NYC here we come :-)

Well, I finally made my first ever trip into New York City. I know, I'm 27, I've lived within a day's drive my whole life and this was my first trip into NYC. So, Dan and I walked to the South Orange NJ Transit station and headed to the big apple. Why is it called the big apple?? No seriously, I don't know why. Anyways, we jumped on the train and went to NYC Penn Station. Penn Station is huge and super busy. We wanted to go up to Columbia University where I would be having a job interview on Wednesday afternoon. I felt a 'dry run' was needed of how to get there b/c I had no clue how to get around on the subway or bus or whatever.

After we made it into Penn Station on the train, we found the subway and hopped on it uptown to Columbia. Columbia has a stop of its own so it was fairly easy to figure out :-) Columbia has a great campus. Lots of great old historic buildings. I took some pictures that I have tried to post on here...

The last picture is not of a students who were forced to stay in tents b/c of lack of student housing, but it is a group of students who are on a hunger strike. A total of seven students and one professor are engaged in the hunger strike to demand changes to University policies regarding academics, administration, and the proposed Manhattanville expansion, at various points since Nov. 7.

After visiting the campus, we jumped on the bus to head down towards Times Square. It amazes me how busy New York is all the time. The hustle and bustle seems non-stop. We walked from Times Square back down to Penn Station to head back out to NJ. Of course along the way I had to stop at a couple of stores ;-) We went into the Macy's there which is the biggest Macy's in the world and after having been in it, I definitely believe it. I wanted to pop in just to use the restroom but it seems like half the other ladies in NYC had the same idea. After waiting in line for about 15 minutes, I finally made it out while Dan wandered around the men's department. Thank god he didn't go too far off because I don't know if I ever would have been able to find him! Here's a couple pictures of Macy's....

So after a long exhaustive day of finding our way around NYC, we headed home for a nice quiet evening. And that was my first trip into the City...

Lesson 5 on NJ: (actually this is a lesson on the whole area in general) Just act like you know where you are going and act like you own that piece of sidewalk you are on! Otherwise, people might try to run you down. I think I already knew this one, but being up there only emphasized its importance.