The City that Never Sleeps--You Lie!

It's been a rough week back in Princeton, getting over the jet lag while trying to finish first-day-of-class papers, move in, and meet old friends and new people at pub crawls, bluegrass nights, and service days. After a day of cleaning up a youth center in Philadelphia, I was tired. But, I wanted to go into NYC for the evening to meet up with Peace Corps Morocco friends to celebrate Graham's birthday. So I napped, rallied, and caught the train in to meet Lauren by Penn Station. Finding the bar was a minor challenge, as we didn't know where exactly St. Mark's was (other than knowing it was close to NYU). We got subway directions to the right stop, but when asking at the liquor store where St. Mark's Square was, we were given very confused looks. I guess it's actually St. Mark's PLACE, though why the five men working the liquor store didn't assume this immediately about a place two blocks away, I know not. They eventually pointed us in the right direction, and we enjoyed a fantastic evening at Grassroots Bar.

Then I learned a lesson--don't miss the last train back to New Jersey, unless it's on purpose. Lauren and I got to Penn Station about five minutes too late, and after the 1:41 train, nothing goes to the Jers (except exorbitant taxis) until 5:14. If we had stayed down in the Village, I think we would have had plenty of fun, but now we were in Midtown, and too lazy to go back. And Midtown sucks. When they say the city never sleeps, they don't mean Midtown, though all the lights around Times Square might fool you into thinking otherwise. The few open bars looked sketchy, a few fast food joints stay open until 2 or 3 am (including McDonalds and Starbucks), but only one little pastry shop was open 24 hours. Luckily, Europan has good hot chocolate. By 4 am, we were fading though. An hour sleeping in NJ Transit Waiting area, and another hour on the train wasn't enough either. So I slept until noon, and hence, am still not jet-lag recovered. I guess it's early to bed tonight--need to wake up for a 9 am class tomorrow.