Sumimasen!

Ohaio gusaimasu!

So yes, I did arrive here safely. I got lucky too, because today Lufthansa went on strike and I arrived yesterday. The flight was long and even though it was night for most passengers, I could not sleep, because my body was kind of like: "GOOD MORNING AMERICA!" So yeah, I was sort of tired when I arrived at my residence. The residence is a lot better than my campus in New York, and thank God for hot showers and soft beds! Oh, and when I got out of my plane, I was cornered by the Japanese version of  "Hello, goodbye." My brain was practically mush at that point, so my answers weren't the most intelligent ones out there. After my failure of an interview, a guy from EF came to pick me up. We drove from the airport to my residence, through Tokyo. So I got to see the Tokyo tower (you know, the one that looks like the Eifel tower). The people here are super nice and helpful. Japan is a bit different than Europe or the USA, though. For example, they have toilets with warmed seats, and that's not the only thing these magical toilets possess. Oh no, they have a music and rear cleaning option. This morning I safely made my way to school (courtesy of my room mate) and had my first classes. We started by pointing at stuff and asking what they were. (Nan desu ka? Pen desu). My SPIN class was a writing class, so we had to replicate the characters, sort of like you do in kindergarten. I had fun, though. After that I had my welcome tour, and one of the staff members showed me around. I saw Shibuya crossing (Japan's answer to Times Square) and a lot of karaoke bars. When I had finished my tour, it was time to go home, on my own. I got really lucky (again) because the trains after mine were delayed by three hours, because of an accident or something. I am really exhausted by all these new experiences, so that's it for now.

Sayonara,

Dear New York,

I said my goodbyes this week. I strolled to Central Park one last time, and finally found Strawberry Fields. I went to the Central Park Zoo and walked up and down Fifth, just for the Hell of it. I had an amazing time and made awesome friends. My classes were really good, and I learned a lot. My departure test proves that (a perfect score for the EFCELT and 97% for the other test). I will miss the unpredictable weather (yes, we have snow right now), the punctual train, the colourful personalities and most of all the amazement of such a beautiful city. It was weird saying goodbye this Wednesday, because I leave Saturday. I guess Thanksgiving makes everything a bit different. I hope I will see my friends again, fortunately a lot of them live close to home. I had one last "real" meal yesterday. I celebrated Thanksgiving at an American family's house and it was amazing. The food was exquisite, and the people were extremely nice. And guess what? Half of the people there were originally from Japan. It was fun meeting real Americans and they even brought us back to school in a mini-van. They told me my English was superb, and of course that made me very happy. I'm excited for Japan, but my heart aches every time I think of leaving here. I don't want to leave NY, but I do want to go to Tokyo. All in all, my mood is pretty confusing right now. I am glad to see my family soon, though, and I can't wait to celebrate Sinterkerstennieuw with Ilse and Anne on Skype (yep, we're doing that guys, no escaping it). I did do everything that was on my highlights list. I went on Top of the Rock with Victoria and we didn't freeze to death. I even went ice-skating, and sorry New Yorkers, but you don't know how to skate. That sh*t is dangerous, guys. It was awesome, anyways. On Sunday I even ate a candied apple, how American is that? I loved the Christmas decorations, but they made a little bit sad to, because I won't be able to spent Christmas here. I want to thank my parents for being awesome enough to let me do this and for being the most loving and supportive parents in the world. I love you mom and dad<3. I also want to thank all the amazing people that I met here for making my time here something that I will never forget. Thank you, dear New York, you've been unforgettable.

Yours truly,

Highlighting the highlights

I am so sorry for skipping my post last week. I had a good reason, though, we wanted to go to a light festival (like the one in Berlin), but it was cancelled. Apparently they weren't prepared for so many people, and they had to cancel. Sucks, but we made something out of it, and we went to Brooklyn Bridge Park to watch the skyline and drank something at Starbucks. It was fun in the end, but we had expected a little more. Now, let's talk about some recent developments. First and foremost, my excellent use of commas. Yes, our teacher introduced us to the wonderful world of commas. Woohoo! Secondly, I am leaving here next Saturday (if I could use emojis, this sentence would end with the "scream" emoji. You know what I mean). This means that I started thinking about what I still want to do before I leave. I went to the Museum of Natural History last Sunday, so I can cross that of my list. Which reminds me, I'm going to make a list of the things you HAVE to do when you're in NY.

1. Get lost in Brooklyn

Brooklyn is one of those perfect places where you can get lost without it being a problem. As long as you keep your wits about you, you should be fine. But why would you want to get lost? Easy, because Brooklyn is incredibly beautiful. I loved the houses and all the non-pretentious hipsters (yes, I know that's like a empathetic sociopath, but still). The best neighbourhood is probably Williamsburg. So if you find yourself in NYC, go there! Enjoy the graffiti, the people and everything else Brooklyn has to offer.

2. Visit the Statue of liberty

It might sound like a cliche, but this is a must see. However, do not go there with any expectations. You will only be impressed by her beauty, if you don't expect her to be some gigantic statue that you can see from space. Don't forget to get off the boat and walk around Liberty and Ellis Island, or you will definitely miss out. Oh, and turn around to take a look at the skyline.

3. Explore Times Square and Broadway

Although most people visit Times when they are in New York, they often don't really explore the streets surrounding the square. Those streets are packed with cool restaurants, like Hard Rock Café and a horror themed restaurant. Plus, one of the streets near Times Square is Broadway. You should actually scan the back doors of the theaters around 5 or 10:30 in the evening, because you might come across a Broadway star, e.g Neil Patrick Harris (A.K.A Barney from "How I Met Your Mother"). Alexandra and I are think we saw Bradley Cooper on Sunday, but he walked really fast and was wearing a hat, so we're not sure. 

4. Go on top of the Rock

"O MY GOD, We've gotta go to the top of the Empire State Building!" Wrong. You see there is one small problem with going to the top of the Empire State Building, and that is that you can't actually SEE the building, because you're on top of it. If you want to take some great pictures from a higher vantage point, it's best to go to Rockefeller Centre, and take your pictures there. You can see the entire New York skyline including the Crystler Building and the Empire State Building. Plus, if you go around Christmas, you can see the Christmas tree and the ice skating rink.

5. Go ice skating in Central Park

There are different skating rinks in Central Park, and it doesn't matter to which one you go. Just go there, because A) Central Park and B) It's cheaper than most other rinks. You can go by night or by day, and both will result in great pictures of the Manhattan skyline. Just be sure to bring warm clothes, because even when it's not that cold out, you'll freeze once you're on the ice. 

6. Pay a visit to the Museum of Natural History

I am not a museum person. (I spent most of my time in the Rijkmuseum and the Louvre sitting on a bench). I did like this museum, however. Maybe it's because of all the dinosaurs, I mean come on, they're awesome. If you want to visit, you should go by subway (take the S or the 7 from Grand Central and after that take the A or C uptown to the museum), because there is a different entrance for the people that come by subway, and there's a much shorter line. If you have a student ID, bring it, because you will get a discount. There's an other advantage to coming in through the subway, because you will enter the museum at the lowest level. That way you can walk around on the lowest floor, and slowly work your way up to the highest one. The museum has a very clever lay-out, so if you use my method, you can see everything in about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Of course, you'll need more time, when you pay for the bonus exhibits.The museum is very nice and it's amusing to see some of the "characters" from Night at the Museum. 

7. Go to Brooklyn Bridge Park and walk across the bridge

The view is amazing, and the experience of walking from one side of the river to the other is just awesome. You should definitely go here at night, and bring a camera with flash, gloves and preferably a cup of coffee. It's possible to bike across the bridge as well, but I am not sure if they let you rent bikes after dark. 

8. Celebrate Thanksgiving like a real American

If you do happen to find yourself at New York over Thanksgiving, you should definitely celebrate it. Although, I don't think that you'll find an American willing to take you home for Thanksgiving (except if you're a pretty girl), so you should try to find a restaurant that's open at Thanksgiving. You could check if they have a special Thanksgiving diner, or just ask if they have typical dishes. Not a lot of restaurants are open on this holiday, so it's probably best to make a reservation. Since Thanksgiving is a family holiday, you could also try to cook something with your own family. In case you're wondering, I'm celebrating Thanksgiving at an American family's home. I am the lucky bastard that gets the "full" experience.

I have done all the things listed above, or I am planning on doing it, so there's really no excuse not to follow my advise. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you guys that I graduated! I even got a certificate, because I have a 100% attendance. 

Yours truly,

"You got gum-gum for me dum-dum?"

Just chillin' with Teddy Roosevelt 

French Ladies and monsters

Pff, I have had a busy week and I didn't even plan on it. Let's start with last weekend. We went to the Highline (a park built on a former elevated train track) and I am pretty sure that we set the record for slowest time getting there. We arrived at Union square around two and it should take about half an hour to get to the park. We arrived at the Highline at six. It took us four frigging hours to get there. No, we did not get lost. Fact is that we were with a group that wanted to stop at every shop and thus it took us four hours. Luckily we were just in time to see the sunset and the park was very pretty. We had some food at a Italian restaurant and then I went back. After my weekend I made some new friends, although new isn't quite the right word. I already knew Victoria (she's in my SPIN-class) and Alexandra (who is in my regular class), but this week I hung out with them a lot. We went to EF's Halloween party on Thursday and had a lot of fun even though around ten we were interrupted by the fire alarm. God, how we love that fire alarm (sigh). Because I didn't want to use my "costume" for Friday I used a make-up look from YouTube and it turned out quite O.K. Victoria and Alex were pretty scary. Friday Alex, Louise, Victoria and I went to the Halloween Parade in NYC. We saw so many people in awesome costumes. E.g. minions, geishas, white women, taxis, team rocket, clowns (freaking clowns, man) and much more. We walked in the parade as well and everyone wanted to take pictures of Alexandra, because she was dressed up as Batgirl. We even met a stuttering Batman that said: "I s-s-supose t-there i-is n-ne-need f-for m-m-more than o-one b-b-bat." There was also a tower that had tentacles coming out of the windows and the tentacles were moving! We ate at the Hardrock Café and had the worst waiter in the history of waiters. He managed to get us the wrong order not one, not two, but three times. The food was good though and when we went outside we discovered that it was raining like crazy. So instead of walking we took the subway to Grand Central and went home. Today I finally got to see the Statue of Liberty (a,k.a the French Lady and Miss Liberty). I went with Nelly and Henriette and I swear that if I got a dollar for every time that Henriette says: "It's an adventure." I would be rich right now. We took some awesome photo's and had to revive Nelly because, being from Mexico, she wasn't used to the cold and was only wearing a sweater when it was 3 degrees Celcius (I refuse to use Farenheit). We went to Ellis Island as well and I found my last name in the book with the last names of all American immigrants (couldn't find mum's name though). After that we went to see the bull on Wallstreet, Because it was so cold we drank something at Starbucks and bought gloves at the H&M. I bought headphones for me and Thijs too. That's pretty much it, enjoy the pictures, because they rock!

Yours truly,