Empire State of Mind

I spent most of yesterday with my mom and aunt in New York City.   Stupid me forgot my camera, thus I have no pictures of the city itself, but I'll post some googled pics instead.  We started off by taking the train from New Jersey to Penn Station right next to Madison Square Garden.  From there we crossed the street to the post office to mail some letters and then hopped in a cab to Central Park.  Interestingly enough, with all the times I've been to New York, I've never been to Central Park.  We explored Strawberry Fields, visited the castle weatherstation, walked around the lake, and then sat down for lunch at the zoo cafe.  We actually managed to wander in the zoo on accident without paying (oops!) and watched the seals in their exhibit. 

The weatherstation in Central Park.  Actually a castle built almost 300 years ago.

Afterward we crossed over to 5th Avenue and perused Tiffany's, Saks, Coach and other places before crossing over to Times Square to meet my cousin in John's Pizzeria. The pizza place was actually built into an old church and still maintains a lot of the original architecure!

Times Square

The ceiling in the pizzeria

Today, we drove out to the Hudson river on the NJ shore and walked the pathway.  Did you know that you can actually stand directly under the bridge.  Although they don't promote you taking pictures.   I got yelled at for taking pics of the underside of the bridge by a security officer.  There were beautiful views of the river and the city which was amazing because the shore we were on was a dense wooded area with beautiful cliffs.

24 hours until take off for Glasgow!   Tomorrow my parents and I will drive over to Philly mid-day and get ready for take off!

Here's to new beginnings

A lot of things have changed recently.  These past few weeks I have been able to hang out with some of my closest friends from the past ten years.  It's crazy to think that we met as twelve year olds and now are off to start our own lives.  From law school, to buying houses, to starting new jobs, to buying cars, we are finally starting to resemble adults.  It may sound ridiculous, but the last Harry Potter movie was a real turning point for us.  We all grew up reading the books and going to midnight premieres (because we're awesome like that!) and bonded over the series as teenagers.  It's kind of poetic, the last movie was released at the same point that we are moving on to adulthood, a metaphor of sorts, I suppose. We went out to the midnight premiere and had a wonderful time hanging out at the theatre (for fifteen hours?) before the movie (awesome, right?).  So here's to new beginnings and the best time of our lives :) 

In other news, my parents and I left for New York on Thursday after a great get together with friends (though at this point I would just call them family) on Wednesday.  After a dinner of pizza and wine (weird combination, I know, but works for us), we introduced my parents to the hilarity of Lonely Island. In short, we had a blast.  Our flight left Phoenix at 5am on Thursday (so early, especially after only a couple hours of sleep) and landed less than an hour later in Las Vegas.  There we boarded a plane to Philadelphia and were upgraded to first class (yes!) and enjoyed some free pre-flight cocktails (merlot at 7am? yes, please).  After landing in Philly we drove to New York and met up with some family.  Friday we went to my Aunt's wonderful wedding and had a fabulous time.

Another update: my dad has decided to come with my mom and me to Glasgow!  He originally was going to fly back home on Wednesday, but managed to get some time off to come with us :)

Hard to believe that I leave in just four days! I'll probably post once more on Tuesday before leaving for Glasgow (most likely due to anxiety insomnia).  I may not post the first couple days I'm there.  We land in Glasgow Thursday morning and will meet up with my landlord to go over the lease, explore the house, and take inventory of what I need to purchase for the house.  The previous tennants were also vet students and loved the house so much that they lived there for four years.  They have graciously left us a fully furnished house, so I'll only need to purchase a few things here and there to get settled. 

After meeting with the landlord, we plan to go to shopping for sheets and towels, etc.  Friday I have my bank appointment and will set up the internet account (it will take two weeks for someone to come out to the house!). 

In other news, I got my email account with the Uni -- message me if you would like to get the new email! 

Signing off from New York; cheers!




Credit to JMB for the wonderful photo!