The 52-Week Challenge

#5: The New York Arts in a Nutshell

2012-02-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

Part of our inspiration for this blog was our co-workers commenting on how Salty and I have pretty different points of view on things related to entertainment, arts, fashion, work, friends, relationships...but obviously at the same time we are able to be good friends. And so they thought it'd be a great idea for us to use our differences to help each other achieve certain aspirations -- for example, for me to be more "fearless" and for Salty to be...well Sweeter (haha just kidding ;).

However, we must admit our differences did come to butt heads a bit for this past week's challenge. Both of us happened to have people visiting for the weekend -- Salty's sister and one of my best friends from college -- making it even harder for the two of us to come to consensus on this week's challenge: how to treat our visitors to our version of the "best of New York Arts." We realized that we interpreted our favorite "touristy arts" experience in NYC pretty differently. We had a long list of ways to explore this together, from spending a whole day "museum-hopping" (which we've decided will have to be another challenge down the road...but not entirely fair to our guests) to taking an art class (think of those groups you see in Central Park who paint ducks, trees, and such...let's just say one of us wasn't buying it)...but couldn't agree on which was the "ultimate" experience.

A classic artsy 5 - Sweet

Sleep no more entry card - Salty

And thus for our #5 challenge, we had to agree to disagree -- Salty and I had stayed true to our unique personalities and appropriately so, decided the following:

Salty: My idea of a great artistic tourist experience? Something unexpected, something more edgy, gritty...so "true" New York! I decided to take my sister and her friend to experience Sleep No More -- which people have described as a "dance theater horror show" rendition of Shakespeare's MacBeth. I had already gone once before but I had missed the bloody scene of the bathtub, the murder, and the candy jar room, ...so of course I had to go again. This time I was prepared - I wore flats, had a shot of espresso and left my purse at home. When you arrive at the hotel they take your coats, purses, and identity (all non-actors wear white masks), and hand you a playing card with a number by which they call you up to enter the play. Fitting for this challenge, I was a 5 of diamonds. Inside the "theater" there is no talking, no cell-phones, no direction for the entire 3 hour experience. The highlight of the night was racing through the narrow corridors to lead little salty to the climactic rave/Orgey scene when I heard the music thumping from 2 stories above. Sleep No More is a perfectly unique artsy tourist experience and it's been extended through March, so I highly recommend you get tickets.

Sweet: I'll have to admit I thought about jumping on this Sleep No More bandwagon and even sent images of the McKittrick Hotel and the site to my best friend...but then I'll have to further admit I was a bit scared to go. So instead...cue the tunes, flashing lights, and laughter...and fun (non-macabre) dancing! "Oh there's no business, like show business" My idea of the perfect "NYC Arts experiences?"...Broadway!! Not only was it 2 for 1 tickets for Broadway Week but it was also my best friend's first time watching a show actually on Broadway (while I counted this was my 11th...) And in an ironic twist, the show we decided on was a total 180 from Salty's dark, somber artistic experience to "Godspell"...I think the name is self-explanatory.

So while in the end our challenge to define NYC arts in a nutshell ended up playing out differently, we both ended up getting a bit of culture this past weekend. I guess with the seemingly endless arts and entertainment options in the city it was only appropriate we experience more than 1 for our challenge. And that's why the city just never gets boring! So stayed tuned for a part 2 at some point this year...

#4 (part b): The New York Fitness Routine -- the first chapter

2012-02-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

In response to our last post, a friend sent this old photo, to pay homage to Salty and my first "fitness" encounter - planking together in Lima, Peru's Westin gym!

Thought it was too good not to share...(though yes, we cheated a bit with propping our feet up)

#4: The New York Fitness Routine

2012-01-30T19:22:00.000-08:00

Since I got to play closer to my comfort zone last week withour Ktown challenge, this week’s was more in Salty’s court – ultimate fitness.And let’s be clear, not just your average jog (as I am comfortable with)...

Week 4 challenge (if you use your imagination, you can find our #4 in our Physique model): complete anintense NYC-stereotypical workout – and by intense…whew, I never felt asout of shape as I did this past week, but talk about motivation!!

Part 1: Early AM Yoga -- so this past week Salty and I woke up at the crack of dawn (mandatory for us as go-getter New Yorkers) and headed to Yoga Vida for a great flow class. Now Salty and I have been going to this studio for the past few weeks and absolutely love it…we’ll have to see if we can still stick it out with the morning practices though...

Level of difficulty: Low to Medium

Part 2: Physique -- the next morning (again the alarm went off way too early), I struggled through an intense class of at Physique 57’s studio. Now, I was naïve enough to believe Salty when she said I would be fine with not going to a “Beginner” class (this was her fourth class and she hadn’t ever been to a Beginners) but to be honest I didn’t know quite what to expect. As we were jogging down to the Soho studio, I was getting a bit nervous…lo and behold when we got to the class, the faces of those who were waiting were exactly what I had imagined of a stereotypical NYC intense class – no longer my peaceful yogis, but instead think Kelly Ripa and Bethenny Frankel style-hardcore. Not to mention the instructor’s frenetic pace (we literally had 30 seconds to get situated in the room before we leaped into lunges)…and the fact I was the only new person in the class. The instructor’s well-intentioned call-outs of “You can do this!” were just enough to keep me motivated, but teetered on the border of making me want to walk out of the class. While totally unintentional, I think this picture that we had to quickly snap before the next class ran in to claim their territory, captures our individual sentiments after the class (i.e., my confusion and distraught at being the only true beginner in this class and Salty’s more professional form)

Level of difficulty: HARD

Part 3: Then our fitness challenge was completed with a nice New York stroll down the West End Highway and on the highline. One of my go-to forms of exercise...this and Central Park!

Level of difficulty: Easy

According to Sweet....

Best part of thischallenge?

Definitely the “zen” feeling after youutter the words “Namaste” after yoga

Worst part of thischallenge?

The yelling, the intensity, the uncontrollable shakingof my legs at Physique…but interestingly enough, I think I will give it a go togo back at least once every 2 weeks. I guess the New Yorker in me is ok withthe “close to torture” workouts…maybe I’ll even give Soul Cycle or Bar Method a whirl.

Our ultimate fitness challenge: complete. We’llhave to give a status update in a few months on how we hold up on our pact to work out at least3 times a week. Stay tuned!

#3: The New York Melting Pot

2012-01-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

Experiencing the charisma of African American culture lastweekend inspired us to take advantage of the NY melting pot and re-discover ourown historical heritages. Naturally, forme, that meant for our third challenge: taking Salty for some Stone Pot Bibimbop and Karaoke, completewith our own private dancing anime performance (don’t ask) while we sang. Yes, you guessed it, I’m Korean.

If I had to say my favorite things about Korea in asnapshot: a) great food b) karaoke (and obvi KPop…hold the applause) and c)great food (but this time at 4 in the morning at a 24 hour restaurant after anight out on the town). Now, I decided to ease Salty into her first true Koreanexperience and stick with taking her to one of my favorite restaurants in theheart of NYC’s Ktown (called Wonjo) and then hit up a couple of good hours karaoke-ing (at aplace called Gagopa…which means I want to go. And yes my friends, I always wantto go karaoke so if you ever need anyone to sing duets with, I am your woman).I wasn’t sure what to expect in how Salty took it…and we also had our secondspecial cameo on this challenge – our old colleague and friend, who worked withboth Salty and I down in Peru for a good 4-5 months while we were still in ourconsulting days. We’ll call her “Trooper” since she still came out with usthough she had a 5am flight the next day. Plus, she was a trooper in being ourphotographer for the challenge!

So to summarize our week #3 challenge (we got creative with our numbers this time ;))...

…Food: tofubibmbop in hot stone pot—loved it, check! And for me a spicy fish stew (Salty evenbraved trying kimchi, though she doesn’t love spicy foods)

…Entertainment: neverwanting to leave our karaoke room after having way too much fun – check! ( Ithink “Young, Wild, and Free” was our personal fave, as well as “B!tch” by MeredithBrooks, a true classic. Salty’s raspy voice was perfect for an awesome renditionof Jack Johnson and Wiz Khalifa’s “No Sleep” (the rapping was in particularquite hilarious).

It was a big moment for me to have Salty at the end of thenight thank me for opening a whole new part of the city to her…even saying thiswas one of the most fun nights she’s had in NYC! Interestingly enough, for so long, I had keptmy “Korean-ness” somewhat hidden from my mainly Caucasian friends. It wasn’tuntil a couple years ago that I started to bring my closest friends with me tomy house or out to local restaurants for Korean meals, threw my last year’s birthday party at aKorean karaoke bar back in Atlanta, and I even took one of my best friends withme to Seoul last summer! While Salty and I have known each other at work andhad traveled together, I must say this was a great way to build even greatermemories and get to understand our own perspectives a bit better. And what’seven more amazing is how perfect this city is to have these “culturalrevelations” in…all cultures are welcome, all people can find their “corner” ofthe city…then it just makes it that much more special when you get the chanceto invite your friends to experience it with you. Thanks Salty, thanks Trooperfor caring and loving one of my favorite parts of the city with me.

#2: The New York Soul

2012-01-16T18:28:00.000-08:00

So we’ll be totally honest – both Salty and I were soexcited to complete our challenge to make a “quick buck” this week but ran intotwo unforeseen issues:

New York City winter finally decided to comearound…and the coldest weather hit just recently so the idea of standing outside to try and make a pretty penny was sounding less and less smart…
We had a few people ask if there were legalityissues with trying to sell things randomly on the street, so we had to giveourselves more time to look into that (still TBD)

But luckily, we had another challenge on our list (yes we have wehave a full spreadsheet of ideas covering all genres, New York boroughs, levelsof difficulty….) that was indoors and definitely wasn’tillegal: singing along with a gospel choir at a charismatic African Americanchurch. And what better weekend to do that than one honoring the late (andgreat) Martin Luther King, Jr. and what better place than in the heart ofHarlem?

So we’re sorry to disappoint if you were awaiting with batedbreath on how we fared in boosting our weekly earnings, but instead Salty, her boyfriend (our first guest star! we can call him "Rebel") and I took the 3-train rideuptown to Harlem (it was my first time-- Salty and Rebel had both been for adelicious meal at Red Rooster before…), decked out in our Sunday finest (including hats!).

The experience was both what we expected...

An amazing gospel choir with anunbelievable soprano
A “liturgical dance” with onefemale dancer who could be the next Beyonce
An energy that is truly out ofthis world (even Salty and I felt inspired to throw in a few “Amens!”)

…and what we hadn’t expected:

The“meet and greet” where both Salty and I received endless compliments on ourhats, and I’d say literally almost every member of the congregation came andgave us the warmest greetings and hugs (I even got a double kiss on the cheek!)
Notgoing to lie…not as many hats as we expected!! We’d seen the movies and hadimagined many more, but doesn’t mean we didn’t see some real beauties
A twoand a half hour long service….

So week #2’s challenge (our edited version) is complete! Thischallenge not only took us to new parts of the city (for me) but also to meetnew people (probably the most number of people we’ve hugged or shaken hands within a single day). And that’s the beauty of this city, really. There are so manycultures, so many points of view but there are places where all of those cancome together in a rather beautiful harmony. I now only wish we had a recordingof Rebel singing bass, Salty on alto, and me on soprano…talk about harmony!

Next week’s challenge: The New York Melting Pot...this cultural eye-opener is leading us to our next challenge. To teach each other about our own "motherlands"! Stay tuned...

#1: The New York Lights

2012-01-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

Salty and I have both had big years...we both made big moves to New York City-- Salty hailing from the salty West Coast of San Francisco, while I moved up north from being a sweet Georgia Peach for 2 years. We both also made big career moves as we left the world of management consulting (hold the jokes) and forayed into the fashion startup space. A new year, a new city, new job, new friends, and to top it off - a new blog, to pay homage to our new adventures!

Needless to say we are both excited for the next 52 weeks so we decided it was appropriate to undertake a challenge that is beloved by millions of tourists around the world (including King Kong and Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan in the movie Sleepless in Seattle...): to summit the Empire State Building. To add a sentimental gesture as well, we each decided to make a wish as we enter the new year.

Here's to our kick-off of a great year (and I promised not to tease her too much but I just had to let it be known...Salty did get a bit scared of the heights. And I'll admit as well, despite the proper signage I still wasn't convinced the view of "west" was really "west")

And what did we wish for, dear readers? Of course we can't tell you..or else they won't come true! Let's just say we both wished for fortune in life, love, and work -- we'll let you know if they do come true...

Next week's challenge? The New York "quick buck"...yes, yours truly are also on a new salary, so we're going to have to to learn how to be thrifty...

The New York Minute (...or more like the New York Year)

2011-12-30T09:05:00.001-08:00

You can call me Sweet, my partner in crime --Salty. We are both mid-twenties, "young ambitious explorers" who have made the official big move to the Big Apple. And as they always say, things here in NYC happen fast...people walk fast, talk fast, buy and sell fast...but the last thing we want to happen is for our first year in the city to pass by too fast without anything to show for it.

Enter 52 in 52: 52 weeks, 52 challenges...our first year in NYC. Now since our cooking skills aren't anywhere near the level of Julie in that movie Julia/Julie where she undergoes a 52-week recipe cooking challenge, our challenges will be broader than just culinary feats. Entertainment, food, social, quintessential New York tourist-y things...we are on the hook to discover and experience all of the best that a "true NYC lifestyle" has to offer.

Every week we will write about our adventures and give you the chance to give us "dares" to complete in ranging levels of difficulty (we do have full-time jobs so ideally want to stay out of too much trouble ;)

...so are you ready?

"Happy New Year!" has just taken on a whole new meaning...here's Sweet and Salty signing off and toasting to our New York "bucket year."

Watch out for next week's (first!) challenge: "the New York lights": go to the top of Empire State Building and make a wish