Peanut Gallery Takes on NYC

I have no clue why it took us a solid three years to get to know each other. Luckily Arianne and I finally became friends (much thanks to Carine for bringing us together in Banff). So when she had a week off from work and decided to come visit me in New York, I was absolutely elated. Arianne had been to New York earlier in the year and had already crossed the NYC tourist items off of her bucket list, which meant that we got to spend five days pretending to live like the locals (I still don't quite consider myself a local... give me a few more months and I'll get there). 

Day One:

I had class into the evening and arrived home to find Arianne hanging out at my apartment. The reunion was joyous. We ventured outside of the Upper West Side to find delicious pasta and happened upon a couple of memorable cab drivers. The first told us a story about the people in Bangladesh getting gastric ulcers from eating fish and bone marrow. Our cab driver on the way home from dinner pulled up blasting music. When he turned it down after we got in, we told him that we were up to party and to keep the music blasting. That was perhaps the most exciting cab I have yet to ride in. He dropped us off on the corner, I paid, and then he said, "This is your favorite song!" and turned up the music. It did just happen to be Arianne's favorite song. How he knew that, I will never know. I told him I had already paid and he said "I will take you around the block free of charge to your favorite song!" and so we sped around the block at a million miles an hour blasting and dancing in a random cab to one of Arianne's favorite songs. As we left, we asked his name. "You can call me Mr. T."

Day Two:

Decided to start off our day with a little MMMBop (thanks, Hanson), toast and honey, and back porch bird watching. In trying to decide what to do that night, we happened upon a band we had never heard of, Jack & Jack. After watching about 200 of their Vines and listening to their music, we determined that this concert would satisfy our need to dance. We headed to Union Square to buy tickets for later that night. A line of 16-year-old girls was forming outside waiting for the afternoon meet and greet. That line alone should have keyed us in to what we would be experiencing in about 9 hours. 

Arianne snuck up on me with her film camera. The sound of the shutter made me jump a thousand feet.

With a few more hours before seeing Seth Meyers, we decided to browse a couple of 5th Ave stores, which ended up turning into a very successful shopping trip. I am still obsessed with the boots I bought and Arianne's new denim jacket and tunic dress. The theme of our shopping excursion, which in turn became the theme of our trip: New York new me. Also turns out I really like 70s-era clothes. Cool. 

After realizing how little time we had to get to Rockefeller Center in time, we literally sprinted from Anthropologie to the subway stop to 30 Rock. Made it in the nick of time. Were given front row seats at the filming of Late Night. Chatted it up with the opening comedian, Ryan Reiss. Got his email to get on his guest list for one of his shows. Arianne made a cameo appearance with Seth Meyers literally right in front of her as he filmed some sort of advertisement. We have yet to find the ad with Arianne classily doing the "rock on" sign in the background. Seth was hilarious. I love these studio filmings, they are great. 

Ran from the NBC Studios back to the subway back to Union Square for Jack and Jack. Oh my goodness I have never been to a show with a worse audience. But apparently this is the norm now for all the high school kids. They didn't watch the show right in front of them. They watched it through their phones as they filmed Instagram and Snapchat stories. And apparently Jack and Jack are the 16-year-old heart throbs and I am positive there were less than 10 boys in the entire audience. Aka the squeals were deafening. BUT all of that being said....we didn't regret going. We still danced a bit and enjoyed ourselves. Plus the people watching was extremely captivating and very interesting. I still don't think I have fully comprehended it all. Post-concert we headed to Big Daddy's for shakes because when am I not craving a shake? 

EXCUSE ME CHILDREN, PUT YOUR PHONES AWAY.
(I know it's ironic because in order to take this picture, I had to have my phone out...I, however, pulled it out specifically
for this one photo and put it away for the rest of the show. So, it's different, right?)

Big Daddy's. Film photo.

Day Three:

Classy day on the town. We chose classiness because we thought that was appropriate for our bridal gown fitting. Yes, bridal gown fitting. No, neither Arianne nor I are engaged. But Leanne Marshall sells absolutely beautiful dresses and when appointments to try them on are free, why not?? They were amazing. So flowy and basically moved in slow motion. All of them are made upon order by Leanne herself, some of which are even hand-painted, which is incredible. 

Post-gown fitting included browsing through the Oliver Gustav studio (Us: "What's inside?" Doorman: "It's like Disneyland. You find out as you go."), chatting with the funny sarcastic hotel concierge, eating at a delicious Chinese diner in Chinatown (that may or may not have gotten me sick...still unsure about that one), walking through Little Italy, happening upon the Canal Street Market which was amazing and a lot larger than the little store front let on, and heading back to Anthropologie to purchase our on-hold clothes. The rest of the night consisted of cozying up in my apartment and watching Seinfeld until we were hungry again, when we headed up to Tom's Restaurant to round out the Seinfeld evening.

Did you notice that I match the semi-truck next to me...?

I call this "Courtney pretends that she knows how to use chopsticks, but right before this picture she dropped a dumpling."

Name the band featured in this random Chinatown mural. (Film photo)

Shoes shoes shoes.

Film photo.

I call this photo "Seinfeld Dream Adventure feat. Bacon" (film photo)

Day Four:

Columbia Invasion. Columbia campus is beautiful, but I can never capture the beauty on my phone. Arianne, however, is a very talented photographer (which you can tell by looking at all these photos because they are all hers or taken on one of her cameras) and I wrote on our list of To-Do's, "Have Arianne take picture of Low Library and Butler," which she did and they are all I could have ever imagined and more.

Inside Butler library.

The photo I have been dreaming to have for so long. (Film photo)

Just a classic Courtney face that I thought you would all appreciate.

Right after we got shushed. Oops.

Butler Library. Film photo.

We had no plans for the rest of the day and decided to split a burrito and stroll through Central Park. We strolled for hours. IT WAS PERFECT. Everyone had kept telling me how beautiful Central Park was with the changing leaves and I guess I just didn't get around to going over there to check it out. But goodness, look for yourself, it was amazing. About four hours later, it started getting dark and we finally decided it was about time we left the park and head to check the next item off our list: 

walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to get Grimaldi's Pizza. We were freezing, but the bridge was beautiful and the pizza was delicious, so it was all worth it. Arianne was disappointed because the Russians were no longer running Grimaldi's. I told her I would go back again in the future and check for the Russians.

Arianne perfectly captured my favorite Central Park view. Absolutely beautiful film photo.

Making leaf angels.

(Film photo)

This was a super adorable couple taking photos together and enjoying a beautiful Saturday stroll.

We sat and listened to this man for a very long time. He was wonderful and very talented. How I love the park musicians.

Remember how I said we got on Ryan Reiss's guest list? This was that night. He was performing at a little comedy club on the Upper West Side with about five other comedians. They were all great. I really need to take advantage of all these comedians performing around the city because they are hilarious. Even though we don't actually know Ryan, we both felt very cool getting in for free just by saying, "Hi. Yes, we are here to see Ryan. We are on his guest list." I guess the term "free" is relative though, because once we got all situated we found out there was a drink minimum. Whelp, another virgin mojito, please. We ended the night with bacon and mashed potatoes at Tom's Restaurant. That diner has quickly become a favorite. As we exited the subway stop on our way back home, Arianne commented on the sprinkling rain, "Oh man, it's really coming down!" and ran for protection under the scaffolding. Oh Arianne, and you say you were raised in Washington.

Day Five:
Ah Sunday. The dreaded day of departure. 

Sunday we explored the Natural History Museum (specifically the displays as seen on Night at the Museum...). I hadn't been before, which is quite silly considering how close it is to my apartment, so I'm very glad we went and got to explore a bit. Right across the street on Columbus is my favorite little Sunday Flee Market with so many antiques such as pictures, stamps, drawings, and random knick-knacks that I knew Arianne would love. This was a must. Sadly our time came to a close and it was time for us to head to church and therefore for Arianne to leave.... 

What a perfect weekend. Thank you, Arianne, for helping me feel the vibrance of this amazing city (is vibrance a word..?). After this weekend together, New York has truly started feeling like a place I can call home and little did I know that you would be able to do that for me. I should have assume though...after all, you do have a gift -- a gift of seeing the beauty in all things and helping those around you recognize that as well. MUCH LOVE, DEAREST.

Boys Trip

I got teased the other day when I told a friend my family was coming and said "the boys are staying at my apartment." You see, this is a new friend who does not know me very well and does not know my family at all. So naturally, they did not realize that it's always been "Courtney and the boys." I don't know if I consciously realized it until that moment when I was explaining, that's always just been what I've called my brothers. My mom and dad do it too, so I probably caught on from them. Anyway, this is all beside the point. The point is, the boys came and visited this weekend and it was a partayyy. (Marty was partying it up in Japan, so we excused him from this trip.) Mom and Dad came to New York also, but they stayed at their own hotel and we only met up a few times during the weekend. So for all intents and purposes, it was just the boys and I. And though you all know how dearly I love my parents, I loved having some quality time just with Christopher and Nicholas.

Wednesday:
Nicholas and Mom arrived. Mom dropped Nicholas off around 11:30pm or so. She stayed for a few minutes and I gave her the updates on everything new with my apartment and just life in general. As soon as Mom walks in a room, I cannot stop talking. I mean, if you think that I talk a lot, you should see me around my mom. (I wonder if I have been this way my whole life or only the last few years?) Nicholas watched TV while Mom and I talked. Eventually, she left and Siblings Trip officially began (wooo!!).

Thursday:
Dad dropped Christopher off bright and early around 7:30am. Christopher had to work on Wednesday, so they took the red eye. Once he arrived, we all went back to sleep for a bit. Nicholas and I woke up around 9 or 10 and headed out to get bagels. It's fun to take him around places because he appreciates the different places we go and whether it is part of my usual routine or not.

After bagels, we woke Chris up and we all headed out. I wanted them to experience New York the way of the locals, so our first order of business was to purchase MetroCards. They both quickly learned that the subway is not a place for lolly-gagging.

Christopher had requested to see a really nice mall in New York, so I took them to Columbus Circle. Of course, we only actually shopped at H&M, but they both enjoyed seeing the shiny storefronts of shops that children should never be able to afford.

Post-shopping, we ate at Patsy's Pizzeria (one of Mom's favorites) and stopped to grab Levain cookies (which we then were too full to eat and I ended up saving until Sunday as a Relief Society snack for myself haha). I had class Thursday afternoon, so dropped the boys off at my apartment and let them rest up.

After class, I immediately headed to Times Square to meet the fam (Mom and Dad had picked up the boys earlier). Sarah came with us to dinner and we were extremely proud of ourselves for maximizing our time and finding each other on the exact subway car rather than waiting on the platform. My class was on 168th and she was already around 110th by the time I got out. So I hopped on the subway, gave the car number and a detailed description of my location on the platform and we eagerly looked out for each other as I pulled into the stop. Immediately we saw each other through the window of the slowing subway and just started laughing because we were so happy that we actually made it work and found each other. I don't know how to describe why exactly that was such an exciting feat, but just trust me when I say it was.

After dinner, my family and I went to Hamilton, which was seriously amazing. The actors were all so talented and it was such a good story. Suddenly I feel inclined to start reading up and relearning everything I've forgotten about the American Revolution!

I spy Nicholas and myself behind the lady with the phone screen glaring off her glasses..

Friday:
Touristy day.
Woke up and ate brunch at Jacob's Pickle (I actually think I prefer Maison Pickle's brunch menu...unless we didn't see their true brunch menu because it was a Friday and not technically the weekend yet..which I am just now realizing could be the reason it was not as extensive). We started off the day with Manhattan Motorcars, per request of Nicholas. Manhattan Motorcars is basically a car dealership for extremely nice cars (ie. Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, etc.). I'm always impressed with how much they know about cars...especially because it seems like they know everything about every car. That's just something I've never understood (which some people are confused about since I am technically a mechanical engineer...but let's just remember, there are many other things to be engineered in this world!).

Okay, ignore the syrup bottle in action... but chicken and pancakes yummm.

Next on the list was the Intrepid Museum. The Intrepid is this incredible ship used in WWII to carry/launch war planes. Exploring the ship and seeing all the different planes was really fascinating. We even got to see the Enterprise space shuttle 😱

Next stop, Chinatown. I have a confession...I tend to get overwhelmed with navigating all the necessary subway transfers to get as close as possible to the desired destination and tend to just take the 1 train as close as I can go and walk from there. The boys were not happy with having to walk and kept pointing out closer subway stops as we walked along Canal Street toward Chinatown. I just pointed out that the 1 wasn't listed as a train at that stop, but left out the part that we probably could have transferred to the N, R, or W at Time Square and gotten that much closer. Eh, what they don't know won't hurt them. In Chinatown we all struggled eating delicious dumplings with chopsticks and Nicholas bartered for a snow globe and sunglasses.

Back to the apartment to chill and get rejuvenated before our 9:15pm reservation at Max Brenner's. This means Nicholas and I watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine for a couple hours straight while Christopher slept. Dinner was good and if you are a chocolate lover, would love this dessert menu. I was a little bit disappointed because mashed potatoes weren't on the menu, but I survived and enjoyed yummy waffle fries instead.

Saturday:
Brunch at Big Daddy's. I gave the boys a mom-like lecture afterward in the subway about respect and putting phones away at the table to show your company that they are more important than the Shark Evolution game and both Nicholas and Christopher tolerated my little rant. Moments like these are probably why they have each accidentally called me "Mom" a time or two. Oh well...it's just in my nature I guess and they have learned to put up with me 💁

I showed them around Columbia campus and we spent a good 10 minutes at a building inscription trying to decipher what year the Roman numerals were indicating the corner stone was laid. Christopher thought MDCCCCIX was 1909 and after consulting Google, we confirmed he was right! Well done, bud.

Because the boys are cultured, they wanted to go to the Met next. Christopher's favorite was the African art gallery and Nicholas liked the famous European paintings. We enjoyed being tourists and ate hot dogs and pretzels on the steps outside before heading out shopping.

Shopping included successful trips at both Niketown and Zara. We had intentions of going to the giant block-long Macy's, but were so tired after Zara that we ended up heading straight back to the apartment instead. That night we met up with Mom and Dad at Black Barn, which is mom's cousin's very delicious and super cool restaurant! So fun to get to eat there with everyone.

Lastly, a trip to New York would not be complete without heading up the Empire State Building, so of course after dinner we all headed up together. What an incredible view of the city. I love those open-air lookouts.

Sunday:
Brunch at Mermaid Inn with Mom and Dad. The last couple of times Dad has come out here, he's been dying to try this restaurant, so I'm glad that we were finally able to go. It was pretty yummy, so good choice, Dad! There is a flee market right by the Natural History Museum, so after brunch we headed over to check it out. I was thrilled to find two U2 45's of my favorite songs (With or Without You and Where the Streets Have No Name). Mom and I checked the glasses table in search of flip-up sunglasses for Christopher and George Costanza glasses for my potential Halloween costume. With no luck, we headed back to the apartment. Everyone left here around 1:30 to catch their afternoon flight. I almost didn't recognize my apartment without all of Christopher and Nicholas's clothes spread out all over!

The clothing takeover, however, was a small price to pay for such a fun weekend with the family! I loved having them here. There really is something to be said to get to show those that you love where you live. Christopher even paid me the highest compliment possible from a friend-focused teenager when he said, "Usually I'm ready to go back home and hang out with all my friends after trips like these, but I'm actually having a lot of fun!"

On an unrelated note, Nicholas's best quote of the trip was, "Do you ever get a breath of fresh air around here? It always smells like hot dogs!"

One month plus a little extra

It's kind of crazy that I've already been here for a month. I feel like a month is a long time being away from somewhere, but a short time being somewhere new. Every day I feel more and more settled. Every day New York gets better. And every day I keep feeling happier and more excited about this adventure. This last week I've kept little notes here and there with thoughts I've had or notable things that have happened. Please enjoy the following random moments of my life.
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I high-fived Jimmy Fallon. Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, and Miley Cyrus all made guest appearances. Miley even sang The Climb. Being in the studio audience was seriously so much fun. Crossing my fingers I get tickets to go again soon.
---
I was FaceTiming Carine and Arianne while they were at Qdoba. As Carine checked out, she made the comment that she wanted to pay in exact change. "I just really want to get rid of my change..." she said to the Qdoba checkout man (I imagined that it was our favorite guy working). When she said that, I thought to myself "I never want to get rid of my change here. I love getting change. Every quarter is a quarter closer to being able to do my laundry in my building." One day I dream of being able to wash and dry my clothes in my building. I don't know, however, if that will ever beat the convenience of taking my clothes around the corner and having them returned to me washed, dried, and folded. Same thing goes for ones. The more $1 bills I have, the more dinners I can have delivered since those ones are necessary for tipping.
---
I have an extremely patient and wonderful mother. Poor mom has to endure my calls of "Hi Mom! Blah blah blah blah blah me me me. Okay, love you, talk to you soon!" I promise, Mom, I will try to be better about holding a real conversation rather than just literally spilling every single thought inside my head. But I do love being able to talk to you about everything. And I do love when you answer on the first ring ;) Ooooh and I figured out why that always surprises me so much! You used to teach me, let the phone ring all the way through once before picking up to be sure that nothing goes wrong. I'm not sure what might go wrong, but I do that to this day. Even if my phone is right in front of me, I am trained to let it ring all the way through before answering.
---
I don't feel like an imposter at Columbia. Before I moved and started classes, I was worried that I wasn't "Columbia material," almost as if I didn't deserve to be there. Apparently, this is called "imposter syndrome." I was extremely grateful to have been accepted and for the opportunity to attend, but was prepping myself for an excessive amount of faking it. "Fake it 'til you make it" literally got me through college. I have no doubt that the motto will continue to help guide me in this current and future endeavors. But guess what? I can keep up. My classes are challenging, but in a good way. I understand the lectures. I can complete the assignments. I can make meaningful contributions to study groups. I'm not the imposter I thought I would be. It feels like I belong here.
---
Dad and I went to The National concert at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Friday. He came all the way out here to see the concert with me and I don't think words can describe how much that meant to me. I absolutely love The National and Dad is the one who introduced me. Dad found past setlists and we did our homework to make sure we knew all the songs they were likely to play. I noticed that my absolute favorite song of theirs (and one of my all-time favorite songs) was rarely played and I immediately tweeted at them pleadingly asking if they would play that song. Guess what? They played About Today and it was beautiful. Who knows if they actually saw my tweet and made their decision because of it, but let's just say that they did. 😉 Their last song was played truly acoustic with the amps turned off, the entire band standing at the front of the stage, and The National and entire audience singing Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks along together. That is a moment I never want to forget. There was something so intimate and special about it even with 14,000 people in the audience.
---
It happened. I got smashed in the subway doors trying to hold them open. Not gonna lie, I am a bit bruised...but I'm glad we both got in, Dad :)
---
"Use today to make tomorrow better." -today's Sunday School teacher
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Haley, Sarah, and me

Forest Hills Stadium aka the old US Open stadium aka venue of bands like The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel,
the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dyaln.

I spy Manhattan.

Pre-show.

❤️

This was funny.

People, people

🎶 People, people... we the people would like you to know... wherever you go, we're right by your side. 🎶 (I can never say "people" without thinking of this song.)

In the midst of a conversation with Arianne recently, I had an epiphany. Sure, New York may have fewer trees and mountains than Seattle or Salt Lake, but you know what it has many many more of? People! Over 8.5 million actually. Compare that with the 704k people in Seattle or 194k people in Salt Lake City.  That's an entire order of magnitude difference. Basically, I have been given this opportunity to interact with people of practically every walk of life, which is incredible.

Because I am not quite up to Grandpa Adair or Grandma Nancy status, I haven't yet mastered the art of having meaningful conversations with strangers. My conversations with strangers go a little bit like this: "Hi. How are you? Are you from around here? What do you do? Oh that's cool. Do you like it...?" Basically all the cliche questions you can think of. That's okay though, it's a starting point! One day I will get up to the level of my amazing grandparents. As for now, I will people watch (one of my favorite past times). There are so many people and so many stories. The following list describes some of the people I've come across recently. I don't know why keeping this list has brought me so much joy. There's something to be said for simply noticing the people around you, I guess.

People in Passing:

(Thursday)
Man with the well-kept curlicue mustache
Two older ladies eating soft serve
Young girl feeding the birds
Children riding the French-singing carousel
Group of moms talking about Chick-Fil-A
Photographer in the subway
Teenage boy walking with his arm around his mom
Athlete very carefully balancing his bowl full of soup
Young boy frustrated that they had to play their soccer game 3 men down on the field (not even on the bench!)
Young girl dressed in pink from head to toe (complete with cat ears, glasses, and a matching purse)
Children excitedly showing their doorman their party costumes
Doorman so happy and excited to see the kids and their costumes

(Friday)
Girl with giant "21" balloons for her best friend's birthday
Two old ladies at dinner concerned about not being charged for their second Coke
Our Brazilian concert neighbor who absolutely loves The National and was singing along at the top of his lungs
Family (kids and dad) getting high together behind us

(Saturday)
Group of new freshman exploring the city together
Little girl having fun trying to spin the chain fence as she walked by
Girl seeing a subway mariachi band for the first time
Couple smiling at each other as their daughter screamed in her stroller
Woman discussing with us fellow cross-walkers about the difficulty in timing crossing with all the cars and bikes
Guy with a shirt picturing a stock photo of a dog holding a rose in its mouth with the caption "¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!"
Two girls loving using the scaffolding as a jungle gym
Boy insistent that his dad takes a seat on the subway and he'll sit on his lap so they can both sit
Boy asleep on his mom's shoulder on the subway
Wedding party photoshoot outside the NBC studio
Just married couple rushing through Rockefeller Center
Catcalling and dancing lady standing out of her car's sunroof
Jr. high aged boy dubbed as family photographer on the trip
Two girls on the subway silently singing along to the song in their shared headphones
Man with his guitar and shirt with the caption "Have you played your guitar today?" and "Life is short, buy more guitars."
High school girl resting her head on her mom's shoulder

(Sunday)
Man on the subway who grew up in Sandy, but now lives in Arizona and is not used to NY humidity

Brooklyn

Nope, I did not go to Brooklyn. Just keep reading and you'll get the reference.

Aaaand no, I did not write a blog post last week... because I was in Seattle. And I was distracted by concerts and friends and food and the city that I am so in love with. But I am back now. Living up life in New York.

The excuse for the trip was Coldplay. Tina and I bought tickets practically a year ago, before I had even finished applying to grad schools. "No matter where I am next year, I will come back for this concert!" The weekend was wonderful, the weather was perfect, and I just spent every moment pretending like I didn't actually move and I still lived there. It was so easy, so comfortable. But that comfort and ease was a reminder of why I chose to move in the first place -- I was too comfortable and becoming stagnant rather than being challenged.

Tina and Courtney matching 4evr

I was unusually excited about the Jim Henson exhibit at the MoPop.

COLDPLAY. Head Full of Dreams.

Lake Washington. <3

I loved my weekend back home so much and am extremely grateful I was able to fly out. It also meant though, that I would have to adjust back to New York all over again. I don't really know how to describe how I feel. One second I am so happy and so excited with all that is happening here -- grad school, the people I am meeting, various events around the city. The next though, I am overwhelmed with feelings of loneliness and homesickness. I wish I could remember how I felt when I first got to Seattle. Did it feel like this? If so, all it took was a little bit of time and before I knew it, I was calling Seattle my home. Which I guess is what could happen here, too. "Homesickness is like most sickness. It will make you feel wretched and then move on to somebody else."

Monday, the day I got back from Seattle, I was the most homesick I have been since I moved out. Perhaps it was due to my lack of sleep that entire weekend. Perhaps it was because this time I couldn't say to everyone "See you in a few weeks!" Tina asked me if I was coming back for a football game in November -- we had talked about that at one point. I told her as much as I want to, I can't. I need to be here in New York for a while. I need to experience life here without always looking forward to the next trip back. May or may not have cried myself to sleep. That hasn't happened in probably years. It was cathartic.

After Monday, the week felt much better. I started thinking of all the reasons why I am grateful to be in New York, all the new opportunities I've been given, and all the things I am excited for about living hear. *Snap!* Homesickness gone. For a time at least, which was wonderful. Sarah and I saw Dear Evan Hansen on Wednesday (amazing!!). I spent Friday with engineering peeps. Iden (who is wonderful and has taken me under her wing as if it's her personal job to make sure I get well-connected at Columbia) introduced me to her friends and made sure we all exchanged numbers. That night, I went with Mark and Tatiana (Iden's friends) on the Engineering Grad Student boat cruise around Manhattan! Large boat with lots of free food and delicious little cake bites, beautiful views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey, and the Statue of Liberty, as well as dancing. Saturday after General Conference (wonderful as always), Ricardo, Sarah, and I went to IT. Don't ask me why I opted to see a scary movie, but there I was, terrified as the movie was about to start. I did my research ahead of time though...read the full synopsis, looked at photos of the clown actor as a normal person, read interviews. All in the name of not being scared. I think it worked. Afterward I was just "meh" instead of "scared out of my mind." Even though we both "weren't scared", Sarah still slept over so we could make sure that neither of us was abducted by clowns. To all future visitors: Sarah said the couch was comfortable and the perfect size for sleeping, so you can rest assured that you will...rest assured...

Apple picking and pumpkin patch on Long Island with Sarah pre-Seattle trip. Thanks to the Harlem Ward for letting us tag along.

Carine's beautiful grandma, Mama Emma. Thank you, Ricardo, for translating for us all night!

Waffles and Dinges food truck. Pronunciation help welcome.

Taken at 10:45pm 😱😱😱 It sure takes it out of me to spend a lot of time in Time Square haha.

We met each other and probably less than a week later planned to go together. This show brought us together. (Actually,
Carine brought us together. But after Carine, I'd say Dear Evan Hansen comes next.)

Look, Ma, I have friends! 😉

The homesickness returned a bit today. But now I know, even if there are bad days, there will be very good days too, just like this entire last week. Change is hard, but hard is good. How amazing is this opportunity to be able to experience something completely new??? And to get to go to grad school at Columbia (my dream school for the last many many years)?? And to be able to live in the vibrant and exciting metropolis of NYC? It's all pretty amazing.

Maybe all this means, is it's just time for me to watch one of my favorite movies again aka Brooklyn (quoted earlier too).
"You have to think like an American [New Yorker]. You'll feel so homesick that you'll want to die, and there's nothing you can do about it apart from endure it. But you will, and it won't kill you. And one day the sun will come out - you might not even notice straight away, it'll be that faint. And then you'll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past. Someone who's only yours. And you'll realize... that this is where your life is."