NYC, baby!

One of my girlfriends, Mar, is planning a trip to US sometime in April and have asked a few of us if we would like to join. I am seriously considering and have been making plans with another girlfriend of mine who is currently living in Washington DC and Mar has also made plans with another friend of ours who is now staying in Boston. The mister is also agreeable with me travelling with her as long as I am fit enough, so the next few months I would definitely have to keep going for my reviews and work on getting myself healthy, in shaa Allah. I know I shouldn't keep my hopes up as plans may change but this idea of returning back to DC..even just for a day, back to our first home as husband and wife, back to where I learnt how it was to live away from my family and friends...... it is what has been driving me to get fitter and healthier.

It has been years since we last set foot on the US soil and I have been yearning to go back since. Plans were made to go the past two years but we haven't gotten around to do it because we couldn't fit it into the husband's schedule so I am guessing this trip will have to be a girls' trip and I think it would be fun! The only girl's trip I've done before was from DC to NY with some girlfriends and it was amazing! New York is always amazing. I don't know what it is about the concrete jungle that always makes me feel like I can do anything on my own. I have travelled alone between DC and NY several times and looking back I don't even know how I did it. One time, I had to travel to NY to catch a flight back home to Brunei as the cheapest airfare was through JFK. I got on the DC2NY bus on my own and upon arriving to NY, dragged two huge luggages & a carry on while walking around Penn Station to go catch myself a cab to go to JFK. I bet this one comes easy for all the students living abroad but to this kampong girl, I felt like superwoman. =P

During one of our last trips to NY, we got to stay at New York Palace Hotel (now known as Lotte New York Palace). Rafie was there for work so I barely got to see him, which was okay, because I had my girl New York to hang out with. One of the reasons I was so excited about staying at the Palace Hotel was that I wanted to take photos at the courtyard where some of the Gossip Girl scenes were filmed.......but I didn't manage to! I spent one whole day in bed as I had a terrible migraine but the next few days were spent just going around the city; 2 days of going around on the hop on hop off bus and a day of Woodbury Commons accompanying some of the Bruneians before we flew back to DC. Looking back, I regret not taking many photos for keepsake.

Rafie admiring the view from our room. 

I shall update more when I can find more photos. I have spent most of last night looking up tickets, figuring out itineraries & thinking of how I can save up for all the "unplanned" shopping I'm about to do while in the US.