its about time...

I can’t wait to finally cross “blog” off my to-do list! Its been hard to blog with no internet and living on a sofa and during my first week of teaching… haha but now is the time to play catch up. I am making an agreement with myself and putting it in my flexi-friend (...flexi-friend deserves a post in itself!) that I will blog at least once a week! So no more waiting, dear friends :)

Random people make me happy :) This morning when I got to the subway before 6am and you're not supposed to enter that gate until 6:10 but my train was going to be there in any minute I was a little distressed... until the MTA employee brightened my day!! She said "oh, come on in here - lets get you inside already" and took me over to one of the gates and opened it. After she told me to just swipe my MetroCard at any thing and it was giving me trouble, she said "oh, honey, don't worry about it - its you're birthday - happy birthday - now go on and get to work." :) It was a great way to start off the day.

So what's new in my life...

Living on a couch.
Two of my good friends Heather and Alison let me crash at their place while I was in transition from our sublet to my new apartment. I must say, couch surfing without internet during your first week of teaching sounds pretty terrible... but it was actually fun! I'll miss living with them!

Montglorious
That is the name of my group of friends who gets together on a weekly basis! Why is that our name?... long story about really bad food. haha Its wonderful and as Heather says, "Monglorious keeps me going." I feel so lucky to have found those friends and to be able to continue to see them each week!
We most recently ate out in Little Italy (sooo precious!) I love exploring the city!

Can you believe I live in NYC?!
I still can't believe it. Its pretty amazing! I'm looking forward to when I'm settled down, all moved in, and in a routine so that I can enjoy living here even more!

In the Heights!!
Alison's best friend Ella was visitng in town and on Sunday afternoon we went to see In the Heights! (isn't that amazing that Sunday morning we can just say "would you like to see a Broadway show today?!!") It was sooooo good! I just love Broadway soo much! :)

It was especially neat because the show takes place literally where our sublet was! So there were all these references that were even cooler because I lived there for a month! :) The dancing was great! The culture was great! And it had a really nice message about overcoming obstacles, living your dream, and all that jazz. I really enjoyed it! :) Thanks for the invite Al/Ella! :)

Apartment
Don't worry... you will be taking a video tour of my new apartment on my next blog - I want to finish setting up all my furniture so you get a better idea of what it will look like! But let me tell you something... I love it!! And its so cute - I was walking around today and ran into a coworker! A lot of my coworkers/some of my friends live in the area so it makes it feel pretty neighborhood-y! And its right by the Trader Joes, American Apparel (Kirsten!), Urban Outfitters (Tracy and Megan), and the Promenade which provides a beautiful view of Manhattan! :)

Plus, you have no idea how wonderful it feels to finally be settling in and starting to not live in bags... after 2.5 months haha. :)

Work
I love my job so far - my coteacher's name is Nisah and I think we will grow into a great working relationship together and have a great time! I have a great bunch of 1st graders and I enjoy getting to know them more every day. Each lesson, each day, each week I am learning and growing so much as an educator and I enjoy working towards providing my students with the best education they can possibly get - the level of education that they deserve! I also just feel so lucky to be working with such a supportive administration... who also loves happy hours and social time too! :)

Well that's all for now... look forward to the tour of my apartment and eventually my classroom!
And I need to take more pictures... look forward to more pictures too! :)

I'll leave you with some favorite quotes from recent subway performers...

"It don't matter if you're Latino, Black, or White...
Tonight we gotta get hyped!"
- dancers getting the subway excited for a Saturday night

"I play for smiles... we live to love... but stress gets in the way now don't it... thats why we gotta smile... love... and live your life with happiness. I play for smiles ladies and gentleman."
- drummers (who got people in the subway to get up and dance!)

Countdown: 31 days 'till Norman! :)