden Unicorn. Great name, right? The food isn't bad and the place is quite nice. Between our bursts of laughter and conversation, our eyes would glaze over after trays and trolley's of delicious foods passed us. Something both hilarious and upsetting that happened frequently, was that I was mistaken for being Chinese by the waitstaff. Every time one of my friends asked what something was, the waitstaff either spoke to me in Chinese, assuming I would translate, or just stare at me as if to say, "I don't speak English, so you explain." I had to explain MANY TIMES that in fact I am Japanese, NOT Chinese!!!! You can't make this kind of stuff up!
After dim sum, we decided to stroll from Chinatown to Union Square! It's not impossible, but it was quite a long walk and I had made a bad decision to wear heeled boots. Half way through the walk, I was practically hobbling! Still, it was a lot of fun to walk through Chinatown/SoHo/NoHo etc...
On our way to Union Square, we passed my apartment, so we went there a) so I could change into sneakers and b) some people needed a bathroom break. A win-win for all. It was also nice to show my friends where I live. They all liked my apartment very much.
After a quick look at Union Square and a coffee break, E suggested that we visit the High Line. The High Line is a very unique 1 mile long linear park located in the meat packing district. To quote wikipedia: "former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway." I knew of it, but had never walked it, so I was quite excited.
Brecon 3rd on the High Line
I was struck by just how crowded it us, despite the cold weather and the fact that nothing was really in bloom. Still, it was a pleasant walk and it was cool to see the meatpacking district from an elevated perspective. Also, lots of interesting art on the walls of the surrounding buildings.
I love love love this!
After our walk from Chinatown to Union Square to the High Line, we were all feeling a bit tired. E made the executive decision to head back to Brooklyn. We agreed. After hopping on the subway, we were back at E's house and just relaxed until dinner.
For dinner, E had selected a Middle Eastern restaurant called "Levant" near her home. She picked with a) because we like Middle Eastern food and b) it was one of the only places that could accommodate her entire party! In addition to Brecon 3rd, adding E's high school friends, plus work friends plus cousin & fiancee, I think there was about 16 of us! Wow!
The food was quite good, although the service was questionable. I found that food orders got muddled and the kitchen was a bit disorganized. However, considering how large our group was, I don't hold a grudge...even if they did forget my order completely...
pizza-like dish that was quite tasty
After dinner, we went to a bar, to further celebrate E's imminent departure. We ended up somewhere called "The Zombie Hut?" or something like that...I don't even know. Since my beloved postbac friend "M" also lives in Brooklyn, E gave me the ok to invite him. I was so excited for my Brecon 3rd friends to meet Mike. What a success! Unfortunately, the bar was really really loud, but M got to meet everyone and they all like him a lot! Yay!
M also brought his roommate along, C, since her friends had bailed on her at the last minute. She was super super nice and I really like her. I hope to hang out with her and M more often!
As the night progressed, the drinks flowed and by far, the most impressive of the many cocktails was the "zombie bowl." None of us know what was in it, but it sort of tasted like a tropical pina colada...so it was delicious! The most impressive part? The candle in the center of the bowl! I am not a big drinker myself, but the whole group went through 6? 7? of these suckers!
We got back to E's house at around 2 am and promptly crashed. After lots of walking, eating, and drinking...what else is there to do? Certainly a night to remember.
The next morning was chill. We woke up casually and made our way to the kitchen. E's dad had quiet the spread. Bagels, pastries, bacon, eggs (cooked by me), juices, coffee, cream cheese...the list goes on. Oh, and we had chocolate cake too for A's birthday. What a perfect way to end a perfect weekend.
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