*[Name] denotes that this is not that person’s real name for privacy reasons.As part of my conviction to network aggressively and work my ass off this year, I had a friendly lunch with [Judy]. Judy works in the legal department at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She is a relative of a family friend of ours and they were going to be in L.A. together for one weekend. My family conveniently planned our vacation to coincide with theirs so that I could meet her.
Fast forward to now, New York. I contacted her so that we could have lunch together – she told me I should call her when I come back to New York – and it happened. She introduced me to two of her co-workers before we had lunch together, which I didn’t expect. One was a senior economist and the other was another person in the legal department. However, the lawyer guy worked as an analyst at an investment bank before he went back to law school, so he talked to me about his experience in investment banking and why he wanted to and decided to go to law school afterwards. Both were great to talk to and I learned a lot about their various jobs from each of them.
After I talked with each of them for about half an hour, I had lunch with Judy. We had a good conversation, but I feel like I need to work on my small talk – I find that I run out of things to say to acquaintances after the standard, “How have you been?” and “So what do you do in your spare time?” and “Wow, this lunch is really good” (which it was). After our pleasant lunch, we parted ways. And, because I was in the financial district, I just had to be touristy for you guys and take pictures of New York!
New York Stock Exchange
Some important looking statue of George Washington 
Brooklyn Bridge 
This is a street fair in the Financial District. I had to look really touristy trying to take this picture; I held the camera up high and pointed downwards toward the crowd to get a good angle. I sacrificed my self-worth to get these pictures.
I think this picture is self explanitory, but while I was taking my picture there, a breakdancing crew started performing in the street, so I just had to take a video of it. 
Statue of Liberty 
Ellis Island While I was in Battery Park, I heard a bunch of noise and music in the distance so I went over to check it out and there was another dance crew breaking. Unfortunately, the camera’s battery died before they were able to do their “Leap of Death” with the rich and single white guy, but I stayed around for the rest of the show which was fun. I wasn’t able to take all the pictures I wanted, especially a picture of the Wall Street bull, but there will be other opportunities. Next time, I will make sure I am armed with a fully charged battery pack.
-Emoinacloset
