Week 37:
I still can't believe it, but i actually went to New York City on my Sweet Sixteenth birthday! This was the best weekend of my life!
Sorry if this report is too long but I just have so much to talk about!!
On Thursday at night, I went to Fonthill to stay with my Japanese Friend and a Rotary member to drive to Buffalo on the next morning.
Day 1: On Friday (my birthday) we had to get up at 3:30 pm to drive to the Buffalo Airport to meet up with all the other exchange students and the leaders. WE actually didn't take a plane to New York; we drove in two Vans for 7 long hours!
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| In the van |
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| Best Friends ♥ |
Every few hours we stopped to get something to eat and my exhchange student friends made me a cute flower crown, a card and a cupcake for my birthday! I love them so much.
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| the card and cupcake they made for me |
On Friday at 2pm, we finally arrived in New York City!!!!! You can't imagine what we all looked like: faces pressed against the videos taking 100 pictures a minute like crazy tourists! ;)
The first thing we did was we got dropped of at the museum of Arts. We only had half an hour to look at all the amazing things in this museum, because our schedule was packed!
Me and my friends at the museum / me and my flower crown that they gave me
After the museum, we walked to the Central Park. It was beautiful, because it was a bit foggy which made the park look so pretty. We took a long walk and i saw some places in the park were actual movies were recorded!
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| We were in the place were "The Happening" was recorded |
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| At the place were "Home Alone" was shot |
I also loved the image of the park, the trees, the grass and all the nature in a huge city like New York. You could see the nature combined with sky scrapers, which impressed me.
After walking through the central park, we walked through the upper west side to the Subway. I missed all these big buildings and big cities so much! These buildings were huge and slowly disappeared in the fog the farther I looked up.
At night we went to China Town to grab some dinner. I imagined China Town being prettier and busier but it wasn't very impressive. Soho in London, UK is more beautiful.
Day 2: We also went to the place were the twin towers used to stand. They built a Sky Scryper called the Freedom Tower. Unfortunately I couldn't see the squares that were made to springs (where the twin towers used to stand) because it was under construction.
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| 9/11 memorial |
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| Freedom Tower |
After that, we walked through Highline Park. It was sooo interesting because the ground was made of stone, but all around you are different plants and trees growing around railway tracks. The railway tracks were used may years ago to transport things around the city with trains. Now its only used as a park and once again you can see the nature and human creation uniting.
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Highline Park
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Then we went straight to the Chelsea market with hundreds of stores, restaurants and bakeries. There was also an elevator which leads you to the Youtube Business place, right across the street from the Google Building! Its just so amazing how many crazy and really important buidings are built in New York City!
No matter where you turn your head, there is always something amazing to see!
At Lunchtime, we finally went to Grand Central Terminal! It was as beautiful as in all the music videos and movies I've seen it in.We had lunch there and ate delicious ice cream! I loved the "room" where you could stand in one corner of the room and whisper and the person standing in the other corner can understand you clearly!
The paintings on the ceiling show the star signs and the stars of the sky. It looks so beautiful!
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| Madi and Me in Grand Central Station |
The afternoon of this sunday even got better, believe it or not. In the early afternoon we maid our way to the Broadway to watch a Broadway musical called "Newsies".
The story was about around 20 boys who called themselves Newsies, selling newspapers in New York every day to earn a little money to feed their families. These boys are very poor and don't get paid well. As the government cuts their payments, the Newsies go on strike and that's how the whole story starts.
I was so impressed by this musical; these 18-25 year old guys could sing, dance, do acrobatics, act and were just the most handsome guys I've ever seen! This is my favorite musical of all time!
So when the musical ended, all girls were of course fangirling and we couldn't wait to go outside to get pictures and autographs from the boys. I was standing in line and almost got a picture with the main actor Corey Cott, when our leader told us we had to leave. I was so upset, you don't even know. So I was screaming: "NOOOOO!" and Corey Cott made eye contact with me for a few seconds! He totally thought that I was a mental fangirl but I loved this moment!!! I know I'm crazy hahahaha.....
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| my favorite actor Corey Cott |
A song from Newsies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBfmAZaGyRM
After this amazing musical, we went to Times Square to do some shopping. Times Square was just overwhelming, all those lights and advertisements were so exciting and I couldn't take enough pics! We had an hour to shop and walk around which of course isn't enough for Times Square.. All the people also keep you from walking fast and we had to stand in lines to pay. 'It was amazing how many different people were walking on the streets, from different countries and backgrounds, some in costumes, some business people, some tourists and all so open minded and nice!
My friends and me went to the M&M store and to some souvenir shops. I bought a few little souvenirs and of course an I ♥ NY sweater ;)
At night we ate at a restaurant close to the Times Square. It was a very long and exciting day and I absolutely loved it !!
Day 3:
Sunday was sadly a very short day because we had to make our way back at lunch time. In the morning we hopped in the vans and drove right to the Rockefeller center. We didn't go inside but we took pictures of it. I honestly don't even know what its purpose is but it's a very cool building.
Right after that we went up the Empire State Building. When I first looked down on the city of New York I just thought: "Is this real life?", because I felt like I was looking one of these postcards or pictures on google, because the view was so amazing. I could see all over the city, thousands of buildings covering the ground. And in the middle, this huge green area. The Central Park. I couldn't actually believe that this view was real life.
Our last stop was the Statue of Liberty. We hopped in the Vans again and drove right to the place where the ferry would pick us up and take us to Liberty Island. The Island is actually pretty small, and so is the statue. I mean it's not actually small but from all the pictures I've seen of it, I thought the Statue would be gigantic. It was smaller than I had expected but still so beautiful! It was a pretty little island with a tourist shop, a food place and a view point to the skyline of New York, which was pretty gorgeous.
I honestly had the most amazing weekend of my whole life. I finally got to visit the most beautiful and exciting city in the world and I would have never wanted to spend my birthday anywhere else. I'm in love with this city and I can't wait to come back as soon as possible.
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