First Days in NYC

So I started this blog for all my friends and family to keep up with what I'm doing in NYC this fall semester! Hopefully I can keep up with it on a daily basis, so make sure to check back every couple of days. I've been in NYC for 3 days now and I'm loving it! Very different from Nashville and Fayetteville, but a great adventure for sure. Here's what I've done so far:

Thursday:
I caught a 5:45 morning flight from XNA to LGA. At XNA, I was surprised to see my good friends, Whitney Lasse and Maggie Bates' moms working at the U.S. Airways gate. A WONDERFUL surprise! They were about to see me off and give me hugs goodbye, promising their daughter's would come and see me in NYC! I was very thankful that I had safe travels, and that everything went very smoothly. I was able to catch a great taxi driver in Brooklyn ( which is hard to find!) and made it safely to University Place. The place that I'm staying this semester is a dorm-like facility that houses students from all over. It really looks like a hotel on the inside and is perfect for just a semester. It's located in Brooklyn, next to Prospect Park and sits in between 2 public schools. It's very cultural and has people from every origin living here. It's also SUPER convenient and the subway is right across the street with a grocery store. All 16 Belmont students are all living on the same floor which is a great way for us to get to know each other and have our own community. After meeting and having pizza with everyone, we explored the city and went down to visit Times Square.

Friday:
A group of us went out to explore the city so more. We received City Passes from Belmont which contained about 6 or 7 coupons for free admittance into different places. We decided to check out MoMA-Museum of Modern Art and the Matisse exhibit that was on display. What a cool museum! and on Fridays from 4-8 you can get in free! ( I'll have to remember that!) We saw paintings from Monet, Picasso, Matisse, and Van Gogh. After that we decided to take the F train down to Little Italy and enjoy some Italian food for dinner. Little Italy is such a great place! I love the lights that surround the tops of the streets, and all the Italian men of course. It's also great because they close down the street so that people can walk on it, so it feels like you are in the real Italy. After dinner, we decided to go use another one of our city passes and go on top of Rockefeller Plaza. I remember doing this with my mom several years ago, but was excited to go see the city at night. It was a great view and a clear night!

Saturday:
It was the perfect day for Central Park! 78 degrees and no humidity--which is unheard of. Beautiful! We took the Subway right to Central Park and strolled around the park and looked around. I felt like I could stay there all day! Such a wonderful escape from the big buildings, plus I loved seeing all the dogs! I miss my dog Tucker very much... At Central park we got to see the lake as well as the Strawberry Fields, which is where John Lennon has a memorial spot to reconize the place as a peace garden. The upper east side ( by Central Park) is such a cute section on NYC! I loved seeing the cute townhouses/apt. buildings, and loved seeing everyone out walking their dogs, as well as all the trees! After that, we decided to try our luck at the student lottery for Broadway tickets. Everyday, each theaters box office hold box a number of tickets for students. They either have a student rush, where students have to arrive at the box office at around 10:00 a.m and receive discounted tickets for that night's show ( usually about 25-30 bucks) or play the student lottery. To play the lottery, you enter your name on a piece of paper, and then about 6:00 they draw about 15 names and the winner's recieve tickets at a discounted price ( that are usually GREAT seats) for about $25 to that night's show. We were very lucky and 3 people from our group won lotto tickets! I was one of them! We were able to go see " Next to Normal" ( which is GREAT!) for only $25. My seats were in a private front box on the left side of the theater. Normal theater tickets are anywhere from $65-$200 so this was a GREAT deal. We all decided that we will be doing this A LOT as we have about a list of 10 shows that we want to see this semester! We decided to call it a night with a piece of Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake from the famous Junior's Bakery and head back home.

I'm so glad that I will be able to experience NYC this semester, but want to let all my family and friends that I will miss them dearly. Please don't hesitate to come and stay with me this semester! We have plenty of room!