New York
I'm not even going to begin to explain my inactivity on the blog, however I am going to tell you what's been up the past two months. I finished my first quarter of sophomore year and then had (quite possibly) the best experience of my life--NEW YORK CITY.
So my college has an unusually long winter break since we're on trimesters. I had six weeks of stress free living and a five day trip to New York. To be completely honest with you I didn't spend my time off school as wisely as I would've liked to. My New York trip took place within the last two weeks of break, and I pretty much sat around waiting for my flight the first four weeks.
The wait was worth it.
December 15th rolled around and I didn't sleep at all before my 6AM flight. Yes, I booked a 6AM flight because I wasn't about to waste a day there. The flight seemed quick, but that's probably because I was writing in this tiny notebook I carry around. First I wrote about all the places I wanted to see, then I just began writing my expectations.
"I like your bag man, are you going to Sneaker Con?" The man sitting next to me said.
"No just visiting a friend, it's my first time here."
"Aw man well have fun."
"Thanks, do you live here?" I asked.
"No, I come through every month though."
My immediate thought was, wow, I want to do that. I hadn't even seen the city yet, but I knew I'd love it. When I walked into LaGuardia I was a bit overwhelmed. It seemed like a tight fitting airport and there was tons of people running, speed walking, just moving fast. That was my first observation, the tempo was high, which I like.
I took a cab ride to NYU's campus, where my friend Christian goes. The ride from LaGuardia to Manhattan was surreal, it was something out of a movie. I was driving through Manhattan around the morning rush hour. Which leads me to my next observation.
THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK. I LOVE YOU. DEEPLY. PASSIONATELY.
But seriously the people of New York are amazing and probably the biggest reason I loved it so much. The way they dress, the way they walk, the way they carry themselves. They provide the electricity to that amazing city.
Christian had class that morning so I dropped my stuff off in his dorm room, and began my solo adventure. The dorm overlooked Washington Square Park, I knew that much. I walked all around SoHo and then Midtown. By then I had made my mind up that I'm moving to New York after college (maybe sooner).
Parker and Will (two friends of mine from home) landed at LaGuardia a few hours after me and we met up in Greenwich Village. It was a crazy thing meeting up with those guys in a completely new city. It was just a very cool feeling.
I know I'm dragging this story on, which I have a tendency to do when talking about my time in New York. There's so many amazing things to talk about, but I'll sum up the highlights.
212 Hisae's
I would say 212 Hisae's isn't so much of a place as it is a feeling. Christian assured us that this place was a good spot so we went. I knew it lived up to it's hype when we pulled up and there was a line almost halfway down the block, full of college kids just waiting to get in. Waiting wasn't so bad because everyone was talking to everyone and it was just an overall great experience. This is the ideal prelude to a night out, low-key enough where you can just sit down and talk with friends but also high key enough where you can dance to migos, which contradicts the whole vibe of the place but I did it anyway.
The people
OK I really can't stress this enough. Within the five days I was there I met some of the coolest people ever. Even the people I didn't have the chance to meet were amazing! Everyone was so lively and eager to DO stuff. The people I met were all unique in their own way, one kid could've been really into film and the next was a future stockbroker. It's little things like this that made it so hard to leave New York City.
SoHo
For those of you reading my blog that know me well, SoHo is obviously one of my favorite spots in all of Manhattan. SoHo offers an array of coffee shops and copious shopping opportunities. Although I didn't go in places like Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton or Balmain, I certainly enjoyed looking through their windows and pondering the possibility of one day being able to afford their products. But seriously, SoHo is much more than shopping and coffee, the architecture was amazing. Another little thing I enjoyed about New York City was the fire escapes in front of the apartments. We don't see a lot of those here in Chicago so it was a nice change of scenery.
Central Park
I'd only seen Central Park in black and white films so to finally go there was huge. We walked around a decent amount, then we decided to have a huge snow fight for about an hour. Pretty sure we ruined a marriage proposal too...
So that's just a few things I wanted to share from my first visit to New York. I'll be back for fashion week next month so stay tuned.