A Week of (non)Vacation

I've officially been free from Institute for eight days now, and while I haven't been waking up at 4:30 a.m. anymore, I wouldn't say that the last week has really been a relaxing vacation, either.

Mom flew out on Saturday morning to help me move from the dorm at St. John's into my new apartment, which was quite the process. We rented a small SUV, piled it full of mine and Becca's (my roommate) stuff from St. John's ... for having such small living quarters at the University, you'd be really surprised how much junk we actually had. We filled the car to the brim. One of several times we would do that over the next two days.

After several trips to Ikea, Costco, Canal Street (everyone should check out the free stuff on Craigslist, btw... it's awesome), Lowes and Home Depot, some in a car, some on the subway, we finally furnished the apartment. Whoo hoo! But then we had to build everything. Thanks, Ikea furniture in a box.

Mom left on Wednesday, after working 10 hours a day, with only one tourist day thrown in there on Tuesday when we took a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty and ate dinner in Little Italy.
I finally finished unpacking and building furniture on Friday. Good times. Here are some pictures:

My Room:

View from the living room window:

Though this week has been a lot of work, it's been fun too. It was nice having mom here for a while, and it was definitely fun doing the touristy stuff we did (Little Italy, tour of downtown, walk through central park). I've also eaten a lot of cupcakes, and yesterday I went to a music event at the museum PS1 in Long Island City with Stephanie, who was one of my roommates in Rome.

This week brings TFA orientation at New York University downtown, where we'll start writing our investment, management and unit plans for school, which starts in about three weeks!