ABT Day Seven

Well today is Amanda's seventh day at ABT! She seemed to have a pretty good day yesterday, although she was quite tired by the end of the day! I guess dancing from 9 to 5 each day can be pretty exhausting! She purchased her ticket for Swan Lake, so she will be seeing that on Thursday night! After her classes, we went to City Crab for dinner. It was quite delicious and by the time our meal was over, we discovered it was raining again! Luckily, we have learned to NEVER be without an umbrella so we were prepared! City Crab is only about a block from our apartment, so before long we were back home! Then it was time to relax--Amanda fixed herself a relaxing cup of tea, put her feet up on the couch, and we continued our "Friends" marathon! It is very nice that Amanda can relax each evening because that seems to be necessary after a day of rigorous dancing!

Here you can see the upper floors of the ABT building where the classes are held! I believe Amanda has had her classes on three of the floors--there are about nine studios where her classes are being held. As you can see, there are a lot of window air conditioners and they also utilize a lot of fans! Amanda says it gets somewhat hot when they start dancing, but it is bearable. There are radiators in the studios--such is the way it is with an older building I guess--dance studios in the city are much different than what we are used to in the suburbs! It is good, though, to experience this type of studio as well!

Tomorrow she has her first jazz class with Joe Istre, so that should be fun! Later in the week she will also have acting and character. This promises to be a busy week! Here you see a picture of Union Square--it is only a couple of blocks from ABT and is where I go a lot of mornings after Amanda starts her classes. They have a wonderful farmers' market several days a week here, a Whole Foods, and a Trader Joe's. Grocery shopping is definitely different here as you must carry whatever you purchase several blocks! It didn't take me long to figure out you don't buy too many heavy items in one trip! (Or wait until Bruce comes on the weekend--ha!) They are very nice stores, and actually the Whole Foods store is on three levels--the very top level is their "cafe" where you can eat their prepared items (much like we have in Fairfax). There is no elevator--but a separate escalator for the carts only (no people allowed!).


Today I went on the subway to do a "dry-run" to make sure I can figure out how to get to the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center where Swan Lake will be performed! Since I am still not that familiar with the city, I thought it might be wise to make sure I know where I am going! I had to switch trains in Times Square, I had a little bit of trouble finding the second platform where I supposed to make by transfer, but after asking a couple of non-threatening looking fellow travelers, I made it to my destination! Of course, when we go for the actual performance, it will be rush hour, so I'm sure it will take us longer! Today I picked up my ticket for the performance--if I am going to be waiting for Amanda, it made sense to see the show as well, even though we won't be sitting together! We are looking forward to Thursday evening very much!

Thanks for "checking in" with us!

So long, Amanda and Beth