We have arrived!!!

Moving is never fun, but ours was about as good as it can get.  Shout out to Jess, Keith, Chow, Pete, and Matt's parents for helping us pack and load the truck.  We wouldn't have been able to do any of this without them.  The truck was jam-packed...Charlie had to sit on my lap most of the way up to the city.  We stayed just outside of Philadelphia with friends Alex and Kasey (thanks guys!) on Friday night and get an early start on Sat. to make it into the city.  All the driving went really smoothly.

 

We had to unload my school stuff from the truck first - another shout out to Sarah and Matt Pacheco for helping us with the unloading at the school and apartment.  The weather was awesome (74 and sunny).  Matt's friend from grad. school also came to help at the apartment.  The building has elevators, without which we would have died getting all of our stuff up to the 4th floor.  After about 3 hours, we saw the most beautiful sight:

the empty truck!

Matt and I worked and worked to get things unpacked and got a lot done.  Luckily, everything fit!  Here are some preliminary pics of the apartment.  

dining area/entry way

kitchen

living room

bathroom

one side of bedroom

other side of bedroom

We're really pleased with how everything is working out.  The windows look out onto one of the playgrounds in the neighborhood, so lots of kids' laughter comes up our way, which is nice.  We also have trees right outside : )

After sleeping in this morning, we did the very New York "thing" of going to brunch at The Bluebell Cafe on 3rd Ave.  Charming and delicious.  This afternoon we went out to watch the US soccer game.  We tried to go to Jack Demsey's bar which is the American Outlaws' (a US soccer fan club, for the non-soccer followers out there) official bar.  When we arrived 1 1/2 hours before the game started the line was out the door and down the street to get in.  We waited, but it became clear we wouldn't be watching there.  So, we went to Madison Square Park where a huge crowd had gathered and a big screen was set up for viewing.  If you watched the game, they showed the park on tv.  It was fun to people watch as well as watch the game.  

This week Matt starts work and I'll be unpacking more things and exploring more around the city.  It doesn't quite feel real yet, but we are enjoying the adventure so far!