East Coast Trip

These posts are a little late but I am trying to catch up. This summer I took a trip to the East Coast. The motivation was 2 fold: visit family that I haven't seen in a while, and check out some grad schools.

Grad schools
For about a year now I have been considering going back to school to get my Masters in Educational Theatre. Unfortunately, there are not any of these programs in California. In California you can not get your teaching credential in single subject theatre, like you can for music or visual art. High school drama teachers have their credential in English usually. However in some other states like NY and MA you can get your credential in theatre. I figure that if I am going to spend a lot of time and money on grad school I better study something I am really passionate about. And its just a really bad time for CA teachers right now anyway. However if I were to get my credential in lets say NY, I would prob need to teach there because it would be hard to transfer it back here. So I have had these things in mind as I have been looking into schools.
The three main schools that I was considering and wanting to look into was, NYU, The City College of New York and Emerson which is in Boston. I happened to pick the worst time to visit, it seems. It was after summer school and before fall semester so I was only able to schedule a time to meet with a NYU professor. I didn't get to see much of the other schools other than the outside.

Pennsylvania,
It was really good to be back in my old childhood summer home. We spent some times with cousins. It felt really relaxing, which is what I had needed after an exhausting school year and busy summer. I even played Monopoly with my cousin, can't remember the last time I played that game. It was a bit surreal to see them all grown up as I haven't seen some of the in like 5 years.

 New York
We started north and walked around City College of NY. Then we headed down to Central Park. It seemed close at the time but it retrospect we should have taken the subway.

 We walked A LOT. Passed Columbia on the way and walked through the library. I love parks so I was very excited to spend a lot of time in Central Park. We were trying to get a good recommendation for somewhere to eat lunch and got very lost trying to find the Shake Shack. (When a New Yorker tells you its a 10 minute walk, really its like 30 min). We were totally exhausted but finally found it and enjoyed some delicious burgers.

 We were trying to find the middle of the park after that. I had this fountain in m mind from Enchanted but didn't know what it was called. After some negotiating, we talked one of those bicylce cabs into a good deal to get us a ride into Shepard's Meadow. (Or something like that). But then it closed. Bummer. Thankfully after walking around a bit more the Lord somehow led us to the fountain I was looking for.
My family has this tradition on making silly music videos. My sister and I decided to film one on this trip. So we filmed some shots in Central Park and even asked some strangers to be in it.
Then we headed onto Washington Square and NYU. We had some time to kill before meeting with the professor so we rested in Washington Square and asked some sailors to be in our video.

 We had dinner in Little Italy and then stayed the night with a old friend and his wife in Brooklyn. They were amazing hosts. It was great to hear about the church that he was pastoring in Brooklyn. The next day his wife took us around the city a little more. We went to Chelsea Market and Highline Park. This was one of my favorite things in NY. They converted this old railroad track into a garden that stretches about 2 miles long. Then we caught a bus in Chinatown up to Boston.

 Boston
It was a Fri afternoon and raining so our bus was VERY delayed. We were bummed about missing out more time in Boston but it ended up being ok. We checked into our hostel and went to eat at the Bell in Hand, oldest pub in US. There wasn't much happening so we didn't stay to late.
The next day we briefly checked out Emerson, most of it was closed. We walked around some old cobblestone streets and illegally found our way onto a roof.

 We walked around Boston Commons and Boston Garden. It was really beautiful. I really liked the town of Boston. It's small enough to walk and doesn't feel as chaotic as NY. I actually think it seems too comfortable and suburban for me though. We filmed a bit more of the music video. We took a tour of the freedom trail and I was embarrassed at how much history I have forgotten.

 We took the "T" out to Fenway Park. We were very disappointed at how little there was to see and do. A guess it's only happening if there is a game going on. Then we caught the bus back NY. We wondered our way around the city to take the PATH back to NJ where my uncle's car was parked.

We ended the trip back in PA where we had a lovely dinner with my Grandmom and more family to celebrate my birthday.

It was a great trip. A good mix of relaxing and fun. After the trip I decided that I am not ready to apply to grad school right now. None of the schools wowed me. I still would love to go back at some point but I don't think I can make such as big move right now.

If you want to see the music video that we made, its on google +