Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

It's official. I can now add the letters 'M.S.' to my name.

Last week, I graduated from New York University with my Master's of Science in Global Affairs. My coursework is done, my thesis is done and I've finally graduated!

I had had some hiccups as to whether or not I would attend graduation and commencement for reasons but when I did make the decision to attend, I'm so glad I did!

On Monday, we had our graduation ceremony for my school at the Grand Hyatt in Midtown. This was the ceremony where they played pomp & circumstance (although they didn't start playing it until after all of the graduates had processed...rude), we walked across the stage to receive fake diplomas and they threw balloons at us so we could all celebrate by not throwing our hats in the air (I didn't understand that one).

Shaking hands with the Dean (and yes, I bought this picture)

My mom and my aunt came to graduation with me and after a loooong ceremony, and some cocktails and h'ours d'oeuvres, we made our way to Madison Square to have lunch at Eataly! I had never been there before and knew that the market/restaurant was right up all of our allies, so off we went.


I had an amazing pasta pomodoro that I devoured within minutes. Seriously, this pasta made me feel like I was back in Rome  (Sorry, I was too busy eating to take pictures of my food for the blog, plus, you've all seen pasta before.)

At this point, it was starting to rain but I knew I wanted to take pictures in my cap and gown under the arch in Washington Square...how could I not? It's the center of NYU's main campus and I've walked under it a hundred times to go to the library or to work, so it was a definite must!

I did it!

Fast forward to Wednesday for NYU's official commencement ceremony at Yankee Stadium. My mom came back along with my sister, my niece and The Pilot for the ceremony. We all got on the 4 train and made our way to the stadium for graduation number 2.
 

Yankee Stadium was an absolute sea of purple. If you've been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that Yankee Stadium is probably the last place I would've chosen to culminate the end of my graduate career but you know what? As much as I hate the Yankees and their stadium, the baseball lover in me had to admit that it was pretty damn cool to be graduating in a Major League Baseball stadium.

Purple EVERYWHERE!

The stage was at 2nd base and we sat in the 100 level.

Sonia Sotomayor was our Commencement speaker (which is honestly, the only reason I went), and she gave a great speech. I tried to duck out a few minutes early to avoid the crowds getting out of there but they only had one gate open (for close to 50,000 people) and getting out was an absolute nightmare.

When we finally made it out of there (almost an hour later), we made our way to the Upper West Side for lunch at Pappardella.

Fantastic UWS restaurant!

It wouldn't be a trip to the UWS without a stop at 16 Handles for dessert...which my 11 year old niece had a field day at. From lunch, we took a walk to Lincoln Center and then over to Central Park before my family left for the day.

All in all, it was a great week to graduate. We got so lucky with the weather as it was supposed to downpour all week. It's so nice to finally be DONE. Getting my Master's was hard work...much harder than I ever anticipated it to be, but I did it and I couldn't be happier!