Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

Well, just in time for a long overdue update! After one of the most intense quarters to date - still not sure how I survived it - I'm on vacation, visiting my sister in New York City. It's been quite an adventure so far, unbelieveably my trip is more than half over! I'll tell you all about it, but am going to break it up into more bite-sized chunks rather than one huge post :)

After finishing my peds final on Tuesday morning I headed home to pack...finals week and the week before were both busy so packing had fallen to the bottom of my list. At 10:30 that night I was on my way. Thankfully, the flights were easy and for the most part on time, and my sister Andrea was waiting for me outside in baggage claim at Laguardia Airport in Queens. We headed out and hopped a bus bound for Manhattan where we would transfer to a subway taking us to her place in the Bronx. New York City is unlike anything I have ever experienced! The bus ride gave me my first experience of NYC driving in all its glory...let's just say it would take me awhile to be brave enough to dare to bring a car out here. Drivers weave in and out of lanes and around stopped cars barely slowing down, and I don't know how they squeeze through those tight spaces!

The Bronx is an interesting place too. People are everywhere, walking in the streets, lots of hustle and bustle. The streets are lined with tall, old brick buildings whose bottom floors are full of shops and boutiques. My sister lives along a main road with boutiques, drugstores, and mom and pop grocery stores competing for space to entice you with their wares. Every race and nationality seems represented and as you walk down the street you can hear the Spanish and English and Asian languages weaving through the conversations. It is as far removed from Seattle as I could possibly imagine and in many ways reminds more of Mexico than anything else.

The rest of my Wednesday was pretty low-key. I spent most of the day finishing my take-home final for my Neuro class, then joined my sister and her roommates for dinner. They had a group of students from Merrimack College visiting them for a Spring Break service trip and I also got a chance to hear how two Dominican Sisters started a couple of the groups that the Augustinian Volunteers, the group my sister is here with, give their time and service to. Sister Jean runs the St. Rita's Center, offering assistence to immigrants and refugees, and Sister C helps at Siena House, a group dedicated to helping homeless women and children.

After a long day of travelling I was pretty tired, so all the tourist fun would have to wait until the next day. Look for more to come (plus pictures!) in the next post...