Aureole

I went to a culinary demo at school with Chef Christopher Lee, executive chef at the new Aureole. You might remember him from Top Chef Masters episode 1. He was pretty cool. His style is American Classic. He puts cool spins on classics. And best of all he has a really awesome pastry chef, Jessica Yee. I have my heart set on interning for her very very soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Tuna Tartar on Norri Toast

The Veal Slider

Braise Lamb with Peas and Carrots

Learn More Eat More

Today marks two months of being in NYC and 21 days of class at FCI. In theory, according to my syllabus I have learned 46 different recipes. Is that true? Maybe, it sure feels like I've learned a lot. Needless to say, its a lot of work and I'm sweating constantly. I am becoming a regular at the laundry mat, so if you have any extra quarters you could send them my way : )

But despite the work, or maybe because of it I still feel elated at having this opportunity. I'm trying to suck the blood out of every single opportunity I have. The school has so many different visiting guest come for demos, tours and field trips that I learn more and see more here in a week then I would months of being at home.

Most recently I was a student volunteer for Ron Ben Israel (see link). When I was thinking about attending culinary school, Ron Ben Israel actually played a big part in deciding what school I wanted to attend. He is not only a regular at the school but temp teaches a few of the classes during the cake unit. He does cakes for Martha, Bride Magazine and has been on Oprah.

As a student volunteer I was able to meet Chef Ron, visit and tour his studio, meet some of his staff including his current FCI interns and be his assistant while he's doing the demo at the school.
For the demo, Chef Ron made a three tiered s'moore cake which we (that includes me) decorated with gold metals (looks similar to the picture above). To make the edible metals we used real metals that Chef had won at various competitions, made a mold out of a food safe rubber, filled the mold with chocolate fondant, chilled the mold, took the chocolate out of the mold and covered with edible gold powder.The picture is just something i found online but it gives you a pretty good idea of the type of molds i'm talking about.

Being a volunteer for the Chef was pretty cool, especially because I got to paint the metals with GOLD! I'm gonna get some pictures from the actual demo up really soon. So look out for that.

LOOOOK OUTTT
Here are those REAL pictures I promised.

Master Chef Jacques Torres

Yesterday I attended the demo of Master Chef Jacques Torres, The FCI's Dean of Pastry and Owner of Jacques Torres Chocolate in NYC (see link). Chef Jacques is by far one of my favorite people I've met in a long time and I completely admire him. He's a very accomplished business man, engineer, chef and teacher. He's cooked for a lot of famous people, worked at Le Cirque (see link) and now owns a chocolate shop. He has a great sense of humor and is very playful in his work.

He told us about the time he cooked for the Pope and while the Pope was away, and no one was looking he sat in the Pope thrown.

How cool is that!

Have you seen what the Pope's thrown looks like?

No.

OK. Here's a picture. ------------------------------>

Seriously.

See what I mean. That's pretty cool.

Anyway, so at the demo, Chef Jacques initially explained some principles of how to be a successful restaurant pastry chef. " When you make a new dessert menu, make it the best one you ever wrote. The last menu you wrote must always be the one you ever wrote. " He said that every menu needs to have contrasting temperatures, textures, flavors and weight. Creamy, crunchy, hot, cold, light and fruity, heavy and deep.

For me, his ideas on creating dessert menus was especially interesting because I'm thinking that's what I want to do first when I'm out of school. There are a lot of different job opportunities for a pastry student and many of my fellow piers want to work in bakeries, cake shops, at catering companies or open their own shop. Initially I thought I would be interested in cakes. However, after finally having the opportunity to work in a restaurant I think, at least while I'm young and have the energy, the restaurant life will suit me well.

At the Demo, Chef made a birds nest out of slivers of filo dough, resting on a creme brulee, topped with powder sugar covered egg almond slices. It was very cute and playful.

This was just my tasting portion but you could add multiple layer of filo which could sandwich chocolate or bananas or chocolate and bananas. Yum! The cool thing is, I know how to make every component of this recipe so I could make it at home.

But just in case you wanted something a little easier... here is a video from Chef Jacques which I think most everyone could handle.






How to make chocolate covered corn flakes


I'd love to know if anyone does indeed try to make the chocolate corn flakes how it goes. (Honey I'm expecting you to try this, if you haven't already)

Choux makes me sad

I'm feeling very lazy today so instead of explaining about what I've I'm been doing, I'm gonna keep the typing to the minimum and hope the pictures explain enough.

We made Eclairs a couple days ago and I will have to make them tomorrow for my test. I feel...

Yah my Eclair were under baked meaning they fell flat (literally) and will never resided in some one's stomach. Instead they made it into the garbage. The ones picture below clearly aren't mine.

They come in 3 flavors, chocolate, vanilla and coffee... horrah or something.

....
The French love their bike races. This is a pastry that's suppose to look like a tire wheel and is called a Paris-Brest. I know bear with me here. It's a stretch.

OMG shoes...

Questions?
Comments?
You know the box to put those in.

Kiss Me

We've started our new unit which concentrates on Pate' a Choux, also called Choux for short. It sound really exotic but if you've ever had an eclair than you've had choux. It's the chewy crunchy, brown dough that's hollow on the inside.

The dough is cooked 3 times, twice on a stove top and then finally in an oven. When in the oven, water inside the dough becomes steam, causing the dough to rise. The long gluten chains cause the dough to hold a shape and create a hollow middle.

The items we've been making in this unit are much more playful and involve more plating,but more on those dishes later. For now I just wanted to show you my swans.


Two swans, kissing, in a pool of chocolate.

This is the most romantic dessert possible!!!

Slight Sake Intoxication.

There's something to be said for a school that serves its students alcohol. Most universities are "dry campuses" or have an alcohol policy (however strictly enforced) but clearly drinking during class is never permitted. However, culinary schools don't follow these same EtOH guidelines. Obviously alcohol education is a really big component of a good culinary education, but I'm not sure getting buzzed off sake at 4 pm is part of the normal curriculum. haha

So here's what happened. I went to a chef demo on Sake food pairings. It's a common misconception that Sake is only appropriate with sushi, but that's completely wrong. In fact, Sake isn't the best thing to eat with sushi. Rather Sake can be paired with more 'traditional' foods.

I love sake and this demo only made me appreciate it more. The brewing process is really unique because rice lacks natural sugars unlike wine grapes do, so a mold, Koji-kin, is used to convert starch into sugar. That sugar can then be turned into alcohol. The type of rice and type of mold are what traditionally control the various flavors of sake.


We tasted 5 different types of sake with a mini meal; raw tuna tar tar, raw oysters on the half shell, green beans and chocolate curry cake with creme chantilly. My favorite sake that we tried was a sweeter, more coconut flavored sake called Nigori Genshu. It was a hazy white color because it has small partials of the rice still in it. I tasted some premium sake including Daiginjo (pictured right).

The sake was from one of the only American Brewers, Sake One in Oregon. They make an organic sake, which I also tasted. Pretty good stuff.

The process of brewing sake is rooted deeply in tradition, the basic premise is that the best sake in the world is that which taste like water. Personally I'd never drop a ton of cash on a bottle of sake that has no flavor! But that's how it's been done for hundreds of years in Japan.

I don't wanna bore you with more details, but I will say everyone needs to go home and make this summer drink:

White Saki Sangria

Ingredients

- Honey Dew Melon (1/2" cubed)

- Strawberries (sliced)

- Blue Berries (whole)

- Raspberries (whole)

- Fresh Pinnacle ( 1" wedges)

- Kiwi Wedges

- 1 part white rum

- 3 parts sake

Mix fruit and rum in a jar. Cover. Let sit for 1-3 hours in a fridge so fruit can absorb the rum flavor. Add sake, LOTS of ice and maybe a mint to garnish. ENJOY!

Test of Tarts

Yesterday I had my first culinary test. It was everything tests in college were not... fun, exciting, scary, crazy and rewarding. The tests are divided into two sections: written and practical.

The written part is about 40 minutes and goes by way, way, way to fast. I had studied, knew all the material and still almost ran out of time. I was scribbling like a mad person up to the last second. There was multiple choice, matching, T/F, conversion problems and essay questions. I know for sure I got one conversion wrong because I didn't know how many fluid oz. are in a cup, and I got another question wrong- wasn't sure what creme patisserie mixed with creme Chantilly makes. But aside from those two I feel I got everything right.

The practical is two and half hours, but it feel like it's 30 minutes long! It's open book, open note. Ever receipt is fair game and you draw out of a mixing bowl to see you're doing. Every student must present Chef with one large 8" tart, 2 tartlettes and 5 cookies. However if you're smart and fast, it's better to make extra and then only present Chef with the best.

The first and most important thing is to have well organized station initially. This is my drawer full of tools. I have a TON of tools (and these aren't even all of them). I totally love my tools. I think during robotics I was told "With the right tool you can do anything" and that's exactly how I feel about my tools. They each have a very specific use and I'm trying to keep very good care of them. In case you're wondering, the purple and silver tape on all my tools is an identifying mark in case they get mixed up with someone else's tools.

Anyway back to the test. I was really happy with the 3 items I choose;

• 8" Tarte aux Pommes (traditional apple tart). It was the first thing recipe made in class.

• 2 Clafouti tartlettes. (a baked custard tart) Usually made with cherries but any berry can be substituted.

• 5 Spritzkakor (spritz cookies) A piped cookie with a chocolate, jam or nut topping.

Ready for Chef's examination and tasting.

To do well on the practical test you must have good planning and timing skills. Tasks need to be completed in the correct manner, at the correct time and in the correct sequence. You need to have good knife and tool skills. Cleanliness and organization are critical. You must follow the directions perfectly and the final product must be pretty, appetizing and of course taste GREAT.

Here's how I did:

Spritz cookies (pictured left)- almost perfectly. The one mistake I made was in the piping of the cookies. I didn't tuck the end of the piping tail into the center of the cookie, I tucked it toward the bottom. Not a big mistake but one I will never make again. I only lost a point for that mistake : )

Apple Tart (picture above)- my weakest product. I made several mistakes, they are kinda technical so I'm just gonna briefly describe them. First I sliced my apples and didn't keep the apple as a unit. I allowed the apple pieces to fall apart. This mistake did not affect my final product but just made it hard and slower to assemble.

The second mistake I made was I forgot to file down my tart crust, silly me. I remember when I did my tartlettes but forgot for my apple tart. Oh well... mistakes were made.

The largest mistake I made was I forgot to glaze the apples with butter and dust with sugar BEFORE baking. This causes the apples to burn, and get a more grainy texture : ( Not a single person baked this tart remembered to do this though. We all forgot and scrambled to get a glaze on the apples after they were half baked.

Raspberry Clafouti (pictured left)- Awesome. Basically kick ass. Chef could only think of one suggestion, make the sides of the crust slightly thinner. But she said "the custard is perfect". I was sooooo happy!


I have another test in ten days so I should probs go study : ) yah right.

The End Of Tarts

Today was the last day on our tart unit. I'm having my first exam in two days and I'm crazy nervous, but in a good way. The kinda nervous that forces me to study my butt off and get super organized. So right after I'm done with this blog I'm gonna go organize a bagillion flash cards... a typical fun filled Saturday night for me : )

So here are a few more things I've done in class since my last posting.

My Tarte Bavaroise au Chocolat.

The decoration is a cre'me chantilly which is piped on using a conique- a cone you make out of folded parchment paper. using a conique is about a billion times harder then a traditional piping bag and my 'thumbs up' is covering a monstrous decorative disaster in the middle : )

Look how lovely Chef Toni's Tartelettes looked.

I've also made a yummy Quiche Loraine with real bacon, not something that came out of a package, but honest to goodness smoked bacon that came in huge strips as big as your forearm!

We made Tartelettes Tatin Facon Rapide, aka apple tartlettes with carmel turned upside down. It is assembled with carmel on the bottom layer, then raw apples slices and pastry dough on top, bake it and when it comes out of the oven, while it's still hot, flip the little bugger upside down to plate it. Sound good right? Carmels and apples you're thinking... yummy. Chef was excited for this, she described it as a simple but classic dish. But I was completely unimpressed. It's the first tart we've done where I've been disappointed. The taste was just blah and it looked like a hot little mess. It's cool in theory, the flipping of a carmel tart, instead of applying a carmel glaze, but it needs some work.

And Finally for the big finish... my Linzer Torte. A wonderful raspberry compote tarte. The raspberry compote is very labor intensive and the lattice needs to be treated with tender love and care. It's the perfect raspberry tart in my opinion.
I was so completely looking to taking this home and getting a slice. To bad the side walk ate it first.

Before

After

Nothing But Taste Buds and Me

Ok so it's official, if it wasn't official before I'm making it completely official now: my life revolves completely around food. I'm either at work (being paid to work with food), at school (paying to work with food) or at home figuring out how I can get more involved in the NYC food culture.

To do the math

Work + Food = $$
- $$$$ + School = food
$ + Food = (0 * social life) + building a career


Ok so granted today I did have time play the guitar for about an hour and go for a run in central park, but basically it's food all the time!

Also: You can note the changes to my link bar... I've included a few new food blogs, which I need to start reading religiously, along with the new york times food section. I'm half way through The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman and my reading list has exploded since I now have access to the FCI's wonderful library. It's the only library I know of where you check out material and return it just whenever you're done. There is no due date, no late fees. Total honors system.

I have Friday off for the holiday but in my normal fashion... here is what I accomplished yesterday in class.

Almond Meringue Cake

An almond meringue tart with raspberry jam and toasted almond layers with 10x powdered sugar dusting.

Not the most beautiful tart to be sure. I'm not crazy about the deep brown color of the tart. Also, my powdered sugar design, while appropriately simple, wasn't executed properly. The sugar dusting was the very last thing I did in class and Chef was on our asses to get out of the kitchen before 11pm. But despite the sad exterior it tastes really great! I took it to work and it was devoured by my co-workers.

The cake is made from French meringue folded into what amounts to almond cake mix (almond flour, hazelnut flour, sugar, salt). This strange brown cake mix is put atop the tart crust, jam and toasted almonds. The whole thing is then baked. The air bubbles in the meringue expand from the heat of the oven which causes the cake to rise almost double it's original size. The cake is much lighter in density then it may appear.

Lemon Tartles

Cutest little things ever. Lemon curd filling, Swiss Meringue is piped on top, caramelized with a torch and candied lemon peel to garnish A very very long process with a bazillion steps, but the finished product is so adorable.


Also I love to practice my piping skills! Pipping might be one of my favorite activities to do/learn to improve on. I can't wait to start doing cakes!!!! It's all piping all the time : )

A Demo of Cool Kitchen Tricks.

Part of my voluntary education at FCI includes attending chef demos. Chef demos happen all the time. There are two just this week alone! There is a huge amount of variety in the type of chefs who give the demos, some are current teachers, graduates, celebrity chefs, as well as the topic of the demo.

Today I went to my first demo! It was awesome. The auditorium is small, holds about 40 people and you have to get there early if you want a seat otherwise there is some standing room. I went straight from work and was able to get a close spot in the second row.

The demo was given by Master Chef Nils Norén, Vice President of Culinary Arts at FCI with his very enthusiastic sous chef who's name I forgot. But anywho , Chef Nils has been on Top Chef. See Video He had a lot of fun stuff for the demo some of which I will briefly show you here.

Champagne Saber. (take a knife and open up a champagne bottle, the top of the bottle is sliced off but if you have skill there is no shattering of the glass and very very little bubbling... observe)

Here is the video I took at the demo. That's me going 'oooooohhhh' in the background. It was completely impressive and now i'm gonna practice at home until I can do it too.


We learned about the cutting edge techniques which involved using a centrifuges to separate nut oils and nut paste. I tasted the most delicious, clean, flavorful pistachio nut oil and hazelnut butter. It put everything else to shame!!!


Sorry this next picture is off in color and doesn't look to appetizing but I wanted to post it anyway to show you another part of the demo. There is a specific type of enzyme, humans have it in their bodies, and when used in cooking, it can bind together ANY two types of protein. So Chef Nils made us "fake bacon". It was strips of veil with strips of scallops so the veil looked like the meat of bacon and the scallops looked like the fat in bacon.

Here is another not so appetizing picture while it was being cooked, but at least you can clearly see the strips I'm trying (and failing) to describe. I wish I could remember the name of that protein he used. Starts with an A something... anyway it gets kinda technical and boring so enough. Tasted DELICIOUS!

He spent some time using a vacuum, yeah like a vacuum that sucks air out. But obvs it looks a lot different then your normal Hoover Vac. The vacuum in conjunction with the centrifuge is used to make clarified sauces such as clarified strawberry sauce. Normally making a clarified fruit sauce is very time consuming and has a low product yield percentage. However this method is much faster and uses nearly 99 percent of each berry. I think it will be a while though before many restaurant kitchens have a centrifuge.

But back to the food... Chef Nils took the clarified strawberry sauce, mixed it with some champagne, gave it a little extra carbonation and served it to us in champagne glasses which he had chilled using liquid nitrogen.

Finally he made us an arrowroot sauce, with scalliots infused with fresh apple juice and an urchin pate served with some pork tenderloin. Just your run of the mill boring stuff

Oh yeah and for dessert... I almost forgot. Onion ice cream, eh I could live without it but still a pleasant surprise considering it was onions. And the most delicious, herb ice cream with more clarified strawberry sauce (pictured below). The herbs were chopped up and then pureed with liquid nitrogen before being folded into the ice cream. Heaven might exist.


A final note: I promise to learn how to use my camera so that these pictures stop looking off color. just keep in mind the plates the food is served on are white so everything is kinda rosey, but not in a good way. Anyway sorry I will do better.

Tartlets to Hell

Up to this point in my training I've been pretty confident and happy with my performance in the kitchen and with my final products. I have to work on my knife skills, speed and some technical skills but most of it seems within my grasp. I'm not struggling at least not until these stupid mini tartlets.

Mini Tarts are so much harder then you might think. The platting and arranging of the fruit is a pain in the butt. No matter how many times you try to re-arrange the fruit, it still looks off. I was not to pleased with the outcome, although they tasted yummy and I learned some really great knife skills. I've learned the proper way to cut a mango, kiwi, orange and even strawberry, I'd been doing it all wrong! Side Note: Can't wait to show my mom how awesome I am at cutting a mango. When I'm done I basically have two perfect mango boobs. hahahA close up of more ugly tarts. And as Chef Toni says "I don't serve ugly food"

That's Christopher, he's oustanding! He's holding our tray of our oh so yummy fig bars. When you chop them up, you have a fig puree surrounded by a sweet and crumbling shortbread dough, they complement each other perfectly! I wasn't about to let those tartlets ruin my day! I went home and nearly ate the entire half log of fig nuten. The fig nuiten is at the top of my list of favorite things I've made so far.

And finally our first savory tart. It has onions which were sweated, then carmalized with a small amout of Saki, chopped walnuts, sliced tomatoes and blue cheese. OMG just thinking about it I'm getting hungry.
Good thing I have some left over in my fridge! Hello breakfast. : )

Tit for Tart

Me= awesome pastry chef. Enough said.Mango, strawberry and Kiwi fresh fruit tart... it was yummy. I learned the proper way to cut all this fruit. My knife skills have improved 10 fold. I took this tart and an almond pear tart I made to Victor's 2nd birthday party, he's a friend from jersey. Victor wasn't very interested in the tarts (he had a shark cake) but Ted and Viki (his parents) were excited to eat some of my homework.


This is my banana cream tart made with fresh banana's so unlike most banana flavored things, it actually tasted pretty yummy, or as Rachel says "yumo". Also you get to see how dorky I look when I'm working.

Oh almost forgot to add... this is my school. In case anyone wanted to see a picture of the outside. The restaurant is below and the classroom kitchens are on the upper floors. The culinary students who are in the 5th and 6th moduale are in charge of cooking for the restaurant so they get a pretty great experience, and the food at L'Ecole is yummy/pricy.

First Week In Pastry Training.

Sorry it's taken me a couple extra days for a new post. I didn't want to let it slide but things have been crazy here in nyc. I'm learning to juggle a whole new time table which is exciting and straining. Sorry without further a due....

I am officially (as some of my facebook friends may have noticed) a culinary pastry student. I have typical chef's whites with my name embroidered on them, super 80's plaid paints and a very sexy tool kit (more to come on that). So there is no denying the fact that I'm on the wagon and on my way.

The kitchen is set up much like a science lab, everyone at a work station with a partner and lot of tools. Typically there is a short lecture explaining the science behind what we are doing, followed by a demo and then we are sent to do our best to replicate what chef showed us. It's very straight forward and when everyone is on their A game, the class works like a well oiled machine.

The first day of class we hit the ground running, Chef Toni (the head chef) gave us some basic instructions and then we were off to make our first dough, a french dough called Patee Sucree which translates to 'sand dough'. It's an ever so slight sweet dough that is crumbly not flaky. It's used for a lot of basic sweet tarts. Which leads me to our first big project which was making an Tarte aux Pommes, apple tart.

This tart spanned the course of two classes and was relatively easy to make for yours truly although as a whole we had two causalities. The first being that an older gentleman in our class has already dropped out. I can't lie... I saw this coming from a mile away. He is a police detective with the NYPD and baking was something he "liked to do".

The second causality was one of the ovens was 'accidentally' turned up to 500 degrees while the tarts were baking. So about half of the classes' tarts were burnt. It was generally agreed it was an accident but I suspect it was a vicious crime committed by the same apple trees that threw apples at Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz.







However, I was lucky because I put my tart in the other oven. Yeah maybe I sabotaged the other oven but you can't prove anything!

My tart came out wonderfully perfect! (or at least not uber burnt). I was able to take it home on the subway and shared it with my friend Ariella (shout out!) and my roomie.

Even just through this first, relatively simple recipe I have already learned so many new techniques and tricks that a normal cook book (even the most detailed) could supply. My bench in right up at the very front of the room, right next to Chef's table to I get a great view of what she's doing and can ask her a billion questions all the time.

My Tarte aux Pommes with apricot nappage

A Working Woman

I got a job praise the lord!!!! I might actually make it in the city so please ignore any rumors you have heard to the contrary.

So here is the play by play:

Finding a job in NYC has proven to be just as easy as everyone says it is (it doesn't hurt that I'm absolutely god's gift to employers). I replying to about a gazillion adds on craig's list, all in vain but I went to my first interview and boom just like that I got a job.

The bakery is Le pain Quotidein at 801 Broadway. It's an organic bakery, just like Avalon, my old job in the D. So Hollahhh!!!
I'm gonna be working behind the counter, even though the bakery has a full menu and a wait staff. I have ZERO experience as a waitress so they hired me on as a counter person. Whateves I don't care. Money is green and it needs to be in my pocket.

I have my job orientation on Friday and then training every day next week. So I will start officially two weeks from today. The pay is pretty low but because it's a job in my desired career field i'm willing to take the financial hit for the time being.

I spent the afternoon roaming around 116th street between 2nd and Madison . Everyone in my neighborhood speaks Spanish and with my blond hair I stick out like a republican at a gay pride festival. But I love my neighborhood. I'm only slightly scared every time I leave my door step, (mostly because the step is pretty big and there is a good possibility I could trip).

Anyway that's all from the big apple. I have my orientation for the French Culinary Institute tomorrow : ) It's the first day of school but I still haven't picked out my outfit. I need to get on that ASAP!

New York Is Calling.

First of all I'd like to say that im currently eating my way through an entire pound of bread. I've been nursing this loaf all day because I have nothing much else to eat and it's sooo delicious. I've got bread, wine and cheese in my apartment and then a crap ton of my roomies food.

But i'm not too worried about the carbs because whatever... i've walked about 20 miles these last two days.

Ok so to continue on..... here is a list of shit i've done while in nyc

• saw a belly dancer while eating at a Moroccan dinner

• Seen part of the Berlin Wall at this ity bity park near Time Square

• been heckled by Latino construction men... "hey blondie, hey blondie" I do after all live in Sparlem
  

• visited the nyc public library which some of you will remember was the library that carrie was gonna marry big in

• 

"The good ones screw you, the bad ones screw you, and the rest don't know how to screw you"

• taken the ferry across to Jersey

• visited a few art galleries on 24th street where all the cool galleries are, including the gagosian.... check out their webpage This exhibit was absolutely fucking outstanding and totally free! I will be back ASAP

• went to the whispering wall at grand central station where the architecture is such that you can stand in facing one corner and whisper into the wall and the person on standing in the corner kiddy corner to you can her you perfectly clear.

• Walked by the park where JT and Andy Sandburg filmed "dick in a box" you will see them sitting in basketball hoops.. yeah i saw those hoops (and a lot of little kids playing basketball)

-


myspace layouts

• I've rearranged the living room

• Planted some pots for our patio

• Started painting the kitchen a very wonderful chocolate color. I'm gonna eat nothing but chocolate cake and ice cream with chocolate syrup because our walls look so delicious.
  

• Oh yeah... UNPACKED ALL MY SHIT!

• Answered a craig's list ad and got a free guitar lesson in exchange for an hour of teaching the guy how to read music

• Visited the union square market at 8 am to get some fresh food... hey here is a picture of union square:

• Said goodbye to my family : (

• Fallen madly in love with the city

(And that's just the reader's digest version)