New York: Days 1 & 2

Day 1: {Friday} We landed at JFK after what felt like the longest flight of my life, around 6pm ish. I was very lucky and sat next to some NY natives whom were visiting their son in Salt Lake. They have me advice and what to do; the husband also shared the same birthday as me! Birthday buddies! They were so sweet and even gave me their home phone number in case I needed help or was lost. She also told me not to harass her, ha ha. First thoughts when I landed? The most ghetto airport ever. It's so crappy and disgusting! And HOLY black/Asian/Mexican/Muslim people!!! Oh, and huge and confusing. We had to wait like 40 minutes for our luggage to get on the stupid belt. We walked outside to find a huge line for taxi's {or at least we hoped was the line for taxi's} which we were so delighted {sarcasm} to wait in. While waiting in the back of the line some man approached Hayley and I about coming into a car with him and he'll take us to our destination. Did I mention he was like.. Muslim? Iranian? Who knows what race. We ignored him. I'm almost positive he would have sold us into the sex trade. We finally were able to get in a taxi and were telling the driver where to go. Of course he had no clue where the place we were staying at was {because its in the middle of a Muslim village, which I'm pretty sure he was Muslim, too} so he kept getting out to ask his boss, or another driver for directions... Idiot.

Driving in New York is crazy! All the cars have scratched up bumpers from being rear-ended so many times. Some cars have these tacky bars or thick pads called "bumper-buddies" so their car won't get damaged if they were to get rear-ended. People are constantly honking at one another. As soon as the light turns green you better drive or you'll get honked at. Dead serious! Cars are constantly changing lanes and cutting off one another. Pedestrians are a whole other issue. They walk wherever, whenever they want. They, too, get honked at but don't it doesn't phase them. They run this town. And cops? Oh, they don't care. I'm sure they have much more important stuff to worry about though.

We finally made it to our hotel, safely, and the nice taxi dude helped take our luggage out. First thoughts on the "town?" {I really should say Muslim village..} sketchy. Seriously though. I really thought I would be kidnapped at any given time. We walked up to the door of the hotel, you go through one door then you have to call a number to check in and they give you an access code to get in. WTF?! The place stunk like... Umm.. I don't even know. Old? Dusty? Smokey? Just gross. But our hotel room was pretty nice. Full size kitchen and bathroom and a separate bedroom with free wifi and cable. Not too shabby! We had the most annoying neighbors who were American, very loud Americans. They played loud music, talked loud, stomped around loudly. They were just loud. If you isn't get that from my other hints. We settled in and decided to go walk around and get some din din. We came across a Chinese restaurant which was actually pretty good. One thing I noticed about NY is all the restaurants have to post CPR instructions and calorie contents in their food. OMG. So awful! Who wants to know how many calories are in beef and broccoli and fried cream cheese won tons? Get off my back I'm on vacation! On the way back we stopped and got some groceries at one of the 1,000 Muslim marts. There are cats in all the grocery stores roaming freely, and the stored also smell like car litter. Amazing! Milk was like $4 gallon, cereal about $4-7 a box. Shoot me now.

Day 2: {Saturday} This is the only day on the whole trip we were up and ready by 9am. {7am MST} This is the first day we got to use the subway. Before our trip, everyone told us, "Don't look people in the eyes, don't bring attention to yourself, don't stand on the platform edge- people will push you, blah blah..." Which is all kinda true. What the didn't tell us is how badly it reeks of urine. And how giant the rats are! And how freezing cold it is underground. Overall, it's not that bad. It's easy to get lost if you don't pay attention. But it's kind fun! Except when the train is full and you have to stand an hold a pole as you try to keep balanced and not fall over because it moves so fast. Did i mention there's no such thing as chivalry in this town? Ridiculous!!! Not just that but anytime you ask someone to "excuse me" or "please move" they don't. They just look at you funny, or they run into you. We did sooooooooooooooooooooo sooooooo soooooooo much walking that day. We first went to Madame Tussauds wax museum. That was seriously the coolest thing, ever! They look so real and the make-up is done so incredibly well. The longest wait was to get a picture with Taylor Lautner, of course. I got one... But my eyes were closed. Damn it! Ha ha. We then proceeded to spend our years worth of pay at Harold Square, which we thought was Times Square. We are so dumb ha ha. Don't worry, we figured it out the next day.. The nights are so cold here. It is ridiculously windy. Like, the wind chill is literally numbing!