Liking the Little Loops

I think I've finally gotten used to all the walking. It's really not that bad when there's the Port Authority and the New York Transit Lines everywhere. The trick is, knowing the lingo here. Say you want to go to Central Park, one needs to know that they want to go "Uptown/Bronx" instead of going "Downtown/Brooklyn". It would be a real shocker if one was hoping to get to Carnegie Deli and ended up in Battery Park.

While sitting on my couch and listening to my cousin's Party Shuffle from her iTunes and looking out the window at the reflection of the sun setting in a building's windows is pretty awesome. My parents leave tomorrow and so we went to Ellis Island, besides the rain and clouds it was an experience which I highly recommend. Get the audio tour as well, because getting the personal stories really makes it more real to realize that so many immigrants waled through the same places where I was walking. It's out of this world, but very unique to realize that masses upon masses of people came through Ellis Island before they could become American citizens. I love my cousin's dogs, they are the cutest things Gizmo and Wally. Wally is very friendly and Gizmo has cat-like characteristics. They are the best! Usually, they are on a routine where they go to the doggie peninsula which is a few blocks from our apartment. They have friends they like to play with and run around with and have fun with. There's even a Great Dane who lowers his head down to the ground so that the smaller/height challenged dogs don't get scared of him It's really, quite cute! Gizmo is pictures in this post.

This evening was spent at a lovely neighborhood restaurant called "Traders". We started out with a waiter by the name of Peter or Pete...he had the most dreamy Australian accent...oh my! was it wonderful! Anyway, Peter took our hors devours and beverage orders. We chatted for a very long time, waiting for our drinks to arrive, and nothing appeared at our table. Before our hours devours arrived we had another waiter by the name of Nichola (I'm not sure about that name...sounded like Nick...but who knows) and so he tried to take our order again. Very strange and very interesting. Our hours devours came without any accompanying drinks. When our drinks did arrive, I had ordered a Mojito...it's rum, sugar, lime, and mint. From the description, one wouldn't think it as a very good choice...however, it's a great beverage. I would probably say that it's better than Sex on the Beach and definitely better than a Walnut Crusher. Throughout the whole evening, we had four different waiters. My cousin knows the owner and so he came over and chatted with us for a bit. He's very nice and he's a big soccer fan. Just a reminder, the world cup is from June 9th through July 9th. I'm looking forward to watching the games.