Life in the Big Apple thus far

As many of you know Ethan got an internship in NEW YORK! He is working for Wal-Mart apparel office. A lady at the office will be going on maternity leave and he gets to take over her position. He is the global sourcing manager. So, he will get a real position and real life experience in the company. They will be paying Ethan almost triple what we got paid in Rexburg. They are paying for our apartment, plane tickets (round trip), bags, taxi to and from the airport, and they put us up in a hotel for three nights before we can move into our apartment. We were extremely nervous to move to the big city for three months, but excited for the new adventure this would give us. I was worried about so many different aspects...grocery shopping, no car, subways, the airplane with Jack, etc.

The plane ride was not what I expected. Jack was an angel!!! Four and a half hours on a plane and he didn't cry AT ALL!! He did start to fuss when we had about 30 minutes left, but I changed him and he was happy the rest of the time. What a blessing. We were the very last ones off the plane. Getting all our luggage was interesting. We barely fit all our stuff on one of those push cart things. I still had to pull our two carry-ons behind me while pushing Jack. What a sight we were in the airport, people were probably thinking "Why the heck do these people have so much stuff?! Are they moving to China or something?" So, we then headed off to get a taxi. When we got there the line was SO long and of course we hit a snag...there was no way to get our push cart full of luggage to the median which was where the line for the taxi was. So, we decide to put me in line with Jack and the carry-ons and Ethan has to bring each piece of luggage over across the street one by one. As I am standing in line I see a couple trying to load everything into their taxi. They had a baby which means they also had a car seat. It was taking them a little longer to get things in the taxi because they were trying to strap the car seat in and get everything situated, I don't think anything of it...the lady in front of me however, "Oh my gosh, what is taking them so long? How rude, what a bunch of *** *****! It's like they have never seen a taxi before, they must be from Arkansas or something. I can't even believe this!" It was then that I realized I am no longer in Rexburg. Fitting in the taxi was a trick, I am just glad we didn't have anyone waiting behind us. We had to wait an extra 10 minutes so we could get a mini van taxi because we had too much stuff for the regular taxi and the mini suv taxi.

Walking down the streets is quite interesting. I have forgotten what the real world is like living in the bubble that is Rexburg. I think I have seen more people smoking in the last 4 days then I have the 5 years that I have lived in Rexburg. It is also weird to hear all the different languages as I walk down the streets...Spanish, French and Chinese mostly, but so many others. Also, so many different ethnicities are in this city, sometimes I feel that I am the only white person. Having a baby also makes me stand out. In the last 4 days I have seen NO babies younger than a year old other than Jack. Everyone I pass turns their heads to look in the car seat and see baby Jack. Most of the time as I am stopped at a light waiting to cross I have at least one person ask me how old he is and comment on how cute he is. Again, the Rexburg bubble is not the real world...in Rexburg it was uncommon NOT to have a baby.

Saturday was our busy day. We decided to go walk around and explore our surroundings. Oh my gosh there is so much to look at. I felt like I needed to walk slow so I could take in everything around me. Walking slow in New York is not a good idea, many people will get mad at you. We walked around for 6 hours STRAIGHT. We did not sit down, take the subway or anything else. We walked. We charted out walk when we got home and we had walked 6 miles, and that doesn't include the walking around in all the stores. We walked from our hotel, to our apartment, through parts of central park, to the temple, all over times square, and so much more. While we were exploring different markets we found a lady who was older and well...a bit strange to say it nicely. She was asking about Jack and Ethan asked her where the best place to grocery shop is. She told us about a market about 20 minutes away from our apartment so we decided to go explore that. (Every other market up until this point was depressing $7 for a mini jar of grape jelly). What a blessing this lady was, this little market is just the thing we were looking for-ghetto to the max, but prices we can afford.

Grocery shopping is interesting without a car. No way could I go to the market without Ethan. At the market they sell these rolling stand up shopping carts. Everyone in the city has one and thats how you get your groceries from the store, home.

It's a good thing we went exploring on Saturday. We went to our church building (which is in the same building as the temple) and noticed that it looked like it was set up for stake conference. We asked the security guard at the front desk and sure enough church would be 3 hours earlier because it was stake conference. It was weird walking off the elevator to church, it was like I was walking into a regular church building. Everything looked as if I had just walked in the front doors. As we were singing hymns they said "we will sing hymn number 1 in English, number 1 in Spanish, number 1 in Chinese." Basically saying sing it in whatever language you speak. It was pretty cool to think that we have so many different ethnicities in our stake boundaries. We also had a sign language interpreter, which I LOVE to watch!

Our new apartment is awesome. We have a great view of central park and of the Hudson River. Picture will come later.

Needless to say, so far New York is AMAZING! :) What an adventure we have been blessed with.