Blizzard approaching

Hey, 

As you might know New York is expecting the biggest Blizzard in History tonight. Therefore I decided to keep you updated on that. 

3:20

School ends early due to the approaching Winterstorm names Juno, but it's still quite outside 

4:45

Snow gets heavier, but is still copable I think. Let see what the night brings!

8:40

Didn't see any new snow for maybe 2 hours; still quiet. 

10:30

Still no snow; still no storm

0:40

It finally started to snow and because do the wind the snow is coming from the side, but it's still not what I expected of New York biggest Blizzard. 

11:15 Good Morning! I think the night was quiet, at least I can't see a lot of new snow. But now it's starting to snow heavier again. 

11:30 Really heavy and fast moving snow, will Juno finally start here? 

15:30

No snow for 2 hours! I think its over. 

Musuem day

Hey, 

We decided to visit the American Museum of Natural History weeks ago and finally did it yesterday, but we nearly had to cancel our trip due to the heavy snow Friday night - 3 inches (around 12 centimeters). Luckily the city didn't come to a total stop, so that we finally went there yesterday in the afternoon, but only after visiting Central Park and the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir and Strawberry Fields. 

The museum itself was pretty great, but compared to our expectations related to the movie night at the museum we were a little disappointed. 

It's definitely a great museum, but in my opinion there are too many mammals and to less living animals. I mean: I know it's not an indoor zoo, but a little bit more liveness wouldn't do any harm. 

Afterwards we went down to Union Square, where we did a little shopping; I need clothes for my internship; and ate dinner. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Vapiano, which is an Italian system-gastronomy, which was founded in Hamburg/ Germany in the early 20th century. I really enjoyed dinning there so much, especially because the pizza salame actually was pizza salame. Also their deserts and coffee is sooooo good. I really missed it here! Actually I have no idea why I didn't went there earlier. 

We arrived back on Campus around 10pm and were sooo exhausted! We definitely did to much walking yesterday. 

See u.  

Boston

Hey, 

I was in Boston this weekend, which is the capital of Massachusetts (yep, I can actually pronounce that). I went there with American International Tours and really had a good time. 

On Saturday I had to wake up at 6am to take the bus at 6:45. Reaching the bus I just wanted to sleep, but if course I couldn't. I wasn't on the passenger list, but after a discussing with the bus driver he agreed to take me to Manhattan, where I had to talk to there your guide. Luckily she could solve the problem and however I was on her list anyway. 

We reached Boston around 11am and did a guided bus tour at first. We drove along the freedom trail and stopped at a few sights like the Beacon Hill and at the Trinity Church, where our free time started. 

In my free time, which was about 3 hours long I walked along Newbury Street, where I ate one of the famous georgetown cupcakes and did a little window shopping. Afterwards I walked thru the Public Gardens, a park in Boston, which is known for its bridge. I went back to where I started along Commonwealth Street, when I realized that I still had around 2 hours left. 

After a quick coffee stop at Starbucks googling what to do, I decided to walk along Newbury Street again, but in the opposite direction. On my way I bought some authentic european rolls, which were delicious and Swiss pralines. I really felt like eating good food that day. :D 

The pralines were kind if expensive, but definitely worth it. I can't tell you how much I miss German/European food... When I finished my food shopping I stopped at benefit next, before I went back to the bus. 

We arrived in the hotel around 5pm with the opportunity to take the bus to Quincy market at 7pm. Related to my food obsession that day, I decided to go there and have a nice dinner. I searched for a nice restaurant for a long time, and even if there were so many, I didn't find one - stupid me. Therefore I ended up in Dicks last resort. A restaurant famous for being unfriendly. However the salmon I ordered was really good and tasted awesome.

I was eating there on my own, and that might not have been my best idea, because the waiters are also known for mocking the people and giving them hats with insulting quotes on it; mine said: Best Date Ever. Eventhough I wanted to have a nice and formal dinner I really enjoyed it. It was a new experience and definitely funny. 

Afterwards, at 9pm, I took the bus back to the hotel, looking forward for a nice sleep. And so I did until the next morning. 

On Sunday the front desk called us at 7:45am, telling us to wake up. I still felt really tired, but excited as well, so I stood up and prepared myself for the day. 

We left the hotel after breakfast around 9:30 and took the bus to Boston centre again, where our first stop was the Tea Party Ship. We just took a few photos there and drove to the Italian district afterwards. 

There we walked along the freedom trail and visited the Old North Church, which is supposed to be the oldest church of Massachusetts. 

Afterwards we visited the USS Constitution the oldest and biggest still sailing ship in the world. The tour we took there was really interesting, but it was similar to the story I heard on London a few years ago. 

Later that day we visited Harvard and the MIT in Cambridge, next to Boston. Especially visiting the Harvard University was a life dream coming  true. Of course I took a picture with the Harvard statue, or should I say the statue of the 3 lies? 

Anyway, at Harvard I met a few people with whom I went to dinner and around the Campus. 

I also bought one of those sweaters everybody has, but it really was a must. 

I enjoyed visiting the MIT and the Harvard Bridge as well, but I was to exhausted to really appreciate it. 

After all it was a really nice trip. I enjoyed it a lot and must say the Boston is one of the most beautiful cities I ever saw. 

I arrived back on Campus here in Tarrytown around 8pm and went to bed immediately. I was so tired. 

See u. 

P.S. Sunday photos are still missing

Metropolitan Museum of Arts

Hey, 

Yesterday school ended early and I decided to go to mana hat and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. 

I took the train at 2pm and reached the Met an hour later and to my surprise I could choose how much I wanted to pay; lucky me. As you might know I usually plan my trips to the city, so that I won't miss something, but this time I didn't planned anything in particular so that I was really shocked, when I saw how many exhibitions the Met has. I was there for about 2,5 hours and I wasn't able to see a half of them! 

At first I went thru the Egyptian exhibition, which was really interesting and reminded me to my childhood, when me and a friend of mine wanted to become Egyptologists. I was thrilled to see the temples and coffins exhibited. 

The next exhibitions I saw was "Death becomes her", and exhibition which nearly plucked my heartstrings. The exhibition included old, but beautiful moaning dresses as well as quotes about death and people dealing with it, which were really really good chosen. 

Afterwards I searched for a map of the museum for the longest time, walking thru the exhibitions about China, Korea and Japan. I myself didn't liked these exhibitions that much, but maybe that's just because I'm not in any relation with it. 

When I finally found a map I made my way to the European arts exhibition, which pleased me so much. Some of the portraits painted in difficult times were soo good that I had to Herut thru the exhibition to not loose any mascara. 

The contemporary art exhibition wasn't my cup of tea, but I always preferred the more classical arts. Therefor I just walked thru them quickly making my way to the exhibition about European decorations, in which they rebuild typical european rooms and chambers. 

The Musuem was about to close, when a man asked me, if he could sketch me. Since I didn't have any further plans I agreed and we lakes to a nearby tea house "teavana" were he bought me a tea and drawed me. To my surprise the drawing is soo good, that I could actually recognize myself. And even if I felt a little uncomfortable at first I was so glad, that I agreed, because now I have a memory no one can take away from me: beeing drawed by an New York artist. 

Later that day I did a little shopping before I took the train back. 

All in all I really enjoyed that trip and I must say, that the trips I do on my own are somehow always the most interesting ones. 

See u. 

New Years in New York

Hey, 

I finally made my dream come true! I celebrated NYE on Times Square and saw the Ball Drop live! 

The evening was really exhausting, but for me it was worth it to wait 6 hours in the cold to see a tiny ball dropping. And after all the time waiting went by so fast! You ask yourself why?

Well, because of all the people! 

In the middle of the crowd between 50th and 51th Street on Broadway we met so many interesting people from all over the world, who made the evening so much fun. 

But, to start at the beginning: 

We finally reached our spot around 5:30 pm, 6,5 hours before the event and after 1 or 2 hours of freezing and boredom, we decided to sit down for a moment and out of the nothing about 10 other people decided to sit down as well. At first we just sat there and talked and than we started to play charade, which was so much fun! At 8:30, 3,5 hours to go, we stood up again, because the police opened a gate, so that people were able to move closer to Time Square. When the crowd calmed down again we sat down again, but this time with less people. This time we were just the 3 girls of us and a boy from New Jersey, whose friends went back to their hotel. We tried to make time pass, with the craziest ideas: We hat a camp fire, on his phone; we counted my walnuts and celebrated every passing hour. Of course we also played charade again, and this time other people joined us again. 

When I looked on my watch the next time it was already 11:15, 45 min to go. At this point I finally realized: I'm on Times Square! On NYE! I am going to see the Ball Drop, LIVE! 

We played one final round of charade before we stood up at 11:45 to prepare ourselves for the upcoming event. 

11:59, the countdown started and we all felt relieved. The Ball Drop was finally happening, directly in front of us, in our view. It was a childhood dream coming true! 

As soon as the ball was down and the firework ended we made our way to the nearest restaurant: Applebee's. 

We and all the strangers we spent our evening with rounded this special NYE off with some nice conversations and dinner there. At 2:30am we left the restaurant and hurried to Grand Central to drive back to Tarrytown. Reaching my bed I felt asleep immediately.

The next day I woke up at 8am to watch the New Years Day competition of the Four Hills Tournament, which seemed crazy to a lot of people. Afterwards I spent the whole day in bed! Just for dinner I stood up again. 

After all this was a really special NYE for me. I really enjoyed it, but I'm already looking forward to spent my NYE in a warm climate some day. 

See u.