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.