The End of a Year The Beginning of a New Adventure

Today is the last day of 2013 and this year has been a lot of things, hectic, dramatic, sad, exciting, and happy. In my young 23 years I have yet to date faced all the things that I have been forced to face in the past couple months. I have seen the loss of an ex boyfriend, a dear family friend and a grandma all of whom had made an impact on my life and in one way or another have shaped me into the person I am today. I have spoken a lot to the troubles I had and the issues I faced in each of their deaths. Although the year has been long and sad it has seen some greatness. A good friend married her best friend and it was a beautiful wedding, we managed to survive 5 days in New York and my family has given me a year of constant laughter and love. 

2014 will see me graduate from University and soon I will be booking my flights for a three month adventure to Europe and ending in New York. We are venturing back into New York because who wouldn't love to see New York during the holidays?

It is easy to see how people are able to allow themselves to fall into life after graduation. There are so many reasons as to why people just fall into a job and responsibilities; already I am being critiqued on my willingness to spend the money on a trip abroad opposed to putting it down on a house or a vehicle. I cannot leave to Europe with a house or vehicle because you have so few chances in life where you can get up and leave with no worries of payments and unattended responsibilities. This is my argument I have this one chance for this trip with no payments and no children. 

The people telling me how stupid I am is not even the biggest issue here, the biggest issue here is me. Always I am thinking about all the things that can go wrong being in Europe or how it can be so much easier if I just allow us to go for just six short weeks. I do not want six short weeks though, I want nine or ten. I need this more than I am able to explain. This is my treat to myself for six long years at University, six years working my butt off and living like the stereotypical student. This is for me and my boyfriend is just a nice add on who is coming along for the ride. 

2014 I already see is bringing exciting new things, things that will shape experiences that I will cherish for a life time. Goodbye 2013 you tried really hard to knock me on my ass but not this time. See you tomorrow 2014! 

Places Heavy on The Heart.

In my preparations for New York I preplanned everything so we would not miss a thing and one of the go to places was Ground Zero. This post may be all on Ground Zero and I am completely okay with that, a place like that deserves at least that much.

We were off to Ground Zero that morning and be warned if you ever go it is kind of a confusing place to go down there even if you have your Google Maps! It was confusing just due to the fact that there is much construction going on down there with the new towers that are getting put up. We were still a bit early so we wondered a bit downtown and just admired the height of these buildings. Being from Northern Canada there is nothing compared to the height of these buildings and you cannot be walking around downtown Manhattan without being amazed by ingenuity that went into these massive skyscrapers.

So here we were two tourists walking around downtown Manhattan in awe of what was sure to be the biggest and highest buildings we had ever seen and my boyfriend who is terrified of heights was just not loving the experience at all. Off to Ground Zero we went, took us a while to locate the place where you go and pick up the tickets to go into the memorial because I was a bit lost at first because there is the memorial and then there is the museum. We wandered over to the museum first by

passing the place to get the tickets completely ignoring it and learned that we had passed the ticket place and then turned around. A little story about how this guy was giving out coupons to this place that had "the best bagels in New York", no being the little fatty I was genuinely curious about what the bagel was offering but since my boyfriend was paranoid as hell so we kept on walking. Needless to say I did not get to eat the best bagel in New York, come to think of it I didn't even it one!

This is where the story gets a little sad, we walked on towards the 911 memorial and it was early in the morning so not a whole lot of people there, another piece of advice if you are ever in NYC and want to visit the memorial go to the memorial early! We were there early enough to not have to deal with any of the lines although the lines and sections they had up made me glad we were not there to see it when it was in full force. Every time I think about how this visit went it always makes it feel like there is a heavy weight in my heart and my stomach. Walking through the 911 memorial going to the pools, seeing all the people, seeing the way that Manhattan transformed from gritty and dirty streets to this serene almost environment. There were trees every couple feet, you could here the distance of the water falling in the infinity pools not to far away, you were walking on a combination of gravel and cement. We walked up to the infinity pools and with a heavy heart we walked around reading all the names. You could see peoples family names, you saw people who were co-workers, friends, family and strangers, all died because some sick and twisted plot. The thing that made me cry standing right there and then was the names that jumped out at me the most, every so often you would be walking reading the names and you would read: Mrs. Jane Doe and her unborn child. UNBORN child?!?! This made me SO sad! I couldn't believe that they would put something like that on these pools, it was hard to read. All these women, all these families expecting their first, second, third, or whatever child, a child who never got to meet their parents, a child who never got to experience the life that we take for granted daily. A child who never got to learn to love, learn to play but above all just learn to live.

It was there when you see the names of the most innocent beings in this world, died all on an early September morning. It was in that instance where all the little things that you may feel bother you or may effect your life because you allow it to just seems small and insignificant. Seeing those names, not just the women and their child but all names you take a step back and realize that the life you live is great, wonderful, sometimes stressful but a miracle none the less.

This is not the most entertaining blog post, but it is one that doesn't need jokes or tidbits, it is one that needs to stand on its own and have its own message.

Travels in New York Day 2

         It has taken me two whole posts to explain to you all my first night in New York. I am happy to say though that it really did get better. On our second day in the city although we still did not have a working bathroom light and there was still no one around to help us fix it we went off on an adventure in NYC!!

        I never actually thought that I ever wanted to go to New York, you see it on movies and TV shows, read about it in books but it seemed (to me anyways) some far off dream place that existed but never really seen. But shit we were there! The things we could do!

       So after what seemed like a very traumatizing night we put on our big girl/big boy panties and went off to venture the city. So the way we had planned out our week (and yes there was an itinerary) was to go out to the Bronx and do the Bronx Zoo. We really took the bull by the horns and jumped right in to New York culture. If you are ever going to New York City I strongly suggest taking the subway EVERYWHERE you go, that thing although does not sound very safe or secure is the most useful thing in New York. There were trains that went everywhere and there seemed to be a train stop everywhere we looked. Granted it takes awhile to get used to the train in the sense that it is confusing as hell the first time you get on and try to navigate your way around. The most useful invention is Google Maps, I am not sure what we would have done if it weren't for Google Maps because that beautiful, beautiful thing got us all around New York.

         I hope you remember that this is my boyfriends first journey away from the dear old motherland of Canada so seeing his facial expressions as we were walking around the immense city was hilarious! He would always be pulling me back if I made him too uncomfortable by standing what he felt was too close to the edge of the platform, telling me about how many people die a year in New York by the subway alone. If it got to be a bit too noisy for him we would have to move further down the platform away from the crowd and noise which could get a little difficult at times but he would find a way. So by going to the Bronx the first thing on our adventure was something I knew could go one of two ways, him being sketched out the entire time or him enjoying himself.

        There are components of the Bronx that is exactly stereotypical of what you hear, there were a lot of low income houses, the fanciness of the apartment buildings kept on gradually getting worse and worse. Not to fear though I imagine at night this would have been a different experience, I am not sure because I did not go down there at night but when we were there it was beautiful! Although it was the middle of February the parks were colorful and pretty, not a common occurrence here in Canada. On our journey Google Maps was not very specific in the walking directions so me and my boyfriend walked aimlessly for a little bit until one of us got the courage to ask for directions to the zoo. We must have honestly looked so foreign our entire trip there, looking awestruck and lost half the time.

          The Bronx Zoo: I LOVED THE BRONX ZOO! If you are ever in New York and you do not go to the Bronx Zoo you are missing out! This place was honestly the nicest zoo I have ever been in, I know I sound like a tourist but man alive was it nice in there. Of all the exotic animals around the ones I found most interesting were actually the sea lions. Their little habitat was so cute, there were all these sea lions lounging in the sun loving life. You will soon learn that I am an avid Harry Potter fan so my other favourite animal was the snowy owl, I would be lying if I didn't run up to it and scream Hedwig!! The owl was so pretty and majestic. The saddest exhibit that made my heart hurt a little bit was the polar bear exhibit. What the zoo had done was close the bear of from the indoor exhibit my assumption was to make it so the bear was active and moving but it kept walking back and forth between the doors. Sad.

          Other than that the day seemed to go off without a hitch, we walked around the zoo, missed the lions which my boyfriend was most excited to see and we ventured back to the hotel. The second night was also the night that we ventured out to Times Square, it was quite late this night so I was really tired. I am not sure how we had wondered over to Times Square or whether or not it was intentional and we just followed the light. (Very heaven-esque) I got to experience first hand what they mean by the city that never sleeps. It was 10pm at night (in Edmonton the stores are well past closed) and here we are where even the restaurants are still open! Writing about it now it makes me miss the city, not just because Times Square because it is just a different culture. Here in Canada there is not that much excitement and we are fairly low key but there was a place where it was bright and each and every store provided some form of entertainment or another. We had taken pictures with a police man, tried to get someone to take some pictures of us but they turned out shitty. It still has this little Eskimo girl in awe that a place like that exists, the excitement and the life.

New York Continued

I am back! I took a little hiatus from writing (well hiatus from one post how sad is that?) and I am now back. I had to focus on finishing finals and now I am currently started my summer student job.

So where was it I left off? Oh right! New York, the culture shock from hell! So I had been to my fair few of iconic cities around the world and it was something else stepping out of that taxi and walking through the doors of the hotel. I already knew when driving through the city there were things that I was seeing that made me think "well the sure don't show that on Sex and the City or Friends". I feel like this feeling overwhelmed me the most because not once in the cities around Europe did I feel that way. Almost as if New York let me down some how by being dirty and a little sketchy.

So we had paid 80 dollars for this cab ride and I feel like an idiot already before it was confirmed from others that we had grossly over paid. We walked through the doors of The New Yorker Hotel and my fears were being slowly quited in my mind. "This hotel lobby is nice! You paid good money for this hotel and look there are guards allowing people in only with keys!" So my mind was working really hard to calm me and all was gone to waste when a group of drunken Asians were trying really hard to control a much drunker Asian. Which resulted in my mind "well shit never mind what I said New York sucks!".

We continue on passed the drunken Asians probably with a little more judgement upon my face than is needed and check in. Check in wasn't too bad the true adventure in the hotel commenced while we were entering our hotel room. One thing I do commend The New Yorker Hotel on is their ability to take THE perfect camera angles! From the way the advertisements went you would think that it is a nice spacious room, well it sure wasn't! My boyfriend could successfully reach the bathroom door with his hands from the end of our bed. To top it all off was the view, I enter the room with high optimism and okay so the room is tiny (nothing compared to my dorm room second year for sure) but the view has to be amazing. I pull open the curtains in dramatic fashion to see what? All the people staying across from us. Well as of right there the trip was crap. Screw you New York you had managed to ruin all my expectations and leave me here tired and hungry.

The adventure sure didn't end there though, why would it? What kind of a shitty trip would it be if there was not more shitty-ness to add to it? I turn to my boyfriend (who by now is mortified I am sure because it is not only his trip to the states but it is first trip with me really!) and turn on my optimistic charm and say: "it may not be the best but things could be worse lets use the bathroom and go down to the diner." He agreed and what do I find using the bathroom? THE LIGHT DOESN'T WORK!! And to my surprise I call the front desk expressing my concern and you know what they ask me?! "How did you break it?"

HOW DID I BREAK IT? I CHECKED IN 10 MINUTES AGO ASSHOLE!! "Well we get someone in to fix it" Did anyone come? NO! But that is okay because I was going to eat, the solution to all my problems is just eat something and sleep/nap. Much like the rest of the night the diner was ghetto, there were drunks everywhere and it was too much to take in. I tried a different kind of sandwich to get myself more optimistic about the whole situation only to learn all the optimism magic was clearly gone by this point and the "get me the fuck out of here" magic was creeping in.

So concludes my first introduction to the big apple and let's face it: we hated it!! The trip did get better but more on that.

Hello World!

As I step onto to the plane, I get anxious and think what the hell am I thinking? What could be beyond this town of 1200 people, this is the place to be! This is the place where all things great happen! What else could the world offer that I would not get here?! So I turned around and stayed in that small little northern town. 

This is not what really happened, could you imagine? What a boring blog this would be! But I did describe a small number of people from my hometown who despise travelling and are terrified by the idea of it. Now I am an avid believer in the need for travel and experiencing the world. I traveled  my entire life but I only have done any international travelling a couple times. 

I have experienced the beauty of the Eiffel Tower, I have been awed by the ingenuity of the Coliseum in Rome, rode a gondola in Venice and have experienced the height of the Empire State Building. A small town Eskimo girl traveling the world is something may occur often but I doubt it is something that occurs often with someone as funny as I am. When I feel like it I am going to outline some of my fun stories of my adventures around the globe and I hope they entertain you as much as they have entertained me. 

My first expert is from my first night in New York City with my boyfriend over spring break. We had traveled a good 12 hours that day and we were in Minneapolis for our layover. Man that airport is truly something else! It was a mall in an airport and already I was impressed by America! They do travelling right in America! Of course I have been to America before, I have been to Denver and New Mexico but never spent any extensive time in the airports. So although we were travelling a long time and all the stores were closed and we were hungry it was a fun experience! (Well kind of, well fun in the sense I was not ready to kill my loving boyfriend yet.) Where I come from the airlines provide you with food for long flights and I was dying of hunger and was lost at this concept of paying for food, what kind of joke is that! One more flight, one more flight was all it was until we were there! The big apple! 

This was my boyfriends first international flight so being the loving girlfriend I was I decided sure why not give him the window seat! Although I was stuck looking at what is my opinion his unnaturally (who ever bears his children -- most likely me will have one unfortunate experience) large head the big apple was amazing, breath taking and all other cliches one can think of to describe a city like that. We landed in LaGuardia airport and what do we see? IPADS on all the tables, seriously Canada pick up on this trend maybe more people would be willing to pay the unreal prices of an airline ticket. So here we are, I only imagine how we must have looked all doe-eyed, awe struck and tired early twenty inexperienced travelers, we made it so easy! 

Unsure how we were getting to the hotel - The New Yorker by the way even more cliches! We decided that a cab would be our best bet. But did we take a cab? NO! We took one of those personal cars that I am sure was double than a cab, every time we told the story of the cab we were given a look like "man, idiots" Although the cab driver did get us there in efficient time he did cost us 80 dollars. The minute my boyfriend gave him what I was sure too much in a tip he jump out of the taxi like a bat out of hell! Thanking us, grabbing our bags etc I knew then that we definitely paid too much. So that was the first hour within the city, there is more to this story but lets face it those who have braved reading it thus far are probably tired of my rambling. 

More to come!