Sickness on Campus

Hey guys, 

todays theme might seem a little weird, but it's a really common topic living on a Campus.

In fact you are rarely alone on Campus, there are nearly almost other people with you, around you or had been in your space just a second before. Therefor the Campus is kind of a Disney World for Germs ! You receive and pass germs every day, that's way sickness spreads really fast on Campus, especially If you have to share a dorm with many people. 

Of course it unpossible to avoid this threadmill, mainly because of the amount of students, but partly because of your adaptability to the culture and life circumstances. For example: I as a German student am not used to air conditioning. in Germany we rarely use them and related to that my immune system had been attacked in the first week, because I just wasn't able to handle the cold temperature inside and the warm temperature outside.

Another reason for sickness might be misunderstanding or situations you didn't prepared yourself for. 

For example: when I went to Niagara Falls last weekend I knew that I'll get wet at the Cave of the Winds, but I didn't thought about it consequences! I forgot to take some other, dry clothes with me on the bus, so I had to wear my wet clothes the whole way back to New York, which was freaking cold, related to the air conditioning. And as a result of that I'm a cold right now. 

Even if you can't stop the Threatmill, you can do things to protect your Immune System and your Health!

1. Wash your hands, if you touched something, especially before eating!

2. Use hand sanitizer to kill those germs!

3. Strengthen our immune system with an healthy lifestyle

  - Cranberries are really good for your Immune System

  - Sports is good as well, because you clean your body

  - Eat Vitamins - NOT in concentrate or pills! - eat real fruits and vegetables

  - ... 

4. Try to avoid direct contact with sick people

5. Take medicine If your start to feel sick, but not just Antibiotics, not every illness is related to inflammation!

6. Visit a doctor if necessary!

I hope I could help you.

See u.

Niagara Falls II

Hey, 

today we left Canada and reentered the United States - yeaahy - where we participated the Maid of the Mist boat tour and the Cave of the winds and seriously IT WAS AMAZING! 

We started at the hotel at 8:45 am, again and where supposed to cross the border within 30 minutes, but I took us 2 hours! Which was insane. We sat 2 hours in our bus on the rainbow bridge between Canada and the USA. 

Right afterwards we did the boat tour and everyone was worried about my camera, because I insisted on taking it with me. I really wanted these awesome photos. And as I excepted everything went fine, my camera is still alive. 

At 2pm we did the Cave of the winds which is awesome as well! You really can't imagine it If you didn't do it! There are stairs in the waterfall, which you take and you get wet like insane! Of course you get a raincoat afore, but If you get on top of the stairs in the Hurricane platform, the raincoat won't help anymore. I was wet from my hairs to my feet, but I felt amazing. 

I allways dreamed of visiting the Niagara Falls and now these dream came true. 

Anyway I really enjoyed my trip, but I'm glad to be back at campus too. 

See u. 

Trip to Toronto

Hey, 

we had our day trip to Toronto yesterday and I must say, that I really like Toronto. The little shops and restaurants are beautiful, especially the once I saw in Yorktown and at the end of Queens St.

Our trip started at 8:45 with a stop at the Niagara Falls, where we had an hour to take photos and buy souvenirs. But the wind blowed the mist directly in our direction, so my beautiful straighted hair started curling again. ^^ 

The falls itself are really impressive, you can't imagine how much water goes of the falls every second! 2.271.247 liters! Isn't that unbelievable? That's as much as 39 people drink within 80 years! 

10:10 we continued our tour to Toronto, but it took us 2h to get there, which is more than we expected! Afterwards we had a quick Guide tour hold by our Tour-Guide Judie and then we went on the CN-Tower, which was really impressive. It's beautiful to overlook the lake and Torontos waterfront, just the view on the city want as spectacular as the view from the Rockefeller Center in New York, but it was totally worth it's cost! 

With us leaving the Tower our freetime started! Related to our unbelievable ___ we went out for lunch. With no orienteering skills and no map we found a really chiq restaurant in Queens Street. I guess. It was named Everest. We really enjoyed our meal, which was far better than the breakfast in the morning - muesli and yoghurt. For desert we went to Tim Hortons, where I had a Cafée and a Pumpcin Spice Timbit and we had free wifi there, which was awesome! 

Tired but amazed we returned to our hotel at 6pm and reached it 3 hours later, yeah! 

I quickly packed my back and headed to the falls, where I really enjoyed the lights today. 

Finally we had a little come together in an Bar, before we went to bed.

It was a full day, but I really enjoyed it! The only thing bothering me is, that one afternoon isn't enough to visit Toronto. Definitely would like to come back there once! 

See u. 

Travel - Niagara Falls I

Hey, 

on Friday we traveled to the Niagara Falls, Canada. 

Therefor we drove 8h per bus thru the whole state of New York. It really was amazing to see how the nature changes and how the population changes. Related to the that the 8h felt like 2h for me, luckily.

We arrived at Niagara Falls at 7pm and hurried downtown to grap some dinner and see the firework at the Falls. Unfortunately we just succeed the first and missed the fireworks. And en plus the dinner wasn't that good, but really expensive anyway! I just ate an appetizer and paid over 20 bucks! 

Later in the evening we went to the falls, but related to the mist we weren't able to see the lights. 

All in all it still was a pretty cool day and Niagara Falls seems to be the Canadian adaption of the Mallorca Ballermann, except the legal drinking age of 19 years in Canada. 

P.s. I love Wendy's Burger ❤️

See u.

Yankees Game

Hej, 

As you might have noticed, I didn't blogged yesterday, but I think I've got a really good excuse! 

I decided to go to the Yankees game! A friend of mine and me we just spontaneous bought the tickets in our lunch break and joined the other EF students at the Yankees Game against the Baltimore Orioles. 

I, myself never had been at a sportsevent that big before, just at an ice-hockey game, but that was years ago. Therefor I got really excited yesterday. 

We arrived at the stadium around 6 pm so we has plenty of time to explore the stadium. With bought snacks and souvenirs under our arms we headed to our sector just in time, because the game started 5 minutes after we arrived. 

Unfortunately the Yankees lost the game 4:5, which was kind of a tragedy to me. It was Derek Jeters last Game yesterday and he didn't get his happy end. In my opinion he even didn't play that good yesterday, that's why felt really sorry for him. 

But the crowd loved him anyway. They celebrated their Captain and supported him loudly whenever he was batting. 

All in all I really enjoyed the game! I never thought that I would enjoy watching sports that much, but it's all about atmosphere. 

See u. 

Lazy Sundays, spending time alone on campus

Hej, 

todays theme is spending time alone on Campus or rather spending time alone while living on a Campus. Is it appropriate to spend time alone on Campus, even if you can go in for so many things to do with your Roomie or Friends? Answer: Yes, it totally is, or are you spending every minute with your friends or family when you're at home? No, right? 

In my opinion it's is actually important to spend some of your time alone, and there are 4 reasons why:

1. Spending every minute with someone provokes conflicts. 

2. You can't allways be the shiny one, acting the way you're expected to act in public.

3. There are some things you would like to do, but your friends refuse it. Go for it, you aren't supposed just to do what your friends like to do aswell. 

4. Shopping and sightseeing can be easier alone, because you just need to go to the spots you wanted to go and you can stay as long as you want. 

Note: This is not supposed to convice you to become a wallflower or lone wolf! It is important to have friends on campus, don't scare them off. Because after all everything is more fun with someone else, If you don't stick to each other the whole time. 

See u. 

German-American Steuben Parade

Hej, 

Yesterday I was to tired to blog, so I'll do it right now. Why I was tired? Well, my day started at 8:30am yesterday, pretty early for a Saturday, right? 

So I stood up at 8:30 am, made myself ready in a hurry and headed to the train at 9:30.

Catched the 10 am train and reached Grand Central at 10:40. Grabbed breakfast at Starbucks and hurried up to 5th Ave; 75th Street to watch the German-American Steuben Parade and it was totally worth it to Star up that early!

I got a first Row place close to the Grand stand at 79th Street, so I had an awesome view on the parade and on the Central Park behind it. 

Next to me were a couple from Donauwörth and one of their friends, whose adult children participated the parade. 

The parade took about two hours until all parade floats and german musicians passed the Grand stand. 

The participants came from all german speaking areas like German Cities, Swiss cities and Austrian cities and even American based German communities participated, which made the parade really multifaced. 

After watching the parade I did a little uptown tour. I went to the Central Park, visited the lakes and the conservatory water, heared the oktoberfest, which was unfortunately sold out and saw some kind of a chess championship until I decided to eat in the Zoo restaurant - expensive! 5$ for a simple hotdog.

My way back to grand central became a sightseeing tour aswell, because I decided to visit the New York Palace Hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria and the amazing building of the United Nations, which was really impressive for me! Did I told you that I participated their junior Modell United Nations three times?

And I ask myself, what was going on in New York City. The hotels mentioned were guarded by the police, more than I saw before, and there were police barricades everywhere! 

And in front of the UN Building I saw two demonstrations. 

By the way, when I walked up to the 75th Street a man shouted: There (pointing in the sky), that's the Air Force one! 

Do you know what was in Manhattan yesterday? I'm just so curios about it.

See u. 

Activities in New York

Hey guys, 

New york City is such an amazing City and there is so much to see and do. It's not just Times Square and Liberty lady, therefor I would like to give you some tips and trip ideas to make your stay at New York City unique.

Typical New York City Places to see:

Times Square (junction of Broadway and 7th ave.; W 46th Street)

Rockefeller Center (5th Avenue; 50th Street)

     Known for the City's best view

Empire State Building (5th Avenue; 33th Street)

Chrysler Building (Lexington Ave.; 42th Street) 

Grand Central (Park Ave.; 42th Street) 

     Visit the Zoo, it looks like in the movie Madagaskar

Flatiron Building (junction of Broadway and 5th Avenue; 23th Street)

Ground Zero and One World Center (West Street; Liberty Street)

Central Park (between Centralpark Street and 110th Street; you can't actually miss the park, it's huge)

Guggenheim Museum (5th Ave.; 88th Street)

MoMa (Avenue of the Americans; 53th Street)

Wall Street (self-explanatory)

Statue of Liberty (Liberty Island) 

     You'll have an unbelievable view on the Liberty Lady If you use the Staten Island Ferry AND It's             

     actually free!

Brooklyn Bridge 

Places you should add to your trip! 

Brooklyn Bridge Park

      Perfect point to see the skyline of Manhatten, especially nightimes

Castle Clinton Monument in Battery Park

      Just looks stunning

United Nations (united nations plaza; 44th Street)

The High Line Park (parallel to 10th Avenue; Gansevort Street- 30th Street)

     Did you know that this Park is build on old rails? It's super replacing up there!

The New York Palace Hotel (Madison ave.;  50th street)

Waldorf-Astoria (park ave.; 49th Street)

     if you know Gossip Girl you'll recognize those two hotels

Things you should do!

Fly with a helicopter over Manhattan

Go to the Top of the Rock

Go on the Empires roof

Take the subway

Visit some of those awesome parades in Manhattan, like Thanksgiving Parade or the German-American Steuben Parade, which actually is tomorrow (20th Sep.)

Eat at ShakeShak! Their burgers are mind-blowing

Visit a Yankees Game or a American Football game, even If you're not a sports fan you'll definitely enjoy it!

Visit a festival, the Festival in little Italy ends this weekend! 

Visit as many markets as you can find, the fruits and vegetables are the best

Visit Hoboken, New Jersey 

    That's where Frank Sinatra really lived.

    I heard, that the coffee in Hoboken is simply the best

In conclusion, be open-minded, New York is the Melting Pod, you nearly can't avoid a clash of cultures. Follow your instinct and just go with the flow If you want to, because Adventures want to be found, they're not waiting at touristic hot-spots for you! 

See u. 

Technics

Hey guys, 

I'm kin for in trouble with my technics over here. 

Last Saturday, my phones sim-card stopped working, and I have no idea why! That pretty ennoying If you can't cal someone or send someone a text without internet. :/ 

Last Monday my IPad started struggling as well, It always tell me, when I want to charge it, that charging is impossible! And that's so strange, because I didn't changed my charging routine...

And yesterday I was a little pissed off, becaus I'm not able to update my phone OTA with iOS 8, just because it's a German phone in America -.- and I have no Laptop with me to do the normal update.

So to solve my problems I went to Apple 5th Ave. today, but they weren't able to help me at all, though I didn't had an official appointment. 

One of those Genius guys told me that I could make an appointment easily via the internet, but the next possible day would be Wendesday and I have no idea of my next weeks schedule, so I told him that I'll set up an appointment at home. 

I'll hope that I can solve these problems on my own earlier. 

See u. 

Routine

Hey guys, 

School started exactly a week ago, so the day got a routine which is so much better than lurking in your bed all day, like I did after Graduation. 

So weekdays I stay up at 7 and eat breakfast at 8am, except for Wednesdays, because schools starts at 11:45 on Wednesdays, so I eat breakfast at 9am. And there I'll grab something to take with me for lunch, because I don't have that extra 5$ every day. 

School ends between 1 and 5, so I'll take dinner right afterwards. 

 

If theres enough time I might go to the gym or If i don't  have school in the afternoon at all, like thursdays I like to go to NYC. 

Greets.

First flash of sickness

Hey guys,

today was really the first day I really missed my home and my friends and actually felt kind of sick. 

It all came up to me in iLab class, while listening to a familys story on the internet. 

The story was so sad - the teller told the story in such an emotional way, that I suddenly felt sad as well. 

Afterwards I asked myself If it was a good idea to stay in New York for 6 months, regarding everything that went wrong last week. I tried to encourage myself that it was a good idea doing sports in the gym, when suddenly something went wrong, again. 

Feeling that kind of sick I left the gym and returned to the dorm, where I misunderstood some friends for which reason I was scared eating alone in the cafeteria - luckily I found someone to go to dinner with me. 

At dinner I compensate my sports eating a lot, which surely wasn't the best idea. Burning calories first and eating them afterwards is a zero-sum situation.

Returning to the dorm with an endless full stomach I just wanted to be alone and sleep, while listening to Eminem. After that procedure I felt much better and realized that It's just not my day and that things may be different the next day. 

Finally I went to the campus movie night and enjoyed a really old comedy called something with Ferris Bueller, which was kind of strange but actually had been the highlight of my day anyway. 

Hope that things be better tomorrow. 

See u.

Special Interest Classes (SPIN)

Hey guys, 

monday is SPIN day! So Monday classes should be based on your interests and your skills, as I said, should be. Whatever, every student at EF New York should be able to choose their SPIN classes, right?

Well, I think they skipped that part this year, because every Intesivcourse student had been placed randomly in any class. 

I really wanted to work on my photographie skills here, and of course learn English related to the subject I want to study ( molecular Biochemistry ). But they just randomly put me in classes like: Colloquial English and Comedy, nothing against Comedy, but that's not what I'm here for!

But as I told you, every Intesivcourse student is placed in any classes without beeing asked. 

I hope that we'll get the possibility to change the SPIN classes or actually choose them on our own, otherwise I payed on learning stuff I never need again, which would be kind of stupid. 

Tomorrow I just have normal English classes again, so...

See u. 

Expensive city

Hey, 

I'm here about a week now and I actually nearly ran our of money.

The live abroad in the USA should also train my self-confidence aswell as my independence from my parents, but this seems to be really hard. 

I'm not comfortable with budget yet - as I realized today. There is so many stuff I needed, like detergent, cleanser, wardrobe organization (hangers etc.), care products and all that dorm room stuff, but there also is so much stuff I wanted 😁 like clothes or sport shoes and of course the trip to Toronto and the Niagara Falls in 2 weeks. 

All in all there is so much stuff to spend your money on - luckily I don't need to pay for food - and that's really hard to learn. 

I saved some money, which I can use as a backup, but I think that I won't buy anything this month, except for train tickets or water. But, just to make sure that you don't think that I'm spending money like crazy ever month, the costs were just unique and the trip to Canada is f***king expensive ($399), even the Train Tickets are really expansive ($25).

So next months statistics will be better - hope so.

See u. 

Shopping

Hej, 

Today some friends and me had a trip downtown, which was so much fun - even If my feet didn't stop hurting afterwards. 

First of all we went to Nolita, where a cute little market or festival was on, awfully it didn't stop raining in NYC so we quited the market really early to do some inside shopping. 

Therefor We went to SoHo - Favourite shopping location since today - and I loved it. 

There so many cute and stylish shops in SoHo and some of my favourite brands as well. 

The first shop I went to was foot locker, because I definitely needed new running shoes and I finally found a pair of Nike Lunarglides which match my sport clothes. 

Afterwards I was searching for the other girls, who went to topshop instead, but I wasn't able to find them - maybe that's related to my short detour to Brandy Melville. 😁 But I just had to go inside. 

Luckily I found the other girls before getting panicky. 

Than we scanned Aritzia's collection - love their clothes - before we moved on to Victoria Secret, where we finally spend the most money, but it's worth it. 

Tired and hungry we returned to Grand central and had a delicious dinner at ShakeShack, before we settled back to Tarrytown. Now I'm in my bed ready for sleep, even If I would really like to party on Saturdays. So bad that we're to young. 

See u.

P.S. I would love to upload some photos, but I can't just save all of my photos on my phone, so I need to wait for the Eye-Fi Cloud. 

Resume of the first week

Hey, 

as you might realised I didn't post something yesterday, it's just because 09/11 is such a massive day and I don't feel competent blogging about it. The only thing I want to tell you from experiences at the 09/11 memorial is, that you can feel the pain and grief looking in the eyes of those, who have been there. 

Today is Friday so I'm in NYC about a week now, so I think it's time for a resume! 

Dorms: First of all, I arranged myself with the room and with sharing a bathroom with 5 other people, without the possibility to lock it. And I actually went to the housing office today where I was told, that the new furniture is on a delay and that they actually plan to change the furniture in october. 

Meals: The breakfast in the cafeteria is quite good, you can eat cereals, bagels, hearty food and so much more. The only thing bothering me is the coffee. It's just not enough for all the students so they ran out of coffee at 9am, but I definitely need my daily coffee to stay awake. Favourite breakfast: Captain Crunch, a cranberry cone and a cup of strawberry flavored water. I had just been to lunch once, so I can't judge it at all, but my lunch was okay. I had chicken with rice and corn and again, flavored water. The dinner is quite good aswell! I like the fact that you can choose between 6 meals every dinner, but usually I just take the pizza, because it's my Favourite. Today you could choose between pizza, pasta, curry with rice, sandwiches and something vegetarian and I didn't hear anyone complaining at all. 

Campus: The campus is huge, but it's in a beautiful place. It actually isn't in the city but in Tarrytown, half an hour by train, which is actually really cool. Out of my window I can see the Hudson River and the tappan zee bridge, which might be the best view on the hole campus. I didn't visited any activitie places like the gym yet, but I heard that they are really cool, may try them tomorrow after buying sport shoes. 

Classes: The classes are related to your English level or skills. My class is B2.3, it's  actually upper immediate, which Is quite good. My teacher is really kind, she is focused on upgrading our skills so that we might change our level after the next test in a month. I myself don't need to reach a certain level so I just keep it down in school to be prepared for an awesome day in New York. The other teacher are supposed to be nice aswell, even if they're more on the funnier side. 

Tarrytown: Tarrytown is a little city in northern New York, it's actually close to sleepy hollow. Exactly, Irving's legendary sleepy hollow - there cityscape is related to the book. We have some nice shops here, like 711, C-town, Walgreens and cvs, and many different restaurants looking really cute and smelling delicious. The train station is a ten minutes walk away, which wouldn't be a problem if the school would be on a flat bottom, but it's actually up on the top of the local hill, so the walk is really challenging if you are in a hurry. As an EF student I can use a shuttle to the train and back, which is insane, related to my sports skills. 

All in all I really love beeing here even If I had to adapt to the different circumstances here.

       

Conflicts with other students

Hey, 

this theme really bothers me for many school years now, so it's definitely a theme you could refer about living on campus. 

We are over 320 students at EF New York right now and of course there will occur conflicts some times, especially because we're all from different countries with different cultures and behaviors.

Relating to that and to the fear of blaming yourself, you first of all search people, who are in the same situation and who actually might understand you, so you gonna form groups with other people of your country.

The people of your country are actually those, who might help you to settle in and feel comfortable on campus. They are the ones who beware you of getting homesick, because there actually a part of your home or home country. 

So worst thing to happen is, when those people knife you, when they let you feel redundant and show off that they wish nothing else than you beeing thousand miles away. 

Actually this might happen to a lot of you, so I'll give you some tips how to handle that.

1) Don't give a shit on someone's opinion about you, 'cause you're awesome! 

2) Don't involve other students, it's a thing to handle between you and your hater. 

3) If you feel like talking with the hater do it, otherwise let it.

4) If you have the feeling that the conflict might escalate in front of other students, try to get out of the situation without running away. 

5) Don't be the haters hater! That would be an awkward situation ending in a fight. 

6) Keep calm and talk to your besties at home! 

See u. 

P.S. I wish you Never get into a bitch fight like that. 

P.P.S. I might blunder into a bitch fight right now 😒

Suitcase arrived ✌️

Hey, 

Im so happy that my suitcase finally arrived today. Even If it arrived around Lunch there was enough time to get ready for the welcome tour to New York City. 

The trip was quite nice - we visited the top of the Rock - but we were running around in a large group afterwards, so that I wasn't able to go shopping - hope to have enough time on the weekend! 

Instead of shopping we went out for dinner in NYC, but just to McDonalds, because some of us need to save money. 

We received our language levels in the evening and not everybody feels placed right, which caused confusion afterwards. Some students think to be better and others are scared to be the worst student in class. I myself am placed in B2.3, which is okay for some one who just had English at school. Another German girl is placed in C1.3, which is nearly the level of native speakers (C2). 

Tomorrow will be the first day with classes, so I'm really curios. 

A smidgen of hope

Hey, 

My suitcase landed at JFK in the morning, which is awesome, relating to my leck of frech clothes right now, but It hadn't reached me yet -.- 

I was told that it should have been delivered today and even If the day isn't over yet I'm a little concerned that the Airline just told me that to prevent me from buying clothes on their costs, which actually would be my right! 

I hope that It will be delivered tomorrow in the morning, because I gonna participate the welcome tour to NYC tomorrow and I don't want to be the disgusting one wearing the same stuff for 3 days...

If not, I'll go shopping on the costs of the airline in the city to feel more comfortable and to take a little revenge on them for loosing my suitcase! 

The rest of the Day wasn't that exciting, we just had the registration and a short welcoming drink before we went to the Center of Tarrytown to buy some water. Later in we just sat together outside and shared our first impressions. 

See u. 

Arrival

Hey,

I finally arrived happy and quite tired at JFK 5 hours ago - at first. 

I just jumped out of the plane when the first surprise hit me truly unexpected! 

Even If my suitcase was checked trough JFK and even If I asked the Ground-Stewardess to check If it's on the plane, It finally stayed in London :/ 

Referring to this I just got another Hoodie and a huge scarf for tomorrow and It's supposed to get quite hot in New York -.-

The next surprise hit me at the take off. We got promised to be caught up at JFK in between 30 minutes which went well, but then we needed to drive to LaGuardia to take of another student, which didn't seem to be a problem neither, If that didn't take up to an hour -.- 

The arrival in Tarrytown was unspectacular except we needed to take our Student Photos immediately without getting fresh, so my photo show me with oily hair and no make up on -.- 

Afterwards we were guided to our dorms, where we are supposed to live 6 months, but here comes the surprise which hit me the most - even more than the missing suitcase! 

I'm in an old dorm room with nearly broken, wooden beds - yep, as expected  I'm the only on in the loft bed - flicked walls, a strange kind of a dresser and the worst at last: The bath is shared by 7 people and looks like it! Disgusting! There are hairs and shampoo spots everywhere, and you can't lock it! 

And if this wouldn't be enough: The shower is broken! I had to rest in a knee bend to take a shower, because the shower head nearly dropped out of the wall! Referring to that the bathrooms turns out to be a pool after showering -.-

Can it get any worse? 

Greets 

Anni