The Journey Home...

...is never too long, your heart arrives before the train.

Recognize the lyrics? They're from Bombay Dreams. It was the first, Indian themed musical to hit Broadway sometime in 2004/2005. My mom and I went to see it and I completely fell in love with the soundtrack...

ANYway, I'm back home in the Hicksville tonight. Yes, that's the actual name of my town. Hicksville, Lond Island. Feel free to snicker. Sometimes I call it Icksville for fun. It's bizarre moving to the suburbs after having lived in Queens my entire life. Mainly I can't get over how quiet it is here. In Queens I lived in the vicinity of three hospitals, a bunch of fire stations and one or two police precincts. Most of the time I was lulled to sleep by the sounds of sirens. Now I lie awake and I swear I can almost hear my heart beating. Ridiculous! I still need to get used to this place. We moved in October but since I've mostly been at school I think I've lived in this house for a grand total of a month.

That's why I'm glad that I ended up in Philly for school. Having lived in an urban setting for most of my life (let's not forget that I went to high school in the boogie down Bronx), I probably would've been severely unhappy anywhere else. Drexel is far enough away from New York that I need to live in Philly but close enough so that I can go home on a whim if I want to. Like today, I ambled over to 30th Street Station after class, hopped the R7 to Trenton, caught the EXPRESS NJ Transit (for the first time EVER) to Penn Station and then took the LIRR to Long Island. All in all about a 3.5 hour ride for a decent price. Easy schmeasy. And it gave me time to catch up on my sleep.

I'm pretty sure you can get anywhere in the world from 30th Street...Amtrak runs out of there, all the regional rail lines go to the PA suburbs, and there's even one that goes down to Delaware. Plus the R5 heads straight to the Philly airport so what more do you need?? Public transportation= a Godsend. And if you've ever lived in New York, it's a necessity. I didn't bother getting my license until a month before I went off to college but I've been riding the subways and the buses by myself since I was 9.

Until next time...