Saturday, August 27, 2011

welcome to my hood

you really don't have to worry about looking like a tourist taking pictures in nyc, because everyone is taking pictures. i snapped a few while taking an evening stroll down the high line, which is conveniently located one block from my new home!

while i don't want to upload them all, here are two pics from a little shrine i stumbled upon and showed to jay later.

this is a little random shrine to hope, with lots of little pieces of paper to write your hopes on.

and this is what i wrote!

a big thank you to whoever made this lovely shrine.

Friday, August 26, 2011

you should start a blog!

the past 2 days, while saying goodbye to the charm city and preparing for life in the big apple, several people have told me i should start a blog. little did they know...

it's true that "lauren laughs" was a great way to let everyone what was up back in africa... and it's true that manhattan is like a foreign country... so here we are. day one. blogging in nyc.

sloanie dropped me off at the airport this morning. we both fought back tears. "this is no big deal! i'll see you next week!!" and i will see her and a host of friends next week at jay's and my wedding (holy moses), but i still shed a few tears waiting at security, and again as my plane descended to jfk. oh, the life changes! so many.

made it to my apartment. my first thought was, 'wow. this is even smaller than i expected.' my second thought was, 'aww, jay bought me roses!' and the rest of the day has been filled with similar paradoxical statements.

'ugh, i'm back in a dorm!!!'
'wow, everyone is so super friendly.'
'there's no way i'll be able to study in our apartment.'
'ooh, i like the library.'
'i'm not cut out for this much cement.'
'i love the super green campus!'
'this is home.'
'i miss home!'

i'm sure the tug-of-war will continue for a while.

in the mean time, hurricane irene is making her way to nyc. mandatory evacuations have begun, but i'm sitting pretty in chelsea. the campus is raised and cloistered, so we're not too worried. jay has been at work since 6am, and he doesn't yet know when he'll get to come home. he knows he'll be spending the night at the station tomorrow night. needless to say i haven't done any nesting yet, as i imagine there will be plenty of time for that in the next two days.

i'm kinda looking forward to it.