Excuse my absence and all over lack of fun. I have been sick and searching for apartments the past two weeks. And trust me, searching for apartments is the worse of the two. Over the past few months living in New York, I have been nonstop going. I have been going to tourist sites, bars, restaurants, events, Boston, home, Hilton Head and who knows where else and never getting a full night’s sleep or even taking a day to relax. But pretty much, my body is done. It decided last week if I wouldn’t listen and rest it would stop me. So, I got sick.

I was so excited by being in a new place and wanting to see everything I possibly could. I forgot my body wasn’t prepared for that kind of work.

I like to call it the Paris Effect. Not the getting sick part, but the running my body until it couldn’t run anymore part. The last time I was studying abroad in Oxford, a group of friends and I decided to take an extended weekend in Paris. I had been to Paris a couple times before and knew it would be easy to see everything in the fours day we had and understood my way around the tourist sites. Some of the other people on the trip did not. So we started out the first day walking everywhere. I don’t know if they were scared to try and figure out the Metro or if they just really thought every building we passed on the four mile walk from one tourist attraction to the other were important. But either way, we walked a long f*cking way.

So by the end I was in tears my feet hurt so bad (later would come home to find out from the doctor  I had stress fractures in both feet), one kid’s feet were bleeding, and everyone was cranky (or maybe I was just cranky enough for all of us). From then on, we bought tickets onto one of the huge tour buses and used it to get around the city.

The point is: DO NOT GO ALL OUT YOUR FIRST DAY!!!!

I have gone around the city with a few different groups of friends visiting and they all do it. They get here and they are so excited to see everything and they really think that the little bit of walking they do at home is going to help them on this trek through the Big Apple. But, they always destroy their bodies on the first day. They think that walking from the top of Central Park to Times Square is no big deal, they think 40 blocks is a short walk, and they have no idea where anything is. I’m telling you don’t do it.

First of all, the subway takes you everywhere. I’m not gonna say it’s easy to use (I still don’t know where everything goes). But, there’s an app for that. Your Maps App that comes on the iPhone will pick up the New York City subway system the minute you get into the city so just type in where you want to go and it will tell you which lines to get on. Then, just follow the signs. Trust me just read the signs. They are not confusing, none of them are wrong (you’re wrong), and they will all point you in the right direction.

Secondly, plan your trip for enough time to see the city and don’t rush. Be realistic about how much you can see. Don’t think in the first day you are gonna be able to go all over the city. Do some research before about what you want to see and try to do a couple different things that are close to each other each day. It’s easy if you look at what neighborhoods everything is in and then choose a couple neighborhoods to do each day. It makes the whole trip a lot easier with just a little bit of preplanning.

Don’t succumb to the Paris Effect and be exhausted by the end of your first day and miserable and tired the rest of your trip. Pace yourselves, I promise you will get to see everything. And if not, what a great excuse to come back!

And of course, some random pictures I have taken over the past two weeks: