NYC Trip!
3/10/2019
This weekend we went to New York, flying for the first time and attending and presenting a conference for the first time! For Kelly it was her first time leaving the state too.
Our favorite thing about New York was walking around and trying all the food: pizza, bagels, burgers, coffee, Carlo's Bake Shop, and the M&M Store. We also stopped at Planet Hollywood and got a birthday sundae for Kelly.
We enjoyed walking 10 miles mostly around Central Park on Friday. In the park we visited the zoo, we all enjoyed the penguins and the peacock, that would walk in the walkways since it is an open aviary. When we were worn out, we tried out the subway and surprisingly we were able to understand the announcements being said by the conductor, but unfortunately we had trouble using our metro passes at the turnstiles. To end the night, we liked visiting MOMA and seeing the Retrospective Bust of a Woman by Salvador Dali.
Saturday was the day of the FabLearn International Maker Conference. On Saturday waking up at seven was a struggle since it was 4am back home. We took a while getting up but we made it to Columbia on time. The first couple keynote speakers and panel were really interesting. One of our favorite presenters was Edna Tan. She helps refugee children make toys and decorations to make their community center feel more like home. We also really enjoyed Joanna Weidler-Lewis and Cynthia Graville's poster on working with incarcerated women and their families. They help create maker activities for women to do during visitation with their children.
When it finally was time to present we weren't as nervous as before, talking to the other panelists was fun and since there were less people there we felt more calm. We were more nervous about talking too fast and not speaking clearly. But it went well and at the end of our presentation multiple people gave us the idea of bringing the talent show robots to kids in hospitals who aren't able to sing or dance. We both felt relived at the end of our performance and were happy that we did a good job. (Some of our slides and the video we showed are below).
Once is never enough for New York, we hope to come back again soon!
