One Way Ticket

Hello friends and family, welcome to my very first blog post! Casey and I have a lot of big changes coming up and I wanted to keep everyone in the loop with what is happening. I also want to give everyone a close up view of New York - from its culture to its food to its night life and more - all of the adventures that we will have. But before I get into that, I just wanted to express how grateful I am to have spent time with all of our family during this holiday season. It may be a few years before that can happen again, and I feel so blessed to have had that opportunity. I also want to extend a warm welcome to everyone to come visit us anytime! We would be happy to have you stay with us, if you don't mind a little "efficiency" :-)

On to the updates. We have sold both of our cars in preparation for moving to the city. I have heard people say that people sell parking spots like they sell real estate in New York, so we figured being car-less would be a good first step. The public transportation there is great and will be a fun way to get around the city. I'm actually really excited about not driving for the next few years, but am a little curious to see if I can retain the skills when I start driving again. Casey says that I can't get much worse than I am now, but I think I can prove him wrong! For now since we sold both of our vehicles, we have been driving around in Marvin's [Casey's dad] old farm pickup. Like any farm pickup it has its quirks - it almost has its own personality - but it gets the job done.

Also we found an apartment on the upper east side and have submitted an application to sublease it. The building is a co-op, so all of the tenants own a part of the building. For us, that means we actually have to interview (in person) with the board of the co-op before we are allowed to sublease the apartment. Our application was officially complete yesterday, and now we're just waiting to hear when our interview date will be set. Just looking at Google Maps, we've already picked out restaurants we want to try if we end up getting this apartment... and I've picked out all of the stores I want to check out as well! I will be mostly window shopping I suspect, considering how fancy everything looks, but I'm excited nonetheless.

A few weeks ago (right before Christmas) I found out that I was accepted to Cornell Medical College, so I know what I'll be doing for the next four years! Classes don't start until the fall, which gives me plenty of time to explore the area and learn how to use the buses and subway system. The school and affiliated hospitals are actually located in Manhattan, not in Ithaca, which I was happy about since that's where we'll be living. But I am hoping we can travel to upstate New York sometime - I hear it's beautiful up there.

And last of all, we purchased one-way tickets to New York! Casey is going there a few days ahead of me to attend a reunion of a trip he went on a few years ago while I finish up packing and boxing our stuff. If we get the apartment, it is (fortunately!) furnished so we will not be shipping any big items. It even has a TV, so we sold ours on Craigslist a few days ago.

Casey and I are both so excited to move out there, and I will continue to post updates as they happen. Be on the lookout for pictures of the area after we move! We love you all!