Part 2 NY dreaming adventures with Gerrygaga

luckily gerry showed up only hours after the girls left for New York. I waited patiently in the arrivals department calling random people to kill my boredom and thats when i realized my phone’s battery was starting to die on me. So at first I freaked out

I am really glad that I got to spend most my first traveling experience with my friend Gerry. It’s fun to share such a fun yet scary & new experience with someone so close like your best friend. It’s comforting to know that they are there for you and are experiencing the same feelings and emotions as you. 

Originally Gerry was suppose to accompany me in England, aka meet in Brighton the day of our program start. I was suppose to go to Ireland for week before my program started but I  ran into a problem there. I have a lovely story about the ordeal when I talk about my Irish experience… So plans changed and I didn’t end up going to Ireland after my NY trip with Nancy and Adeline. So I was stuck in NY for a week alone. I was freaking out before leaving I had 2 weeks to figure something out. Luckily Gerry was so kind to join me after some convincing, but I didn’t only ask him because I didn’t want to be alone I asked him because I knew that we would have a great time together like we always do, & NY is a must see!

So while I waited for him for 3 hours at terminal I began to worry, and past my time by walking around and drawing a sign that says “Welcome to NY Gerry Gaga”, once I finally say him walking towards me all my fears went away and all the excitement came rushing back. Now it was time for another experience in 

Veni Vidi Vici New York!

Central park -The one and only thing I was dying to see and when I got there is was so amazing everything I imagined and more. It’s the biggest & greenist park I have ever been to, it begins on 60th st. and ends on 77th. What I find really interesting there is that there are so many walking paths, hills, secret spots, a huge lake and million ponds, with a nice view of near by sky scrapers. There are a couple of my favorite spots in this park. That main bridge that is featured in most movies particularily in uptown girls where she jumps into the giant pond. I was on a mission to find it each time I visited. Another great spot is . We sat watching the people in boats paddle by like a fairy tale.

Empire State Building - is pretty tall. I’ve got to say they truly did place in the best location away from the main island but not too far from a ferry ride.

Statue of Liberty - beautiful

9/11 memorial and ground zero

Central park

Brooklyn Bridge 

Washington square park

Time Square

New York- “this is where dreams are made of”

New York a place I had wanted to visit about more than a year ago with my boyfriend for spring break or a for a weekend trip after possibily going to Washington DC for USSA conference, that I so sadly didnt not get picked for I guess my hard work didn’t not pay off or I guess I wasn’t favored enough by the comission who choose particpants the first plus 50 delegation in years. Now I was going on my own time.

Despite the fact that recently in my college years I have been gaining more and more expereince traveling around my own country, this time it felt different. I was an east cost virgin. 

I can still remember the first days of the rest of my life from various changes in my life. Mostly because it all not too long ago. I still remember the day I left for New York. The first day of my new life without my California, without the comfort of many familiar aspects of my life and without my family and most my friends.

I woke up at like 6 in the morning and quickly got dressed. I spent the night at my boyfriend’s house . I remember being on the bus and staring out at the ocean. It was still early and . I remeber thinking that this was the last time I would see the west coast for the next six months. And that there reminded me that I was …

WELCOME TO NEW YORK! 

I knew what NY looked like but I didn’t

One way to coordinate myself around ny is thanks to about 60 percent of American movies that are based in NY some I can think about off the top of my head that I was inspired by while in NY was uptown girls, bride wars, sex and the city, 

Pizza !!!!!! So its true what they say about Pizza in NY

Beginning of the adventure

Ever since I came to UCSB and became a global major I’ve been interested in traveling abroad. I had set my eyes and heart on France ever since I began learning the language back in High School. I was determined to go to Paris and study! However that didn’t really happen. I never qualified for the right program at my university’s education abroad program =( 

After my best friend got accepted and went to Paris for a fall semester, I decided that it was time to get my shit together and take advantage of any opportunities. I then began my search for programs. Luckily for me EAP at UCSB is pretty efficient always around getting people informed and recruiting almost religiously. One day I went to their fair. They had so many programs that made me realize ” …hey maybe after all I don’t have to go only to France” so I decided to open my options, my eyes and my heart. 

Another place I’ve been dying to go to is England, particularly London! As I walked past the tables for each program I noticed 2 programs in England that I thought would be perfect for me. One over the summer and one in fall. The one over the summer was in a nice little city called Brighton, 8 week program jam packed with excursions and fun activities. The other one was actually in London. However it was not an immersion program, like I wanted. Both programs seemed do-able. I also browsed through other programs in Europe including Italy programs. One particularly caught my attention the UC Siena program in which they had both a summer and fall semester.

It hard to think about what program I wanted to do more and what country I was going to choose, then the idea came to me…I could do mulitple programs, in order get to experience two countries in Europe and to get more for my buck. So now I just needed to figure out which country I would pick for the summer and which one would I pick for the fall. Idealy I wanted to be in England longer, because I actually knew the language and frankly I was more interested.  

Source: allthingseurope