A Truly Great Day

Saturday was one of the best days of my life. Just a thoroughly incredible day from start to finish. Friday is when it really got set up, as my friend John was coming to visit from Boston, and I was sitting with my family in their hotel room. Both John and I are very proud Arsenal fans, and we had to watch the match against Aston Villa on that Saturday. My dad had heard me mention that the NYC Arsenal Supporters club met at a pub called The Blind Pig for all the matches. He wanted to join us for the Arsenal match, and figured what better place to watch than a pub with many hardcore fans? I was completely in favor of this, and he called to confirm that they would let me and John in, despite us being under 21. They confirmed, and my excitement level for the match continued to build.

Fast forward to the next morning. My alarm went off at 8:40 am, which is normally too early for a weekend for me, but there was an Arsenal match! I showered quickly and put on my Arsenal t-shirt, drinking a quick cup of coffee as well. John was sporting his Per Mertesacker jersey, and lent me his awesome Arsenal jacket. We set off for the pub, which is on the Lower East Side. Despite getting lost on the way, we managed to get there about 10 minutes into the match. My family was there already, and we walked over to join them.

The place was packed with proud Gooners sporting the colors of our club! It was a great atmosphere, sharing in all the excitement of the match with my dad, my friend John, and many other Arsenal fans. When Aston Villa scored in the second half, the whole place fell quiet, as we knew that our goalie Wojciech Szczesny should have saved the shot. Many times Arsenal came close to scoring, until finally we broke through in the 85th minute. It was a beautiful piece of build-up play that led to the goal, with a lofted pass over the defender from Jack Wilshere to Nacho Monreal, who was making a great run down the left side. Nacho found Santi Cazorla on the trailing run into the box, and Santi finished it off with a powerful shot. The place erupted, everyone high-fiving and cheering, quickly joining into a song of "Oh Santi Cazorla" to the tune of the White Stripes' hit "Seven Nation Army". Arsenal held on for the win, continuing our streak of strong play in Premier League matches.

After the game, we went across the street to meet back up with my mom and sister, who had gone to meet one of my sister's friends from school who was also visiting New York. John and I recapped the game, raving about the great play of Santi Cazorla and Per Mertesacker. As it was about lunch time, John voiced his desire to go to Katz' Deli, which is a famous deli also down on the Lower East Side. While we had a bit of an adventure figuring out how to get there on the subway, including the most delayed train I've seen during my time here, eventually we got there and it was packed full of hungry people, including me.

Photo by John.

The line at the sandwich counter gave me a chance to figure out what I wanted, and I eventually decided to go with a corned beef reuben, because it's a signature sandwich there and I figured I should go for that. The sandwich maker gave me a couple slices of corned beef to try while I waited, and it was just delicious and full of flavor. The sandwich was piled high with this wonderful meat, along with sauerkraut and a unique sauce that really enhanced the flavor. Personally, I thought it was better than the reuben at the Carnegie Deli, though my dad was not so sure about that. Either way, it was an amazing sandwich.

My family needed to get back to the hotel, where they were keeping the bags for the day. John and I took the subway back up that way with them. Sadly, they had to go back to Seattle, so I said goodbye, realizing that I probably won't see them for 5 months. I'm very thankful that I was able to spend a lot of time with them during their 6 days in New York, but it went by too fast. Mom, Dad, and Libby, I miss you very much!

Luckily for me, my friend John was staying until Sunday evening, so we went back to Brooklyn to relax for a while before the concert that night. We were feeling a little lazy about dinner, so we decided to go to Park Plaza Restaurant, a quick 2 minute walk from my building. The menu there is huge, but I had been eyeing the pancake and waffle sundaes every time I had been there. Peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup and ice cream on top were particularly intriguing, so I decided to go for it. I had to order it once, right? It was very filling, so I had to go lie down for a bit.

Yeah, that was my dinner.

John and I set off for Pacha NYC, a nightclub in Hell's Kitchen, at about 10:50 pm. We were extremely excited for Madeon, but didn't feel the need to be there for the opener. As it turns out, we got there when the opening group, Jack Beats, came on. They did have some pretty cool synth sounds mixed in, as well as a nice remix of Hardwell's "Spaceman", but we were counting down the minutes until Madeon came on. The 18-year-old French electro house producer is already well-known for his remixes and original music. He put together an amazing setlist with live versions of his own songs, along with many other classics from other producers. He worked in some Porter Robinson, Deadmau5, Wolfgang Gartner, Zedd, Knife Party, Hardwell, all of which were loud and exciting. Two of the more unique songs were remixes of The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" and Blur's "Song No. 2", which are rock hits from several years ago. The electro house remixes of those that Madeon played were very cool, and a little unexpected. He finished off with his famous mash-up "Pop Culture", which contains bits of 39 different songs, leading into his song "Finale", fittingly. I couldn't help but smile and appreciate the wonderful work of Madeon, who didn't let down during the first show of his I saw. After the end of "Finale", he mixed a short mash-up of all of his songs, which felt like a nice way to sum up the concert. It's still hard to believe that he's only 18 years old and already so talented.

By the time we got back to Brooklyn, it was 4 am, and we were still recapping Madeon's awesome setlist at the concert. All in all, one of the greatest days of my life, from start to finish. What a day.