New York State of Mind

My friend and roommate in New York Rachel has these lyrics from Billy Joel on the side of her blog, "No matter where you go in the world, you never really leave New York, and it never really leaves you." Everytime I go to her site, I see it and can't help but agree.

It's been a year next week since I went out to New York, and I've been home from New York about 8 months now, and even though I know I made the right decision in coming back, I still go through serious city withdrawals. It is funny, the first half of my time there, I really didn't think it was that great of a place. I left for the city with high hopes and thinking since I had lived in Vienna, another huge place, I would have no to very little acclimating. In reality, that was far from being true. I didn't like how disgustingly dirty everything was, how it takes 40 minutes to get anywhere or the famous "New York Attitude." It took some serious adjusting, but in the end, when it was time to go, I cried and wasn't sure leaving was what I wanted.

Like I said, I know I made the right choice, but I still have dreams that I am back, living it up, on a regular basis. Little things throughout the day remind me of my time there and I still am planning on going for a visit in the very near future.

I went to the Symphony on Friday, and it made me miss being in the center of all the cultural activities even more than normal. The warmer, perfect for walking weather has also made me miss living across the street from Central Park. In Vegas last week, I excitedly went to my favorite store H&M but was shocked by the small store compared to Europe's and New York's HUGE three stories of cheap but cute clothes. I definitely miss it every two weeks when I have to stop at the gas pump and drop a ridiculously large amount of money filling my car up.

In honor of my short but loved time in Manhattan, here are some pictures of while I was there.

Heather and I at the first of many Broadway shows, "The Drowsy Chaperone."

Waiting to go see David Letterman. Too bad the guest was Michael Moore, who was so boring that I fell asleep.

My tiny I-House room. This is where I spent the first half of my time. That is how wide (the width of the bed) the whole room is. At least I had a sink.

My second day in the city involved a scavenger hunt, this was to show we were at Madison Square Gardens. It was taken with a cell phone and so isn't the best quality.