Day 47: New York City - Midtown

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A horribly early start as Raju drove me to the Boston bus station to catch the 7am megabus to New York. I slept well on the bus though (so well I missed Devaki's phone call) so it passed quite quickly. One in NYC I got a yellow cab (cue much excitement) to Devaki's cousin's apartment, which is just off Time Square. There I met up with her and dumped my big rucksack (now pretty heavy with souvenirs) so we could go off and explore Midtown.

She had decided to try and show me the whole of the city in one afternoon, which was perhaps a little ambitious, but we still got a lot done. Together we saw New York Public Library; Central Station; the UN; the Chrysler Building (she took me up to her office which is on the 48th floor); Central Park; The Plaza Hotel next to the park (there was a huge rainstorm, so we ducked in and ate chocolate in a posh chocolatier, and then watched the film Eloise in the gift shop - it's all about a girl who lives in the hotel in the 1950s); the Rockefeller building; and various other famous shops along the way. It seems like Devaki's pretty much living the life now. She works for a management consultancy firm ("man-conning") headed by an old Balliol guy, which I think helped a bit with her application. She gets free taxis, hotels and flights, and $70 expenses every day on top of that.

We then said our goodbyes and I got on the subway to go and meet Ramya, another friend from Balliol who is just starting at Columbia Law School so she's letting me stay with her. I arrived damp and sweaty and gross, so the first thing I did was have a shower. We then went out to dinner at a local Thai restaurant, and were going to go to karaoke with some law school kids, but we were having so much fun gossiping and catching up that we decided to go back to her flat and carry on.

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