Brooklyn Bridges Falling Down (or not I hope)

This is a little late because I've been busy at work and taking care of a sick Pietro, but on Friday we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Pietro took an engineering class about bridges his freshman year and his teacher told him everyone had to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge once in their life so we decided to do it.  We had this vision of another long romantic walk with beautiful weather and great photos... it didn't quite work out that way but it was still fun.  It was grey and sprinkling for most of the walk across and then right at the end when we were about ten minutes away from the subway stop the heavens opened and it started pouring.  Sharing one tiny umbrella which did no good at all thanks to the wind we made a run for it and got soaked head to toe but it was still fun because we were running together and laughing a lot.  I did get some nice perspective shots  of the bridge which has a lot of cool lines thanks to the suspension cables but it was still grey and rainy in the background.  I'd like to go back around sunset sometime.  Anyway here are some photos to illustrate:

A few thoughts

-Today I found out tuition is about 3,000 more per semester than I had calculated which means I have about $6,000 less per year to pay for rent and food than I thought which means I't a good think I got a job and am managing to save some money each month so far.

-Also today at work I mixed chai tea and yerba mate tea togeher with almond milk and sugar free vanilla syrup and bubbles.  It was delicious, it tasted like a dessert :)

-Today while walking home from work I got to thinking: I'm not really looking forward to starting grad school as much as I thought I would be.  Now that I am living here and I have my daily routine down with working and running errands and spending time with Pietro and exploring the city... I like my busy-ness level the way it is right now.  I can't imagine adding classes and studying and 10 hrs/wk lab time to my job and trying to squeeze in some time with Pietro not to mention things like cooking and laundry.  How will I have enough time? How will I keep from exploding?  We shall see...

-Last but not least, the bubble tea website I mentioned that Pietro and I are building is coming along nicely :) it has been a fun project to work on together to let out our nerdy energies and when it is further along I will share the link :)

Cruise Vacation

So it's been awhile since I have posted because I have been on vacation for the last week with my dad, brother, and Pietro.  We took our annual cruise with Royal Caribbean to Coco Cay, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten on this ship.  There was a lot of sun, sand, relaxing, and fruity umbrella drinks, it was wonderful.  AND for the first time I got to share this wonderful experience with the person I always miss most when I'm on cruises so it was doubly wonderful and there was not a single complaint about the trip.  There were a few travel hiccups on the way back because there was a medical emergency (a guy had a heart attack) and we had to detour to the Bahamas in the middle of the night to drop him off causing us to pull into port late and lots of missing flights and rescheduling but it's ok because we made it home.  Pietro and I also had a successful trip because we each faced one of our great fears.  He faced his fear of heights and climbed to the top of the rock wall on the ship and I faced my fear of the ocean and took a jetski tour 8 miles off shore.  (Ok so I never actually had to go into the water but the chance was there if I fell so I was never the less terrified and teary eyed the entire time, but I did it!) Other activities we did at the islands were snorkeling (I stayed on the boat) and going to Orient Beach (one of the nicest beaches in the world).  Some on ship activities we did were rock climbing, surfing, ice skating, dancing, and Christian entered the Belly Flop Competition and won third place as the youngest out of 13 guys.

Anyway enough talking about it. Here is a sampling of pictures to tell the story:

Long Walks Along the River

Today Pietro took me on a very long but very romantic walk along the Hudson River from Houston St. down to the very tip of Manhattan by Battery Park. About 3 miles. So long after getting up at 4am and being on my feet all day at work.

Buuuut it made for some really great pics.  So instead of writing about how romantic and beautiful it was I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

That's freedom tower, being built in place of the Twin Towers, due for completion in 2013

Sept. 11th Memorial

Ground Zero, currently under construction to become a monument, due to open this September

Statue of Liberty way in the distance