Wednesday, August 27, 2014

First month in New York [via iPhone]


Hi, I'm alive! Here's a mishmash of iPhone photos since I don't have my computer yet and I just recently got my camera's charger in the mail.

Enjoy the lack of structure in this post- just wanted to share a bit of the nicer things during my crazy first month in the city... 

My broker suggested Stone Street and it was actually my first time here. Enjoyed some of the cute & quaint restaurants lined up! 

I also went on a Literary Pub Crawl around Greenwich Village with my cousins Beatrice & Mikey. Learned about most of the writers and artists who used to live in the village as well as the history behind these brownstone houses. This was a fun tour so I'd recommend it to all of you bookworms! Check out their tours here.

Not really prioritising my outfit shots right now, LOL. Besides not wanting to carry around a huge camera, my looks aren't so blog-worthy at all and I'm fine with that. This city is more interesting than I am right now. 

Obviously coerced into doing this shot, black on black foreva! 

Some cute things around the 'burbs. 

Well of course you have to go on the toughest ride first when you arrive at Six Flags. Kingda Ka was seriously fun, especially when you get to see everything at the top for a few seconds. 

Yes, I did this at Six Flags. I'm expecting the indoor walls here to be tougher than ours so I'm definitely keen on checking those out. 

Because I'm not allowed to change the structure of my apartment here, it's been a bit of a challenge to choose the furniture and decor. I really miss having a construction team and having the freedom to design my space on a budget. The lengthy process of finding an apartment and finalising the lease took up most of my time on the first few weeks since we had to go back and forth from the suburbs to the city, but my broker was extremely helpful. I ended up buying almost all of my furniture online after visiting tons of stores to save time. It's been fun having to put most of them together. Times like these I'm thankful that I'm not a weakling since everything here is DIY OR DIE. 

Enjoyed this restaurant beside one of the hotels we stayed in- Piacere situated at Little Italy. The owner was even kind enough to offer us more rose after he saw me post this photo on Instagram! Definitely going back with some friends since I enjoyed their burrata. 

A great view from one of the units we checked out.

I met up with Maxine before they drove to the Hamptons since it's been 5 years since we've last seen each other! Max is still the same giggly girl I became close to back in freshman year. 

How do you like my photo? This broken neck pose has to be my new thing. 

Engineering building at Pratt

Interior Design department 

The view of Manhattan from Ray's dorm room in Brooklyn. 

This is Ray, we instantly clicked during the foreign student orientation since her opening line to me was, "I like your face!" plus we're both obsessed with B L A C K. I'm not even kidding when I say that she's seriously my Estonian counterpart, it's pretty creepy. 

Times Square is always crazy so enjoying it from above is a slightly better.

I stay in a historic art deco building. I love the location and I'm so glad we found a reasonably priced unit in Manhattan! It was meant to be, haha! I originally wanted to stay in Brooklyn to be closer to my school but I figured that I'd be cooped up in that area if I were to live and study there.   

The gym is HUGE. This isn't the entire view, taken from the cardio area. They have some equipment for TRX and even crossfit! There's also a studio for yoga and pilates. 

The view from the roof deck is also BEAUTIFUL. Posted a 360ยบ video on my Instagram

Grad school isn't fun at all so I'm really happy I get to come home to this view everyday. 

[view full size HERE]

Will be blogging more as soon as I get my computer. Hope you guys liked this short update! 

❤︎

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Congrats on making the move to NY! <3 Welcome. xo

Your student ID photo is totally bad ass! lol Love it.

Can't wait to see more. ...Would you consider a meet and greet?

xo
Maggie A
LOVEMAVIN/YOUTUBE || LOVE MAVIN/BLOG

Raleene said...

@Maggie A- I'd love to meet some of my readers here! :)

capizena said...

Glad to see you're enjoying my home city! Have you checked out any Filipino restaurants yet? I suggest brunch at Maharlika if you've got the time.

Raleene said...

@capineza- Yes, for two weeks it was all about Filipino food! I found it hilarious that I came to america to sample Filipino food :))))

K said...

Hiii :) Love your blog and of course your voice! :) i saw your older posts and you had really short hair :o beautiful ! Are you thinking about back this hair? :) i have really long hair but i think about hair like yours that time! :)

i apologize for my english!
Greetings from Poland! :)

Raleene said...

@pulp- Thank you! I don't think I'll be cutting my hair that short again because of job restrictions and it's hard to maintain (I need it cut every two weeks). :)