Spending a Day on the Upper East Side for under $30, New York, New York (B)

This weeks day on a dime post took place in my very own neighborhood, the Upper East Side. Before moving to the area, the UES in my mind was synonymous with little old ladies wearing Chanel and tiny perfectly groomed King Charles spaniels trotting along beside them. Does this woman exist? Yes, I see her at least once a week. Is she the norm? Not anymore.

The Upper East Side is no longer the old money neighborhood ruled by the upper class. It’s now considered one of the cheapest places to live in Manhattan and therefore is the neighborhood that 20 year olds flock to after graduating. It’s full of lively bars, restaurants, and young adults making it the hip new neighborhood (Brooklyn excluded). My high school BFF, Sharmaine, decided to join me in this adventure as a fellow Upper East Sider. We wanted to dive a little deeper into our surrounding neighborhood which I frankly know little about.

The day started with Yoga at Lululemon. They offers free yoga classes once a week in most of their locations. At the Madison Avenue store they are offered at 9:30am every Sunday. I should start by saying that I have only done yoga once or twice and am pretty intimidated by the New York yoga scene. Yoga here is like a cult, and I often feel like someone in Mean Girls is yelling, “You can’t sit with us” whenever I go to sign up for a class. Despite my yoga self esteem issues, I couldn’t pass up a chance to go for free. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).