Brief New York update
I actually have some downtime before I have to go off for my first day of internship work, so I thought I'd check in. Things have been a little crazy here so far, but after a confusing day yesterday figuring out how to navigate the city, I think I will have a lot more success from here on out.
I took the 4.5-hour Megabus ride from D.C. to New York yesterday morning. It was rainy and slightly humid in both places, which made the city a little bit less charming than it usually is for me. (But it was still very exciting to come through the tunnel and into NYC. That will never not be exciting.) One thing that I didn't factor in when I was packing was that my laptop (especially in its bigger case) makes my suitcase super heavy. I wasn't going to the hostel until a couple of hours after I got there, so that meant I had to drag the thing up and down the streets of New York. I headed first to an Indian restaurant Florence had recommended for a late lunch, but the combination of the heavy suitcase, the humidity, the rain, and my tiredness made me a little worse for wear. I think I burst into the restaurant looking slightly deranged. :)
The food perked me up a little, though, and I set off to 27th Street to locate the building where my internship would be (I always like to do a walk-through of how to get there before I have to do it for real). I found the exact city block where it is, but strangely, couldn't find the entrance itself. I'm pretty sure it's one of those nondescript entrances with the buzzers sandwiched between storefronts, but I couldn't seem to find the specific one. I'm confident I will be able to do so today when I go down there, though.
Then came the fun part of the day: figuring out the subway. Foolishly, I didn't consult a subway map before embarking on this trip; I wrote down the Google Maps public transit directions, but didn't do more because I assumed that a) the directions were correct, and b) as in D.C., there would be large, conspicuous subway maps at periodic intervals to check if I needed to. After struggling to get my suitcase and myself through the turnstile at the same time, I came to the discovery that neither of those things was true. Well, the Google directions weren't incorrect so much as incomplete. They simply told me to catch the 6 train from 28th St. to 96th St., which you can do- but not from where I was. Instead, I had to take the N/R train (whatever that is) to 42nd St., take the shuttle to Grand Central Station, and pick up the 6 from there. This was, in my opinion, terribly confusing. I had to ask about 6 different people for help (they were very accommodating, thankfully) and finally got where I needed to go.
The hostel is about what I expected. It's clean and has everything it needs, but it's not exactly 5-star accommodation; the beds aren't too comfortable, it's really warm in the room, the doors to both the room and the bathroom are hard to open and close, etc. Still, it's cheap and sufficient and I'm willing to rough it a little bit. Today has been a success so far: I got up in time to have breakfast (they only serve it from 9-10, which is ridiculous considering how on a normal day I start work at 10), found a CVS nearby to get some quick microwaveable food, got hot water for tea at Starbucks, re-located the subway stop I'll be using, and have been chilling out here on the computer since then. In a few minutes I'll get ready to go to work.I don't know at all what to expect, but I'm hoping for the best.
As far as travel updates go, I'm hoping to do my Glasgow post in the next couple of days! Wi-fi is free here, and you can access it (with varying degrees of success) on the Megabus too, so I might be able to do that soon. Stay tuned for more NY posts as well! Maybe with pictures, when it isn't so rainy and dismal!
I took the 4.5-hour Megabus ride from D.C. to New York yesterday morning. It was rainy and slightly humid in both places, which made the city a little bit less charming than it usually is for me. (But it was still very exciting to come through the tunnel and into NYC. That will never not be exciting.) One thing that I didn't factor in when I was packing was that my laptop (especially in its bigger case) makes my suitcase super heavy. I wasn't going to the hostel until a couple of hours after I got there, so that meant I had to drag the thing up and down the streets of New York. I headed first to an Indian restaurant Florence had recommended for a late lunch, but the combination of the heavy suitcase, the humidity, the rain, and my tiredness made me a little worse for wear. I think I burst into the restaurant looking slightly deranged. :)
The food perked me up a little, though, and I set off to 27th Street to locate the building where my internship would be (I always like to do a walk-through of how to get there before I have to do it for real). I found the exact city block where it is, but strangely, couldn't find the entrance itself. I'm pretty sure it's one of those nondescript entrances with the buzzers sandwiched between storefronts, but I couldn't seem to find the specific one. I'm confident I will be able to do so today when I go down there, though.
Then came the fun part of the day: figuring out the subway. Foolishly, I didn't consult a subway map before embarking on this trip; I wrote down the Google Maps public transit directions, but didn't do more because I assumed that a) the directions were correct, and b) as in D.C., there would be large, conspicuous subway maps at periodic intervals to check if I needed to. After struggling to get my suitcase and myself through the turnstile at the same time, I came to the discovery that neither of those things was true. Well, the Google directions weren't incorrect so much as incomplete. They simply told me to catch the 6 train from 28th St. to 96th St., which you can do- but not from where I was. Instead, I had to take the N/R train (whatever that is) to 42nd St., take the shuttle to Grand Central Station, and pick up the 6 from there. This was, in my opinion, terribly confusing. I had to ask about 6 different people for help (they were very accommodating, thankfully) and finally got where I needed to go.
The hostel is about what I expected. It's clean and has everything it needs, but it's not exactly 5-star accommodation; the beds aren't too comfortable, it's really warm in the room, the doors to both the room and the bathroom are hard to open and close, etc. Still, it's cheap and sufficient and I'm willing to rough it a little bit. Today has been a success so far: I got up in time to have breakfast (they only serve it from 9-10, which is ridiculous considering how on a normal day I start work at 10), found a CVS nearby to get some quick microwaveable food, got hot water for tea at Starbucks, re-located the subway stop I'll be using, and have been chilling out here on the computer since then. In a few minutes I'll get ready to go to work.I don't know at all what to expect, but I'm hoping for the best.
As far as travel updates go, I'm hoping to do my Glasgow post in the next couple of days! Wi-fi is free here, and you can access it (with varying degrees of success) on the Megabus too, so I might be able to do that soon. Stay tuned for more NY posts as well! Maybe with pictures, when it isn't so rainy and dismal!