TheGreenerSide

A few days ago, I went to Washington Park to study for How Things Work in my break between classes. It was a bright, beautiful day and sitting inside the fountain was a perfect solution to breaking the wind. I sat barefoot, leaning on one of the inside walls, directly facing the sun with my books sprawled around me and on my lap.

After about an hour and a half, at exactly 2:30 p.m., I heard a man yelling in the distance, walking into the park across from where I was sitting. As he approached I realized that it wasn't a man at all.

It was the Gingerbread Man.

He approached us slowly, with his arms raised high, and announced to everyone in the park:

"In no other city in the world, can a Gingerbread Man walk into a bar and pass out condoms to promote safer sex."

He then went around to all the people sitting in the fountain and proceeded to pass out condoms.


(you could kind of see him in the middle)

The second he left, everyone went straight back to their headphones and books and friends and naps as if nothing had happened - a quality of New York City that I have always found unique and intriguing. As for my opinion on the above story, I definitely found it amusing, but I think it's one of those things that each person can have an opinion on for themselves.

I mentioned New Moon in the heading because last night my roommate and I went to see the movie, not expecting much but, nonetheless, excited. What we found was that it was absolutely hysterical for all the wrong reasons, but still managed to feed our love for the Twilight series. The over-dramatic soundtrack was inconsistent and awkwardly mixed with quiet indie songs, and the soft, pained voices 90% of the characters tried to maintain throughout the movie were getting old. However, these characteristics I criticize, along with the awesome audience we saw it with, made for an entertaining experience.

Now, I would like to leave you with a confession to one of my guilty pleasures: Glee.
Enjoy Susie Pepper - http://www.hulu.com/watch/107035/glee-ballad#s-p1-so-i0

Friday was "To Write Love on Her Arms" Day, so naturally I wrote Love in several different languages on my arms. The movement is meant to raise awareness and find help and hope for those struggling with depression, suicide, self-harm and addiction (For more information: www.twloha.com).



After my internship on Friday, I went to the mixer for "The Manhattan Project" (see last post). There was a LOT of good Indian food and Indian Music. Then, after a good night's sleep, it was time to volunteer for the competition! I spent the morning signing teams in to their rehearsal studios and simultaneously did some of my Physics homework.

After a few hours of RALI (a program at NYU students go through as part of an application to become a Resident Assistant) I headed back to the theater and began dress rehearsals.

The performance was AMAZINGLY fun and all the teams that competed did so well. Thank you to everyone who came out and made the night a success! And we apologize for the insanely long line that wrapped around the building and delayed the show forty-five minutes (Yes, I know, this was an opportune moment to brag inform about the turn-out).

After a weekend filled with love, dance, and meeting awesome people at the mixer and competition after-party, I feel it is appropriate to end with a song that brings immense joy to my life.

And that reminds me how much I miss playing Mario. (Any takers?)

This weekend, an exciting competition is debuting called  "The Manhattan Project" and is being run by some very good friends of mine from NASHA.

Our troupe will be performing as a guest act!

Enjoy the trailer (you could see some clips from our past dances in the background :) ):

Yesterday, on my way out of ConWest, I encountered a press conference on Washington Place next to an art installation put in place by British actress Emma Thompson. I had fifteen minutes before my office hours, and I had the chance to hear Emma Thompson speak about what inspired her to get involved as chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation - a UK-based human rights organization.

I made sure to drop by later to walk through the interactive exhibit. The entire experience was shocking and extremely effective in shedding light on the issues surrounding sex trafficking. The installation is meant to immerse the viewer in the sights, smells, and sounds experienced by women who are trafficked and abused on a daily basis.

The installation will be in place until November 15, and I highly recommend that anyone who has a chance take a walk through the exhibit.

Here is an article written in NYU's Washington Square News with more information on "Journey":
http://nyunews.com/news/2009/nov/11/journey/

A few days ago, one of the RA's at my dorm treated residents of Coral to an evening I'll never forget.

She took us to the Morgan to see original sketches and notes from American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak's book Where the Wild Things Are. After a fascinating look into all the work that went into the creation of the 1963 children's picture book, we had a chance to see the new movie in theaters - for free.

It was absolutely AMAZING. The entire movie made me feel like a little kid again and it was a breathtaking experience (Excuse my corny language - but it was simply phenomenal).

Besides that, November is proving to be extremely busy. Midterms are coming up, again, (somehow "midterms" happen twice...) and dance performances are coming up for NASHA.

Now I need to get back to work and put together my class schedule for next Spring... when I'll be in PRAGUE!!

Until next time - a little inspiration on finding your inner wild thing.

Hi! My name is Doreen, and welcome to my blog. It's named the greener side because I like to think that that's the side I'm living on :). A little bit about me: I'm a sophomore in Steinhardt as a Media, Culture, and Commucations Major and I am working on minors in Business and Production. I am currently interning at Kwittken & Company, a PR Agency in NYC. I am also on NASHA, a South-Asian fusion dance troupe at NYU with some of the best girls I have ever met (by best, I mean in dance, in personality, and in life).

Today is November first which is CRAZY because that means the semester is more than half over. Today is also awesome because we all got an extra hour of partying sleep.

This past weekend was Halloween in New York City which is always a lot of fun. My dance team practiced this weekend for our performances coming up this month during the day, and at night we celebrated. We went out in the rain to witness all the wonderful costumes the people of New York had to display (i.e. Lady Gaga, Swine Flu, Cereal Killers, etc.). I dressed up as Poison Ivy (a costume that fell into place wonderfully) but I couldn't find Batman the whole night. 'Twas sad.

Overall, a fantastic weekend filled with music and dance.

I would like to end this post with a song that I must have heard play a gajillion times this past weekend and that I'm sure millions were dancing to simultaneously: Down by Jay Sean.

Unfortunately, Youtube won't let me embed his music video, so instead I'll put another one of my favorite dance songs of this weekend. Enjoy!