New New York City

OK. I am out. I worked everyday until I left, which I would not recommend for anyone leaving the country for a few months. My bags were packed in the minutes before my flight, and at 50 lbs each, I have no idea what Finnish Airlines is going to think about this ridiculous luggage amount. Enough of my personal junk, welcome to NEW YORK CITY! I would bore you with my tails of INCREDIBLE food, wild nights of NYC bar crawling, and tails of the subway, but isn't cool eco stuff more exciting? This city is always reinventing itself, and its doing so in some amazing sustainability ways that I never thought would come. Besides being noted for having a world class (and world utilized) public transportation system and a resulting low carbon footprint, there are some really cool projects/concepts happening in New York City I witnessed first hand over the past few days here: Separated bicycle lanes throughout the city-

The first "green" skyscraper with LEED Platinum certification amoung some of the most radical environmentally smart innovations-

Recycling implemented on a personal, but citywide scale-

In addition to LEED certifications on every other new construction (which really aren't rewarded until the project is completed), I have personally witnessed some really cool designations on buildings under contruction touting their use of recycled materials/recycling of materials, NYCGreen logos everywhere and personal recycling use across the boroughs of the city. I even visited to American Museum of Natural History next to Central Park to check out the Climate Change exhibit, which was encompassing and informative, yet mostly aimed to the general public (which is great!) and failed to excite a invested environmentalist like myself (oh that comment would seem very cocky if it wasn't positively true). Then I just checked out the space exhibit to touch my inner dork, as if going to natural history museums wasn't dorky enough. All in all its refreshing to see a global city of this size and scale making moderate strides to environmental sustainability and awareness (ah-HEM cough cough hint hint to Los Angeles pre-Asia trip post) I have a day and a half more to bask in the wonderful food, turkish-russian baths of East Village, and baring a genuine Texas smile on my face in the midst of the New Yorkers prancing around me then I am off to Helsinki, Finland! Taylor