Queens, New York

I’m going to enjoy telling you about the boroughs of New York City (most of my friends barely leave Manhattan), but right now it’s time for a spontaneous trip to Australia! I’m currently at JFK International Airport in Queens after taking the train to stay last night with my brother and sister-in-law who live in the city. It was a pretty rough week working up to this vacation, working a 17 hour day on Wednesday and still working on the train to New York last night, while watching a movie at my brother’s apartment, and even this morning. But the work is done and it’s time to vacate!

Shameless plug, but if you’re in the military and don’t have a travel credit card, you’re missing out. Great travel cards like American Express Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Capital One Venture X are expensive but with tons of perks, and yet free for members in the military! One perk is airport lounge access, which I was excited about for today but JFK Terminal 7 lounges don’t include the pass that I have (get better NYC airports!). 

Quick note before you go to buy the free cards after seeing that great news! This paragraph is about my opinions of Capital One as a product consumer and not as an employee. Capital One Venture X is the only card that I listed that is free for the military IF you already had the card before joining the military. It’s super silly and I haven’t found out who to ask about it yet in the company. I do not recommend that one for this reason, but I want to note that I do (as a consumer, not an employee) love the checkings/savings accounts because the interest rate in the savings account is great and there’s instant transfers and no overdraft fees. So take my personal financial advice with a grain of salt!

And now in the name of spontaneity, I have to figure out what I’ll be doing in Australia this week. I half-expected to rent a car and drive from Sydney to Brisbane but this week got hectic and even though you can get a same-day international drivers license from AAA, I forgot to get it done ahead of time and will continue to use public transportation for this trip as with all other international trips! Buses in India, planes in Turkey, trains in France, boats in Ecuador, and who knows what in Australia! Come back next week to find out!