Things have been pretty quiet here on the blog lately – but not for lack of activity in my own life. For some reason or other, although I’ve lived in some of the most beautiful and interesting places in the US, I’m rarely moved to write when I’m feeling settled. That’s why you don’t see as many posts on this blog about my everyday life living in Florida, the National Parks, Colorado ski country, and now… New York City. It’s when I’m on the move – either due to work or travel – that I feel most compelled to take fingers to keyboard.

Also, while I’m certainly busy these days, I’ve only spent a small amount of time exploring this great city I’m currently calling home. Grad School is requiring a lot of my time and energy – not to mention almost all of my money – and while I know there’s a reason people travel from all over the world to see this place, I admit I haven’t had the time/energy/money to get out and see much of New York City myself.

Slowly but surely though, I am making an effort. And in an effort to keep this blog up and running during this admittedly un-moving point in my life, I’ll be attempting to document my explorations of the various cheap/free activities NYC has to offer here (when my study schedule allows, of course), so don’t un-follow this blog just yet. I’ll have more posts coming soon!

In the meantime, for real-time updates on life through my eyes, you can follow me on Instagram @marianaonthemove or Twitter @mariana1114.

So what’s new in my life these days? In addition to lots of time spent in the library, I’ve started my first semester of full-time student teaching at a Science Camp here at Columbia this summer. I’m only a week in, but so far I’m highly impressed with and thrilled by our incredibly special and gifted group of kids. This experience is very different from past teaching I’ve done with La Esperanza Granada, The Boys & Girls Club, and the NPS. But being back in the classroom with students rather than just being the student myself is a welcome change and a helpful reminder of why I came to the city to pursue this degree in the first place.

Also, I got Invisalign! My teeth have been getting more and more crooked over the past few years, and this spring they seemed to be crowding even more than usual and causing me a lot of discomfort. So I decided if my teeth were going to be sore and shifting anyway, they might as well be shifting towards straight instead of crooked. It’s only been a few days, but the adjustment so far has been a little rough. It’s definitely painful and not at all invisible, but hopefully the pain will subside as time goes on and luckily, the plastic trays don’t seem to have affected my speech too much just yet. But if you happen to run into me during the next year and notice my teeth look thicker/glossier/bumpier than normal, now you know why!

And last but not least, probably my most exciting happening as of yet – despite my crazy grad school schedule, I’ve been able to carve out 2 weeks at the end of August to feed my pestering travel bug. The destination? New Zealand! I’ll be heading to the South Island to explore with my very own local tour guide (but more on that in posts to come).

It’s so nice to have a bit of travel ahead of me to look forward to and to break up the craziness of my hectic NYC schedule. While I’m definitely looking forward to settling into a new career and community, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stay totally still. No matter what I’m aspiring to, I’ll always have to keep moving.

And I’m so excited to be moving all the way to New Zealand! If only for two weeks…