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