Day 13/14- 20 hours in NYC

After a long day of travel yesterday, I made it back safely stateside... For about 20 hours if you include the time in the airport. I would apologize for missing a day in my blog but nothing too crazy happened. Basically woke up in Panama City, got to the airport, took a melatonin and snoozed my way to Newark, NJ, then scrambled to NYC via trains/subway.

After a phenomenal 1st leg of my trip in Central America, I enjoyed a nice evening with some good (and new) friends in the big apple. Attached is a picture of Brooks and I at one of the bars we checked out.

Near perfect drive-by of New York City, but my backpack is a lot heavier as I lug it around the airport today. Got a load through the washer last night, only to find that the laundry services room of my friends appt calls it quits at 11pm. With that being said, I have a bag of wet clothes, towels, etc to accompany the weight on my back for these ~100 days.

I'm back in the airport to go to Israel for my free Birthright trip. I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity partake on this 10 day adventure before popping up to Europe for the next 10 weeks. Goals of the trip in no specific order.. 1) learn a lot about Israel/ being Jewish 2) make some new friends 3) get a mini Bar Mitzvah. I'll also be turning 22 while on the trip. Not sure where in the country we will be, or what we'll be able to do but it might be a different experience than my 21st birthday in Ibiza last summer :)

Excited nonetheless! Hope June is off to a great start for everybody. I'll hit you guys up from the homeland!

Day 10- red frogs and my new job

I'll start the Day 10 entry off by saying that I'm writing this from a hostel hammock after a sun-filled day at the beach while some other travelers cook me a thai-style rice, veggies, seafood dish (I have to cop them a couple drinks at the hostel happy hour but I'm definitely a fan of this exchange). A siesta might follow this not too long of a post if the food isn't ready to be consumed yet.

So last night was awesome. Great pregame at the hostel, made friends with some cool people from Germany and Argentina, go to know the owners and bartenders well, and then headed out to what honestly might be the coolest night destination I've ever been to. Aqua Lounge sported a solid international crowd, incredible music, no cover, no dress code and great drink prices. What made it special though was the arrival method (its on a different island so water taxis) and they have swings that drop you in the ocean for a mid-party swim. No pics for obvious reasons, didn't want to get the cellular getting wet.

Went to Red Frog beach this morning. Beautiful beach (see the attached selfy), saw a red frog (darted away before I could click), and had some decent little waves for body surfing.

Got back around 4 and the hostel owner (picture a Seth Rogen) asked me if I wanted to be a promoter for the hostel bar the next couple days in exchange for free drinks all night at the bar- can you say dream job? And huge resume builder. I'm feeling alright about this one as the product I'm asked to promote is pretty marketable ($.50 bottled beers til 8, $1.00 shots, etc). I wasn't able to today because I had to buy my plane ticket to Panama City for Saturday morning, but that's most certainly the plan tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Also, does anyone notice anything cold-blooded about the pic of my hostel room?