New York City serenade

You couldn't really ask for a better home opener than the one the Rangers had last night. The fans were excited to be back and they're playing a new, aggresive game. I predict good things if Gaborik stays healthy, he's already clicking with Dubinsky. And it was so great to see Del Zotto's first NHL goal, he's 19 and you could tell he was so excited.

Overheard in NYC/game:
Well if he's going to send you a picture of his penis...
You ask a guy with all the money in the world if he's happy and he'll lie and tell you he is. It won't make him happy and it won't make you either.
Don't be touching my honey (girl next to me after a goalie interference penalty on Lundqvist)

On the drive home all the stations were playing Bruce since he's doing a string of concerts at the Meadowlands. Speeding past the foggy lights after a great Ranger game blasting the music of the only man who will ever understand me I thought to myself, there are worse things than being stuck in New Jersey.

Blogs posts

Here are a couple more posts I wrote for work the other day:

Threadbanger

TMI Weekly

Yesterday at work I researched zombies. Sick.

New York City, the incomparable, the brilliant star city of cities.

Last week I went into the city six straight days. Monday started out, on a whim, going to the Rangers pre-season game con mi padre and ended up meeting Mike Richter. Mike Richter has been my favorite hockey player since I was six. Needless to say I was a little excited. Then the next two days I went in and started my internship, which as I stated earlier, I really like so far. I even met my friend for lunch on Thursday. She's doing an internship a couple blocks away from me which is really convenient. It as so ordinary but it made me realize just how badly I want to live and work in New York. Even just walking back and forth from Penn Station makes my day.

Friday I went out in the city again. There was an NU alumni event and I met up with the same friend I had lunch with. Heading back to Penn Station around 12:30, the streets were packed, the Chrysler Building was sparkling and I couldn't help but smile. Uncontrollable smiling happened when I was with Boston, but it was usually because of the people I was with, not where I was. I loved my time in Boston and I made some great friends, but in New York, I'm positive I could have great friends and be ecstatic about the place I'm living every day.

And now for the favorite part of my day:
On the way back from yoga it was raining but the sky was pale orange. And I saw the brightest, biggest rainbow I've ever seen. It stretched across the whole sky, and it looked like it was blending in with the rest of the sky, making it pink. And when I looked in my rearview mirror, the sky looked gold.

First week of internship

So this week I started a new internship at Next New Networks in NYC. I go in Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I do marketing and communications outreach. Yesterday I got to write a couple blog posts, here is one of them:

Paranormal Activity on IndyMogul

It's only been two days but I really like it so far. On Tuesday I was eaten by a zombie which was fun, it was the first time I've ever used fake blood. I should've kept it on to see if anyone on the train would've said anything.

I really want to get this blog started again so I think linking to my other work would be a good place to start. I also need to write a post about how I met Mike Richter the other night aka the greatest day ever.

ProPeru second week

So I´m coming to the close of my second week here in Urubamba, Peru. Things have been going really well so far. My project is working with children in Frida´s Place which is a kind of afterschool program for the kids to come to. A lot of the children have to travel pretty far to get to school, so Frida provides them with a place to stay. My assignment is to teach them as much as I can about the environment.

I was pretty intimidated by my assignment since my spanish isn´t great. The ProPeru office has a binder filled with really good environmental lessons by previous volunteers that were taught in schools. However I was nervous to try and go into too much depth with them since I wasn´t confident in my ability to explain the concepts, or in answering any questions the children might´ve had. So another volunteer and I came up with some other basic lesson plans to do with the children.

The first couple of days we learned that the children really liked coloring, maps and books. We tried to structure our lessons around this knowledge. For one of our first lessons, we had flash cards of different land forms, like mountains, forests and beaches and asked the children to identify them. We then asked them where on the map these places could be found. The children really seemed to enjoy pointing out locations on the map. We then had them draw some of their favorite animals and indicate in which land type they thought they lived. They chose the correct places and seemed to enjoy the activity.

In other lessons we continued to focus on animals and taught the children the different classifications of animals. We went over mammals, reptiles and birds and cut out pictures of these animals and had the children tape the animals to the correct classifications. We also liked to start the lessons with a book to put the children in the right mindset to listen and end each lesson with a game.

Earlier in the week more volunteers came who will be working with me at Frida´s Place. Their spanish is much better than mine so I´m excited to be able to focus more on the environment with the children. The children are really receptive to the activities and have a lot of energy and are a ton of fun to be around.

Urubamba is gorgeous. Everywhere you look there are beautiful green mountains. My commute to Frida´s Place takes about 30 minutes on the bus and is a 15 minute walk up a hill to the house. It´s my favorite part of the day. The view is gorgeous and is a great way to get exercise.

Every Tuesday all the volunteers cook dinner together in the ProPeru office which is a great way to get to know the other volunteers. We´ve gone out a couple of times and I´ve been lucky to be placed with a great group of people. Last weekend a couple of us went on a hike which was one of the most beautiful I´ve ever been on. I´ve hiked in the jungle and it´s basically all green but here there were flowers, ancient trees with moss growing on them and a ton of birds flying over head. When we got to the top there was a huge lake surrounded by ancient jagged mountains that looked like something out of Lord of the Rings.

This weekend we´re visiting some ruins and hitting up the Pisaq market which is supposed to be Peruvian famous I believe. I´m definitely going to put a big dent in my wallet there. That´s all I have for now, hopefully I will have time to update more next week about the new project I´ll be taking on starting tomorrow!