While boarding the plane for NY, I noticed all the Jet Blue flight attendants had bags of Trader Joe’s goods, and one had a case of Charles Shaw “two-buck chuck.” That’s when I remembered there aren’t any Trader Joe’s in NY. But there are a lot of other things in NY anyways, so no crying about that yet.

The first celebrity I saw was also boarding my flight, the tall and bald Robert Verdi of E!Fashion Police. Though he’s not a crazy bigtime film star, I’ve watched his bald head on TLC many times!

Another silly California-reference was in the cab when I first arrived, I passed a building with the CHP logo, and of course I thought “what in the heck? California Highway Patrol in NY?” But it was the Community Health Prevention building. It’s so wierd how you make all these references based on what you know and where you’re from. Yesterday I had my first subway ride to Soho with Rose, then on the way back, I saw my first subway rat (on the tracks.) Sunday night I had my first New York steak (at Florent in the meatpacking district) and enjoyed every bite of it, probaly because for the rest of my trip, I’m eating very cheaply!!!

Finally, today is my first day of school! I’m about to go and get ready and then hop on the subway for my noon class, I also have a 6:00 p.m. class. The wierd thing is, I think because I know I’ll be here for the summer, I don’t feel like a tourist at all. I feel perfectly comfortable in the environment, I’ve managed to avoid having a deer in the headlights moment so far, where you standing somewhere and it all hits you how truly foreign this new place is. Things are going smoothly!

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