Hello everybody,

sorry, it has taken me a while to come back to my blog. I have had a virus, so I needed to take care of that. The doctors and nurses at the student health center are very nice and warm-hearted. They really helped me, and I feel a hundred percent better! I hope you are doing fine, too (whoever reads my blog).

We have been pretty busy here with our studies. We handed in a memo and two press releases for our public relations class, just started on a group project in our business communications class, plus I wrote a test in my management class last night. I hope it went well. I will have another test in marketing next week, and Veronica and I also work on a group project for that class.

Besides studying hard for our classes, we also focus on our internships. A lot of us go to New York City for interviews. Some of us already found internships. I found my dream internship, too! And I am totally looking forward to doing my internship soon! It is at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations! Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaa!

We also went to a wine & spirits dealer in New Paltz. The two owners showed us their store which is very neat and fancy. We developed some ideas for them, and they gave us some sparkling wine to take home (hell, where is it by the way!??). We also had a wine tasting – I especially enjoyed that part or our visit ).

Even though we are pretty busy at that time of the semester, our studies do not keep us from going on outdoor trips! Because I enjoyed going rockclimbing and kayaking, I decided to sign up for horseback riding as well. That was so much fun! I have never ridden a horse before, but I hope to have the chance to do that more often in the future.

I really love my horse. His name is Bloody and he was eating… ALL THE TIME!!! I got on my horse, and guess what he did!? Yeah, he went to a stack of grass and ate. We started our tour and Bloody and I were the first ones to go after our tour guide. The others had to follow us one after another. Bloody took his time to stop at each blade of grass and at every bush he found on the trail in Marlboro Country (well, not THAT Marlboro country, but the place we went to was called Marlboro, too, in New York State though). So he was pretty much eating all the time! The others had to wait behind us then, which they did not like, I think. They told me to not let Bloody eat, and to kick him really hard instead, so that he would move, but I felt sympathy for Bloody having to carry me all around. So I let him have his portion – and we became very close friends ever after! At one point though, he started to run off with me. However, I was able to manage to stop him again because I got a bit scared. I do miss him… TONS! That was a very nice adventure!!!

Rosh Hashanah is coming up and we won’t have any classes until Wednesday or Thursday next week. So Maria, Suzana, Daniel, Tobias and I have decided to spend a weekend in Miami. We booked our flights two days ago, and we will leave in a couple of hours. So I have to get ready for my trip (well, actually, I am sooo ready to go…)!

Keep on reading my blog and take care!

Love,
Sandra

Hello everybody,

this is my first contribution to the IIB Blog. Yes, a new class has arrived for fall 2008. We are 24 students, that means 13 from Sweden, 6 from Mexico, 4 from Germany and last, but not least, 1 from the Netherlands. My name is Sandra, and I am from Germany. I was looking forward to coming here… and finally I’m here! In fact, I am already in the middle of everything since we are here for four weeks already. Let me give you an overview of the things we have experienced so far:

- we arrived on Tuesday, August 19, 2008. New Paltz is a very small city and practically only consists of the State University of New York at New Paltz. Well, let me add that there is ONE important street – namely main street – for all of us where you can find around four to five pubs or bars. One of the best places in town is P&Gs which kitchen burned down recently, but thanks to the fact that it was only the kitchen, the place has opened again, so our night life is saved. Apparently, there are also some other nice places to go, so our night life has never been in danger.

- during our first week on campus, almost nobody was there. It seemed as if the campus was a ghost town compared to my home university. There were only a few international students fidgeting around. This changed soon, however, since the freshmen, junior and senior students arrived pretty soon after us. I live in a nice suite in Bevier Hall with Maria and Suzana from Sweden and Melissa, Cindy, Mary Ann, Aylin and Shannon from the US. Our suite is great, nicely decorated and very cozy! In fact, this is THE place to hang out and everybody is welcome!!!
Bevier Hall is located right next to Hasbrouck Dining Hall – vegetables, fruits, noodles, pizza, soups, cereal, beverages, salad – no matter what, you can eat as much as you want and as often as you want. It is all you can eat (not to mix with you can eat it all!).

- the STUDENT ACTIVITIES department arranged a lot for us in the first week of our stay, so that we would not get bored with unpacking our stuff. There was a very famous comedian who talked about campus life, everyday life – let’s say life in general. On another day, there was a hypnotist who made people acting stupidly which was really funny. We all had a great blast! The funniest part was when the hypnotized people thought they were naked in front of us…

- we also had the chance to go to New York City. Guess what!? Yeah, of course we went shopping there. The day was very short though and we did not manage to see everything. But we had a great time. And we all love the City already!

- as for me, there are tons of things to do on campus. The motto of the Athletic & Wellness Center is “Be active. Get involved!” – and that is what I wanna do here!!! Therefore, I have joined the TV station on campus and am in charge of filming. That is a really cool thing to do. The station is called WNPC-TV and has three different channels. I am mainly interested in news. I also practice with the women’s rugby team on campus. I do not know anything about the rules yet, but it is really cool so far! The girls are very nice, have great personality and are fun to practice with. There are also a lot of student activities organized by the Athletic & Wellness Center, so we went rockclimbing last Saturday and kayaking on Sunday (which was yesterday). I also signed up for horseback riding and paintball. I’ll keep you informed about these events! Horseback riding is on Sunday – and I am certainly looking forward to doing that!

- since we arrived here, we have been studying a lot. I take four classes: Business Communication and Public Relations – those courses are designed for the IIB students only – and Marketing and Management which I take with a lot of American students. We had some assignments already, such as writing a press release, doing a memorandum or analyzing an advertisement. It is very interesting and I am looking forward to the next four weeks on campus!

- we have also already started to apply for internships for our second, more practical part of the IIB experience. I have had an interview at Gibbs & Soell Inc. which is a huge PR agency in New York City. That internship position sounds really exciting and I really hope that they accept me.

Other than that, I am very glad to be here. I will definitely keep you informed about what is going on here.

Cheers,

Sandra