New York, New York! 1st day in the States

So August 5th 2009, the day of all days. Okay maybe not but it was a pretty great day for me because it was my first day of my exchange year in the United States in America and all started out in New York with a group of some german exchange students for an Orientation Camp. After saying goodbye to all my folks at home, which was hard I took 3 flights and finally arrived at the Newark International Airport in New Jersey where I met all the german kids from my organization GLS, located in Berlin. The first impression of the US: Wow! I've already visited the States in 2006 but this was nothing like it. This was my country for the next coming months. We all were quite tired but everybody was so excited to be finally in America and so we went on and with our guide, we first visited the Empire State Building and it was amazing. The view, everything. From it's top you are able to look over the whole entire City of New York, the big apple. That's where we had our first experiences in an american shop to. This one was Walgreens and we just bought sodas, but even something small can be really exciting on the first day of foreign students in NYC. After we already saw quite a bit of the center of Manhattan, we drove with our american Coach to it's borders were Greenwich [say: Grinich] located is. We went and ate at John's Pizza, a really small but famous little pizza place. It is loved by the rich and famous for it's amazing pizzaz and really, they are amazing. After supper, we had some free time and were able to walk around through the streets of the so-called Village of New York. Greenwich is one of the prettiest places in New York city. On our way to the hotel, our bus driver stopped on a parking lot, outside of the Island of Manhattan from where we had an incredible view on the city's skyline by night. Later then, after a 27 hour day we finally arrived in our Marriot Hotel in New Jersey. It was an awesome first day in the States.

Big Apple, the second!

The second day, after a good night, and a funny american breakfast with bagels and bacon we first visited Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue. Rockefeller is the famous place were the TV channels always broadcast their news shows. So, we where able to go alone and walked over 5th avenue; it was amazing. So many different shops. You can find everything there, from expensive designer wear over Ipods to Kids Toys. There's really everything. My new german friend Janika, the one I was normally with and I went in almost every shop and visited every important sight-seeing spot on the avenue. One of these was the famous New York Plaza Hotel, which is in many movies. The Hotel is amazing. Everything is big, sparkly and expensive and we two european girls right in it. Later then we met with our group again and walked through Central Park, the 'country-side' of the big city, to the John Lennon Memorial that his wife Yoko Ono made for him after his assassination. The part of the park has the name Strawberry Fields, named after the famous Beatles song. We continued walking and came to the Museum of Arts and History and had 2 hours for ourself to visit it. The museum was a really cool experience together with Janika and Jan, I went down to the Museum cafeteria to eat lunch. Later, then our guide took us to Times Square, my favorite part of the trip. Times Square is really colorful and there are lights and flashy commercials everywhere. There are so many cool and funny shops, like an MM shop or a Hershey's chocolate shop. The famous Toys R' Us is so different too and it is really worth visiting it. After a chill afternoon, we went and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe at Times Square where our small group met with a big netherlandish group of students. Later, we all together watched the Broadway show Rock of Ages which was really sweet:) After the show, we had the possibility to take some pictures of Times Square by night and went back to our hotel for a good night sleep.

Third and last day!

Our third day, which was also our last day already started out with a trip to Chinatown and Little Italy where we walked around as a group because, really, the neighborhood was a little bit strange. That part of the never sleeping city was also quite dirty and had funny people everywhere who tried to sell us their stuff. And they really have strange stuff, like frogs in glasses or dried out turtles and so on. After that we walked to Pier 17, a famous Pier at the New York Harbor. The Pier had an awesome food court, with food from all over the world where we had lunch and we bought some souvenirs from the city. For that afternoon, our tour-guide had booked a shark-boat tour over the Hudson River. A shark-boat wasn't like a normal tour boat; it was smaller and the passengers where sitting closer to the water so it was splashing everywhere. Our tour took us around the peninsula of Manhattan, former Ellis Island for immigrants, the New York ship harbor and of course, Lady Liberty, my favorite. After we were all wet, we walked down to the famous Brooklyn Bridge and the moment when you walk on it, it feels quite amazing. Later, we walked over to Wall Street and the Stock Exchange Center, followed by Ground Zero, the place of happening of September 11th 2001. We went over the a shopping center with a huge glass wall from which you had an (unfortunately) good view. For Supper we want to John's Deli a jewish deli, typical for New York, and their cookies and cole slaw where amazing. We hadn't planed anything for the evening and so we went back to the hotel, sat together and discussed about the upcoming months and wrote postcards. We all went to bed quite early because we had to leave the hotel at 5 am the next day. 

Departure Day!

So, we left the hotel at around 5 am and split into two groups. One would go to JFK Airport and one to Newark International. I left with the second group and finally sat in a plane for Dallas/ Fort Worth, Texas, my new State.