I just met up with my college friend Aditi! (the one who's basically Kelly from "The Office"). She's in town for the weekend seeing high school friends. It was really great: we sat in a restaurant and caught up. It was almost like we were back in St. Paul. She's got a great job as a study abroad coordinator at Macalester, so she was telling me all about the going-ons at Mac.

My old voice teacher Lauri is also in town for a long weekend, so I'm hoping I'll get to see her before she leaves. She is considering moving out here to focus primarily on performing.

Yesterday, I had a little bit of time before I had to work in the afternoon, so I went to Jackson Heights (my new neighborhood) and walked around to orient myself. The area is really great: it's very ethnically diverse and there are a ton of great restaurants, markets and shops. Our apartment is a block from a Duane Reade (New York's version of Walgreen's), less than a block from a hospital, and close to several other amenities I will be discovering soon.

About 4 blocks away is a very well-known area of Jackson Heights commonly referred to as "Little India". On a single block, there are about 20 Indian restaurants and clothing stores. It's one of the perks of my neighborhood I'm most excited about. Also, I took the E express train into midtown Manhattan, and the ride took less than 15 minutes! I originally thought the subway stop was about a 15 minute walk from the apartment, but it's really more like 8! So my commute really is not going to be bad at all.

Not too much is new this week because I've had to work a lot of evenings. Therefore, I haven't been able to do that many things out in the city, but it was a good week for saving money. I went out with co-workers for Happy Hour drinks on Friday after work and I saw my first New York movie in a theatre ($11...arg). It was a vampire film called 30 Days of Night. I actually would recommend it to those of you who would be into that kind of thing (Claire, go see it).

The current renters of my apartment have to be out by tomorrow, and then they will clean it and repaint my bedroom (it's currently pink). So, I'm think that I will be able to move in toward the end of this week!

I will post the pictures I took yesterday of the exterior of the building when I get home from work.