weekend update.

What an amazing, amazing weekend.

It started on Friday morning when I woke up early to make the one-hour commute to Brooklyn and have my first volunteer session at the St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf. I was a little anxious - I had never really had experience in a classroom before, much less in one with deaf students, and another girl from my program who had volunteered the day before said she didn't get to do much while she was there. I ended up having a blast. I will be volunteering in a classroom with four fifth-graders, all with some degree of hearing loss and cognitive disability. To make a long story short, the kids were all super sweet, super funny, or both. One girl, when she heard I was from California, basically told me a novel about how she wants to go to California and see Miley Cyrus' house and then find Nick Jonas and marry him (I'm not even convinced either live in Hollywood?). The boy in the class looked at my giant turquoise ring on my middle finger on my right hand and asked me if I was married. Another girl gave me my sign name - the pinky finger, from the sign for the letter "J," pulling upward at the corner of the mouth "because you smile a lot." It was definitely an experience but I was surprised at how well I was able to communicate and understand in sign. Being able to keep up with their questions and stories and humor made the day that much more exciting. I can't wait to get back there next Friday and continue working with these kids who I already know are going to teach me so, so much.

Here's a picture of my kids that I found from the school's website. They all took off their hearing devices for the picture, which I thought was interesting...

Aren't they cute?!

Friday night, after a nice sushi dinner with some UVM friends on the upper west side, I met Vicky and a few of her friends and went and saw "Alice in Wonderland" - my first IMAX movie experience in 3D. Holy cow. The 3D visuals were so crazy at first but the 3D glasses were ridiculous looking (resembling snorkel goggles) and extremely uncomfortable on the ridge of my nose, so after I got over the 3D excitement, my fan support sort of deteriorated. I thought the movie was great though - awkward and vivid and colorful and sort of senseless at times, but nothing short of Tim Burton's style.

Unfortunately, the movie theatre was inconveniently located and I didn't get home until almost 2 in the morning, when I had to get up four hours later for a mandatory volunteer thing for my computer class. I somehow made it out of bed Saturday morning and once I got out of the house, the surprising yet entirely welcome arrival of a gorgeous spring day helped put a little pep in my step. I grabbed a coffee and made it to the hotel where the conference was, hopeful that four hours of volunteer work wouldn't be endless and tiring. It was an education conference and I actually ended up enjoying myself - I got assigned to a station with two computers and giant TV. My job was to encourage people to tweet about the conference or to just join twitter in general. I got a free lunch, some free goodies, and ended up spending most of the morning with a hilarious, older woman who told me story after story about her adorable young grandchildren (I saw pictures).

At noon, I headed back to my apartment to wait for Nick's arrival. He decided to come down for the weekend and we had talked about going to Hoboken for the St. Patrick's Day parade there (and because several of our friends were there, partaking in full-fledged day-drinking shenanigans). We ended up not being in the mood what with my early wake-up call, Nick still a little hungover from the night before, and the inconvenience of taking public transit there (and really, how were we going to find any of our drunk friends in a city we didn't know?!). We took it easy and later decided to go out for a cheap dinner somewhere. We thought we'd find something yummy, non-pizza related, and within our tight budget within a few blocks. We ended up walking alllllll the way down to 79th street, but found an amazing little restaurant with a Chinese-Spanish menu (weird I know, but it was so delicious, and so worth the walk).

Then Sunday was the killer. With another stunningly gorgeous day in our hands and no plans, Nick and I set out for a stroll around 11.30 a.m. We crossed Morningside Park and cut over to the top northwest corner of Central Park and headed in. It was so much fun to walk a little, sit a little, look at ducks a little, talk a little....Everywhere, people were running, kids were playing catch with their fathers, dogs were chasing frisbees and balls. One thing I've always loved about the east coast that the west coast lacks is that true sense of spring awakening. When this kind of weather emerges for the first time after a long, cold, dark, hiatus, nobody wants to ignore it.

We found ourselves near the bottom of the park eventually and decided to exit out the east side and check out the CUNY Hunter campus since Nick will be going there in the fall (fingers crossed!!). By then, with almost 4 miles under our belt (yes, we had the iPhone and checked it out on google maps), it was time for lunch. We found a simple little pizza shop which was SO yummy (or is all New York pizza amazing?!). Then we strolled some more and had our first experience at Tasti-D-Lite (also phenomenal. geez.). Finally, as the late afternoon hit, we took a subway back to the west side and hung out in a Barnes & Nobles for a little while (I know Sylvia is rolling her eyes at this - you little private bookstore supporter you!). We got back to the apartment around 5.30 p.m. The day was slowly ending, we had walked almost 5 or 6 miles, I had blisters on my feet, a new book in my purse, and I was in a state of deep, tired, happiness.

Monday rolled around again with the promise of work and classes and homework and all that fun stuff that we try to escape every Friday in a vicious, endless cycle. I'm feeling good though. The weather is still getting warmer, I'm enjoying my classes and the friends that I have here, and best of all, next week is Spring Break and Nick is moving in. More on that later.

Anyway, it's been two and a half months since I moved in and although there is way too much I have yet to see and do and learn, this feeling of contentment in me is a strong one, and I'm embracing it with open arms.

Cheers.