thesethingsicapture

SPRING BREAK PART 2 ALBANY, NEW YORK For the rest of Spring Break I was lucky enough to stay with two of my American friends; one who lived near Albany, and I went back to my friends house who I stayed with for thanksgiving near Poughkeepsie. I was so thankful to them and their families,  I had a wonderful easter break and I was lucky enough to see a lot more of New York State itself!

BONJOUR MONTRÉAL! Last week was Spring Break, and I went to Montréal!!!! Montréal was another place I had always thought of visiting when I found out I was studying in New York. It was actually one of the places I selected as an option to study abroad, and the whole French region thing really interested me - although it was soooo much more French than I had expected!!! My friend drove us both to Montréal, where we stayed for 2 nights; which was definitely enough time to see the city!!

LOOKING BACK ON LAST YEARS TRIP Today marks one year since my first time in New York City. It had been my dream for a long, long time to go to NYC, and when my university advertised a politics trip there I jumped at the chance and saved up all my pennies to go. One year on, I've been to the city 5 times (how is this possible?!) live close by and know my way around it pretty well. So to celebrate how amazing this last year has been I thought I'd share some of the photos from my trip last year - and because I never did my blog back then it will be nice to have them documented somewhere!!! 

MY WONDER OF THE WORLD Our trip to Canada involved one day visiting Niagara Falls! When I found out I was coming to New York for my study abroad year, I realised it was only a 4-5 hour drive from Niagara Falls, and so I told myself I really had to go. We tried and planned a trip to go last semester, but for one reason or another it never happened- and I'm actually quite glad it didn't because we were planning to go to the American side, and I'm so glad we went to the Canadian!! We planned this trip when we got back in January and it gave me something to look forward to, and it was an amazing day. Now, I was 100% convinced Niagara Falls was one of the 7 Wonders of the World, and after an intensive google, I've had to accept it isn't - I got very excited when I thought I had finally been to one of the seven. However, I think it definitely should be on that list (have you seen it by the way? It's actually a very random list in my opini...

A WEEKEND IN CANADA   2 weeks ago I spent the most amazing weekend in Canada. Living so close to Canada (5 hours is very close in the US) meant that I just had to visit at some point during my year abroad, and I'm so glad we did. The people were just lovely, the laid-back and chilled atmosphere was so refreshing and Toronto was just absolutely beautiful. Walking around Toronto made me feel so at home, it reminded me so much of England!  We went for 3 full days and spent 2 of them in Toronto, Ontario.   I honestly had the most amazing weekend ever, and can't stop thinking about it, and so of course I had to document it on here to look back on it in the future. Enjoy! 

A GIRLS WEEKEND IN NYC Since September, some of my very best friend from home have been travelling all over the world, and their last stop was New York City. As I moved to New York in August, I hadn't seen them in 6 months, so of course I just had to get the bus to the city for the weekend and see them! This was my 5th time in the city, and although I'm definitely no expert, I put my tour guide skills to the test and spent 2 days showing them some of my favourite parts of the city - proud to say we didn't get lost (I don' think) at all! The girls had an extra 4 days after I left them, and so we did all the really small - but must-sees - whilst I was with them, and then they did the super duper stuff - such as Top of the Rock, 9/11, Statue of Liberty - later in the week.

NEW YEAR IN THE DOMINICAN Finally, I have got around to writing a blog post, although this one is going to be very short and sweet. I have been back in New York for over a month now, and have been so busy - hopefully I'll have a blogpost up soon with everything I've been up to and why I haven't blogged yet this semester. Before coming back to New York, I flew to the Dominican Republic for a family holiday. This was the first time my parents had more than 2 days off in a row in the whole year, and our first family holiday in a long time - and it was just perfect. So here's some of my favourite photos!

THE PROS AND CONS OF STUDYING ABROAD   Now that I have finished my first semester, and have lived in a country which is not my home country for 4 1/2 months, I feel that I can give a good opinion on whether to study abroad or not. I know that for any Lancaster University students, it will be decision time very soon, so if you're still not sure, hopefully I can help! So I'm going to do it in a pros and cons format, and then give my honest opinion at the end! 

THANKSGIVING BREAK   Although Thanksgiving was almost a month ago now, I have been so busy since with finals and papers and so never got round to posting about my break; so I'm going to do it now because it was so wonderful and I want to have it documented on here! (Note: I'm only just getting around to posting this and I wrote this post 2 weeks ago, so thanksgiving was well over a month ago now!!!)

WASHINGTON D.C. On the Saturday evening of Fall Break we got the bus from NYC to Washington DC! It was roughly a 4 hour journey and we arrived at about 10pm and headed straight to the Hostel we were staying in. The next morning we ate endless pancakes and then left at 8.30am to make the most of our one day in D.C.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Back in October, we went to New York City for Fall Break! Since then I've had endless midterm exams and papers due, and so I'm only just getting round to writing this post- but its a good one!

TWO MONTHS ALREADY?! As of yesterday, I have been living in the US for 2 whole months! That seems so, so crazy to me! It has gone so fast, we're almost half way through this semester, and I know before I know it we'll be heading home for Christmas!

EXPLORING ITHACA'S WATERFALLS  I have just got back from a fantastic day exploring Ithaca, and couldn't wait to share the photos! We went with our university Outdoor Pursuits centre on a 3 Gorges Waterfall Hike; visiting Taughannock Falls Gorge, Buttermilk Falls and Lucifer Falls in Ithaca! 

MANCHESTER > NEW YORK, NEW YORK I have never travelled on an airplane by myself before, never mind a long haul flight to the other side of the world. And I've never had to navigate myself around one of the busiest cities in the world. I was SO nervous. The night before I left I just didn't want to go, and I cried when pulling out of the drive, leaving my Mum waving on the doorstep. It didn't help that we had to leave for the airport at 4am, and was still awake cramming as much as I could into my case at 12am- it's hard work packing for 3 different climates for 5 months in one 23kg suitcase. When I waved goodbye to my Dad and Brother at the airport, turning around ten million times until they were out of sight, it felt like some scene from a movie. The whole thing felt so bizarre, I was so emotional and I couldn't help thinking what the hell I was doing! 

I’VE MOVED TO NEW YORK! Why go to university near home when you can move to one 3400 miles away? For my second year of uni, I've taken a bit of a plunge and will be studying abroad in New York!  I'll be studying at SUNY Binghamton University, a 3 hour bus journey from NYC, and is pretty close to the Pennsylvania border (note that New York itself is a state bigger than the whole of England, not just New York City- there really aren't any skyscrapers here). 

Back in July, my Mum and I flew to Amsterdam for 4 days. It was our first trip abroad- without my Dad and brother- together, which is why it was actually quite an adventure!! Our flight was 7'olock in the morning, which meant we had to leave for the airport at a ridiculous hour- 3.30m- however, it was worth it because we had the whole day to then spend in Amsterdam. The City is roughly a 30 minutes drive from the Schipol airport, and we arrived at our Hotel before we would have even begun the day back home.  For our first day, we decided to wander around and get our bearings. Our main reason for visiting Amsterdam was to go and see the Anne Frank Museum. I had been wanting to go since I read her dairy (7 years ago), so it was definitely an exciting trip! We walked for miles that first day, we visited Dam, found the Anne Frank Museum, and got lost a countless amount of times!            Dotted...