The Big Apple Checklist

THE BIG APPLE? Yes, why New York is known as the Big Apple is a very complicated story that has nothing to do with apples. I would call it The Big Rat, but that’s not a very marketable name.

• Try New York Style Cheesecake (check)

• Visit the Statue of Liberty (check)
  Let me tell you, the Statue is way overrated. It’s TINY and we saw it in the distance by taking the (free) ferry to Staten Island, where, by the way, there is NOTHING to do.

• Go to a Broadway Musical (check)
  We went to see Memphis, which won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical. We got Student Rush tickets for $26 so we were pretty happy. It was a great show with great costumes, music and scenery. It was mostly “black” music, and the story reminded me of the movie Hairspray. The scenery is what impressed me the most, how furniture moved on its own and people came out of the floor. Talking with friends later, though, it was interesting to notice how the level of enjoyment you get from a musical depends on whether you knew the songs from before or not.

• Go to watch a play (check)
  We went to The Select (The Sun Also Rises), a Hemingway adaptation in the New York Theater Workshop. It was fantastic, truly a great production.

• Learn how to skateboard (check)
  My amazing hosts Juli and Elsa taught me how to do it and now I get the basics and I CAN’T WAIT TO SKATEBOARD AGAIN!

• Fall in love with a Killer Cat (check)
  Manola was my cat friend, she was so funny and attacked everyone once in a while.

• Visit the MoMA (check)
  There is this really cool exhibition on right now, Talk To Me, which is about interactive technology. I loved how you could get the free Wi-fi and tweet your impressions using the provided hashtags at each stop – even the way of walking through the exhibition was kind of interactive!
  
  
• Have a picnic in Central Park (check)
  This is a lovely and huge park with trails, ponds and grass! People really do take advantage of it, which is great.
  
  
• Go to Times Square (check)
  Both at daytime and nighttime. So many shops and lights and people and smells and sounds. Sensory overload.
  
  
• Visit Wall Street (check)
  No light shines through this street.
  
  
• Visit Chinatown and Little Italy (check)
  We had dinner at Nagasaki, this tiny little Japanese restaurant you wouldn’t see unless you were looking for it. We entered and there were obviously no seats available, but the waiter made everyone move and rearrange, change table and shift, so that two free spaces showed up. It was funny how people were okay with moving while eating their noodles.
  
  
• Survive Hurricane Irene (check)
  We stayed indoors Saturday AND Sunday, my only week-end in NYC eating Mac&Cheese and watching movies...
  
  
• Go to the SONY WonderLab Experience (check) This sucked.
  
  
• Bike along the Hudson and walk along the city’s Highline (check)
  
  
• Visit the Frogs exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History (check)
  Did you know the largest frog in the world is the size of a newborn baby? And that this tiny little frog, the golden poison frog (Phyllobates terribilis) is one of the most venomous animals (venomous means it kills its predators, poisonous means it kills its preys) and if you touch it you die, just like that. Also, about half the frog species go through the tadpole and metamorphosis stuff, the other half hatch like froglets!
  
  
• Shop in SOHO (called like this because it’s South Of HOuston, which is a street) (no check) because everything was super expensive. There was this really trashy couch that was $18 000 and these horrible guy shoes that were $5 000…
  
  
• Go to McClaren’s and Central Perk (no check) BECAUSE THEY DON’T EXIST :( I feel stupid.

Street chairs in SOHO. Everyone leaves their unwanted furniture outside and you can take it home if you like it. I want THESE chairs, they're beautiful.