Livin' Like Lauren: Welcome to New York

As I crossed the bridge to the wonderful city of Manhattan, Taylor Swift's "Welcome to New York" instantly started playing in my head and filled me with a surge of happiness and excitement for my adventures to come during my weekend in the great New York City. I had been to New York once or twice before, but I was very young, probably only in middle school, if that. I went with my parents and siblings for vacation and we visited the Natural History Museum, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and saw Wicked on Broadway. All the typical touristy things one could do in New York City.
But this time I was here with two of my best friends from high school, and we were staying on our own in my friend's grandmother's apartment in the East Village. What could be more cool than staying in an apartment with your best friends in New York City? It was exciting just to think about the freedom that we were going to have and all the things we could do without any parents nagging us. (However, my friend's dad drove us into the City and her grandma was very strict about meeting us for dinner at least one night while we were there). Other than that, we were free to roam the concrete jungle all by ourselves!
We got in on Thursday and after dropping off our bags at the apartment we immediately headed to SoHo to do some city shopping. Most of the stores we went to I had never even heard of before. I was so overwhelmed by all the pretty clothes I saw (and also quite sad that I didn't have the money to buy every single cute article of clothing that I fell in love with upon looking at it). But I was able to snag a few things that caught my eye without fully diminishing my bank account. On Friday we spent the whole day at the Governor's Ball (which I throughly went into detail about in my last post). Did I mention how amazing that was? Probably. But just in case you didn't get it the first time -- it ROCKED.
On Saturday we woke up exhausted from the festival and spent the morning going over all the most memorable happenings while laying in bed with the many car horns and shouting voices heard from the windows beside us. Which reminds me, trying to sleep in New York City is almost impossible. Literally, people will be up screaming and honking their horns until 3 AM. WHY?? After finally rolling out of bed we went to have coffee at The Bean, which is now my new favorite coffee place, and ate breakfast at a little Mexican restaurant across from our apartment. It was probably the cheapest place you could go to in New York City and it was pretty good. Now that's my kind of restaurant! After breakfast we took a bus to the Staten Island Ferry and rode out to see the Statue of Liberty. Then we ventured to the One World Trade Center and strolled by the river. And then, instead of taking the bus, we walked for over an hour to get back to our apartment. A very long walk, but it was nice to see a large part of the city from a first-person perspective.
While in New York I began to admire the New Yorkers charging down the street with a purpose, hailing taxis like it was nothing, or chatting with friends over coffee/lunch. I saw these people and I wanted to be them. I wanted to have everything figured out (or at least look like I do) and be able to conquer such a big city like New York. There is so much that New York has to offer that I would honestly love to live there. I could see myself working as a Graphic Designer for a major company in the city, taking the Subway to work, and spending the weekends downtown with friends, hitting up bars or going out to romantic dinners. A girl can dream right?