Life in NYC so far

So far:

-I've eaten myself silly. People keep introducing me to new restaurants/bakeries/food. School stress and good food nearby are not a good combination.

-My feet refuse to wear shoes! I get blisters from walking a block in ANY pair of shoes. I have to wear slippers to church and slip on heels just before I walk in to sacrament meeting.

-The weather here is CRAZY. Hot and humid to cold and windy in one day.

-I've learned to never walk near the street in the rain. A taxi cab zoomed through a puddle of water, causing a small tsunami of sewer water to cover me. This has happened 3 times already.

-Grad school has consumed my life. 1 lecture covers almost an entire semester of material from a bio class at BYUH. The level of difficulty is incredible. I feel like I need to hire my own personal psychologist to keep me mentally sane through this semester.

-I am a little closer to picking my mentor/thesis advisor. I have 6 professors picked out as candidates. More info on that later.

-I would give anything for my own washer/dryer. I hate laundromats.

-Our tiny apt. is almost set up! We still need a kitchen table, but we have a couch!

-Um, did I mention the food is amazing? hehe.

That's all the updates I can think of now. Seth starts school at the end of next week. Tomorrow I randomly don't have class, so we're thinking of heading down to see ground zero and all of the current protesters.

Here are some random pictures from my iphone that I've taken throughout the week:

Times Square. We found the theatre that is showing "Wicked!" My school gives discount tickets, so we're hoping to scrape up some money in the future to go see it. And Seth got in the background of some Food Network show that was filming with the "Mamma Mia!" cast. He just walked in the back making weird faces.

Union Square. Great shopping here. My friend Jessie also recommended the Union Square Carsten Salon for a haircut, and they did a great job! No more Hawaii hair stylists butchering my hair! Thanks Jessie!

And there is a little dog park here. It made me miss Fatty.

And here's the view from my school library. Its a dirty window...not the air outside.

Hopefully I'll have some pics of ground zero tomorrow! :)

Grad School...

...IS SO HARD.

I am so overwhelmed with all of my classes.

I think back to my hardest undergrad semesters, and I probably only had about 2 or 3 core bio/chem classes.

Now I have 7. Seeeevvvvveennn!!!

And they are all twice as hard as my puny undergrad bio classes.

In my biochem/molecular core I have a three hour exam every Monday, and I still have to find a mentor and a research lab.

The only plus is that the other 22 MS students in my program are nice. I definitely need to stick with them if I'm going to make it through all of this.

I had no idea it was possible to drown in schoolwork just as the semester begins!

MS in biomed sciences... what the heck was I thinking?

So......someone remind me... WHY I'm going to school?! I hate school!

Best Ever

Raspberry Cheesecake Chunk Gelato.

This place is literally like 15 steps from our apartment.

My waistline is in big trouble.

Church in Manhattan

We went to church today for the first time in NYC. Our ward attends church in the LDS Manhattan temple. I LOVE the building. Its so beautiful and unique inside! When you go in, the temple is to the left, and the distribution center and chapel are to the right, on different levels. Loved it!

We actually went to the wrong ward...we accidentally slept in a little late and had to go to a later ward. But this ward was nice! The temple is right across from Julliard, so we had all of the musical geniuses to make the congregation sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. My scratchy voice was easily drowned out by the opera lady next to me.

I loved just being able to walk to church too. It's so convenient. We're so lucky to have the temple within walking distance. We had that Laie too, so I guess we've had two great blessings in the row. I can't wait to attend a session there!

JOBLESS!

Today, I went looking for a job because I now have a hefty NYU tuition to pay off on my own.

And once again, my bachelor's degree is rendering me useless (thanks a lot recession!).

I'll let you know if I find one.

Any suggestions of a place to look? Anthropologie is out of the question because my paychecks would just be recycled back into their products!

Oh and I saw my first NYC rat today on the subway and a mouse in front of my apartment. [shudder].