We spent the last weekend visiting friends in the New Jersey area and took the opportunity to see the Greenwich Village in New York City. We have been to New York City several times but have always spent most of our time visiting the main tourist destinations in Manhattan. This time we decided to skip that and do something different. While doing some internet research on local attractions, I came up on a site that offers food tours for Greenwich village. Intrigued by the idea of a food tour, I explored some more and found out that there were several recommended food joints in that area. After some more Google searches and reading a couple of food blogs I came up with my own itinerary for a food tour of Greenwich village.
My friend Pooja lives in New Jersey so, we took the train from her place to 9th Street Metro and walked down a few blocks to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. At the entrance of the park is a large Arch modeled after the Arch de Triomphe in Paris. The park is dominated by a large fountain in the center but surrounding it are strolling areas, gardens, play-area for kids, benches and an open air chess tables.  It was fairly crowded with locals and tourists relaxing, reading, eating, playing and enjoying the open air band. Annika was enthralled by the drummer and spent quite a bit of time dancing to the beats. After spending about half an hour there, we crossed the garden and entered Macdougal Street where our food tour started in earnest. Continued…
Achievements this year: It is a challenge to separate my achievements from Annika’s especially as my major achievement is navigating the complexities of parenthood.  After relying on parental support for the last 18+ months, we are finally on our own. Another major accomplishment for me was successfully learning the process of switching off work once I reach home. This was a  more arduous task than I thought it would be. It took some effort to resist “responding to just  one last email† That being said, I am enjoying my work – it is wonderful to be exposed to groundbreaking cancer research at early stages.  To borrow  colleagues’ words : Our exposure to companies performing cutting edge technology makes health reports in the popular media seem like history text books.
Earlier this year, Seejo and I essayed the roles of a jet setting couple who meet in Europe for a brief rendezvous and then part to go to the opposite corners of the globe. Seejo was on a study tour to Israel and China as part of his coursework for his MBA. Between the schedules for the two trips he had four days to kill in Belgium (he was flying Belgian Air & Brussels was his transit city). I decided to fly out to meet him and we enjoyed exploring Belgium for an extra long weekend. 
Last Sunday, I prepared my version of a dish from Mexico — chicken tamales with black bean salsa. 
Last Saturday, we had dinner at 