Returning to normal (y las cuatro metas)

The down time between the end of my first year in law school and my trip to the Dominican Republic has been absolutely wonderful. After getting out of school on May 11th, I flew to the Philly area and traveled between there, New Jersey, and my favorite city in the world, New York. I have shopped (a lot), eaten (A LOT), slept past noon, spent hours on Netflix, caught up on my favorite t.v. shows, spent time with family and friends, and best of all, RELAXED! I often partook in this whole "relaxation" thing while in college, but not being able to do it truly for the last 10 months was awful. In these last two and a half weeks, I've begun to feel like a normal person again!

This last week of my relaxation time has been the most exciting. My best friend from college, Ang, flew up from Kansas to spend a few days with me before I depart for the Caribbean. Although I'm staying in Jersey, she flew into LaGuardia, so I decided to go meet her in the city. Wanting to kill two birds with one stone, I also met up with my absolute best guy friend in the entire world who I hadn't seen in over a year! Now, he also just finished his first year of law school and with that being said, you can already imagine how busy we both were. (As the year went on, we began speaking less and less). But anyway, we met in Times Square, aka the worst place in the city, (along with another friend who also just completed his first year of law school) and spent the entire night roaming the city and catching up. We literally met at 7PM and didn't make it back to Jersey until 7:30AM the next morning- NO SLEEP! Needless to say, once we got back, we crashed and slept for almost 12 hours.

Ang and I spent Memorial Day Weekend in between Jersey City and NYC with a friend of mine, Celena, from my time at Barnard/Columbia (love her!). It was Fleet Week in the city and if you know me you know I absolutely LOVE Sex & the City, so the entire weekend seeing men in their white sailor suits reminded me of that SATC episode. (I made it a point to get a picture with the some of the sailors because the Carrie Bradshaw in me just had to!). The weekend was great, though. We went to a lounge called Taj on Friday night where I met up with one of my friends from college and partied the night away. Again, we didn't make it back home til 7AM (after missing two JSQ bound trains-- but that's another story), but the incessant yawning on the PATH train and tired feet from walking around the concrete jungle in six inch heels were all worth it for the memories made. The next day was pretty lowkey, as the the weather wasn't the greatest. We hung with some girls from Barnard and drank on a rooftop in the financial with a BEAUTIFUL view. Later that night, we met up with one of my absolute favorite Morehouse brothers who graduated a year before me and lives in South Jersey.

Anywho, my time up top ends today as I fly back to Georgia in a few hours. I had a great time and normally wouldn't be ready to head back down South, but this time is different because my trip to la RD is just four days away! There are so many lose ends that I need to tie up and people that I need to see before I leave! Since the trip is so close, naturally, I can't stop thinking about it so I've decided to come up with five goals (cuatro metas)  that I want to accomplish while abroad:

1. Refrain from speaking English for 24 hours + : This is probably my most favorite goal. I can't say it enough: I WANT TO BECOME FLUENT! Although I know it won't happen overnight or even within this one summer, speaking as little English as possible obviously means I have to speak something else to communicate- Spanish. It seems like this would be super easy, but a lot of people in the DR know English and I will also be living with American students, so slipping into English conversation will be easy. I hope I don't do it too much!
2. Learn how to dance la merengue: I love to dance and have fun, so this is only natural. I want to learn this dance so well that the Dominican natives will confuse this morena for una dominicana =)
3. Go zip lining: I am deathly afraid of heights. Like for real. I've zip lined before and was super scared but I want to try it in the DR because of all the beautiful scenery I'll get to view on the way to the other side. 
4. Explore a cave/waterfall: Also something that can probably be done stateside, but the reality is that I probably won't do it here in America. The Caribbean is home to much beautiful and exotic flora and flauna, so what better way to take it all in than to go on an excursion?

Anyway, my flight is super early and I know I'm going to regret staying up this late during my airport time, so until next time, take care. Ciaoooooooooooo <3

Ang & I with Fleet Week sailors in the city (an ode to Sex & the City!)

I'm Back!

Que lo que?

Hey guys... I'm officially done with my first year of law school! To sum the experience up in a few words, IT WAS HELL... and I mean that every bit of literally. Case briefs, the Socratic method, praying to the law school gods not to get called on in class on the days you didn't read, late nights and early mornings... It's all over (... at least for the summer, anyway). Post-1L life-- although it's only been two days-- is just fabulous. Lounging around, sleeping, shopping, what's better than this? Anywho, I took a hiatus from both blogging and Facebook to study, so now that I'm back, I'll just put down a few words....

To start off with some GREAT news, I was accepted into the Oxford Law program in England! I am so excited! Come January, I'll be studying in England, mainly classes in international law. My friend, L, was also accepted and we've already decided to cram as much travelling as we can in those four months abroad. I've already checked flight prices and round-trip ticket prices to France and Spain start at around $230-- STEAL! Who would have ever thought that I would travel so much while in law school?

And speaking of travelling, I leave for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in just 19 days! It seems so unreal, I've been dying to go to the DR since forever. Although I've been studying Spanish for the last 8 years, I have yet to travel to a Spanish-speaking country so this is a huge milestone for me. While in the DR, I'll be interning at an insurance company in the legal department. This will be my first time working in the corporate sector so we shall see how it goes! I'm hoping that by the time I complete this internship and my fall internship that I will somewhat know what type of law I'm interested in practicing.

Once in the DR, I plan on taking in as much of the culture as possible (which, for me, mainly means food). I cannot wait to try AUTHENTIC mofongo, a fried plantain dish stuffed with various meats, and mangú, a boiled plantain dish, usually served for breakfast. The program recommends that we don't eat street food, but that's where the most authentic food comes from. (I may have to take my chances on that one but I definitely won't be drinking the local water!). Besides eating, I plan on travelling throughout the entire island. I'm hoping that we can go to Boca Chica (the beach closest to Santo Domingo) the first full weekend that we are on the island. I'm also planning on going on hiking excursions, taking bachata and merengue lessons, maybe a few cooking lessons, and most importantly, bettering my Spanish. 


That's pretty much it for now, though. I will def be blogging more often the closer it gets to my departure date, so stay tuned. <3.