Tips for living in New York City..

I've accquired a fully paid scholarship to go to the Culinary Institute of America in New York City.. this includes my dorm and living expenses as well. They only give out three of these in Canada, and there were over fifty thousand applications... I can't believe it myself. The Chef instructors at the C.I.A choose the 3 people who are going to get the scholarship, and they said that I showed extreme passion and a lot of "natural" knowledge for cooking, along with an amazing reference by my teacher, Chef Craig Flynn. The Chef's also said they couldn't believe that I was training men to go on the lunch line at Chives.. they had to get Craig to get some of the lunchcrew to write statements explaining that I trained them.. they were that unsure.

My parents are still flipping out with excitement over this as we speak.. they cracked open a bottle of champagne without even thinking that I don't drink, they were that excited.

..anyways, enough about that. I'd like to know some tips for living in NYC, since I'm going there this September. Any hot spots I should know? Any kickass restaurants that is easy on my budget? Any sort of tip would be appreciated.

Wow, that's awesome! Congrats to you!

Well, I don't live in NYC so I don't know good restuarants, but the atmosphere there is wonderful, there is no place I love more than NYC. The Central Park Zoo and the Museum of Natural History are fun places to visit. Central Park itself is great enough as it is. If you're into Jazz, The Rainbow Room is a good place to go too, I heard. Rockafella Center is a good place to ice skate if you're into that and the huge tree for Christmas is there. Right near Rockafella is an underground area with loads of places to shop and eat, it's blocks long, but I never went into that underground area. My Dad just showed me where it is.

I have no tips for you, cause I've never even been to NY, but I wanted to congratulate you. That's a pretty amazing feat and I want to eat your food someday :D

Excellent work, Chef.

I'm proud of you.

Once you get deeper into the CIA inner workings, I may have a few... tasks.. for you.

Much appreciated.

I'm going to go to NYC a week early to get myself familiar with the area and whatnot.. I'm going to be doing a lot of sight seeing as well. I plan on going to the Trump building as well... maybe I'll meet the legend himself. I highly doubt it, though. :p

Congratulations on the scholarship, man!

I'm not an East Coast kinda guy, but sightseeing isn't really necessary if you're going to be living there. You want to blend in, not stick out like a frickin' tourist. Get used to walking, and not greeting people on the streets except maybe a gruff hello. Staring is impolite, and will probably get you jumped. Nightlife is fantastic; great restaurants, bars, clubs. It's rather classy, but can be impersonal at times.

haha Culinary Institute of America CIA :D

Congratulations. Very awesome. New York is a great place to experience great food, and with your school connections you might not need huge amounts of money to do so. Living in NYC can be tough but rewarding from what I hear. Cost of living is astronomical, but it's one of the busiest cities in the world. Whatever you want, you can probably find it in New York, except maybe beautiful mountain scenery.

Grats! ^_^

I heard there were rats bigger than I am in NYC! =O