NY experiences

Today is the last day of our summer vacation! It was a much needed (trust me, MUCH needed) vacation. The last month has been the busiest it could have been. We ended up with a million of things to do and the only free time we had was like 30 minutes (if even 30) to relax a day. And if you add the fact that on my 6th week of pregnancy, my sickness came along :S that made it worse! So we planned a few days of relaxation around a business trip. Yes! Because we did need it!! Last thursday we left from Huntsville heading to New Jersey where we spent the night. This is where Nate's brother and his family live, and we were able to spend friday morning with them. We had a great time and were able to take some pictures of our little nephew! He's a cutie, you can see it yourself!

Then we headed out to Rhode Island on that friday for a wedding on saturday. It was a beautiful wedding, with the cutest outdoor reception, and a kind wonderful family! I loved it! After the wedding we left for Maine! (it gets farther than what it seemed!!!!). This is where Nate grew up and lived till he left for college. His parents live there, so we took a 4 day vacation there to just relaaax. I told myself I wouldn't work. Actually, Nate told me I wasn't going to! It was just time for us, to catch up on our sleep, our rest, etc. We enjoyed every minute of it! We love spending time with Nate's family, and Maine is just such a peaceful place! We were able to catch up with some of Nate's friends too, and it was a blessing to visit the church that he always attended when he lived there. We were able to give our testimonies of salvation in the Spanish church! So we are happy God used us in that way!

Thursday came fast, and early in the morning we headed back to NJ, stopping first in New York city! It was pouring!!!!! I was so looking forward to this day, and it rained so hard! So after getting soaking wet (totally ruining my european haircut, lol), we finally bought an umbrella and just walked around fifth ave, times square, etc. Nate is a lot of fun, so you never get bored with him :) Now, I think I've mentioned before that I'm a city girl right? well, not in NYC: I felt like the biggest redneck.... just pay attention to our conversation with a cashier the first time we got on the subway:

Lady: What do you want?

Nate: ummm, we're going to fifth ave and are not sure how to get there.

Lady: where exactly?

Arancha: a store?

Lady: ok, but where?

Arancha: number 500

Lady: number 500 what. What is it?

Arancha: it's just a store :S

Lady: but what? what place? I need to know the place, like Bloomingdale or something.

Arancha: ummm.... Bloomingdale! Just Bloomingdale, how do we get there?

Lady explains to us what part of fifth ave it is located.... and at the end she says: and it's free!

Ok, so Nate and Arancha assumed it was for free right? then went right to the gate and it was locked! wasn't it for free?

Nate: how do we get in here?

Lady: well, you need a ticket. You haven't bought one?

TICKETS BOUGHT, we found our way there (successfully) and finally got a hang of how to get our way around NYC on the subway.

I've used the subway like all my life in Madrid, so it wasn't hard to get used to this one ;) But it was still a little bit more confusing than what I thought.

After having all our fun on Times Square, we decided to get back on the subway to go see the famous piano from the movie I used to watch when I was little with my brother and sister: BIG. I was sooo excited that I would finally be able to see and play that piano at F.A.O. Schwatz!!! But before, we had to get on the subway:

Nate: we needed 2 tickets or whatever we need to make 2 more stops.

Cashier: ok, it's going to be 9 dollars.

Nate: ok, but when we bought tickets earlier, they gave us 2 tokens (2 big yellow coins). How do we use them?

Cashier: uhhh, those are actually dollars.

Nate and Arancha: oh!-I could not help but laugh my head off at that moment right there. That guys is probably used to people like that because he did not laugh at all (or maybe he was just too nice). I've been remembering this moment all day and I've been laughing so hard about it! Like I said, we're totally not from the city anymore... I wonder if we will look like this when we go back to Madrid. Next experience: we successfully arrive to F.A.O. Schwartz.

Security guy: guys, it's closed.

Arancha: what? we came all the way from Madrid just to see that piano! (way to go Arancha, you're so witty)

Security guy: can you not come back tomorrow?

Arancha (little girl sad face included): NO! we're leaving tonight!!!

The guy totally ignored me. Man! it didn't work! So no piano! I guess I can always go back next year :D

So this was a really fun experience, despite how dummies we looked at several times... but we laughed so hard and had such a great time! We figured we would share how dummies we are with you, just because you need to know who the real Nate and Arancha are right? But again, I'm not that redneck, I promise!!!!

The night ended up with some yummy tapas and an hour walk back to the car. We loved it! But the rest of the trip will have to go on another post!!! It's a little late and we're still driving back :S

Have a wonderful day!

Arancha