The last days I spent in NY were not as wonderful as I thought they’d be. I was not in the NYC mood and the consequences were that -during the week- I didn’t get to enjoy as much of the city as I wanted and in the weekends I put aside my personal beliefs to make up for the lost days. At work, people was not even aware that I was leaving. I’m happy for everyone who got a nice farewell party or gifts…I didn’t even get a recommendation later (it’ll be mailed to Mexico)…my bosses didn’t go to the ceremony…and well, I kindda understand them, but it got me really sad. Altough, I was blessed to have the company of great friends to cope with my blue mood.

Tonight is my last night at NYC, still my favorite city in the world. Now it means a lot more to me than what it meant two months ago. Every place, every smell, every sound and even every rat in the subway will remain in my memory. There will be trivial things that will fade away with time but some others I’ll embrace and try with all my heart not to forget…

Apparently to comment on every member of the IIB Program has become a fashion so…

ALEXIA: Simple, random, “centered”!! I will miss you a lot, thank you for every morning …for every breakfast and for waiting for me to get in the subway even when I wore high heels. “Keep that brethless charm” !!! You’re awesome woman and in NY you’ll never be alone. Take care and do not trust people so easily.

KIKI: Teddy Braham!! So charming and sweet! How do you do it? Always so polite and well educated. Tell your mom she did a good job :P. You are the kind of girly girl I wish I could be. Love your sense of style and how caring and thoughtful you are. It’s really hard not to think that I’ll miss your friendship =(. AwWw…

OSORIO: STAY AWAY FROM BREAD!! IT’S AN ORDER!! hahah…chek your email, I’ll send you something soon. Thanks for showing me that I’m not as careless as I thought i was. Mexico City is deff. on my priority list of things to do next semester. Take care woman! Whatever you lose, don’t lose that sparkle…keep smiling every day!

ROSSANO: You have the nicest name of all in NY. I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you when you left. I wish I had half the energy you do. Send me your pics ok? That pink camera ROCKS!! We will change the world just like those students in Chicago.

PAULINA: SOoOoooo LoOouD!! I’m gonna miss your northern accent! Always so excited and always so caring. I love how passionate you are about the things you like. Have fun in merry old Canada

MEL: AY AY !! hahaha You have a way to talk to everyone ..always!! I wish we knew each other better, but i’m grateful that i actually got to know you. You, Alex, Kiki and Pau will be my reason to love VIVA AEROBUS!! AHAHAHA

ALEX: I write about you last ’cause I’m sure you would say “Ladies First”. I can say that you are an example…ITESM’s mission statement came to life in you. Thanks for taking care of us, for showing us your kindness and for always being patient and friendly. I’m glad I had this time to share with you.

So, this is how I say goodbye to IIB and New York…grateful for every moment, grateful for the people I got to know here.

Thanks guys. It would have been nothing without you here…

AGUSTIN, GUSTAVO, BETIANA, ESMERALDA, RUUD, CRISTOBAL, KENJI

I’ll try to never forget about you…

ALL MY LOVE …

When you get into a taxi, you’ll notice right away the screen with NYC gral info displaying. The last time I got in a cab, th eguy asked me if I was watching, ofcourse I said no, because I wasn’t so he said “Im sick of it”, can you please turn it off? yeah! for real! I love NYC people, you can expecting anything! and by saying anything, I mean sometimes you go away with the taxi man asking for a tip.

Times in the internship are getting better.
By the end of the month, you get to know everyone pretty well after working 8 hrs a day, and also you are now used to know what your doing, and how efficient you can be.
Its sad because time to go is coming soon.

Make sure that you do everything you want. Doesn’t matter if its snowing, raining whatever, you gotta go for it and do it. NYC its here, but who knows if you’ll be here again!!

I personally think that NYC best places to be can be divided into two main categories: The top 10 most popular sites, and the top 350 underground places that you need to find by yourself.
Yes, I’d been to the Emprie State, to Chinatown, Times Square, etc. But I’ve found a lot of incredible places that most people don’t even know they exist. Last week, for example, I went to a traditional sandwich store called Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop. The place was just excellent… the food was unique (try the “egg cream”, NYC traditional.)

In two more weeks this amazing experience will end. I feel that two months was not enough time to know and enjoy this city. My plans for the coming weeks will be devoted to find other cool places to be… not the “most popular” but the “one of a kind” type of places.

“Student-to-Student Tips”
This is my top advice for all of you going to visit NYC: Enjoy everyday as if it is your last day in New York.

Best,

Lately I’ve been thinking about what it’s like to be a New Yorker. You get to see the action right where its taking place but to do so you leave behind many things that you didn’t even know you liked. Being a New Yorker means to have the best restaurants, the best bars and the best parties all day, every day. It means having public transportation available 24/7. Living here, as part of the city means to get to see hundreds of people from different nations all at once. It means: variety! A New Yorker gets to choose, he gets to decide and he makes what his mind desires.

It sounds amazing, doesnt it? But to be part of the city also means to spend a lot of your time IN public transportation (mostly underground), it means to spend a lot of money to eat at the best restaurants, drink at the best bars and attend to the best parties all day, every day. You do get to see a lot of people, but you can hardly get to actually know any of them.

New York City offers a wide variety of things to do and please don’t get me wrong. It is still my favorite city in the whole wide world, i just don’t know if I would want to live here as a New Yorker rather than just a visitor. I wouldn’t want to be in a hurry all the time. I wouldn’t want to take for granted how wonderful the city is, all the lights, the noices…I wouldn’t want to be in a bad mood all the time, cursing against the drivers and not enojoying every little step.

Like I said, I love New York…but I wouldn’t want to become a neOoyorKeR!!

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last blogged.

These past 12 days have been A M A Z I N G!!

The internship has been what I expected and more. Working at Time Inc. in the Research and Insight department is a priceless experience. I’ve become close friend with Excel and Outlook and i’ve tried my best to get to know everyone in my office. The truth is that being in cubicles gives you a lot of privacy but few opportunities to talk to anybody (unless is strict business).

I’ve wondered lately how have I been performing. I feel that I am at the right place, and my boss keeps telling me that I have good questions. She also keeps handing me more complex projects every time, but still I would like to know what she really thinks of my efforts.

Feedback is always useful, so I encourage you to aks for it. Sometimes you won’t hear what you want but at least you will know what went wrong and you will be able to modify anything that is compromising your experience as intern. It is true, you are in the lower step of the company. Some may want to take advantage of your good will and time available: GO FOR IT! You will learn from every little task they ask you to do and if you perform well and willingly I am sure they’ll trust you with bigger, harder tasks.

Good luck to all of you, I hope you are enjoying as much as I am.

Hello dear friends,
Today I just started my second week as an intern in Bertelsmann HRS. All I can say is that in this last week I learned a lot.

First of all, the corporative culture is excellent. My team is very well spirited and productive. Second, I’ve got the chance to attend to a very important national event… this means networking. Third, Bertelsmann group offers a wide variety of discounts and facilities to their employees (Yes, including interns) so, last Saturday I entered to the Metropolitan Museum totally free…

For more information, I share with you the link of my profile: http://www.createyourowncareer.com/Students-and-Interns/Meet-our-Interns/Alejandro.html

“Student-to-Student Tips”
When you apply for an internship with the IIB Program, I recommend you to apply only for those companies that already worked with IIB students. This will save you a lot of time and your chances to have an awesome experience.

New York, New York…

Spending two months at New Paltz was a little too much for me. I’ve come to realize that I’m a city girl, and I love it. We arrived a few days ago and so far it has been better than I expected. Today was the first internship day for many of the guys. I will start tomorrow and I’m very excited.

We are living at the International House. To be honest it is a little far from all the exciting things downtown and since we are very close to Harlem, it gets a little scary at night. Altough, the building is wonderful and the best part is that we don’t have to share rooms anymore. Don’t expect too much of your room except that it is your own. Some were lucky and got a nice view, others got sink IN the room, and some others got more space. Whatever is the case, I deeply appreciate privacy.

I can’t really explain how happy I am to be here. The city welcomed us and now we are trying to be part of it. As expected, now everyone is working in different places and minding their own business but we (the Mexicans) are trying to remain united. -I don’t know how it is like with the Swedish, I’ll have to ask.- What I do know is that I’m thankful for our culture, because we stick together to do trivial things because as Luke said† “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much….” We can count on each other!!

Guys, all the wait was worth it!! BIG TIME

Time went very fast after our brief period studying at SUNY New Paltz. Now we all have two days living in NYC… things changed so fast.

At first sight NYC can look as a very complex place to live, and it is, but just in the beginning. One should know very well the subway and bus routes, which are going to be just as your best friends (you’ll see them all the time and they will take you to any place at any hour). Of course it takes time to get used to this transportation system (read the “Student to student tips” section). In SUNY New Paltz we used to have a small shuttle called “New Paltz Loop” which can drive you trough the most important places in town and is totally free, thanks to the SUNY Student Association, and governmental authorities.

2 days and lots of experiences… lets see what happens tomorrow in my first day as an intern.

“Student to student tips”
Not knowing how to get to a specific place using the NYC Metro? Try this site, it will also calculate the time it takes you to get there: http://www.hopstop.com/?city=newyork

Best regards,

Today is Wednesday in just 2 days, we will be riding the bus to NYC. Is a sad week but yet exciting. Its like your trying to do everything of New Paltz you can’t miss. We just went on a bike ride through the trail-way, it was great! You can’t miss that! Also we went to see the old houses, that are like 400 years old, they are really somethin…but the best part is that I actually enjoyed my time here.

Cliches come around now, when  say time isn’t enough, well yeah! Cliche!, don’t know what happen, we made friends who are staying! They’ll keep going to class while we’ll be working on the internships.

Now that everyone has an internship, we gotta keep ourselves toegther and get ready for the great apple. Im actually gonna miss the cafeteria, the gym, but specially the ducks!!!…………….NOT haha, they are pretty animals, but yet anoying with their noises, they are now coming out, the weather is getting nicer I guess we need to go, as the Ducks come out.

I didn’t bring an umbrella, you must bring one. You must walk around campus, you must go to to Muddy Cup! Get a nice coffy, bring a book.. You must go to the bookstore, it has cool new and used books, of all kinds, is so nice just to get there and be lost for 2 hours, until you pick a book.

All of this places, are worth it and im going to miss them a lot.

See you in the great apple………CLiche!!!!

My dear father always advised me to carry a small bag everywhere. He told me I should  bring with me my mobile phone, enough cash, tissues, id, and a band aid. To be honest, I never listened to this wise advise, but now i realize how useful it was.   A MUST in every lady exchange student wardrobe is a long strap hand bag. To avoid any type of robbery or losing valuable things (like your passport) you should carry a small purse with your personal belongings wherever you might go. Especially clubs, bars or concerts.

New Paltz is a small student town. I consider it is safe to walk in the middle of night, or to go out at any time, but you should never push too hard. What I mean is that you don’t want to be tempting by carrying a 500 hundred gucci purse to any event in town (even if it is not a real 500 gucci). Especially when this beautiful bag contains your precious survival kit: passport & credit card.

The long strap hand bag will stay close to you (carry it across the chest). You might not find it as chic but I assure you, your things will be safer if they are right next to you. It also has the advantage that you will actually feel your mobile (if it vibrates) even if you are at a very loud place. You won’t have to carry your camera in your wrist (it gets uncomfortable) and people will think it twice when approaching you to try to take your stuff away.

Take care of each other, in the end..what remains are the good experiences and the friendship of those who shared with you a whole semester.