Road Trip Day 1: 420 Miles

Well, today was the beginning of my two week road trip from NYC to LA with my mom. Sounds daunting, doesn't it? But really, I am excited and I think it will be a great time. I am going to post every night about what we did (granted that our hotel/motel/holiday inn had wifi).

Today we started at my amazing apartment in NYC and somehow drove through New Jersey and then had lunch in Pennsylvania. How did we end up in PA, unsure, but that's just how TomTom got us there. We had lunch at Applebee's, which is literally my least favorite restaurant of all time. The food tastes awful, it is all overpriced, and the calorie content is astronomical. Needless to say, we vowed that it would be our one and only Applebee's stop of the whole trip. The only good thing to come of our lunch break was that they were selling Birch Beer.

Birch Beer!

Now, before you get your panties in a twist, Birch Beer is actually soda, not an alcoholic beverage.  I have to be honest with you, Birch Beer is probably my favorite soda, but it is also incredibly hard to find and equally as hard to describe. My first and only experience with Birch Beer previous to today was at my favorite restaurant in College Park: Marathon Deli. Marathon Deli is an amazing gyro hole-in-the-wall type restaurant, the best french fries of all time, and Birch Beer in their soda fountain. Birch Beer - if I had to describe it - I would say is a mix between root beer and cherry coke. I know that sounds disgusting, but it actually tastes delicious, if you ever see it, just try it! 

A two-week long road trip can be, putting it gently, BORING. So my mom and I have decided to make it as interesting as possible by adding different elements to our trip. As you may know, I love the food network (most of the shows at least), and one of my favorites is Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. If you have never seen it, it is basically Guy Fieri going around the country eating at random Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. My mom and I have decided to eat at as many Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives that overlap on our route - sounds awesome, right? 

Tonight was our first time taking recommendations from Guy. We went to the Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo, NY. 

Lake Effect Diner

Well, Guy was right, our dinner was delicious! We were so hungry we forgot to take pictures, but we will try to remember next time, I promise. My mom ate Haddock (fish), and I ate eggs (boring), and we shared griddled mac & cheese (delicious). Mac and Cheese is definitely one of my favorite foods of all time, so we obviously had to order it, and it's a good thing we did! 

Admittedly, today was a relatively boring day. We had to cover about 7 hours of driving so the only stops we had were to eat. Tomorrow is going to be a much more exciting day, but I don't want to give anything away, so more tomorrow, I promise!

Moving

Hi Readers,

Sorry for the crazy delay in my posting - I will fill you in on what has been going on. I have been moving! As some of you may know, I am in the process of moving to New York City to attend graduate school at Teachers College of Columbia University. As one can imagine, I am very, very excited. Since I have returned from India I have been setting up my very own apartment with my mom in Manhattan!

Well - I'm not going to tell you where I am living in case you are a crazy stalker (which I hope none of you are), but I will show you some pictures of my bedroom.

My Bed

The Wall Above My Bed

My Tapestry From India

The Sunset View From The Roof

Isn't it cute? I think so :-)

Anyway, other than moving we have been finding ways to keep ourselves busy. Last week we went to go see Newsies on Broadway. It was great! I definitely recommend it, and let's be honest, when has Disney ever put out something that is not fantastic? 

I have been told there are a lot of free things to do in The City that I should be exploring. Last weekend we met up with one of my closest friends from high school and walked along the High Line in the Meat Packing District. Basically, the High Line is an old elevated train track that has been converted and preserved as a public park. It's pretty awesome.

Joel Sternfeld, 2000

From there we walked all the way to SoHo and stumbled in to a Crate and Barrel. Lucky for me they had dishes on sale!

My Dishes!

So cute, right? I love them. Well, I basically love anything bright but these are exceptionally fantastic!

We have also been eating at a variety of New York restaurants that have been quite delicious. I will share a few highlights with you. My favorite restaurant EVER is called Celeste - it's incredible. Fair warning- if you go it's cash only, so be prepared, but you can get delicious pasta for about $12. We also ate at 5 Napkin Burger simply because the name was catchy, but were pleased with the yummy Ahi Tuna Burger. Per my cousins recommendation (they went to Columbia) we tried Absolute Bagel, which they proclaimed to be "the best bagel ever." Was it the best bagel ever? I'm not sure. Was it a good bagel? Absolutely. My favorite place that we have eaten so far definitely has to be the Hummus Place. I love Mediterranean food of all sorts and I definitely love hummus, but the best part is I can afford to eat here on my own AND it is a chain all over the city... score!

Now we are visiting some family in the Hamptons before we start our two-week road trip across the country. Don't worry, I will be posting as often as I have internet about our trip. 

Being Brave

I am a big chicken. We should all know this by now. But I must tell you that you should all be extremely proud of me because I was super brave the last couple of days.

On Saturday I was planning on being super lame to stay in and do my homework (right?) but then my class decided to go see a Buddhist monastery in New Manali. Well we actually went to a Buddhist temple first and then we went to the monastery. The temple had a two-story statue oh Buddha. Woah.

Courtesy of GoogleImages

Cool, right? The temple was also surrounded by prayer wheels. Now to be honest, I had never heard of a prayer wheel before. It is a ritual from tibet and the idea is that the wheel is always spinning (you have to push it) and then you are always praying. It was cool, we walked around the entire building and must have spun over one-hundred prayer wheels. 

Courtesy of GoogleImages

Then we went to the Buddhist monastery. In America I have seen a lot of people wearing shirts that say "Free Tibet," but I have never really researched why those shirts exist. I found out in a harsh way why people are trying to "Free Tibet." So as I understand it, China occupied and took over Tibet in an attempt to abolish Buddhism. As a result, a lot of Buddhists, including the Dalai Lama, moved to Himachal Pradesh, India, which is where I am right now. 

At the monastery there was a poster detailing a kidnapping by the Chinese government of a young Buddhist boy. The Dalai Lama named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama when he was three years old. Three days after this announcement, the Chinese government kidnapped him and his entire family in their attempts to squash the Buddhist religion. Recently, when the Chinese president came to visit India, a Buddhist teenager burned himself alive in protest of the Chinese government. I found this incredibly interesting and sad and thought I would share with you all. 

On to happier things - 

On Sunday I went white water rafting. I was so scared and nervous before we did it that I almost chickened out (like everything else in my life) but I actually followed through with this and am so glad that I did. It was so fun! But really, I think I will always take up the opportunity to go rafting from now on. Last year on fourth of July, I also did something terrifying to push myself out of my comfort zone - I went tubing.

ME Tubing at Deep Creek Lake, MD

Now, to be honest, tubing is WAY scarier than rafting. But we were also wearing life jackets and helmets while we were in the raft. It was a level three course, and I think there are five levels of rafting courses. 

My group rafting on the Beas River in Kullu, India

Today was a pretty boring day. I got my hair dyed with henna at a real salon, so hopefully the red will show up better now. I'll let you know after I properly wash it and see it in the sunlight. Tomorrow I am getting my feet and hands henna'd for my trip back to the United States. 

I hope all of my friends and family in Washington D.C. are safe from the storms and have power - I have been thinking of you all <3