| New York City: Aftermath |

Alright, so Day Nine's post is facing some issues, but it's been a few days since our return from New York City, and I thought I might as well reminisce.

The entire reason I traveled the city was because of – well, my interest in attending university there. If you've been following this blog, you probably know that I visited two prospective universities – Columbia and NYU. I'm still primarily interested in NYU, mostly because I'm too terrible at basic brain functions like calculus to even consider applying to an Ivy League school. But during the campus tour and introduction to NYU, I decided that it was my dream school. {Was it the study abroad programs? It was probably the study abroad programs.}

Now, New York City as a whole is an incredible place – in some ways, I'd consider it to be a chameleon city. One moment you're in Times Square, surrounded by tourists and glowing billboards attached to hundred-story buildings, and the next you're in Central Park, jogging down a quiet path, alone, with trees on all sides and maybe like a bench dedicated to someone's cousin Stacy. 

The sheer amount of things to do in New York City is highly impressive. I mean, I'm from the suburbs, man. You get to choose one of five things to do for fun, and four of those five things are school-related.  In New York, you have the amazing art scene, various museums, thousands of restaurants – heck, if you just walk a block down the street you'll find about twenty bookstores, markets, and clothing stores. It's a city full of opportunity, and that doesn't just include jobs – it also includes the opportunity to meet people, try new things, and have an amazing adventure or two. I feel like I would never be able to properly make a list with the title of 'Things to Do in New York City.' There's just too much. In ten days, there's no way I even managed to get to half of what there is to experience in the city, but you know what? That's okay. I'm coming back.

Was New York City exactly how I imagined it to be? Of course not! {Actually, it was considerably less dangerous than I had expected.} Either way, I got to experience one of the greatest cities in the world firsthand. And it was awesome. 

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

New York City: Day Nine

Alright, more college touring happened today! It's our last real day in New York City—we head over to JFK early in the morning tomorrow—and to sort of finish off the trip, we went on our tour of the campus of NYU, which is now officially my dream school. 

The campus is really amazing, and the tour guides were friendly and informative, and it really solidified my resolve to attend. {I was initially drawn in by the location, but now I'm interested in the study abroad programs offered}

Now I just have to figure out what I want to do with my life. Ha.

After the tour we spent some time shopping around. There wasn't really much left for us to do, to be honest, so I picked up some tacky souvenirs for my friends and I'm now sitting around waiting for pizza back in Jersey. Oh, yeah, we also bought macarons! Have I mentioned that I love macarons? I wish I had the skill to make them, and I'm really impressed with the people who can. 

Ah, so cute and colourful. 

Hopefully we'll have a safe flight tomorrow. I'll definitely have to spend some time editing these posts when I get back home and have access to an actual computer, but I think I'll also be writing a reflection post as well. After all, this was the first trip I ever really blogged about—and I sense the start of something new. 

Thank you for a great week and a half in New York City! And until next time,

Love, The Sweater Giraffe ♥

| New York City: Day Eight |

OKAY SO FIRST OFF ALL OF THE POSTS I'D BEEN WRITING ON THIS TRIP APPARENTLY WERE PENDING FOR ETERNITY AND THEN MASS POSTED YESTERDAY. SO. SORRY ABOUT THAT.

All right, today was really busy and fun! We spent the morning biking aroud Central Park, which was lovely and refreshing. 

Central Park is definitely one of the highlights of the city—a lovely place to take a break from some of the hustle and bustle, sans the gas money that it actually takes to get out of the city. ;)

There are also some great sights and monuments to see in the park—for example, various man made lakes and Strawberry Fields, the tribute garden built for John Lennon after his death. 

After Central Park, we rode the train down to Coney Island and spent the rest of the day in the area before heading back to Manhattan for dinner. :) Luna Park is quite charming, and it's one of those places that children and adults can enjoy equally. 

That was all! We're going back to Cali in two days, so this was a great sort of last run. Until tomorrow, lovelies!

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

New York City: Day Seven

Well, we've officially been in NYC for a week! Today we went out fairly early and spent a few hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fully intending to leave early to get tickets for a ship ride or something. In the end, we miscalculated the popularity of the tickets and didn't even get through a full floor of exhibits at the Met, but I still grabbed some great shots!

I feel so artistic. The tourist at the bottom really brings the composition together, y'know?

To kill time, we walked around a bit—first destination being the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge.

We also saw a good chunk of Chinatown and part of Little Italy. I grabbed a lovely, refreshing green tea milk boba drink, and we got a bag of 'Hong Kong cakes' from a street vendor, which were very cheap, very small, very delicious, and very not-pictured-below.

In the end, because of the boat's betrayal, we went home way early and ate food and I tumblr'd. Schedules and plans keep changing, but I feel like that's what's making the experience more unique and fun. {I was kind of adverse to having such a strict schedule at all to start with, but it was my mother's idea and my mother's money so.}

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

New York City: Day Six

Well, originally we were going to bike around Central Park in the morning, but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

{Or, you know, we missed a bus}

In the end we went to the Discovery Museum on Times Square, and although te Lego exhibit my baby brother insisted on going into was decent, I'm convinced that the Avengers exhibit would have been much, much cooler. (They charge you thirty dollars for a ticket but only let you so one exhibit??? I mean we have city passes but what)

As a form of revenge (?) I took no photographs of the Lego art but snapped one of the Captain America prop shield displayed in front of the gift shop. Good enough.

To kill time before the show, we explored a weekend flea market we found nearby! I bought a nice dress and a pair of shorts, and also grabbed a book {Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce} which has already proven to be a great comfort on the subway and bus. {I mean, I swear, I resisted when it came to actually hauling books along with me, but I'm fairly certain that at this point I'll die if I don't hold a physical book in my hands like 5 times a day.}

Of course, after that we went to see the musical Wicked at the Gershwin theatre, which was amazing!! I've essentially been listening to the OC recordings since elementary school, and it's been a big bucketlost goal of mine to watch the show on Broadway. The cast gave an awesome performance, and it was just really cool man. Really cool. 

For dinner we went to a little Japanese place a couple of blocks away and had this amazing meal. The ramen was seriously huge?!! We kind of overate and I'm still feeling sluggish but ah well. Totally worth it.

To round off the day, we went to Dyaln's Candy Bar (near Central Park.) I didn't get much, because wow, expensive??? But my brother got a jar full so I'm going to rob him while he sleeps.

That's all for today loves! See you soon. :)

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

New York City: Day Five

Today was an easy day. :) We went for our scheduled tour at Columbia University, which for whatever reason I didn't take any photographs of,  then grabbed pizza a few blocks down and spent some time getting lost on the subway while trying to find the Museum of Natural History. 

Yoooo

There's a Museum of Natural History in LA, too, but I must say, this 6-story behemoth far outclasses the LA branch! I have a weird fascination with taxidermy displays, and the ones here are fantastic; very well preserved and arranged. Is it weird that that's my only comment? It's probably weird.

After spending a few hours in the Museum, we headed back to Jersey, picked up some pastries, and are resting up until tomorrow--Wicked on Broadway and bikes around Central Park! Until then, loves. <3

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

New York City: Day Four

Woke up early today {around 6} to hit Liberty Island and get an up-close look at the Statue of Liberty. We didn't get to go inside the statue {you'll need to reserve several months in advance if that's your plan} but we got some good shots! Or my family did. My selfies were not nearly ridiculous enough to satisfy.

Then we did a quick look through the immigration museum on Ellis Island (ha) then shipped back to the mainland, shopped about a bit, and visited the 9/11 tribute center. It was a brief visit, but the two fountains were beautiful, and there were hundreds of people there honoring those lost on September 11. I overheard one woman complaining about the number of people taking photographs, saying 'it wasn't the place.' But honestly, I feel like it's important to remember that everyone who died was human, as well, and I'd like to think that they'd be rather pleased to see so many people taking away memories of the memorials made in their honour. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's just my belief that we should remember the dead as people, and not just as martyrs. 

Other than that, we spent our last day of bus tickets hopping rides and seeing neighborhoods like Harlem from the top of the bus before going in early to rest our tired feet.

Tomorrow is a tour of Columbia University, so stay tuned! 

New York City: Day Three

Another lovely day in the city! We started out with a quick brunch at the Chelsea Market, then headed off to walk across the High Line for a great view of the city. 

Then we went to the Museum of Modern Art after touring uptown, grabbing some good ol' greasy wurst with various vegetables heaped on top before heading into its glorious, air conditioned facilities. 

Once inside, we found loads of famous and iconic works of art, including these:

{Van Gogh, Lichtenstein, Warhol, respectively}

Aaand then we headed off to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, where I took fear selfies. {And some skyline photos, but, like, whatever.}

For the last part of the day, we wandered Times Square {which was just. Absurdly busy.} and ate a bunch of food along the way.

Guess what? New York pizza is delicious. And also THE SIZE OF MY FACE WHEN UNFOLDED. !!! I WAS VERY IMPRESSED.

For dessert, I tried a cannoli for the first time. Turns out, cannolis are also delicious. Not too sweet, but sweet enough to feel like dessert. Perfect.

New York City: Day Two

As I said before: big day today!

I had the pleasure of getting to catch a glimpse of two city icons for the first time: the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. We spent the entire day hopping tour buses (and one ferry), but don't worry; they were really just a way to get a quick lesson on the layout and workings of the city. And also to snap a bunch of photos with strangers' body parts in them. 

Oh yeah, we also crossed the Manhattan Bridge via tour bus and sailed underneath a few other bridges. Loads of bridges.

For lunch, we stopped by the famous Shake Shack for some classic American food. New York wins with its hot dogs, but California's burgers still trump all. {Sorry :c}

And finally, we also went through Madame Tussad's and saw some familiar faces, immortalized in creepy pseudo-realistic wax. 

All in all, a great day! Tomorrow we'll actually be going up the Empire State Building (yes, I know but #yolo) and walking around Chelsea. Until then, bye!

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

| New York City: Day One |

Okay, technically we're staying with friends across the Hudson, in Jersey. We're still technically seeing NYC. Shoo.

Not much happened, really. Woke up at 4 AM, LA time, then bustled over to LAX for the 8 AM departure. The flight was fine, no sudden death or anything, and we even landed on time; around 4:30 PM here. 

Stupid landing selfie with my mother.

We spent the rest of the daylight hours hopping around from public transportation system to public transportation system, and, after settling in, took a nice, huge Korean dinner.

So far, so good! Even just seeing the city skyline from the bus and plane was amazing, and I got that tingly adventure feeling in my toes. I'll have tons more photos soon, more than enough to make up for the rather sad spread here !  </3

(I'll be reformatting and editing all of these posts when I get home and have computer access. Promise !)

♥ The Sweater Giraffe