Shadaa!

This morning, after a good 12 hours of sleep, Amanda and I headed out to Shadaa to check out a new apt for her. I really like that section of town. For some reason it is way less complicated than the area of town that I am staying in. There are a lot of cute clothing shops and food vendors and coffee houses. We did some shopping and I got a sweet straw fedora, ownl necklace and couple of shirts. I also got a sim card for my cell phone! I am feeling a lot more comfortable in my environment. Amanda showed me a cute little coffee shop with wifi. I am going to go there tomorrow to get some work done. I rode on the metro today for the first time. I was amazed at how clean it was. I am also amazed at how cheap everything is here. A 1000 dollar bill here, which seems to be the equivalent of about 50 american dollars is actually only worth 30.44 american. Most decent meals run around 5 or 10 dollars american. Expensive pocketbooks can run around 60 american dollars. It is so weird. I feel like a baller!

RM5

Friday morning I woke up with the beach on my mind. I went and sat in traffic for about an hour and met up with Nicole and Eddie. The water was perfect and the sun was hot. We took a walk down to Kizmit and I got to see some adorable beach village. After hanging out there for a few hours, I went with Julia and Nicole to 'Alive After 5' in Patchogue. I saw a Briarcliffe tent and introduced myself as the new Soc Adjunct Prof. It was really cool to be all proud of my new job to people I will soon be working with. The three of us girls got some food and drink and called it a night.

This morning, I woke up with the beach itch again and went and met up with Carissa, Jake and Nicole. The whole gang was there when we got there and today was even nicer than Friday. You just can't go wrong with that beach. Today I got a free massage by a massage therapist, played with hula hoops, swam a lot in the ocean, laid out in the sun, walked around with a tiny cup to sample all drinks, and got mardi gras beads. I really don't think I could imagine a better, more laid back day.

The only thing that really sucks is that my mom is pissed at me for spending too much money on the credit card. I am in big trouble. I am getting my credit cards taken away for good and being given a budget for all my spendings. I can see how this is gonna be bad (in emergency situations) but I really do need to learn how to budget myself. This will be a big step into that thing...whats it called...adulthood? I need to learn some restraint and responsibility. It is going to be really hard and I am sure that my personality with be altered and i will lose some friends because I will be crankier. Whatever, my life has been high (in the metaphorical sense) lately, and its about time I come back down to the level that normal people function on.

I leave you with a picture of my beloved Nicole. The two of us are often introduced as Nicole squared.