I've Got the Broadway Blues

New York is called the city that never sleeps. And it felt like I never slept while I was there, either. But it was a lot of fun, so I don't really mind. I have sort of made that my mindset since I've moved out to the East coast.

Plane capacity: 180 -- Plane use: 14

I flew in late on Friday night and took a taxi to my friend's house. A small welcoming committee was waiting for me when I arrived, and they had lots of questions about the LDS Church. I also would get in a question every now and then about what Orthodox Jews believe, and it was very interesting for us all to compare and contrast the two religions. After a couple hours, we decided it was time to get to bed, as we had shul (synagogue) bright and early.

To not cause a scene by going to shul as a non-Jew, my friends gave me a yarmulke (skull cap, which I was allowed to keep after) and siddur (prayer book) and we made the short walk to the synagogue. The meeting was very interesting and had some beautiful parts. I noticed lots of symbolism in the building and their actions that I could relate to, as well. If I understood Hebrew, I would have gotten a lot more out of the meeting, though :)

My friend's mom made a big lunch and we all ate and chatted some more. I really liked a lot of the food she made, even though it was a bit different than what I'm used to. As my friend advertised, this mom had some major cooking abilities.

Later that night, once Shabbos (Sabbath) had ended, we went into New York City for a birthday party at a club in Manhattan called Slate Plus. It was a lot of fun, and we all danced and socialized and just soaked up the metropolitan lifestyle. After a few hours, we were partied-out and headed home. Guess I'm not in shape for extended clubbing :)

After a hearty breakfast of locks (smoked salmon on a bagel, shown below), we headed into the city to hopefully see a show before meeting up with my cousin and his wife. To our dismay, the Broadway crews were still on strike and that meant that a whole bunch of the shows weren't running. The few that were running were sold out or standing-room only, and we didn't feel like standing for two hours after we'd been walking all over the city.

We walked around, did some window shopping, and then met up with Tyler and Anne Black, who are living here while Tyler takes some tax classes at NYU so he can do a specialized area of law. We ended up grabbing a bite to eat at a deli in the Empire State Building, and then he had to get back to his studies. We looked in some shops and then headed back to my friends house before I had to go to the airport.

It was a whirlwind trip, but I had a really good time and enjoyed seeing the Big Apple, my friend, and my cousin. I'm very grateful to my friend's parents who were such gratious hosts and accommodating to me. I learned a lot about them, and they learned a lot about me, and I think we all had a really good experience getting to know each other.

Yay for seeing relatives on the East coast!