New York City: Day 6 (An Essay with Pictures)

Upon my waking up on the 2nd day of the New Year, I was greeted by the latest player in our story:

Maricar
She had just arrived this morning after spending some quality time with her loved ones in California.  Maricar and James are both doing Teach for America and are on their first year of their two year commitment to teach elementary school in New York.  With our cast now complete, we set off to Queens to an Indian buffet for brunch:


While tasty, the food left some of us with that not-so-nice-feeling inside:


When we were finished, we wished Jeff a safe flight back to California, who needed to get back to work Monday morning.  Chuck and Jackie weren't feeling so hot after brunch, so they returned to the apartment to recharge while Maricar and James took us around Queens to find "Pilipinotown".  It was more like "Pilipinoblock", but nevertheless, it was good to see familiar faces and hear familiar languages.  We returned to the subway station, waiting for our train to arrive:


With some of us paying more attention than others:


It was cool to see the folks I had come to know and love for the past four years be reunited again:


We also caught a glimpse of some exquisite graff art as we sped by:




We rode the subway to the end of the line in Times Square:


Habits of old resurfaced, like nipple-rubbing:


James and John were especially absorbed in the New York environment, greeting me with New York's official salute:


We toured the Museum of Arts and Design for a few hours, after which, with the sun going down, and our wallets running empty, we decided that staying in Times Square would not be the smartest financial decision, so we took our pocketbooks to Greenwich Village for dinner.  It took us a while to get there however, getting distracted by the many stores in Times Square, including the NBA store, Barnes and Noble, and the Pokemon Center.When we finally reached Greenwich Village, we wandered around, finally settling on a place called John's Pizzeria on Bleecker St. opposite Jones St.  We waited in line as old friends reminisced:



Richard attempted to tell a joke:



And Jonathan did his best Neo impersonation:


"Remember, you are in the Matrix."
As we were seated for dinner, Richard left to have dinner with relatives, and Chuck rejoined us, feeling better since brunch (while Jackie rested at the apartment with a fever =( ).  We had some pizza, and after James and Maricar left to prepare their lessons for their classes tomorrow morning, the reat of us treated ourselves to some amazing dessert, which included gelato, canoli, and peanut butter tarts (Hands down, New York has the absolute best food around).  We returned to the apartment where we bore gifts to our gracious hosts (a toaster, a George Foreman grill, and two science kits) and Lara treated us to some cute Lego keychains (I got R2-D2).  And as I stay up finishing this account and the rest of the apartment sleeps, I meditate upon this past week, which seemed to breeze by like a subway express car, and wonder what will transpire in the last few hours of a trip I will never forget.