Hi everybody!

There’s a lot I have to tell you! Time flies in New York City, believe me. There has been a lot going on here!

First of all, work. We have been working on more campaigns and some of them are already getting approved. It feels amazing to know I am part of something so big. I’ve been learning a lot, and everybody here is so much fun! Yesterday we had our Cinco de Mayo party. Since we are the Hispanic division of Grey, we organized it. It was a lot of fun… but still, the funniest thing is that we don’t even celebrate it in Mexico. We do recognize the day and what it means, but we don’t party as they do here. Anyway it was a lot of fun to see everybody Latinized. We even played Loteria, a mexican traditional game really similar to Bingo.

The city, keeps going and going. So many parades and things to do. We all had a picnic the other day at Central Park, we ate salads and finger food, and just laid in the grass enjoying the sun. Finally the weather is getting better!

And celebrities are everywhere! Until today, I have seen Robert Deniro in the Tribecca Film Festival, Tina Fey filming in our neighborhood, Hanson at work in Fifth Avenue, the cast of Harry Potter at Times Square and that’s only me, you should ask the others… If you are coming, please, don’t forget your camera. You’d better be ready!

Graduation is coming and people are getting nostalgic… nobody wants to say goodbye! But, with a little bit of luck and some saving skills, I hope we all see each other again.

Gotta go! My lunch hour is over, Ciao!

Moni

PS. I’ll post some pictures over the weekend

It has been a couple of weeks since we arrived to the city. There are so many things to do here! But I’ll talk to you about that later, now as I promised in my last post, I will tell you about my internship.

I’m an intern at an advertising agency. The name is Wing, part of Grey Global Group. Being an intern at the creative department, I get to do a lot of interesting things. We have been working with campaigns for Johnnie Walker, the New York International Latino Film Festival, Downy, Cover Girl, Olay and many others. I’ve been enjoying so much to work here. I get to be in the brainstorming sessions and to give ideas! I feel so lucky!

Even though we work all day, we find ways to balance it and get to know the city. Tonight I got to watch my favorite musical of all times: The Phantom of the Opera. I loved it! If you get to visit New York, please don’t leave without going to a great show =)

Good night!

Hey again! So much for reviving the blog, huh? The truth is that I’m so tired when I come home from work and there’s so much to explore in the city, so I haven’t had the time or the energy to update! Also, the WiFi isn’t working in our room so I have to go downstairs to surf and sometimes I’m a bit lazy

However, we’re still adoring NYC and we’re thrilled to be here! When we’re not working, we’re shopping, partying and going to Broadway shows! We’ve already found some favorite spots in the city! This weekend, most of the IIBs and some other people from our residence went to a club in Brooklyn. It was so much fun to hang out with everyone because we’ve all been really busy since we came here. On Saturday, I went shopping with Jas on Bleecker St (even though the rain was pouring down) and after that we met up with some of the others and went clubbing in East Village and Soho. On Sunday, we went to this awesome brunch at the W hotel in New Jersey. The sun was shining, the drinks were good and there was a lot of interesting people so we mingled a lot! To sum it up, the weekend was very busy but amazingly fun!

I’ll add some pictures to this post when I get home! Right now I’m at work, but I had some minutes over so I thought I’d use them to blog. I’m also going to blog about our residence and the area in which we live, so have a lookout for that!

Back to work now, so long!

** Update! Some pics from the weekend – as promised!

Hi,
I wanted to put a little post up about my wonderful visit to ITESM Monterrey campus. I was only there a few days, but I was treated like a rock star. I was picked up at the airport with someone holding a sign with my name – a dream come true (how sad is that?). I was taken to my accommodations where I was happy to get some sleep before the adventure began.

The next morning I had breakfast in one of the cafeteria’s on campus with my friend and colleague, Gabriela Anaya Galvan. She took care of my every need, and arranged for many great meetings and presentations. Did I mention the food? I was born in Texas and have loved Mexican / Southwestern style food my whole life – I was in heaven.

Two days of meetings, presentations, an international fair, and a wonderful lunch were soon behind me, and I was sitting in a restaurant just off campus hoping a few IIB Alumni might show up for a beer with me. I was very happy when a few of them did. I was not surprised to hear they are doing well, and are on the path to achieve their career goals.

I will upload a couple of photos, and am happy to talk to anyone about my visit if you have any questions.

Best,

Jeff

Have you ever had a dream come true?
Well… this is it.

Welcome to the fascinating world of “It’s just like in the movies!”: New York City.

These, my friends, are the chronicles of a ridiculously happy intern. This is me, Monica, a 21 year-old Mexican girl who wishes to become a big name in advertising. But hey! Everybody starts somewhere, and the IIB program is a great way to do it. Let me tell you a little bit about it…

The IIB SUNY New Paltz program

The program is about studying half of the semester in a very happy hippie town called New Paltz, and moving after to Manhattan to intern in the “big leagues.” So let’s start from the beginning…

The Town
New Paltz is enchanting, that’s the word; little houses, beautiful landscapes, good hippie vibe and lovable people. Main Street is full of restaurants where you can find from Mexican to Thai food, and tavern-like pubs with good old and new music. There is a cult for the vintage and the retro, so you can visit a lot of boutiques with ancient collectibles and books, or hippie alternative clothing and music. About bars… there is not a lot to choose from, but hey! It is cool to hang out somewhere and know everybody around.

The University
SUNY New Paltz is, just like the town, a place to relax, study and make friends. People are laid back but hard workers, so the vibe is very relaxed and friendly. We made a lot of  friends from countries like the US, Ecuador, Turkey, Brazil, Netherlands, Australia and France. Courses in the School of Business range from management, human resources, public relations and marketing; so you can find something you like. The education system is very similar to the one in Mexico, but the Swedish and German IIBs say their’s is different, is more autodidact.

The Weather
My hometown is in the Mexican desert, therefore… I had never seen it snow. And as you could imagine New Paltz, being at only 5 hours from Canada, was freezing cold! We even had a snow storm and, while all the other IIB guys were annoyed by it, I was running around excited like a 5 year-old kid. The lowest temperature I had ever experienced before was 39 F, and well, one day we had -71 F at New Paltz. I thought I was going to die.

Internship Training
So there we go, the 15 of us, carrying around our resumes feeling proud of our lifetime achievements, just to realize how badly written they were. Have you ever heard it is a no-no to put your age in your resume? Well, there are things you don’t know until you are told so. It was really good to have a special training for work interviews.

So keep reading this blog to know how moving to New York was and more about the Internship I finally got. I’ll give you a little hint about where I’m working at…

X.O.X.O. Gossip Girl.

Haha, just kidding! April Fools!

See ya!

Monica

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since anyone blogged here, but me and my classmate Monica are going to change that! My name is Sofia and I’m from Stockholm in Sweden, but I’ve been studying business and psychology in Uppsala. There are seven other Swedish people in the program this semester, and then there´s five Mexicans and two Germans. We’re all getting along really well and we’re enjoying every day!

We came to NYC last Friday and started our internships this Monday. I’m a public relations intern at Tommy Hilfiger, and even though I’ve only been there for three days I’ve learned quite a bit already. The office is very busy so there are many different tasks, which I like! The others have internships in areas ranging from advertising and events to real estate and law, so in other words our internships are pretty diverse.

We’re all very excited to be in NYC, but I must say that we really liked New Paltz as well! It’s a small town, but it’s very fun to be in as a student. We met a lot of amazing people there, and when we weren’t in class, we spent a lot of time in the local coffee shop and in the bars. If you’re thinking about applying to this program, you should know that you’ll probably have just as much fun in New Paltz as in NYC! I’m going to miss that place and everyone in it! This was all for this time, but I’ll try to blog once a week and so will Monica! Here’s a pic of this semester’s IIBs!

Hi,
Yes, the Fall 2010 class went by largely unnoticed from a blog stand point. We will work harder in the spring semester to get another couple of bloggers.

This semester was a successful one – with students getting great experience in marketing, project management, event planning, human resources, advertising – both creative and planning, branding, public relations, economic policy, and real estate. I must admit – this was likely the most cohesive group in my 5 years of coordinating the IIB program. They ALL seemed to truly like each other and get along quite well. I will miss them, and encourage them, as I do all IIB alumni to keep in touch. We hope to launch an alumni page soon – stay tuned.

On January 19 students arrived to the Super Eight Motel in New Paltz; lived and studied in that small but very comfortable hotel. After two months we moved to the city and started our internships, two months later some of the group started packing to go back home, but 5 out of 19 decided to stay for a longer period of time. This just means we are working hard and enjoying all the summer activities in the city.
This week Central Park had the New York Philharmonic and fireworks. Lots of people took the time to prepare picnics and met with friends on the Great Lawn. It was a great opportunity to enjoy nice music, relax and catch up with friends. This city is constantly organizing different outdoor activities during the summer; so I am planning on enjoying these sunny evenings on different activities New York offers.

See you…

cause it’s summer and the memories
are just waiting to happen

New York is in constant movement.

Since the summer is here everyone is leaving work early and seating around the fountains in the nearby parks enjoying their lunch. New York City people really enjoy those nice days like today when the sun comes out and you can wear nice summer and colorful outfits.

Two or three weeks ago I noticed how we all are in constant movement. Since the moment we wake up; we hurry to dress up, take a shower, buy breakfast on our way to work, catch the subway, run to the first available elevator and finally when we get to sit down and relax, we need to start running again to finish our day to day duties. When it’s time to leave work we want to quickly head back home to enjoy our free time with family or friends.

The streets are full with all kind of people; those who live in the City, those who work here but live somewhere else and all those who decided New York was their final destination for the summer. Everyone is walking fast and taking tons of pictures. You are definitively going to bump into those who are talking on the phone/blackberries/iPhones on their way, too busy to pay attention to whatever is happening around them. I consider myself one of them, I began as a tourist visiting and experiencing the City for a couple of months but as times goes by you start to feel as all of those people who are mistakenly immersed in the New York City daily routine.
I have been feeling that way for the past weeks, but just some days ago on my way to work I realized a 40 – 45 year old guy sitting on a bench on the park doing nothing. Obviously he’s what we call in French an SDF (with no permanent address) kind of person. He’s just sitting there, doing nothing not even talking to himself as most of the homeless people in NYC do. I walk pass him every morning, then on my lunch break and one more time when I’m heading back home and he’s still doing absolutely nothing just observing and God knows what he might be thinking of everything he sees because in this city you can find weird and funny things on the streets. Sometimes I feel jealous, I would love to spend some time just sitting and wondering around; but while New York City is constantly moving I might continue as well.

Well another semester has flown by. The cold, nervous, shy students we picked up at JFK back in January were nowhere to be found last night – the place was filled with confident business men and women who had just finished up a semester long program in NY, capped with 2 month internship in NYC.
We were very happy to have a number of the employers come out and help us celebrate this event. I will upload some pics below.
I enjoyed getting to know each of you, and helping you reach your goals this semester. Please keep in touch!