Having never flown TAP Portugal before, I expected relatively little. I figured it would be better than EasyJet (which I took once on a flight from France to Scotland), but not as good as any business or first class seat one could possibly imagine. Turns out, I should have thought less about the comfort of the plane and more about if I'd actually have a seat on the plane and reach my destination. We booked flights to France back in December (or sometime last year) as we wanted to attend a wedding (that we had been invited to, of course). We chose TAP Portugal because it was cheap. Their tickets cost half of every other airline. So basically, it was a two-for-one flight. Once we had the confirmation, I stopped really thinking about it. The day before our flight, we checked in online and had the boarding information sent to our cell phones. The day of the flight, Christopher received an email letting him know that the flight from Lisbon to France had been "cancelled/delayed." And it also stated that TAP Portugal was sorry our plans "suffered" this change. It then listed the times for our new flights. The email was not very clear about which flight was which, and it looked like it had moved us back a week. I immediately got on the phone to talk to someone about it thinking the worst - that we'd have to go sit at the airport waiting on standby for something to open so that we could go on time. The representative was actually very helpful - a point in TAP Portugal's favor - and he explained clearly what the email vaguely described. Our flights were all in tact, the only change was in the connecting flight. Rather than a 5-hour layover, we now had a 4-hour layover. This was all due to an air traffic controllers' strike. They were protesting something (I never found out what) between 2pm and 4pm Lisbon time on the four days that impacted us. So, we boarded our flight in the US at the normal time. The TAP Portugal plane was a something-330. It didn't have personal TVs or plugs for recharging phones, kindles, etc. Because we wanted to sleep anyway, the lack of entertainment didn't really bother us. Unfortunately, neither of us was able to sleep really at all. We maybe 'slept' poorly for four hours. The meal was a bit lack luster. Plane food generally is, but international flights tend to be a bit better than domestic ones (in my opinion). They offered "fish or meat." They weren't able to offer any more details than that. It came with an odd spreadable Brie and a cold-ish wheat roll. Anyway, I've definitely had better. Upon landing, we sat in the food court for hours waiting for the next flight. We all boarded the tiny plane (two seats on each side of the aisle), and then waited. Our flight had been moved up an hour to try to get in the air prior to the beginning of the strike. Our plane didn't seem to have any air conditioning, so one of the flight attendants opened the emergency exit door to let in air while we waited to see if we could take off. As it turns out, we weren't fast enough. We all had to deplane and return to the airport to wait another 2 and half hours for the strike to be over. We returned to the food court to wait with the rest of the airport. It was a bit more than crowded. Finally, we re-boarded the small, hot plane and were able to take off. The flight itself was fine minus the fact that we had to sweat the whole way - gross. Due to that experience, I'm not sure that I'd book TAP again. The representatives handled the situation well, I thought. But if we can't predict a strike - or if we're not offered fresh air - I think we might be better off booking with a different airline.

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With a dearth of bunnies, what’s a little dog to do? Stalk pigeons of course! We’ve been in New York a month now, and the city is Renn’s frenemy. This is definitely the first time I’ve ever used this word to describe something that related to my life in any way. But it’s simply true. Renn loves and fears New York.

He’s always been a very friendly, relatively skiddish pup, fearing manhole covers and stairs. But now, I have to add to that loud trucks, that seem to honk at just the worst moment to startle him, and litter. Wow, there’s a lot of litter. Denizens can’t really be to blame (well they can actually). Trash pickup occurs on the sidewalk each week and public trash bins don’t have lids. There are a lot of smokers. They don’t have a catchy and slightly threatening tag line, such as “Don’t mess with Texas.” This city is windy. The combination of these circumstances means that Renn is constantly dodging flying plastic bags, possessed empty food cartons, and random pamphlets and flyers. On one windy night, we were walking our usual a path and a large, scary pizza box flipped up on its side and landed square on Renn’s back. It was not a good moment.

Other moments are great, and Renn loves New York. There are two parks within easy walking distance for us. The smaller park comes complete with tall, uncut grass (great for smelling) and a couple park benches that line the path where people always want to pet him. The larger park comes complete with many other dogs to greet and gray squirrels to chase. In addition, New Yorkers are the friendliest people when you’re walking a dog. We are regularly talked to, and one of us is petted (thankfully, that’s not me). They make cooing noises and tell Renn how cute his is.

For us, adjusting hasn’t been too bad. It was annoying to wait for our stuff to arrive. Unpacking wasn’t awful. I built 7 items of furniture and only irreparably put one piece in backwards (a can of white paint pretty much fixed it). Seeing as how it’s build-by-picture and I spent more than a couple years in college, I would have felt better not having put any pieces in backwards. But I can deal with 1.

Work keeps both of us incredibly busy, but for the most part I can still get out on time and make it home pretty easily. Our train doesn’t have a schedule. It says it does, but it’s lying. So we generally wait anywhere between 3 and 16 minutes for the train to arrive to take us home. From there, relaxing at home, walking around the neighborhood, and trying out local restaurants has kept us occupied and happy.

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