We have arrived!

Well, at long last, we have arrived in New York City. It is just as beautiful as ever, despite the frigid temperatures. I wanted to write down the adventures we faced getting here before I forgot it all. So let's start the beginning.

On Friday morning, we awoke very early and drove to pick up the UHaul truck. They had run out of the 10 foot size trucks so we were forced to take a 16 foot (read: not small) truck for our journey to Buffalo. We headed back to the house and with the gracious help of Marty and Dawn we packed up in about one hour. It was starting to snow, so we made our goodbyes short and hit the road. I expected the highway outside of Pittsburgh to be pretty bad as it started to snow pretty heavily, and I was correct. Sean very slowly maneuvered the truck on the highway and we proceeded at about 30-40 miles per hour. I figured once we hit NY state, the roads would improve. But oh boy, was I wrong. We crossed the border and the snow that had been falling got about 3 times worse and the wind picked up. We faced some treacherous road conditions and whiteouts at times. A drive that would normally take 3.5 hours in good weather, took us nearly 7 hours. We were elated when we arrived at my parents house. They were so kind to us and helped us unload all of our belongings. We spent the evening hanging out with everyone, including my older brother Eoin, and his girlfriend Maura.

The next morning was another early morning, as we got up and took the truck to its drop off spot in a not-so-nice part of Buffalo. Ok, people, this was the HOOD. We made it out of there safely and it was off to the even sketchier bus station in downtown B-LO. We thought we were just so smart, getting a sweet deal on our bus tickets (only 23 dollars to NYC!). Well, might want to splurge next time....

It was an "experience" to say the least. We got on the packed double decker bus, and were forced to sit next to complete strangers on opposite ends of the bus. I managed to befriend my seat partner and he kindly let Sean sit next to me for most of the ride. We were in seats directly in front of a woman who had brought her infant son on the bus from Toronto, and was headed all the way to Boston. This baby was ridiculously good, but there were still those moments of high pitched shrieks that woke you from the little sleep you managed to achieve. The bus had some temperature regulation issues that caused it to reach about 90 degrees at one point during the ride, but that thankfully got sorted out. The entire ride took about 9 hours, and it was thrilling to finally get our first sights of "the city". We had no trouble at all finding our luggage and a cab, and we set off to the Scholars Residence (I am not tooting my own horn -- this is actually the name of our apartment building).

Upon arrival at our guest studio, Sean was less than thrilled, but it was actually better than I had expected. It is one large room where one wall is our tiny kitchen and we have a nice sized bathroom with two big closets. No complaints here. And for me, I'm just thrilled to actually be here. The view outside of our window is breathtaking -- you can see the East River and the Queensboro bridge, which is all lit up at night.

I really feel excited for our new beginning in this great city. But I also miss the familiarity and comfort in Pittsburgh. Ahhh transition...