After a long day of visiting internship sites, we met up at Bryant Park’s Pond and did some ice skating. The night was beautiful, warm, and fun. While we work hard in our jobs and internships – we don’t forget we are only here for a short time and get out and have fun.

IIB Ice skating party, Bryant Park

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.

Hi again!
Few hours ago I was thinking about the concept of time. In SUNY New Paltz time flows really fast, it will sound like a cliché but “I remember getting here as if it was yesterday”. With a lot of activities, trips, friends, classes, and short daylight, I wish I had more time to spend in this place… it is never enough.

As I am very interested in student activities and organizations, I recently joined de SUNY New Paltz Management Association. These guys are very hardworking and take their role very seriously. They are also looking for internship opportunities so that the interested students can apply through them. I highly suggest to you all coming for the IIB Program to join student associations; I think it is the best way for meeting people with shared interests.

New Paltz, NY
New Paltz is a very cozy place to live. Students are everywhere and because of that some of the shopping places offer student discounts.
The Main Street (which name says it all) is surrounded by very nice places; find attached a picture of a beautiful “vintage type” coffee shop.
One of the best things about New Paltz is its proximity with New York City (90 min). It is very easy to catch a bus in the local bus station, it is not expensive and they have a lot of routes.

“Student to Student Tips”
I highly suggest to every foreign student coming to New Paltz, to get a New York non-drivers license or ID. In some of the places that you’ll be visiting they will ask for an official ID, your passport will be fine, but I am convinced that is more safe and secure to have a NY ID. It doesn’t cost a lot of money and it is less risky to be carrying this document. My advice is to apply for it as soon as you get here. Ask for more information to any of the IIB Staff.
All right my dear friends,
See you next week.

Located in Main Street, New Paltz

After quite some time trying to find out how this works… I give you my warmest welcome to the IIBlog!
Adventurous students have come to SUNY New Paltz with one same goal in common: TO OBTAIN AN INTERNSHIP IN NEW YORK. Although these are not the best of times to find a job opportunity in the city that never sleeps, we are all determined to obtain a position.
Before coming, we were showed a broad list of companies, were we could apply for an internship; and that was probably what caught our attention the most. Now, we are witnessing that finding the perfect internship is not as easy as we thought. It requires concentration, patience and determination.
From my point of view, people who already have their jobs are those who knew exactly what they wanted before even coming to SUNY. It could either be in terms of the place they wanted to work or the exact position they wanted to have. Whichever it was, they had a vision.
There is less than a month left and the pressure is on us. Some have interviews to attend but some are still looking. It is especially hard for those in the finance field. As I said, the external factors are not favouring our cause. We are great at working under pressure, I’m sure than in the end we will all find something we enjoy doing.

Tic, toc my friends… the clock is ticking …

ps. Congratulations to all of those who already have their intenrship!!!

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

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

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!!!

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

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