New York 2/3

Hello again. Two days worth of updating now:
Sunday:
Whole foods for breakfast, so far all but one meal has been there. We couldn't find much we wanted to do so, having read that you don't need an appointment, we took the subway up to Columbia which has a beautiful campus... but also had their day welcoming new students. Good timing. We wandered around for a while before heading back home and spending a pretty low-key afternoon reading in our hotel's beautiful balcony. Aaannd, my first work-out in three days! I missed it, and I fear I may not be able to much in the upcoming week.... :(. That evening my mum and I decided we wanted to eat dinner in Greenwich village because she had heard about it all her life.. so we went to ask the concierge for restaurant suggestions. Apparently all the best restaurants and nightlife are now in the Meatpacking district though (leading to a new saying: from now on instead of fish out of water you should use "vegetarians in the meatpacking district.")We wandered around for at least a half hour and asked half a dozen people before FINALLY finding our recommended restaurant: the Fatty Crab. Really? Yes, they named it THE FATTY CRAB. Its stupid. So we got in there, they stuck us at a table that we shared with other people and I couldn't get out of as I was in a booth with people on either side of me. It was dark, loud, and then they served us the menu. Quail's eggs were the only thing I could recognize.
If you know me at all, then you already know that we left.
So we wandered around the Meat district for another half hour before finally just deciding to go back and eat, again, at the whole foods a block from our hotel. So we got back on the subway (waste of $8) and got back on the C train to head back... at Broadway and 7th "Mother, I think we should get off" "No way, we are still several blocks away!" Next stop "Mother I'm not sure where we are... should we get off?" "No, we aren't at our stop" at 5th and something. "Mother get off now." We had managed to accidentally get on the C train, which goes up up up, then east east east. We are in the upper WEST side. I swear it does not say that on the maps. So we got to walk twice as far :)
We finally got dinner at some really nice Italian place near Times Square that had yummy berry tart.
Today (Monday):
We got up really really late this morning. Latest I have ever slept actually, which we were both a little miffed at. The time difference isn't really helping. We biked Central park today, which was beautiful (we forgot our camera!) and then went up to Columbia for a tour. The campus is still really pretty (and yet I forgot to take pictures) and if you manage to get in, their financial aid is fantastic. Mostly discussion based classes, which sounds really cool, and from what I can tell the only required classes sound cool (although after LASA I hate the idea of any required courses) like a course in western literature, one in philosophy, one in modern science... and they have an engineering school for the crazies that LIKE that kind of thing (kidding) and partnerships with lots of other schools (for instance, some take music classes at Julliard.)
We have spent the last hour or two at Starbucks, the only place I can get free internet to update this. I will try to post pictures soon, on facebook probably (So if you don't already have an account, I suggest one even though I hate it because it IS useful).
Love you all, and I hope everything is going well.

Austin to New York

Starting yesterday morning, I will not be back in Austin for 5 months. Its a really hard concept to grasp, part of me keeps thinking I am still on vacation or something. My dad and my sister dropped my mom and I off at the airport, saying goodbye to my sister was really hard, she will change so much while I am away. I miss them both already, but I am ready to go.

And I am having a fantastic time in NY, this is the first time I have ever been and I love it. It is sooo big, Times square is a major sensory overload and people watching is fantastic. If I ever lived here I would most definitely need one day a week not to see anyone, but as it is this place is wonderful, I love just walking down the streets (I hate slow people that try to walk in front of me) and last night we went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway.... to my theater tech friends- you would have been amazed by their sets. The whole thing was very well done and always had me questioning “ how on earth did they do that!?” Today I think we are going to bike around Central Park which should be pretty cool. Our hotel is magnificent! The room is tiny, but everything is very modern in decoration, dark with cool lighting. I will try and figure out how to put pictures of it online.

Alrighty, I am off to bug the hotel staff to see if I can get the internet to work so I can post this and look up what to do today sur l'internet.