New York City: Day One

We woke up at seven to get ready for the day and eat breakfast. We were all talking about how excited we were to go sightseeing! The breakfast was not really tasteful but we didn’t let that get us down. At 8.30 am we all went outside to wait for the bus that would take us to The City.

Skyline of Brooklyn

Our first day started off well when it turned out that the bus driver of the German group hit our bus with his own bus and the police had to go down to sort it out. Luckily, it didn’t take too long and next thing we were on the road to New York City!

If it weren’t for our looks, every person passing uswould have thought we were a group of Asian people. Taking pictures of everything. We picked up our tour guide, I think his name was Jonah but I am not sure so I just kept calling him ‘Mister Tour Guide’.

Pretty boy 

He took us for a walk through Central Park, showed us Strawberry Fields, the fountain that they used for the theme song of Friends as well as a statue of Alice In Wonderland. You were allowed to climb on there so Menno, being the grown man that he is, decided that it would be fun to sit on her head.

Next up was 5^th Avenue, the ultimate place to go window-shopping. We visited the Apple store, the Trump Tower (yay Starbucks!) and of course we went into Abercrombie & Fitch. It felt like coming home, in The Netherlands, before we were forced to renovate the whole house. I wanted to buy a bottle of Fierce but they didn’t take Maestro and I was not willing to use my new credit card for perfume…

Paying a little surprise visit to my
friend Donald

For lunch we went to Macy’s and we got a ten-dollar voucher to use. Most of us got pasta and it was so hot Yentel and I burned our tongues. We didn’t spend a lot of time there as we had a more important place to go to: Soho and Chinatown!

I was very passionate about finding either a CVS or Walgreens because I forgot my mascara at home (Yes, in the liquids bag for those of you who read that blog…). So Jorien and I were determent to find one, as she needed a styling iron. On our mission to find one, naturally, we went into a few more shops. At that moment the weather gods thought it was enough and they sent rain to the beautiful place called Soho… I, being the most fashionable of all the girls (uhm), wore a transparent poncho was I was not planning on getting wet clothes! Definitely a good look on me. At the end of the two-hours shopping spree I ended up buying my mascara at Forever21 (ma store yo!) for just $4.12 as I thought the other ones were too expensive.

Walking across the BB

We hopped back on the bus and drove over the Brooklyn Bridge, definitely an amazing sight to see. Once we crossed we went to a little restaurant(-ish) place and it started pouring again, so we used it to shield ourselves from the rain. Once the weather was okay again Mister Tour Guide decided we would walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Here we all got our Asian back on (click click).

Credits to Hard Rock..

Before we knew it we were back on the bus and on our way to Times Square! We had dinner at the Hard Rock Café and I must say they do a delicious Caesar salad. We had finished our meals and were allowed to go shopping on our own for 2,5 hours! A small group of girls shopping in Times Square, woohoo! We went into all the stores we wanted to and decided to stay together but once we were in American Eagle Outfitters me and Jorien lost track of the others and we had no way to reach them as we didn’t have phone cell connection. So we decided to just continue shopping and meet them where we were supposed to gather all as a group at 9.30pm. We had a blast and it was nice to go out shopping with her.

Me and the girls at TS

When it was time to go back to the buss we realized how dark it had gotten but because we had been in the middle of Times Square we didn’t notice. The electricity bill of that place must be outrageous.

Writing about what we have done in just one day makes me realize how much we have done. It is so much in such a short time. I can tell you it was a very quiet ride back to the hotel. Everyone was shattered.

I really liked the group of people we were with. There was only twenty-two of us, Susanne and Noor included, so you really get to talk with everyone and get to know each other a bit.

Much love,

Naomi

Host Family Letter

I decided to post the letter I wrote for the Ayusa website. In this letter you tell a little about yourself and that way potential host families can see if they are interested in hosting you. Here it goes!

Dear host family,

With this letter I hope to help you get to know a bit more about me. Apart from the typical stuff like going to school and having fun with friends, there is a lot more to me!

I am Naomi, a soon-to-be eighteen year old girl from The Netherlands. A girl with big dreams and one of them is living in America to experience their way of life. Ever since I saw the killer whale show Believe in SeaWorld Orlando I have known that you have to reach for your dreams in order for them to come true and I am very thankful that you might be willing to let my dream come true.

I very much enjoy reading books such as chick literature and biographies and I love writing, that is why I want to start a blog. This way I could write about what interests me and share that with other people, it sounds perfect.

Exercising and eating healthy is very important to me. I go to work out in the gym everyday and it not only keeps me in shape but it keeps me healthy as well. I have a job at the gym too, I work there as a receptionist and a waitress. This helps me to earn my own money, which means more independence and that is never a bad thing.

When I was sixteen I studied to be a ski instructor. I love skiing so much and being able to teach other people how to ski, no matter how old they are, is amazing. I get to see how much they enjoy doing what I have just taught them, it is very satisfying.

I dream of owning a horse one day, I started horseback riding when I was just four years old. My aunt took me to the stables with her and I fell in love instantly. You are supposed to wait until you are eight years old to start riding but when the owner of the stables saw how natural it was for me to be with the horses, she offered me to start with half the age. Other people might say ‘a diamond is a girls best friend’ but for me, a horse is definitely worth more that the worlds most expensive diamond.

That being said, I am not very much of a material girl. Of course I enjoy having pretty things, I am willing to save up a lot of money for something as a great handbag but it will always be the things a want and nothing the things I will ever need.

Reach for your dreams, always be true and you’ll be amazed what you can do,

Much love,

Naomi

Flight to New York

Having to wake up early is not really my specialty. Unless I am going to do something fun, for example: going to New York!

Freaking 4.30 AM and ‘I Want’ by One Direction was blasting into my ears. I don’t think I have ever gotten up that quickly. Within 10 minutes I was showered and dressed, ready to pack the last minute things. Of course I was not quite done with the packing and I ended up throwing in even more and that made us late… After grabbing a quick breakfast for on the go, we were ready to leave.

When we (as in me and my family) arrived at Schiphol airport most of the people were already there. It was a bit strange as I didn’t know any of them but they most likely had already seen each other once before at a meeting, which I couldn’t attend. The staff of Travel Active was there as well to help us with checking in and do other bits of assistance. Susanne and Noor were coming with us to Newark as that is where we landed.

After checking in it was time to go for coffee with our families and have just thirty minutes of spending time together. Me and my family went down to a little café and talked me leaving. After a while it was time to say our goodbyes and my little sister (8) started crying. I just kept saying how I would be back in just a little while, knowing that I would be way from her for ten whole months. To be fair I don’t think it will be hard to be away from my parents and brother (15). Of course I’ll miss them but I know they won’t have changed much when I come back and I can always just call them at all times. My sister on the other hand is my best friend and she will change so much although I know exactly how she will turn out, just like me.

When everyone was ready to go through the gates, we took a group photo and we were off. We got to our gate early and just took a seat. Then we had to go through the security and get everything checked. Once that was done we took a seat again and I was with Menno, Tobias, Marc (‘The Three Guys’) and Yentel who actually ended up being my roommate. We talked about where everybody was going, how the contact had been with the host families, whether they had been in the US before and so on.

At that time the plane was ready and we could all go on board and get comfortable in our seats. I was sitting next to a strange man who kept talking to his family who were sitting to the other side of me. Louise was on the other side in another isle so we talked a bit back and forth during the flight. I was writing blogs for most part of the flight did a bit of reading and I wanted to go to sleep as well but somehow I couldn’t so I ended up writing more.

Eight long hours later we landed safely on New Jersey ground and went to customs. It was not too busy and I was at the counter pretty quickly. A man called Santana took my photo and fingerprints, checked my passport and when he saw my student visa he asked me what I was planning to do. So I explained and he said that when I was going to prom in Missouri that I should ‘do it big’. It was nice to be welcomed into the USA this way instead of having grumpy people walking around and screaming at you.

After baggage claim, it was time to get some lunch that was followed by going to the Double Tree by Hilton hotel in Newark by bus. Thank goodness for the air-conditioning in there!

We had to wait for 75 minutes when we got there as not all of the rooms were ready yet. Everybody was tired and just wanted to lay down, get some proper rest. I ended up sharing a room with Pauline and Yentel and we had a connecting door to the room of Jorien en Tulge so that door was open all the time. It was like a big girls room. After getting a much-needed shower we headed to dinner (tasteless pizza but we ate it anyways as we were hungry). It was so much fun eating all together. We laughed a lot and we all got a long. It is so nice to have people surrounding you who want the same thing and you really share this experience with them. I think and really hope everyone felt the same way.

We went to bed early, two long days of New York City was ahead of us. Of course there will be blogs about that too!

Much love,

Naomi

Suitcase Packing Tips

On this flight everyone is allowed to bring one suitcase that weighs 23kg or less. For a ten month stay that is not a whole lot. So this means packing tactfully. I can say I have had my fair share of flights, short and long distances, so my packing skills are what I would call well developed.

First of all: clothes! Make sets of what you will wear and do not take any more with you than planned. Use key items and match these with each other, then bring in colourful accessories to make the outfit more fun. Key items being jeans, plain shirts, basic jackets and shoes that go with everything. On day one go for the jeans and white tee, the next day try a jersey with shorts and for the third day go back to the jeans you wore the first day but match them with another colour tee. This way you can make many different sets of clothing with as few items as possible.

Next: toiletries. Try to bring mini’s of everything. I have everything from hair conditioner to nail polish remover in travel size. They take up a lot less space and they don’t weigh as much as the big bottles do. If you go on holiday for a week, you are all set. However, if you go for a longer period of time, like I am, you can buy larger products later on.

Third: entertainment. I enjoy reading so I always bring a book or two. Now these are often a few hundred pages and they take up half the suitcase. Not very tactful so bring these in your handlugage, they don’t weigh your carry on so it saves you the trouble of having to pay for the extra weight you checked in at the counter. Another solution is an e-reader, takes up minimum space, allows you to bring as many books as you want and weighs as much as a feather (almost).  Now I honestly have to say I don’t have any experience with an e-reader as I just received mine as a present but it seems like the way to go.

Footwear: shoes. Like I have said above, try to bring one pair of shoes that go with everything. There are four pair in my suitcase. Well three as I am currently wearing my All Stars. Heels, those are a pain to find so why not bring them? I am sure I will only wear this one pair for all the occasions I will attend that acquire you to wear heels so that saves me the trouble. Slippers (or flip flops), I live in them and I can go through hours and hours of walking and not feel a thing. They take up very little space and they are much more comfortable than my All Stars. Gym shoes, I need to be able to work out while I am in Missouri. I know there are a lot of stores where you can easily find a pair for not too much money but I have special trainers cause I am weird like that. 

Others: extra’s. An adapter if you go somewhere with different electricity plugs and some other things. This is only what I am taking with me and definitely not necessary but if you have space left…Tissues, cotton pads, deodorant (they don’t do the spray ones in America), skincare with doctor’s prescription, presents for my host family and a small black handbag.

This is just what I usually take with me but of course you can throw out and add stuff. I hope you enjoyed reading.

Much love,

Naomi