One of the most eventful part in an intern's day is lunch hour. The hour where interns are free to roam the city (if they know where they’re going), sample the cities cuisine (for example, street hotdogs) and do whatever it is their little intern hearts desire (read, most likely). It’s an hour that we have all to ourselves and everyone uses it differently.
If you’re me, you walk two blocks and buy sushi (today I had a coconut shrimp mango roll) from Whole Foods, eat it in Central Park (dodging those people on bicycles, of course) and then head back to the office 20 minutes later. Exciting, isn’t it? Sometimes when the checkout line in Whole Foods gets outrageous, there’s a scuffle for the open cash registers...but that’s about as exciting as my lunch hour gets.
I’m sure there are interns who go on epic, lunch hour adventures, interns who see something amazing during their allotted 60 minutes. Somewhere, there is an intern swimming or running or trapeze-ing. I’m just not that intern. Sometimes, if I’m feeling wild, I’ll come back to the office and surf the web for 10 minutes. Because, hey, they give me an hour, why not use 35 minutes of it?
Just because I’m not one of those interns who does something spectacular with their lunch hour doesn’t mean I can’t fantasize about it, right? Okay, so here it goes. I’ve always wanted to hop on an unfamiliar subway and take it for three stops, get out and see where I am, maybe grab a quick lunch and then challenge myself to make it back to my office. This would be a great way to expand my lunch hour options. Remember, you’re not limited to three blocks! Another fun lunch hour thing to do is go exploring. Familiarize yourself with your surroundings. Find a favorite cafe, a favorite chicken gyro vender or a favorite spot to eat outside (for me it’s the wall before Central Park).
This is a classic; going on a lunch date. Whether it be with a friend, a relative or another intern, it’s always nice to have someone to go to lunch with. I actually did this once! I went to lunch with my uncle at a restaurant where, he informed me, ‘all the HBO people hang out’. Which was cool, but I am a book person and he's a theatre person, so what exactly were we doing here with the HBO people? Anyway, it was good (free) food and good company, and my uncle walked me back to my building afterward...the only problem was that I couldn’t actually find my building (in my defense it was only my second week!). Eventually I found it, not to worry, but needless to say I haven’t been out to lunch since...although now I can recognize the office, I promise.
