{Group picture at my surprise going away party!}

Almost exactly three years ago I came to New York City with 2 bags, a 2 month sublease and one job interview.  A week later I was offered and accepted the job at CooperKatz (one of the best decisions I’ve made) and never looked back.  

Then about a year ago I ran into a friend on third avenue who had just moved to Manhattan after a year living in London.  I’ve always wanted to live abroad at some point and started talking her ear off and asking a million questions about the program she did.  After about 45 minutes I was pretty sold.  Much research and many months later…I AM MOVING TO LONDON!!!  I know woah caps, but I think it’s appropriate in this instance.  I leave tonight for a year long post-graduate international business program where I will be taking classes at St. Mary’s University and working in marketing at Thomson Reuters.  I woke up this morning feeling excited, nervous, sad, happy but mostly just anxious for it to all begin.

I joked to my friend Traci (see her amazing blog here) last night that if you ever want to know how much you are loved than you should just move to another country.  The past four weeks have been incredible and my friends, family, coworkers have been so supportive and made me feels so special and loved that it is making it that much harder to leave it all.  I will miss many things about New York, but mostly I will miss the people in it (minus the bus driver who yelled at me yesterday).  

To New York City, thank you for letting me call you home for the past three years.  I never could have imagined when I moved up here how wonderful it would be.  London has a lot to live up to, but I have no doubt the next year will be one of the best years of my life.  I will be doing my best to keep this blog updated on my adventures in London and travels around Europe and I hope you will follow! 

All my love from LaLaLand :)

{The spread was amazing with all of my favorite treats - I have wonderful friends!!}

{Dancing as always…that won’t change in London}

{My wonderful roommates}

{Two of my favorite coworkers at goodbye drinks}

{Lauren and I In front of the famous Liberty Bell}

My best friend from my birthright trip to Israel, Lauren, is coming to visit this weekend from Philadelphia and I am so excited!  It’s been over four years now since our trip and while we weren’t very good at visiting at first, we’ve gotten much better about making the trips back and forth since it’s only a short trip between Philly and NYC.

In December I went to visit her, which was my first time to Philly.  We decided to have a touristy day so that I could see all of the city’s sights.  We ended up deciding to take a free walking tour.  Since it was Christmas eve day, we joked that we might be the only two people on the tour…and we were right.  The tour is typically four hours, which in deciding to go on it, I said we could always skip out early if we are getting tired, but when you are the only attendees it changes the scenario a bit.

Long story short, after a nearly five hour tour, Lauren and I saw every inch of Philly and learned a lot of very random and, under most circumstances, less-than-useful information.  Despite that it was such a fun trip and I wanted to post some my pictures from our Philly adventure.

Love from La La Land :)

{THE Philly Cheese Steak - Are you a Geno’s person…}

{…Or a Pat’s person?  Apparently it’s quite the rivalry}

{Very cool outdoor sculpture garden}

{Just a pretty street}

I would like to start this by saying I am so not a musical festival goer.  I actually left the first one I ever went to - Music Midtown in Atl - early because I was freaking out about all of the smoking and drinking, so I called my Dad and told him I didn’t feel well and he picked me up early.  To be fair, I was only like 14, but I realize that’s still pretty weak.

That being said after going to Governor’s Ball a couple of weeks ago I might just have to take it up as a hobby.  One of my best friend’s was in town from Denver and wanted to go to the concert festival for her birthday.  I will reluctantly admit that I agonized over what to wear, since having seen pictures from other such events the fashion can be a little eclectic.  Mostly it just looked like neon threw up on the crowd of 20 something year olds.  But by the end of the night I was all about the Neon body paint.

You will also notice the balloon art, which I was particularly obsessed with throughout the day/night, especially when they attached lights to them at night.  The headliners were Girl Talk and Pretty Lights, which were both awesome.  So…music festival anyone?

All my love from LaLaLand :)

The crowd view when I stand on my tip-toes and the view when standing normal - only kidding, but I am really short!

We were ALL about the glow-in-the-dark paint

Ballooooons!

Last night I went to the wonderful new Cirque Du Soleil show Zarkana at Radio City Music Hall with one of my best friends.  This was the second Cirque show I have seen and I absolutely love the modern circus feel.  I turn into a total kid and am in awe of everyone’s incredible talents.  My favorite act was definitely the trapeze.  It was amazing to see the performers fly through the air like it was nothing.  Overall it was a fantastic spectacle.

If you are interested in more information about the show, check it out here: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/zarkana/show/extras.aspx

All my love from LaLaLand :)

Ever since I can remember I have loved art.  In high school my art classes were what got me through the long days (I laugh at the thought of high school days being long now).  Unfortunately, through college and the past few years I have been creating art less and less.  So I was thrilled to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this weekend with my parents friends who were in town.  (Also, it was a chance for me to use the membership my parents got for me as a present!)  

The amazing thing about the Met is that I am almost as in awe of the actual museum as I am the art within it.  That being said, here is a look at some of my favorite pictures of all the beautiful art at the Met.  Hopefully this trip will inspire me to get started on yet another one of my New Year’s resolutions - to start painting and drawing again.

All my love from LaLaLand :)

View walking into the Met

I love this view of the courtyard!  I think it seems so romantic, and I love how you can see the old and new buildings come together.

The photography exhibit we came to see

Gotta love Van Gogh…

and Jackson Pollock

As I have previously mentioned I love to travel and I love other cultures.  One of my New Year’s resolutions was to learn French, so when I saw a 3 hour French language course and wine tasting on LivingSocial I was thrilled!  Me and three friends had the best time learning some French basics this past sunday.  The company was called Act French and you can find more information here: http://actfrench.weebly.com/.  

To top off our French day we went for an early dinner at Tartine, an adorable French restaurant in West Village.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures of us enjoying the delicious food!

All my love from LaLaLand :)