Cultural Diversity

Today, so far, has been an interesting day. First I went to the Chelsea Market which was awesome! It is the home of Food Network and they have a bunch of small places to eat. I had a very expensive and yummy latte at the 9th Street Cafe (I think that is what it was called) and then a goat cheese sandwich at Amy's Bread which was really really good!

After that I found another cupcake place, called Billy's Bakery. Supposedly Katie Holmes likes their cupcakes which really is not a recommendation at all because she is a) crazy and b) too freakin' skinny to get cupcake advice from. I am saving it for later though so I will write an update on that later. I never found Crumbs so I'll have to wait for my friend's wedding to sample them.

Next I went to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum which my friend Anne suggested. The museum has 6 apartments that they have restored to exact days in the late 1800s to the early 1900's when there were an insane amount of immigrants living and working in these tenements. I did a tour called Piecing it Together about families in the garment industry. The first family had 5 children in a tiny three room apartment where they also did all the garment work (sewing, decorating, and pressing). The second apartment was a Lithuanian family with 6 children. It was really interesting because you really get a feel of what life was like for these immigrants. I can't wait to do the other tours someday!

After the tour I rushed out to the U.S. District Court to watch oral arguments. Although I had no idea what the cases were about that they were talking about, it was interesting to see the different styles of the lawyers and how the judges reacted to them.

Tonight my friend and I are going to find somewhere to eat dinner near Lincoln Center and then we are seeing a modern opera called Dr. Atomic. I'll report back on that one tomorrow.