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By Amanda DeLuise

I hate winter.  I’ve always hated winter.  Probably because I was born in the middle of July and have basically lived at the beach each summer since before I was even born. I associate summer with all good things: cut off jeans, ocean hair, no school, iced tea lemonade.

Winter, on the other hand, is not associated with anything good.  Snow, runny noses, black ice, uncomfortable boots, hypothermia. I was made fully aware of the pains of winter in sixth grade, when our Valentine’s Day dance was cancelled.  I prayed (I went to Catholic school) all night for school NOT to be cancelled and it was and I didn’t get to dance with Jimmy Fisher (my #1 crush from second grade on).

This winter especially has not been good.  It’s snowed more times than I can count. We had a huge blizzard and while every other school and institution in New York City was closed (the U.N., every public school, almost every other college/university, New York Life), NYU remained open to brave the snowpocalypse.  Bad idea, NYU, especially when you decide not to run the buses and I have to walk 20 blocks to my 8 AM lab on icy sidewalks.  I had five classes that day and managed to go to three of them before NYU decided that it needed to close (alerting us five minutes before the start of 12:30 classes that all classes 12:30 and later were cancelled).

So what did my roommate and I do to combat the winter/not-a-real-snow-day-because-we-still-had-to-wake-up-at-7AM blues?  We went to Serendipity, ate our feelings in the form of a $15 ice cream sundae, stole a menu, went sledding on said menu, got really cold, found shelter in the lobby of the Plaza hotel (got a lot of strange looks in the mean time), came home, took shots (…of cold medicine…), watched Funny Games (SO CREEPY) and baked more desserts (”diet cake”–using a can of diet soda in lieu of the eggs/water/oil in a cake recipe) until 2 in the morning AND skipped our classes the next day in protest (okay, so my class ended up being cancelled anyway, but it was the thought that counted).

My camera was brave enough to come out with us, so for once I could prove to everyone that I actually went out and enjoyed (sort of) the snow:

Peanut Butter Sundae from Serendipity (omg).

Frozen tundra a.k.a. Central Park a.k.a. where everyone goes when it snows.

…because this is what snow looks like everywhere else. Gross.

New York City's version of sledding: using a stolen plastic covered menu to navigate your way down a snow-covered rock face.

By Amanda DeLuise

Well, I went back to New Jersey this weekend.  I’ve tried to convince myself for the past few years that summer was my favorite season, but I think I’m slowly coming to realize that it’s actually fall.

The best part of going back to Jersey this weekend was bringing three of my closest New York friends with me.  My roommate Manoa has been to my house a few times before, but for Elisabeth and Chelsea this was their first time in New Jersey EVER.  Well, both of them had flown into Newark before, but that’s why NJ has such a bad rep.

I took them to the real nice part of Jersey: the Middle.  Central Jersey is a little known gem.. most people refuse to believe it exists. But it does and it’s much better than both North and South Jersey.

The first thing we did was attend a FOOTBALL game, a luxury we don’t get in NYC.  Granted it was my brother’s varsity high school game, but whatever.  We got to see a marching band.

Then we took a trip to New Brunswick, where my friend Adam and his housemates were throwing a house party, another luxury we don’t get in NYC.  It was really weird being able to stand in a back yard with a lot of other backyards around or on a front porch.  After the party we went to a real diner, a Jersey diner, where we got disco fries (cheese and gravy for those of you who aren’t so inclined to know).  Then we went to my house in the middle of nowhere and slept in peace and quiet, without the bustle of 4AM traffic or skyscraper lights.

The next morning we walked across my backyard to the horse farm and got to pet horses that weren’t attached to carriages in Central Park (forgot those even existed).  Then we took a scenic drive across the state line to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where we ate a nice lunch (probably the first time I haven’t eaten PB&J for lunch in two months) along the river courtesy of my mother.

It was a brief yet relaxing escape.  We took the train back and all of the sudden, we were back in New York mode.  We had to deal with a crowded train of KISS fans (they had a show at MSG that night), had to hail a cab from Penn Station, went to a Brooklyn loft party that night, got home at 5AM thanks to service changes at the L.  Oh, New York…

Elisabeth with the horses in my backyard

What's the story, Morning Glory?

The view of New Jersey from our lunch spot in PA

A bag lady (AKA my roommate) on the train with CHEAP Jersey snacks

On the train home and already back to our NY selves: iPods and MacBook Pros!

Amanda DeLuise

I’ve found that some people are hesitant to live in big cities because they like to be in touch with nature. I appreciate nature, but I’ve never really felt that I needed to surround myself with it. Which is a good thing, because most of my days are spent walking on dirty city streets, not dirt roads. Instead of being surrounded by tall trees, I look up and see buildings. Starbucks and Duane Reades bloom on every corner. There are hardly any flowers in sight.

But to those who go looking for them, New York City offers some of the most phenomenal natural parks I’ve ever seen.

Of course there’s Central Park, which is a perfect place to go when you want to be in Manhattan without feeling like you’re in Manhattan. 

But if you’re more adventurous, there are many places just like Central Park that can make you forget you’re living in one of America’s busiest cities. I’ve found a few so far, on and off this little island, that are worth seeing. And now that the weather is getting nicer, I can’t say I plan on spending much of my time in the East Village, unless it’s in Union Square or Washington Square Park.

I miss seeing trees and flowers bloom. I miss the sound of birds singing. I miss the smell of clean water. I miss the feeling of fresh grass. It’s comforting to know that I have more options here than I thought to see/hear/smell/feel all of those things again.