Black Friday

Black Friday

Hey, 

Today is Black Friday, so I stood up around 5 to do some serious shopping, but after all I didn't spent more than 50$, which seems crazy looking at my Instagram picture, but to be honest, that's not all my stuff. I went shopping with 4/5 other girls. 

We reached the Mall at 7am and were really surprised, 'cause it was so uncrowded. We couldn't believe it at first. While the other a started their serious shopping immediately I bought my first stuff at 9 am. I was just a little disappointed, because everything I originally wanted to buy wasn't on sale. And after some struggling with other stuff, that didn't fit me, even If the prices fit me so much, I ended up buying a coffee mug, underwear, a pair of socks and Christmas Ornaments. Not what I expected. But I had fun anyway. 

At 9 am the Mall started to look more alive! They were actually more than 200 people at that time, but nothing compared to the thousands of people I expected. 

After all It was an not as successfull Day for me, but a fun/ sports day instead. 

See u. 

Thanksgiving Day

Hey, 

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, a traditional American Holiday I never experienced before. As you already know, I signed up to have dinner at an American family, but let me start at the beginning. 

Me and some friends took the train to Manhattan at 6am an reached the 66St at 7:30, then we bought some coffee and breakfast at Starbucks and went to see the, guess what, MACY'S THANKSGIVING PARADE! And oh my goodness, I'm still excited! At first we struggled to find a good spot, but then we found a spot with a good view. We were even able to see the Marching Bands, or at least their hats.

I'm not sure how long the Parade was, because I wasn't able to stay till the end, since the Family wanted to pick us up at 1pm at the Campus, but I saw at least 2,5 hours of the Parade. 

Related to that I didn't see all floats and Balloons, but my Roommate Sofia promised me to send me her photos soon. 

Luckily I reached the Campus at 12:30, so that I had a little time leftover to prepare myself for the dinner. We reached the family's house at 13:30 and met a lot of people, immediately. We met the Hostmother and Father, their kids and Grandparents and later the Fathers brother, his wife and daughters, so with Marleen and me we were 12 people for dinner. 

But during our stay the family had some other visitors as well: The Hostmothers sister came by with her husband and their baby girl, who was sooo cute.  And then friends of them came over with their children.

The dinner itself was amazing, I really enjoyed the turkey and the stuffing and everything! It was sooo good. And I loved the Deserts as well, Pies and cookies with Icecream. 

Menu: 

1. Course

Soup

2. Course  

Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, beans , carrots, gravy, cranberry sauce, zucchini bread and bread buns

3. Course

Apple Pie, Pecan Pie, Bread Pudding, Vanilla Ice cream, Cookies, Brownies 

It was simply delicious! 

The family was really nice and they were really diverse. They all lived all over the world, and they were Jewish, Catholic and atheistic. I mean they had different religions and opinions and came together for Thanksgiving, which was really interesting, especially when they started to debate after dinner. 

We were brought home at 8pm, tired but full, and with an invitation for Christmas. 

See u. 

First Snow

Hey, 

 

Last Wednesday there was a snowstorm watch, but luckily it didn't get that bad. Instead we got a beautiful amount of snow, which is still there. I, myself as German am used to snow, but the people from the southern countries like Venezuela or Brazil got so excited, 'cause they never saw real snow before. 

Somehow, they organized some sleds, and since our school is on top of a "mountain" they were sliding the whole day. It was really nice to see them being that happy.

See u. 

German Candies 😍

Halftime low

Hey, 

I'm here now for 11 weeks, which means that it's nearly halftime! On one hand I'm impressed of how fast the time went by, but on the other hand I've started to count the weeks until I'll go home.

The last week I was often out of humor. I feel tired and bored which might be related to my illness the previous week, but it made me think: Was this a good idea? Are 6 months to long? How will I get through another 12 weeks?

And I don't know how to answer this questions for me...

The school isn't really interesting, the themes are random and the grammar isn't new either. The people here are nice, but who of them do I really know? There are stil Origin-based groups, which separate seldomly, so you are nearly allways hanging out with people from your country, which isn't bad, but you won't learn anything new then..

And of course New York is awesome, but I already know a lot of it like the back of my hand. 

I saw nearly all touristic attractions and I had many untouristic experiences as well. 

There are only 10-15 points I still want to see or do, but they all spread over the next months, like New Years Eve on Times Square or the Super Bowl. Related to that there will be many days and weekens, without anything to do, like today. And on those days you think about home, about your friends, and about how to spent your time better at home anyway..

I still have 13 weeks (92 days) and only a few things to do or see left. How should I spent the rest of my time here?

Of course I'll go to Miami for a week

And to Washington D.C. and Boston for a weekend, but that won't fill my calendar either.

If you start from the premise that I won't go to the City on schooldays there are still 10 weekens and 2 weeks of Christmas Holidays left (34 days) and no matter what I plan, I'll never be able to fill all those days with something fun to do! 

Even If I would have 34 activities in New York, they would never fill a day, and It would be far to expensive to go there that often. 

What do all the locals do here all year? They definitely won't visit the touristic hotspots that often and they definitely won't go shopping every day or to New York in general, so what do they do? 

I think that's the point: the locals live here, they have a real home, and not just a shared dorm room. They have TVs and books, and all-day open kitchens. They aren't dependent of the Cafeteria and they have games at home and family. They have all their friends here, to meet up with. They have jobs and a real life here.

After all I would say, even If it sounds sad, New York nearly lost its glow for me. I just can't imagine to spent here so much time again! Of course It's great for vacations, but if you know the City you don't need to go here for Vacation any longer than 2 weeks.

See u.

It's freeeeeezing outside!

Hey guys, 

Even if it's mid-November it feels like Winter! The weather here in New York can change within a second and so it does! 

Last week the weather was nice and autumn-y but this week it's just freezing cold! 

Today we have -7°C to -1°C but it actually feels much colder, because of the high air humidity.

I already have to wear my thick Woolrich Winterjacket, a scarf, a hat, UGG Boots and thick gloves! It's just unbelievable cold outside! 

But next week it should actually be between 7-18°C isn't the weather crazy? 

See u.

Sunday in the City

Hey, 

Today I went to Manhattan again, this time with Marleen. We took the train at 1pm as usual and reached Grand Central 40 min later. At first we went to Bath & Body Works before we headed over to Starbucks to try their new Christmas Lattes. 

Related to me using Antibiotics ordering was quite unusual. :D I ordered a Decaf Chestnut Praline Latte with Milk without Calcium, sounds fun right? Anyway, it was delicious! 

With the coffee in my hand we took the Subway to Bowling Greens and took the Staten Island Ferry to take some pictures of the Skyline and the Statue of Liberty. I still think, that the Statue is so much smaller than you pretend it to be! 

The time went by and we went back yo Manhattan, uptown thru Central Park, where we stopped and watched the ice-skaters and took some photos of the skyline there.

We didn't skated ourself,'cause it's kind of expensive to go ice-skating.

Adults pay $18 at the Weekends which is a lot If you just want to skate for half an hour or so.but actually this was quite cheap, compared to the price at the Rockefeller Center Ice-Rink -$30-, which seams insane to me. 

Reading this we actually didn't do a lot today, but we had fun anyway. 

See u.

FYI: It got dark around 5pm which seams so early to me, it really is wintertime now.

Christmas Shopping

Hey, 

Yesterday I went to Manhattan to do some Christmas shopping, but sadly I can't tell you more, 'cause I don't want them to know what I bought for them. But I can tell you I had a lot of Fun, even if it was a little stressing referring to all those other thousand people doing there Christmas shopping. 

All of the companies did an amazing job decorating their stores! And it's really worth seeing it. One of my favourite is the decoration at Lords & Taylors, It's beautiful! 

After the shopping I realized that I was late for dinner on Campus, so I had dinner in Brrrryant Park, where you can find a Christmas Market. :) I felt soo Christmasy there. 

I ate a delicious Apple Pie Crepe and watched the ice-skaters, while eating it.

It was a wonderful Holiday-feeling Day.

See u.

Oh and did I mention that I saw snow? *-*

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Hey,

I'm already in Christmas mood, as always a little too early, but with all the decoration in the stores and the cold weather - the weather man even announced snow for next week - I can't keep myself off that mood. 

I could really see myself hanging around in front of the fireplace with a cozy blanket a cup of coffee in my hands and Christmas music on the radio. But that's not going to happen this year for three particular reasons: First of all I am going to fly to Miami in my Christmas holidays. Secondly there's no fireplace on Campus. And finally I have no coffee machine. Whatever, none of it can keep me off my mood. 

Yesterday I went to Manhattan with Marleen. We took the train at 1 pm and reached Manhattan an hour later. Reaching Manhattan we went to Rockefeller center, where I wanted to try on two coats for Black Friday, unfortunately they just had one coat, so I kept searching for the other coat the whole day in several department stores in Manhattan, when a salesman told me, that the coat is out of season. Later I found out that the previous season ended at the beginning of this week - fate? A broad hint?. 

My search led us to Madison Avenue; 68th Street , where we found this adorable little boulangerie and patisserie »Bel Ami«. Our food and coffee there was delicious! I can really recommend their flour free cakes! 

Afterwards we went to Bloomingdales, which reminded me immediately to a movie, but I couldn't think of its name. We shopped a little over there, before we took the subway downtown and then to Dumbo. 

I read about the light festival online, but I didn't expected it to be such a magnet! 

At 7pm, 2 hours before the end, the queue was at least 1,5 blocks long! 

Related to that we decided to skip this attraction and went back to Tarrytown. 

After all it was a really cool day, even if my feed hurt sooooo bad now, but it was worth it! 

See u. 

 

Room Updates

Hey guys, 

In case you're interested, we still didn't get the new furniture! 

First they told us that will get it in October, remember? 

Than they told us, maybe in December. Two weeks ago someone promised us the new furniture within 2 weeks. And this week, when I went to the responsible office they were totally clueless! 

They couldn't remember their promise or were able to tell me when we are supposed to get the new furniture. Therefor I asked them for a lockable drawer, but I didn't get one yet. 

It's really a long story with the furniture and EF. -.- 

Whatever, I went to the mall yesterday and bought me my own bedding and lights. I think my bed looks pretty comfortable now. Oh, and I put my photos on the wall. Now I can a allways see my friends and family. <3

See u.