First, let me introduce myself: My name is Giulianna Guirro Iodice, I a 22-year-old Journalism student from Brazil, and current living in NYC for at least 6 months to study Fashion Business at Parsons and some journalism courses at NYU, too. I just moved here 40 days ago, so this city is pretty new for me. Well, I can say that the experience has been amazing so far, but it’s so funny how things here can be really different from my country. My first shock was that people here are really independent, opposite from the Brazilians, who are always helping each other.
View from Manhattan – Giulianna and her friends
Now I have to tell you guys about some random and funny things that happened with me since I moved:
1. DIRTY CLOTHES
Doing laundry here is very strange, because most of the times you don’t have it in your apartment – only downstairs or in an outside place. Therefore, you just have to pick all of your dirty clothes and walk in the street carrying a basket (?). Believe me, you will FOR SURE mess with some clothes you love – I´m missing my leopard pants that I let in the dryer and now are not my size anymore.
2. CABS
I can’t write this text without mentioning the cabs! OMG, they can be totally crazy! The drivers are always speeding and they usually ask you to tell the address you are going to a couple of times… One thing that I have learned is to take the subway or walk, since here is summer right now.
3. NYC IS LIKE A MARATHON
You will see that everybody is always in a rush and walking really fast on the streets, so don’t try to type in your cellphone and just stay in the middle of the sidewalk because someone will yell or be rude with you.
East River Run Path
4. THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS
Of course, you will be amazed with the nights in the city: you can go out 7 days a week and everyday there will be a bunch of people drinking and dancing as if they don’t have to work tomorrow – but they do. Believe me, I spent one week going out every night, and in the end I was just sick, tired and couldn’t go out of my bed for 24 hours.
5. SUSHI, SALAD, BURRITO…
Oh, another important thing to mention: the food! You can get them easily in every corner, but you will probably don’t find homemade food like Brazilians are used too: rice, beans, vegetables and a great beef are not so basic here! Of course, I ended up finding a Brazilian restaurant and it just felt like heaven, no kidding.
6. IN NYC YOU ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR AN APARTMENT
In the moment, I have another problem: to deal with finding a new apartment. I think here is the most difficult city to do that. Some points: it’s too expensive, a lot of places are dirty/small/don’t have any windows/old. In the end, if you find one, you can end up with a crazy roomie too (it’s a risk to take, because right now I have the most nice roomies ever). I am searching by myself for two weeks and until now, nothing went well (so if you are reading this just wish me luck or I will be homeless on the beginning of October).
Downtown view
Reading my text again, I realized that I only mentioned some bad things about here because I was trying to be funny (hope I could make it!), but living here is like my dream and I have never been so happy in my life! If you want to see more about my experience as a New Yorker, just go to my profile on Instagram @giuiodice or read my texts here at Casper Libero Her Campus – on the fashion section!