104 degrees in NYC

A week ago I met up with Sergi, and then we went over to Kostya's house and hung out with him and Sisi. It was a very russian beet soup day-first I had svekolnik, and then borsh. The next day I passed my road test (I got my license in the mail today) and then Папа dropped me off at South Station so I could catch the bus to New York. 

I got in line, and I was 5 min early (cutting it close) but it said NYC on the sign. Of course the sign turned out to be outdated and the people in line where waiting for Philly, so I got to sit around for two hours and then Hannah's mother had to pick me up instead of Hannah and me taking the bus back to her house in NJ. I was dead exhausted by the time we got to her house, but I got there, I'd passed my driving test, and I'd finished Catch 22 (which is fantastic, by the way.)

The next day it was 104 degrees out, or something like that. Hannah and I made blueberry pancakes-so many that we put most of them in a bag and ate them on the subway for 1st lunch. She showed me around Columbia, where she is taking a class on Medieval Art in Manhattan (about how art got imported during the guided age and a lot of studying of the art that ended up there-of which there is a lot, definitely enough to study) We looked at a chapel and watched the tourist groups listing to their tour guides, trying to fight off the heat. We then met up with Rosette and went to the Met. There was a two our line to get into the Alexander McQueen exhibit (it was kindof satisfying walking past them to look at the Contemporary photos and the Byzantine art that is always there. The exhibit for Richard Serra was in a mostly empty hall, and so quite and cool, though I can't really say I liked most of his work, but it was nice after the heat to wander around. Rosette said modern art makes her upset, even if she likes it. After some felafel, we met up with Anna (the one from Paris, who is coming back to Bard this year) joined us too and we went to the strand (huge bookstore) and got sucked into it for a couple of hours.  

Eventually we split up and all went home, where I, for one, fell into an exhausted sleep on a green cot. 

The rest I will tell later...