Sunday morning, May 29th, 2011.
As I awoke, the first thing to grab my eye was the beautiful view of the skyscrapers from the wall-to-wall windows that sit next to my bed. My first thought was, “Welcome to New York City!” That beautiful view was the first thing I saw on that first morning I awoke in NYC. It was so incredibly surreal. I still cannot believe I am finally here! I am finally living in the Big Apple; the fashion capital of the United States.
I am living in Kaufman Hall at the Fashion Institute of Technology. This dorm houses all of the non-FIT students that are interning in the city. From my window at Kaufman Hall I can see the prestigious New Yorker Hotel, and even the top of the Empire State Building–which was so perfectly lit up in red, white, and blue this past weekend for Memorial Day.
For those collegiettes™ that have been here before, you know the crazy things you can see in this city. For those of you who have not, you would be amazed at the amount of things you see here. For instance, we all remember the Nickelodeon movie “Goodburger,” right? Well, that restaurant actually exists here and blatantly states “Home of the Goodburger” on the sign outside.
And just a few blocks from my dorm is the New York Trapeze School. Crazy right? They have their doors open most nights and you can see the students inside flying from trapeze to trapeze, and even twisting and tangling their way up long drapes of fabric, all while in mid-air.
I have only been here for four days and I cannot believe how different this place is from any other city I have ever been.
For now, let’s just focus on the city. You will see more taxis than personal vehicles on the streets of New York, but the majority of people here walk to their destinations, or take the subway if the walk is too far. While my feet hurt and are covered in blisters (along with every other intern here for the summer), I still choose to walk and frolic through the city to explore this amazing place that I get to call home for the next two months.
On Monday night, I decided to take a nice long run through Chelsea (one of my roommates is from up-state New York and suggested I run down by Chelsea Piers, which is conveniently only two avenues down from us). I took her recommendation and ran down by the piers. On the last mile of my 3-mile run, I was coming back up the piers right as the sun was setting. It was the second most amazing thing I have seen since being in NYC (aside from the stellar view from the top of the Empire State Building at night). You could see the sun set over New Jersey, and everyone at the piers was seemingly mesmerized by this sunset. Even I had to stop running and take it in.
It was the most refreshing thing I have seen while being here. Everyone there was just sitting, peacefully watching. One man was even so intrigued by its beauty that he was recording the whole thing on his iPhone, for what I would say was a good five minutes. After it all sank in, all I could do was smile. After three long and exhausting days in the city, that sunset totally turned it all around. I was officially ready to take on more. Coincidentally, I just so happened to be starting my internship at the Anthropologie in Soho at 8am the next morning.
The beginning of my internship journey in NYC starts next time!