On the 26th of December, my brother, I, and eleven of our friends flew to Puerto Rico to spend New Year’s there. What followed were six days of complete craziness, and I have to say, it was easily one of the best ways I’ve spent New Year’s so far.

We stayed at the Villas del Mar beach resort in Loiza, where we had an entire condo all to ourselves. For the next six days, there was everything from relaxing on the warm beaches and swimming in the ocean to visiting the spectacular El Morro fort, driving through the rainforest, shopping and dining in charming Old San Juan, beachside camping on the gorgeous island of Culebra, and of course, plenty of partying and drunken revelry. ;)

I recently migrated all my photo galleries over to Picasa Web Albums, and I’ve uploaded plenty of pics from the PR trip as well. Check ‘em out.

It’s been more than a month since my last post here. In fact, the amount of time I’ve been spending around the computer at home has decreased so much during the last couple of months that it often surprises me.

It’s not that I’ve been pulling 20-hour-days at work. Rather, I think that moving to a new place and trying to settle in has been taking up a lot of my time. I still don’t have an everyday “schedule” like I used to. Things just seem to happen, and I go with the flow. It’s a little overwhelming at times, and I sometimes wonder where all my time goes, but I think it makes life interesting.

So what’s been keeping me on my toes?

• Work - Sure, it’s not 20 hours a day (yet!), but I do spend a major part of the weekday at the office. As I might have mentioned before, I’m currently in a pretty extensive 3-month long training program until December. This is effectively like going back to school for a semester, but getting paid to learn. It’s really cool to see the firm investing so much in its new hires.
• Volleyball - My brother and some of his friends from Columbia meet regularly to play beach volleyball. I decided to join them one day, and realized that it’s a ton of fun! From that day on, I’ve been at the court every time I get back early from work.
• Hanging out with people - Relocating to a new place means making new groups of friends. Besides getting to know people at work, I’ve also been hanging out with folks from Columbia that I met through my brother - going for dinners, watching movies, and doing all the things that students normally do.

There’s no doubt that I’m having an absolutely great time here, but amidst all the activity, there’s a part of me that longs for some of that quiet time I used to have - to read, to write, to hack, to think.

During the coming weeks, I’m going to try to figure out how to manage my time to maintain a better balance of activity and downtime. Let’s see how that goes. =)

One of my favorite things about NYC is the fact that although it’s a fast-paced, crowded, concrete jungle, there’s a whole different world outside the city just waiting to be explored. Having been a big-city dweller for most of my early life, I really feel at home in the high-energy environment here, especially around Times Square, where I work; but when weekends come along, it’s nice to be able to go to a quieter, more relaxed place to enjoy some of nature’s beauty.

During the last couple of weeks, we went on two hiking trips up north. The first was at Sam’s Point Preserve atop the Shawangunk Ridge, where we hiked up through the “ice caves” to the Verkeerderkill Falls. The second one, with a big group of 22 people, was at the Delaware Water Gap near the NJ/Penn state border. Both trips were lots of fun, and I’ve posted two new picture albums.

While the weather’s still conducive to outdoor activities, we’re also planning to go on either a white-water rafting or overnight camping trip sometime in the coming weeks. Isn’t it nice not having to worry about homework, projects and exams on weekends anymore? =)

[tags]life, new york, traveling[/tags]

The lack of updates during the last couple of weeks has to do with the fact that I’ve been in the process of moving from California to NYC.

I flew in to Manhattan last Tuesday, and there has been plenty to do since then, so I haven’t really been in the frame of mind to sit down and write. My brother and I have finalized an apartment here, and we’ll be moving into the new place this weekend. We’ve already bought most of the furniture we need, so now it’s a matter of bringing a U-Haul in and transporting everything over.

Work doesn’t start until the 17th, so I’ll still have a week to get everything straightened out. It’s like starting a new life here, and it’s all very exciting. :)