Dear friends,

this is my last blog entry. Unfortunately. But it is over. And it was so much fun!!! We all had a great time. We all were active and got involved! Our time is up! In fact, we are all back home again.

IIB Graduation

We had a very nice graduation ceremony with the IIB staff, our supervisors and partly, but importantly with our family members from home. It was our last time to be together and it was so much fun, but also a bit sad. I hope that we made friends for life!

I want to say THANK YOU to Jeff, Beth and Bruce from the Institute for International Business @ SUNY New Paltz.
I want to also say SPECIAL THANX to Roger and Andrea from Gibbs & Soell Public Relations New York for deep insight and a good training!

Last Days in the City

My sister came to visit me, so we hung out in the City, went to the Statue of Liberty again, to Staten Island (remember: the one thing in New York City that is for free is the Staten Island Ferry!), and went to the Top of the Rock at night. Our last days were awesome being together and hanging out in this GREAT city!

SILENCE

Back home again. Silence. A huge bed. A shower in which I can shower without my flipflops, which is clean and for me alone. Silence. Silence.

We are all back home. And we will not forget the great time we had in New Paltz and New York City. I really hope we stay in touch through Facebook and e-mail and chat and whatnot. It was great to meet you all!

Big love,

Sandra

Last week was Thanksgiving. It is an all-American holiday and it was really nice. I did not have to work for the whole weekend. However, I got up early on Thursday morning and went to Macy’s Happy Thanksgiving Parade which was along 7th Avenue. It was nice, however, I thought the inflated sponge bobs, dogs, big apples, Kermit the frogs and baseballs would be even bigger. Well, okay, they were quite big, but I thought they were as tall as one of the houses. Anyways, it was nice to see them floating through the street canyons. When I came home to the Websters, my portion of one of the millions of turkeys which were killed for this holiday waited for me already. So I had a bit of light turkey here, a bit of a dark turkey there, some stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and vegetables. NICE!!!

Turn the music on in SoHo and I am there…

I went to SoHo last weekend on my tour which started at the Flatiron Building and led me to Brooklyn Bridge. SoHo is NICE! A lot of artists had lived here, and some are still there. You could buy New York paintings, different creations and models of eccentric rings (in fact, I tried one and could not get it off anymore until the guy told me that one ring is $220 – YUCK, almost broke my finger, but got it off then, could have only given him the last five bucks I had in my pocket), AND there was an a-capella-band. Four guys sang a nice song. It was fantastic. Great voices, good vibes, nice spirit! They definitely made my day.

Beautiful Brooklyn Bridge

The most beautiful bridge in New York is definitely Brooklyn Bridge. When you wanna walk over it, you should take the A or C train to High Street in Brooklyn and go from there back to Manhattan. I went at sunset and it was beautiful. The sun was low and the light nice and golden. It was freaking cold, but that did not matter. I will definitely go back for another walk!

“Thank You Lord” – a Sunday in a Gospel Church

If you come to New York, do not miss out on a Sunday at a Gospel Church in Harlem. There is a nice one at the corner of Convent Avenue and 145 Street which you can easily reach by subway A or C. The church is called Convent Avenue Baptist Church. On Sunday two weeks ago, there was a gospel choir rocking da house. It was beautiful. The people moved and clapped to the music. Last Sunday, there was a male choir. They all had beautiful voices! It was awesome to listen to the soloist sing “Thank You Lord” – it really touched me. My twin sister Nicola comes on Sunday and I definitely have to take her to this church in Harlem. She can’t miss that!

Time moves quickly

I cannot believe that my internship is almost over! We are here for a little bit more than six weeks now. Time goes by way too fast. So this is one of my last blog posts, yet not the last one. Please stay tuned! It is my pleasure to tell you more about my experience!

Big love,
Sandra

I saw Queen Latifah. Of course, I did not have my camera with me when I saw her at the Manhattan Center which is pretty close to our Webster Apartments. However, not bringing a camera was even worse for my homie Mariana: she saw Ethan Hawke on the street! So you see, it was not too bad that I left my camera at home on the day I saw Queen Latifah.

When you spend some time in New York, you have to go to a New York Knicks game, especially when they play against the Dallas Mavericks. So we went. We bought some $24.50 student tickets and went to Madison Square Garden for the event. The seats were good, we saw everything and the atmosphere was great! Even though the New York Knicks looked pretty good for the first ¾ of the game, they lost by some points in the end. Dirk Nowitzki dunked the ball more than anybody else in that game. It was fun seeing him play in the Garden. 

One thing which is definitely worth doing is public readings in bookstores. I went to see Toni Morrison in the Barnes & Noble bookstore at Union Square. She is the Nobel Prize Laureate from 1993. She read from her new novel A Mercy, and signed my books afterwards. I invited her to Germany, and she said that she would like to come to Berlin as soon as her novel is translated into German. The event was really crowded, but I did not care. I majored in American Studies, so I had to go, no matter what.

Hello there! I hope you are doing great! My New York City experience is huge… awesome… GREAT! There are so many things going on besides my very nice internship!

Last week, I went to a bookstore and guess who was there!? Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul was there to sign her latest album for her fans. Since I knew about this event, I went there and got two CDs signed and could take a picture of her. Yeah (I always wanted to see a celeb)!

We celebrated Halloween last Friday. Halloween is a pretty big event in the USA. So we went out and celebrated it as well. Some of my colleagues at work got some really fancy costumes. I went as a gangster lady and loved my fluffy hat! Some of the IIB family members and I went to the Village Halloween Parade which was pretty amazing. I liked all the different costumes – the Jokers from Batman, the bananas, the Star Wars characters, the ghosts and witches, the Marilyn Monroes, the Obamas and McCains and the pirates of the Caribbean and of elsewhere… we had a good time and it was definitely worth going to the parade.

Two days later, New York City hosted the New York City Marathon which was crazy. Thousands and thousands of people from different nations ran these 42 something kilometers. And I encouraged them to keep up their speed. There were many older runners as well. They all did a great job! What a nice experience for everybody!

Those experiences were good. HOWEVER, YESTERDAY WAS THE NIGHT OF THE NIGHTS!!! A very important moment in history! An event I will not forget, which was unique for me to experience: the country has elected a new president. Barack Obama is the new President-elect of the United States of America. He will be sworn in on January 20, 2009. A lot of people project their hopes on this man.
Some IIB family members and I went to Times Square to witness this historic moment. The atmosphere was very emotional. People were crying, hugging and celebrating when Obama won the different states. What a great time for all of us to be in New York City!!!

So that is what has been going on! Please stay tuned! There is certainly more to come!

Big love,
Sandra

New York – the Big Apple, “the Disneyland for adults,” or simply referred to as “the City that never sleeps.” This city, the City, that is 1,000 different smells and tastes around each corner, so many different faces everywhere, many different cultures, colors, accents, styles, people, that is: mascots on the streets, so many different stores (you can buy anything here – even McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden condoms – be safe either way…). This is it: our New York City experience! And I love it. It’s been great so far. People are nice, our internships awesome, the food is good, the rooms neat, and life here is keeping us busy which is really good!

As for me, I totally enjoy my internship experience at Gibbs & Soell! The people I am working with are great!

So far, so good, more to come SOON!

Hugs,
Sandra

Hello again!

I have started my internship with Gibbs &  Soell Public Relations – and this is AWESOME! I enjoy it very very much!!!

One of the clients at Gibbs & Soell is NFTE (pronounce “nifty”). NFTE stands for National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. It is a non-profit organization, and they provide entrepreneurship education programs to young people from low-income communities. Their vision is that every young person will find a pathway to prosperity. They have programs in 22 states and in 12 countries outside the United States. They have reached nearly 232,000 young people since 1987.

The NFTE offers young students from low-income families an opportunity to launch their own businesses. Compelling evidence from researchers at Harvard University shows that youth who are taught about entrepreneurship show a positive change in attitude and strong success orientation, and are more likely to be focused on academic and professional achievements and aspirations and leadership.

Tomorrow, on Thursday 23, 2008, 35 students will compete in the OppenheimerFunds/NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. The first place winner will walk away with $10,000 in seed capital to either start a business or invest in a further education. In honor of this occasion, participants of the challenge rang The Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). I was there as well and while the participants rang the bell, we watched them from the trading floor. The ringing of the bell was on Tuesday October 21, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. – and at that time, around 120 million people from all over the world watched this event!!! You missed it? No problem. Just go here and watch the video.

Being on the trading floor of the NYSE was a great experience and a nice start into my internship at Gibbs & Soell. In fact, visitors are not allowed to visit the NYSE anymore. This was changed in the aftermath of 9/11. So this was a unique opportunity for all of us!

We have arrived. Safe and sound. And we moved into our new apartments. The girls live at the Webster Apartments which is close to the Empire State Building. The men stay at the YMCA Vanderbilt this year which is close to the United Nations Headquarters.

We enjoyed doing a lot of great things this past weekend. We explored the City a little bit. I went to see my work place, bought an unlimited ride pass for 30 days and went to the bookstore to see if I find a nice book to read. We also went out and explored night life in New York City a little bit. We went to a very nice club called Underground and had a fun time there.

I will definetely do some sightseeing pretty soon!

Take care,
Sandra

Hello there!

I hope all is well. Even though it is pretty late and I am very tired, I decided to write once more before we leave for the City. I am pretty sure that I won’t have time to blog tomorrow.

Yeah, exactly: it is half time!!! Two months of the four are already over and that means: WE ARE MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY!!! We have successfully finished our studies here. I personally have gained a lot of great insights into public relations, business communications, marketing and management. So time is up here, but there is more to come. I will be in the office at 9 a.m. sharp on Monday! I am totally looking forward to interning at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations! The whole IIB family is very excited to move to New York City, have great internships there and meet new interesting and very inspiring people!

However, moving to the City also means to say goodbye to all the friends we made here on campus. We have to say goodbye to the sweet girls in our suite who were really nice, open-minded and caring. We also need to say goodbye to the kind staff of the one and only Hasbrouck Dining Hall who answered every question with a smile. And last but not least, we will just miss all our friends from our classes, outdoor trips and the dorms

That was New Paltz: running around like crazy with the women’s rugby team (even if only for a very short period of time due to being sick and having so many things to do), being in New Paltz “painting the town red,” being a part of the WNPC-TV crew, hunting the ducks, the geese and the squirrels on campus, contributing to the US American buying power at Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets, and last but not least: just having fun with the other IIB family members!

Goodbye from New Paltz and see you in New York City!!!

Hi there,

I hope you are doing fine. I am doing great. I am almost done with my studies at New Paltz. We had been pretty busy, but now we are wrapping things up. My homie Mariana and I held our mock press conference in our PR class yesterday. That was the last task for this class. I also finished my portion for the group assignment in my management class. The only thing we have to do is to present it next Thursday. I also have to work more on my marketing project, but have done some work already. We also have to do some more work for our group project in our business communications class. It is really not that much work. We are only here for another week, so we are pretty much done with our studies.

Our paintball trip last Saturday was very nice. Some guys and some girls from the IIB family signed up, but only the girls came. Hey guys, where were you? We really missed you out there!!! I did not like the game in the beginning, but it was so much fun later on.
Paintball is a strategic game in which one team has to beat the other team by eliminating the other team’s members. Everybody is equipped with an air gun filled with paintballs as your ammunition. You also have to wear a mask to protect your face, and since this was the first time for me to take part in such a game, I chose to get a chest protector as well.
At first, we went into a part of the woods. The referee quickly informed us about the rules, counted down from three… and everybody ran away hiding in a bush, behind a tree or under a stack of leaves – except Magdalena and me. We looked at each other, and did not really know what was going on. So our referee yelled “hide, hide!” and we chose the first tree as our shelter. We basically stayed there in defense. While some of our team members were shot and had to return to our home base, we were still hiding behind the tree shaking, sweating and feeling the strong urge to use the restrooms. However, we managed to stay in the game until one member of the opposing team made his way to my tree and eliminated me. I eliminated him, too, though ). From then on, the following games became more interesting. In one game, it was our task to attack the other team, they had to defend their castle. I made my way until the center and waited there. All my team members became eliminated. I, however, was the last one to defend myself against ten or even more of the opposing team. They could smell a rat though that I was the only one left. So they moved closer to me in order to attack me. I “painted” one, probably two, but then they eliminated me, and the game was over. But hey, they complimented me on staying in the game as the last of my team. That was nice. The shot at my leg hurt though, and I still have a pretty big bruise there. But it was so much fun. I had never imagined that this would be so much fun. In total, I “painted” some guys of the opposing team, lots of walls and shelters on the fields, and one spider that scared the wits out of me.
The people who went on the trip were really nice, however, I missed the guys from our IIB family. That would have been fun for them as well!!!

This was the last outdoor trip because we move to NYC pretty soon. All the trips, from rockclimbing to kayaking to horseback riding to paintballing were very nice!!! I highly recommend the outdoor trips offered by the Athletic & Wellness Center at SUNY New Paltz.

On Saturday, we will go to Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets. I am looking forward to doing some more shopping and relaxing. This is definitely a reward after all the hard work.

I wish you a great weekend!
I’ll definitely write some more before we move to the City!

Big love,
Sandra

Hello,

how is it going? I hope everybody who is reading my blog has a great time. We came back from Miami Beach two days ago. It was really so much fun. Maria, Suzana, Daniel, Tobias and I enjoyed the nice weather, good restaurants, the sun at the beach and the warm water with lots of jellyfish. We had a nice apartment with ocean view and a nice terrace with illuminated chairs! We also went shopping, but some of the stores were quite expensive. I found a really nice shirt, but it was $800. I also saw one that I liked which cost only $400, and the girl at the store tried to talk me into it ). We all found some nice clothes which we could wear when we went out at night.
Others of the IIB family went to Las Vegas, San Diego, Washington, D.C. and Boston and New York City. We all had safe trips and are back again. I missed the other IIB family members very much, and it is nice to be back again.

We have two more weeks left here at New Paltz. Time goes by quickly. My projects keep me busy here, but that is really good. I enjoy my studies and the work load.

This weekend, there is another outdoor trip. I have signed up for Paintball, and I am very excited to go tomorrow! I love the outdoor trips we can do here. They are really nice. Once in a while, it is nice to go off-campus and try some new things. I have never played Paintball before, and I cannot wait to “get painted and paint back” ;O)

I’ll keep you posted. Have a great weekend!

Love,
Sandra