Big. Noisy. Crowded. Incredible! These are just some of the words I can think of to describe New York City, which is where I spent last weekend! My cousin has lived there for a while, and a school friend coincidentally moved a few blocks away from her this summer, so it worked out perfectly! I left early on Friday morning (missing a day of college, hehehe…) and ended up wasting most of the day travelling because of the time change and the distance between both houses and both airports!
Anyway, you know how there’s always that scene in movies showing a girl carrying a lot of luggage, running frantically to catch a bus while dodging honking cars and looking very lost in a foreign place? Well it actually WAS like that when I first arrived, and it was awesome! After I dropped my luggage off at Mathilde’s house, she took me on a tour of Brooklyn before we met up with Anna for supper. After a very late night, the next day was spent running around Manhattan in an effort to see as much as we could in very little time! I don’t think I’ve ever walked that much (or eaten that much chocolate) in my life! We took a short break to recover before bundling up and exploring Times Square at night, which, by the way, is EXACTLY as it’s advertised! No disappointments there! I had my camera in my hand the entire time, filming as much as I could (which I plan to edit into a short movie and post on here), and just drinking it all in!
Sunday was spent running around Brooklyn and Chelsea with a suitcase and a time restriction before I had to head back to the airport! But I have to hand it to Anna; she really managed to squeeze in a lot, showing me her work area, the statue of liberty, an incredible view of the city, a famous market and most importantly, her favourite cupcake shop!
It was all almost too good to be true, because as soon as I got to the airport I found out my flight back home had been delayed for three hours. The reason I was annoyed wasn’t because I would most likely miss the last bus to Rockford and have to spend the night in the airport, the REASON I was annoyed is coz I was stuck in the AIRPORT while I was in NEW YORK when I could have used those precious hours to explore! But there I sat, making a lot of frantic phone calls to figure out a plan B (which included running to catch the last shuttle and having Grandma pick me up at the station at 1:00am! )
On a lighter note, it really was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the reason I know it was a success is because my feet hurt and I was EXHAUSTED by the end (which, for those of you that know me well, does NOT happen very often!) So thanks to Anna and Mathilde for being awesome tour guides and making my short time there unforgettable!
