Boston and New York City, Spring Break 2012

Though it doesn't seem like it, I was bitten by the travel bug when I was a child. A majority of my childhood summer memories occurred in New York, where my dad was born and raised. When I was 13, I convinced my parents to let me go to New York City by myself for the first time, spending a week with my aunts. Since then, I have returned to the Northeast every year, usually staying with family in NYC. So when I was planning my Spring Break, it seemed natural to include a trip to New York. I also returned to Boston, predominately to see Kathryn but also to visit another aunt of mine who lives there. I flew into Boston and managed to get myself all the way to Kendall Station from the airport by myself at 11 PM, navigating public transit. It's not nearly as impressive as it sounds, I merely took the silver line bus to South Station and transferred to the red line of the T.  When I got to MIT, there was a small pile of snow on the ground. I was ecstatic to see any, however little, and spent several minutes running around in it until it turned into a brown slush. The following afternoon, I headed back to South Station to take a bus to New York. 

The Chinatown bus system between Boston and New York is awesome. For only $15 each way, you can hop from city to city. The best part is that it leaves every half hour or so, allowing a lot of flexibility. South Station is really nice but the New York drop off point was sketchy at best, located at the end of Canal Street near the Manhattan Bridge. Luckily, my Aunt Katherine and Uncle Drew offered to pick me up and drop me off to meet a friend at NYU, so I barely had to spend any time there. Nathan and I met at our typical spot: Starbucks. He's my partner in crime and one of my best friends but his father is a Captain in the Navy, so they move around constantly. Our senior year of high school, they were relocated to Newport, Rhode Island. Fortunately for me, he decided to stay behind and finish out senior year. However, since he no longer lives in Florida at all, I rarely see him. He introduced me to some of his friends and we ended up running around the Village until 4 AM, when I headed to the Upper East Side.

One downside to staying with my family is that they don't function on a college schedule. They were up only an hour after I got back, but this didn't bother me. Lack of sleep over Spring Break is only to be expected. It was worth it to me to get to spend time with my much younger cousins. Katherine's kids, Jackson and Rhett-Blake were five and two at the time and my Aunt Liz's son Will was turning six that day. For Will's birthday, we made cupcakes and invited them over to the apartment. Then, Liz and I took all the kids to the park with the exception of her daughter, Emma, who was eight at the time. It was so great to see the boys all playing together. After that, Liz and I took Will to see The Lorax, which I learned was a huge PSA on environmental impact. We met up with the Katherine and her kids for fro yo, the modern alternative to the ice cream that I grew up with. It was nonetheless delicious and entertaining to watch the kids hopped up on sugar, running around the fro yo place.  

The rest of my trip in New York was spent mostly alone. The kids were in school, my aunts and uncles working or running errands and the like. Most people wouldn't enjoy New York City alone but I tend to prefer it that way. I love strolling through Central Park by myself in the middle of the day, watching small children run laps around their nannies and old couples sitting on benches holding hands. The unusual part about this trip for me was the weather. I always go to New York in the summers, never any other time of year. The closest to another season I have ever come before was September. It was so weird to see all the leaves in Central Park on the ground, in clumps of orange and brown rather than the normal vibrant green. 5th Avenue was a stranger sight. Though still somewhat crowded, it was predominantly taken over by men and women in business suits rather than your typical tourist. As a Floridian, I preferred it this way. Disney World and the beach have trained me to despise tourists, even when I am one. Assimilation into one's surrounding is much better and the reason I have never carried a city map or stopped in the middle of a sidewalk. Walk with a purpose, act like you know where you're going. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, not some other ancient culture on vacation in Rome. 

My last night in New York, I met my friend Lizzy for coffee and then we had dinner at a small pizzeria on the Upper East Side. I headed back to Chinatown and picked up a later bus, leaving around 7 or 8 PM. This time, the bus was packed. Instead of a row to myself, like I had had on the trip down, I was lucky to find any seat at all. A young woman pulled me next to her so that neither of us would be subject to sitting with any creepy older men, which I was grateful for. The bus ride felt long and I was sad to watch the New York skyline grow smaller and dimmer as we headed into the darkness of the highway. As much as I love Boston, its skyline doesn't stand a chance next to New York's. I was still happy to see the Charles River and excited for the rest of my week in Boston. 

The best part about a long trip in Boston was that I got the opportunity to see my Aunt Cindy. Yes, I have a lot of aunts and the three I saw over the course of this particular trip are all my dad's sisters. Cindy used to live in New York, just like her sisters, but had relocated to Massachusetts the year before. The change was not entirely welcome, no thanks to a particularly harsh winter in late 2010, early 2011. Cindy and I met for coffee (noticing a pattern here?) in Wellesley and walked through the town and school together. I spent a majority of my time in Boston walking around the city and walking around Wellesley. The weather was gorgeous and uncharacteristically warm considering it had snowed the week before. I probably walked over the Mass Ave bridge alone at least five times. Kathryn surprised me with concert tickets at the House of Blues for Young the Giant and Grouplove, so we went with her roommate and had a blast. Concerts used to actually constitute a large part of my time and money, especially towards the end of high school. However, since I've started travelling more, I have allocated more money towards plane tickets and gas for my car. I also went to one of Kathryn's crew practices and rode in the coach's boat. I was a sight to behold, wearing a survival suit and several other layers. All of the Wellesley rowers took pity on the poor Florida girl who wasn't accustom to waking up at 5 AM or accustom to the cold water so early in the morning. Crew practice reminded me how much I've missed rowing. It was also beautiful to see the boats gliding across the water as it lightly snowed, though I'm sure the rowers would disagree with me since they were the ones running drills with numb hands and faces.

Events occurred: March 2-11, 2012