welcome to new york // part i

if you follow me on instagram and twitter, you’d know that i traveled to new york last week! (you’ll also know i haven’t been very active… SORRY.) i’m here for a five-week summer program with american ballet theatre, so the days are long and filled with dance. i mean, it’s fun and amazing, but i also miss having time to myself. the past week has been exhausting to the point where i (almost) can’t update my social media. i’m pooped. i won’t be updating much about books, buuuuuut i’ll be sharing my adventures in the city! that’s interesting, right?

day one / friday, june 19

so technically, i flew in on thursday but i honestly did nothing except fly and read the hero of ages. ANYWAY, the first thing i did on friday was take a class at steps on broadway. steps has open dance classes in all sorts of levels. i’ve been there every time i visit new york because… well, i can’t just not take class. i’ve never taken this teacher’s class before, so i was a little confused on some combinations; seemed like everyone else was a regular. in the end, i still thought it was a successful class.

after that, i met with my sister, evelyn, during her lunch break and we ate at roti. i’ve never been there before, but it’s basically like a mediterranean version of chipotle. it was delicious. i had to run some errands – buy jazz shoes for my intensive and get a pointe shoe fitting – so by the time it was 4pm, i was exhausted. i went back to the apartment to take a nap and ended up oversleeping (OBVIOUSLY).

we were going to watch ABT perform romeo and juliet that night, so i had to quickly get to the other side of the city. the original casting was for diana vishneva (one of my fave dancers everrrr) but she was sick or injured and we ended up watching hee seo perform. i’ve only watched hee dance sleeping beauty, and that was a bit disappointing. however, i ended up enjoying her performance as juliet. marcelo gomes danced the role of romeo and I LOVE HIM. always have, always will.

day two / saturday, june 20

we were supposed to go to kayla itsines‘ new york city boot camp, but evelyn ended up oversleeping. (yes, i’m putting all the blame on you, ev) the boot camp started at 9am, but doors opened at 7am. we wanted to get good spots and planned on getting there at 6am, which meant getting up at 4:30am or 5am. yeah, that didn’t happen. still disappointed.

when we actually got up, we went to sweetgreen for lunch. it was extremely filling and delicious. if i could, i’d go there EVERY DAY. but it’s too far from ABT studios and my lunch break isn’t that long. 🙁 next, i went to books of wonder for a bookish event!!! they were hosting the fearless fifteener’s debut author spotlights. it’s one of my first bookish events, so i was super excited to meet a panel of authors. sadly, i couldn’t buy everyone’s books because there were seven authors/books. i ended up deciding and purchasing three books: tiny pretty things, by sona charaipotra & dhonielle clayton; the night we said yes, by lauren gibaldi; none of the above by i.w. gregorio! it’s hard to take pictures of the books because the lighting here is awful, but i’ll have a new york book haul once i get back home.

we went to levain bakery to get their famous cookies. honestly, i found it too sweet and it made my body say, “NOOOOO.” it made my mouth water and all my taste buds felt alive, but after a few bites i was done. after finishing the cookie, we took a break at some random park because TOO MUCH WALKING. once we refreshed ourselves, we visited moma (museum of modern art) but only had 45 minutes to explore the four floors. it’s huge, so i only managed to get through a floor and a half. buuuut i did get to see some cool stuff! i’ll try to go again to see the rest of it. afterwards, we went to eat korean bbq because we LOVE KOREAN BBQ AND KTOWN AND ALL THE KOREAN STUFF. <3333

day three / sunday, june 21

today was father’s day, but our father is across the country so we didn’t get to celebrate. in the morning, evelyn and i went searching for a new apartment and paying the deposit within an hour. (that was unexpected.) yay! i really liked her new place and IT HAS AIR CONDITIONER. her current apartment doesn’t and on some days, it makes me feel like death. afterwards, we went to juice generation and ate açai bowls. you KNOW how obsessed i am with açai bowls.

back at steps, i took another class, this time with a different teacher. the guy taught in a balanchine style, which is something i’ve never taken before. barre was strange, but center was so fun! i’m surprised at how much i enjoyed the class. usually, i take vaganova (russian) style classes that are completely different. i think i’ll be taking more balanchine classes in the future. 🙂

we ate lunch at the bao, which was alright. honestly after eating the chinese food at home, nothing in new york compares. then we went to get dessert at snowdays! i’ve been wanting to go for AGES. it’s this delicious shaved ice dessert place with a ton of asian treats. perfect for a summer day and i hope to go again soon! i wanted to take a picture, but it came out gross looking. UGH. how do those instagrammers do it?!

we got back to the apartment, feeling absolutely AWFUL for consuming that much food. how to solve the problem: go running in central park. i haven’t run in three or four years, so i was a bit nervous to see how my body would react. even though i can go hours dancing, running was always a struggle. i ended up surprising myself and running a little over a mile in 8:50 minutes. *pats self on back* we ate dinner at whole foods because WHOLE FOODS. i love whole foods. (spoiler: i go there at least three times a week)

first official day / placement class / june 22

the first day of intensive is always a placement class. now that you’ve auditioned and been accepted into the program, you’re going to take another audition to see which level you get into. it’s usually very nerve wrecking, but i was surprisingly calm this year. i think it’s because an audition class is nothing compared to performing a solo at competitions. besides, at this point, it’s not like i’m going to get that much better by overworking or that much worse for underworking. so it didn’t make sense to me to get nervous.

after the class, we had a nutrition and injury prevention lecture which was interesting, but not anything i haven’t heard before. once that i was over, i was fairly tired and excited for the day to be over (how i usually feel). then, i had a personal training session with evelyn’s trainer, junior. i heard lots of great things about junior, so i was pumped (but also scared) to work with him. he was very nice but also very demanding. as in, it got to the point where my body was saying, “NO NO NO SOS SEND HELP” and i felt death coming. i felt exhausted but stronger. (waiting for my six pack heh) whole foods for dinner, again, because whole foods.

the rest of the week

the next day, i found out i got into violet! it was nice because there were some people in my class who i knew and it looked like i fit in the level. (levels from lowest to highest: red, yellow, orange, blue, green, magenta, violet, aqua, indigo) nothing really exciting happens during the week because i’m taking class all day and occasionally doing resistance training in the evenings. (annnnnd more whole foods) as much as i enjoy the program, it’s exhausting and i can’t wait for the weekends.

side note: i visited the strand one day after class! always been a dream of mine and i’ll surely go again soon. maybe alone, maybe with a friend. if you’re in the city, please let me know! it’s always fun to meet bookish people in real life <33

glorious authors from books of wonder:

p.s. i decided to combine my monthly recaps for the summer because i’m waaaaaay too busy and my entire blog will just be filled with recaps. it’ll be boring and exhausting and i’m mostly just lazy.

– alexandra