My classes don't actually start until September 2, so for these few weeks I'm adjusting to married life in this apartment.
The closest "supermarket" sells several fruits I don't recognize either by sight or by their Spanish names, but not parmesan cheese. Anybody have a good recipe involving quail eggs? I found yeast, finally, at a Kosher grocery store. There's also a tiny "gourmet" place that sells things with labels in alphabets I can't even read. I think it's mostly Turkish and maybe Russian things, but there was definitely some butter from Germany. Lots of marshmellow figures covered in chocolate.
Our apartment looks pretty cute with all of our new wedding presents and the slipcovered sofa and the bookshelves we put up. There are pictures on Facebook. My awesome in-laws helped us move. It's very small, so everything just fits and if one thing is out of place I feel like the whole apartment is a mess. Actually, though, it's decently-sized for NYC. We have a separate kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, and there's enough room in the living room for part of it to be the dining room. There were no blinds when we moved in, and all our windows face the courtyard, so everyone could see everything we were doing. We have curtains up now, but I wonder sometimes about the people that have lived here for a long time and have never done anything about window treatments. You can see into their places anytime you want. It's creepy. We also had to put in a small air conditioner. It's pretty humid here if not hot, and when we opened the windows to get a little breeze we also got all the smells and sounds of all our neighbors' lives.
One thing I learned that may be useful to anyone moving: those "thermal" curtains that say they block out light and help insulate your room so it stays cooler/warmer, really do work. We have them in the bedroom and it's usually the coolest room of the apartment, even without the ac on. When I first say them I thought probably all curtains do the same thing, but they don't. All window treatments are not created equal.
I have now found a fairly normal sized grocery store (about a 20-30 minute ride on the subway from my neighborhood) and have figured out how to get my laundry from the apartment to the laundromat. I use the little red cart-thing my mother in law bought us. It's kind of like something you'd see a homeless person using. But everyone uses it here, even cute people in their 30's and 20's. When I'm ironing, though, you can't really get from the living room to the bedroom or bathroom. My ironing board folds down from the door of our hall closet and blocks the way. I've also located the post-office box and got my NYC library card. We've found a church that we think we may like. It has two services. The one on Sunday nights is where a lot of graduate students and people our age go, and the one in the morning is mostly families. So far we've gone to the one at night but I think I might like to try both, because I like going to church with older people and little kids.
I've found that I'm kind of territorial in the kitchen. I've waited a long time to have my very own kitchen. I've also found that "what do you want for dinner?" is an impossible question to answer. I found this out when someone asked me this. So now I try to give Sam a couple of options to choose from. Much better results. Even restaurants offer choices rather than a blank, "what do you want?"
I'm having trouble getting my paperwork straight with Fordham. I need to let them know that I've legally changed my name before I fill out the payroll paperwork, but none of the numbers I call seem to result in an answer. They just let the phone ring forever and there's no answering machine. I also do not know where my classes are. Two of them will be on the CUNY campus (City University of New York - and there are a LOT of campuses). My registration doesn't list the place or instructer or what books I'm going to need. All I know is that they are in Manhattan, somewhere, and so am I.
Marriage is completely different from dating/being engaged, but it's mostly fun. We're coming up with our own family traditions. We eat breakfast for dinner on Friday nights, have Bible studies together, and don't answer our phones when we're eating together. I think what makes marriage different from dating is that when you're dating, you focus on all the things you have in common. When you're married, you have to confront all of the things you don't have in common and learn to reconcile your different ways of living, and working, and coping with stress, etc. And you have to face the reality that everything you do, every little weakness you indulge, affects someone else. It affects the person you most care about in the world.
Well, I should get back to studying. I'm trying to get prepared for graduate school. So intimidating. I'm also working my way through the many seasons of Seinfeld. I like it because it's a cheerful way of looking at New York.
p.s. - the shopping here is fabulous, and if anyone wants to visit me, we have a sleeper sofa and I would love the company. :-)
