I Heart New York

It is great here! I now understand those "I Heart New York" logos that you see everywhere--because it's fun, lively, and full of character here, and yes, I too Heart New York. I've been having a wonderful time so far, and the one thing I was most apprehensive about--the weather--has turned out to be quite tolerable.

Friday was my first full day here. While Kat went to the gym in the morning, I took a nice walk from her apartment in Greenwich Village towards the shops of SoHo. Walking is something that Californians seldom do, since everything is pretty spread out (although we're also quite dependent on our cars for even small tasks, like getting to the grocery store down the street) so it was nice to be out and about and do the New Yorker thing and walk everywhere. I'm very excited about the stores in SoHo, especially H&M, because we don't have it in LA (It's all over Europe and here in NY, so I don't understand why it hasn't made its way to LA yet--their stuff is so cute!) I didn't do any shopping yet, just checked out what stores I want to revisit during our shopping spree on Sunday. After that, I met up with Kat at her office, on Broadway just north of SoHo, to wait for my friends to show up. When Leo, Jun and I met up, we grabbed quick meal from a hot dog street vendor (not very exciting--I thought it was going to taste better than it did) and made our way down to Ground Zero. It was very sad and moving to see the massive void that was the World Trade Center--just an emptiness among the rest of the city. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to look up at such ginormous buildings, or what is was like to see them crumble right before your eyes. I read the signs surrounding the fence through misty eyes, and did not feel right taking pictures there. After that, we took the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty, then headed up to Times Square, and over to the Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was fun seeing Leo & Jun again, we got to reminisce a little about our Europe tour, and it was just nice being able to enjoy the city with friends.

This morning, Saturday, I made my way to Grand Central Station to meet up with Terrin and Chrystal, who were taking a train in from Albany. They are friends I met at James Cook University, in Townsville, Australia during my semester abroad a few years back. Terrin was my Trailer Park mate, until we moved down to Endeavour and shared a suite together. We all have a lot of fun memories from those six months, so it was great seeing the two of them again. Our first mission when the got in was to find tickets to a Broadway show. We walked to a discount ticket booth in Times Square, and were able to easily get tickets for the matinee showing of Chicago. We hung out, did a bit of shopping, then saw the show--which was awesome! (I LOVE the Cell Block Tango.) The girls only came in for the day, so we ate then said goodbye so they could catch a train back home.

So, that was the quick story on my first two days here. =)