I was amazed to find a little bit of greenery in the city (Channel Gardens in Rockefeller Center)!

Rockefeller Center in the rain.

Site of my graduation ceremony in June 2008

Me skating at the Roxy.

A beautiful tree-lined street in Park Slope.

View of Columbus Circle (Central Park in the background) from inside the Time Warner Center.

Not sure what or where....I saw it while walking in the city and thought it was nice.

View of the Empire State Building while waiting to skate at the Roxy.

A beautiful garden in Prospect Park

Grand Army Plaza near Prospect Park

First Week

Hard to belive I have only been here a week. It feels like so much longer. So far, I have managed to get a bed and a dresser. I know, it does not sound like much! I still must get some furniture to sit on besides grandma's card table and chairs. I am gonna go on a massive hunt tomorrow to find a couch! I am still happy with my place and am managing without ac. The picture above was taken from my living room. You can see the statue of liberty in the skyline. I joined a gym around the corner and am finding the other little shops that are in the area. The week ended with a dinner on Thursday with Liz, DT and VG to celebrate both mine and DT's birthday. We ate at this great place with Southern and Jamaican cuisine. Would love to go back again it was so good. For Friday, I had arranged for a bunch of us to go to a bar. It was an awesome time. It was so nice to see everyone I hadn't seen since before the boards. I put pictures up from both the birthday events on the right sidebar.

My plan right now for the rest of my break is to play tourista. I got some guide books today and am ready to go. I'll make sure to take my camera along to document the sites!

Road trip

The trip to Key West was great. Angie and I managed to travel almost the entire southern part of Florida. This included Orlando, Tampa, Key West, Coconut Grove and many other random stops along the way. We met up with EC at city walk Universal Studios the night I arrived. Then it was onto Tampa the next morning. Ang's in-laws live there so we stayed with them for the night and left Foster (the dog) there while we were gone. We saw the Bodies exhibit there too. It was well worth the trip. It is an incredible site to see and thankfully these bodies did not smell like our cadavers we had back in anatomy! If you get a chance definitely go see the exhibit.
Our trip to Keys was a nice road trip. It took us through alligator alley. And yes, finally after much looking I did see about 4 or so gators sunning themselves in the canal alongside the road. I was very excited. After we crossed the 42 bridges we arrived in Key West. We did the standard tourist stuff. We saw the sunset off the Mallory Square, ate at Sloppy Joe's, went to the "southern most point", swam in the nice and bathwater warm pool and went out on the Western Union Schooner for a sunset sail and ended up staying for the stargazing sail.
On our way back north we stopped over in Coconut Grove (area of Miami). I wanted to see the area where my family had once lived. I wasn't able to see the house because it was recently torn down. It was my Grandmother (Dad's mom) house. It was a beautiful area and I would like to go back at some point. Yesterday we went shopping at the Millenia mall and ran some other errands.
Now, I am on my way back to Brooklyn to get settled into my place. I ordered a bed yesterday over the phone. I had no idea how expensive this would be! Thankfully, I convinced the mattress man to give me a great deal (or so I thought, 60% off). I will see shortly whether it was worth it. Not sure what I am gonna do with the rest of my break till I start my roations in September. There are lots of ideas floating around in my head. I will be posting pictures on the side bar from all the recent events (keys, dc, jersey shore, etc).

Guess what?????????

It is official……..I passed USMLE Step 1 and am now a Board Certified Medical Student!!!! I am so happy to never have to take that test again. Thanks for all the support you all offered.

I am currently in Orlando to visit Angie for a week and for our road trip to Tampa and Key West. Since I last wrote, I have moved into my new place (minus any furniture). I have not spent a night there because the floors were not dry from being revarnished. The place actually seems better than I had remembered when looking at it the first time. I still have to buy a bed and all those sorts of things. Before going up to move in I stopped in DC and went to the Pig Roast at P&B’s house then out to celebrate AY’s B-day in Dupot Circle. After moving in, Liz and I drove down to the Jersey shore to meet up with Leah for our annual reunion. It was a great weekend. Then back to the farm on Sunday and then back to DC where we (mom, P, S, A, & I went sailing for a couple hours or so on the Potomac River in a sail boat we rented. It was so pleasant. I will post more pictures from all these events when I get back to NY!