It's that time again, to apologize for not updating earlier. But who has time for blogging when you live in a city like New York?!

So the past 7 weeks (YES, I'M HERE 7 WEEKS ALREADY), I've been on my survival mode taking care of all the things I need to. So I am happy to announce that I have an American cellphone nr and an American bank account and I've finally received my first paycheck last week (Yes I'd been harassing my savings account for 6 weeks). I'm also very humbled to announce that I've moved another place to move to this past week. Which reminds me, I haven't updated you in so long and so many things have happened. Which reminds me, I'll be uploading something in the next days that shows you the place that I lived in when I came here. Which also reminds me, to remind you, that this is probably how things will go down: I will go MIA on this blog for a while, and then upload a bunch of stuff spread over a few days for you to figure out your life. Though I'm obviously trespassing the laws of blogging 101, I will not apologize for living my life. (Just to you mom: Sorry I haven't uploaded sooner. I know you are looking forward.)

My view from my old building

View from my old building: looking down 34th street, the Empire State Building and the New Yorker Hotel.

Anyways, back to the moving part. So basically I moved, because New York has insane rent prices. And anyone here knows that there is no way you can live on 34th street unless, well, do I even have to explain? So I have been blessed with another room in Lower East Side for a price that would probably still get me a place in the centre of Amsterdam but hey, then again I'm still in the centre of NYC. This gives me room to not spend ALL my salary on my rent, and do more stuff while I'm New York. And with stuff I don't mean "stuff", I mean activities, shopping sprees and take more dance classes. So for my first 6 weeks, I lived in Hell's Kitchen, which is only cool to say when you live in New York. And the move is great. I live with an older Chinese lady now who welcomes me everyday with "did you eat already?, "are you full?" and "here eat this". My first night after moving, she practically forced me to eat midnight noodles, and in my mind I was like "girl, I can totally hang with you". It was just another confirmation that this was meant to be.

To emphasize on the size of my blessing:

• I still get to live in Manhattan
• I get to live in Downtown Manhattan
• I live with a very nice middle-aged Chinese lady (she might be elderly, couldn't tell - Asian don't raisin)
• It's a few stops from my church (Yes, found a perfect one for me!)
• It's 3 minutes walking from the water with sights from the Manhattan bridge and Brooklyn bridge
• It's one stop from Brooklyn (which apparently is the new "it" borough)
• It's a safe family-friendly neighborhood (number one priority ever when traveling solo)
• These are just the perks that I know of now.

Hells Kitchen (Red): Middle ish, Westside. Lower east side (Purple): Lower ish, East side (duh). Turtle bay (Purple): Middle ish, East Side - this is where I work.

Grand Central shot from Park Avenue. And yes, I  know what you're thinking (if you're anything like me), I was so siked about this: this is the street/location where the Avengers kicked alien creatures' ass!

I love that I get to choose this as my daily exit.

Things I do on a regular?
My favorite activity up until now must be going to Central Park to take a walk, see all the street artists or read a book (Yes I read). My favorite neighborhood to go up until this moment is definitely West Village (Greenwich Village) and Williamsburg in Brooiklyn. But more on that later. My co-interns have provided me the warmest welcome, helped me out with settling and taking me to different places.

People are mad serious about base ball, and they have base ball teams playing in the park every weekend.

Central Park

Meet my lovely friends that I get to work with: Alisa from Russia, Fed from Italy (who unfortunately left for home last week :( ), and Angela from Italy. The best Welcome I could ever wish for. Yes this was taken at a Yankee game.

There is just no way to avoid getting overwhelmed by this city and fall in love with it. I was afraid that I would feel at home, but it has already conquered my heart and I'm actually proud to say that New York has become my home.

Love,
Nin

Spoiler: My rooftop view with the Empire State building. SURREAL.

I can't believe I'm actually here. Even though I'm constantly reminded by the sights around me, it's such a dream to be here.

I had spent my first day in Tokyo, to leave for Kyoto for 3 days and come back to spend another 3 in Tokyo again. I'll be honest, when I planned my trip to Japan,