So, there we have it, four months living in New York City studying at F.I.T. They have been the best four months, when I look back at what I've seen and done, I've managed to fit so much in and learnt so much. This experience has completely inspired me and has made me grow in confidence so much, I would recommend studying/living abroad to  anyone and everyone! 

I leave home for London tomorrow back in time for Christmas and I'm so excited to see my all family and friends! But I will miss New York a lot!! I've made friends for life and know I'll be living here again someday! 

Thank you New York and goodbye.........for now!!!

                                                  A New York Christmas!!

Some of my work 

The end is drawing near, I leave for home in a couple of weeks and realised I've not written on here for a bit! Now I must think back.....After Emma's friends left we were all feeling a bit worse for wear and devoted our time to focusing on work! I've been to some of the museums and galleries New York has to offer, such as the Met and MoMa, which has a Tim Burton exhibition on at the moment, where they are viewing his most famous films, and as we are students at FIT we get in for free, so we've taken full advantage of that and I went to see The Nightmare before Christmas for the first time, such a good film!! 

 It has also been Thanksgiving since I last wrote on here, so we all got a four day break! Pretty much everyone from our halls left for home leaving Emma, Jed and I, it was so quiet very weird! We all headed out onto the streets of New York to watch the annual Thanksgiving day parade, which was absolutely packed! But of what we saw it very cool, Emma and I then headed off to Brooklyn for Thanksgiving day lunch with my friend Jane and her neighbours, it was held at her friend Sophie's place which is an old firehouse, it was amazing, so eclectic and charming and we got to meet some really interesting characters and eat home cooked food!!! lunch finished around 6 and we headed back to manhattan for a glass of wine at jaffa cafe in the LES, we then  went back over the bridge to Brooklyn to meet up with Jed at his friend's house on Bedford avenue, all in all a very good Thanksgiving, I think I'm going to celebrate every year from now on! 

The next day Emma and I headed off to Connetitcut to visit our friend's Holly and Christine at Christine's house, We were so excited to get out of the city and go to a real american home especially as we left from Grand Central which is one of the most amazing train stations in the world! We spent a very nice relaxing weekend in Connetitcut, it was just so nice to be out of the city and breath in fresh air and see the night sky properly! We headed back to New York on the Sunday afternoon and it surprised me how good it felt to be back! I really love this city, I feel very much at home especially as the F.I.T. campus has such a community feeling to it.

 This last week has been busy doing work and planning my last few weeks out here. It is about 6pm now and I'm about to go off into Manhattan uptown to the Rockefella centre with the Nags to watch the Christmas lights be turned on! I love my life!!!

It's been a good few weeks since I last wrote on here, I've been kept very busy, seems to be just a way of life out here, hardly any time to just sit and be, I have a free couple of hours now which I am using to organise myself as well as write this blog. So here goes....

Work has been going really well, I've found myself feeling very inspired out here, with so many visually exciting things all around the city,  and with the teaching and facilities at F.I.T. being so good  it's hard not to be! Here is a selection of work I've designed since i've been here:

About 2 weeks ago now Jed, Emma and I went to see Florence and the Machine play at the Bowery Ball room! The gig was completely sold out but Jed had a press pass so he just waltz on in, where as emma and I had no tickets and were left standing outside in the pouring rain, we stood in line with a handful of fans hoping they would let us in last minute, we waited about 2 hours in the cold rain with no umbrellas, a bit crazy but at 11:30 they finally let us in to catch Florence! We were drenched but were let in for free and it was Amazing she's a great performer, here are some wicked photos Jed took, he's also on the exchange with me here, check out his blog http://jedjedjedjed.blogspot.com/

At the weekend I took myself  and my camera out and spent the whole day in Central Park, it was a beautiful day, all the leaves are turning and look so pretty at the moment, I walked for miles, past the numerous brides having their wedding photos taken, buskers, and the roller disco, which is always lots of fun to watch, people come out every saturday and sunday with their blades and skate to music, its brilliant, very 80's with some great characters! I finished off my trip by reading my book by the lake, which was filled with people out on boats, a great day :)

It has also been Halloween since I last wrote on here which was such a great experience, on Halloween day Jed and I walked to the Chelsea market to see all the decorations and pumpkins but the days leading up to it were dedicated to frantically finding costumes! Emma and I changed our minds numerous times of what we wanted to be but finally I settled on being a corpse bride, I bought a vintage wedding gown from a shop called 'The Family Jewels'  then cut it up and poured fake blood on it, i felt a little bad for ruining such a pretty dress but it looked so cool! The most fun was all of us getting ready together, we all helped each other with hair and make-up taking us probably 2 hours to get ready, so long that we actually missed the Halloween parade :( which was a shame but the weather was bad so we would of got soaked. At 11 we headed out onto the streets of New York all dressed up and headed to a party at `tavern on the green' (this really cool venue in central park) When we arrived it was like bedlam, there were hundreds of people all in costumes trying to get in, it was manic, the organisers had over sold the tickets creating lots of angry people, all dressed up and no where to go! Except we were determind to get in, so we pushed to the front, climbed through bushes, up muddy paths and found a way in, once inside it was like a dream land, free alcohol and food, mirrors and fairy lights everywhere and everyone standing around in strange costumes! Brilliant fun! Then next day we all felt quite hung over and a group of us went to watch the football match at my friends Holly's grandparent's hotel room where we ate pizza and beer and remenised the stories of the night before!

Here are some images that I've liked and photographed, just some of the visually exciting things around the city I was talking about!

This last week has been fun too, emma's friends from home have come to visit her, so it's been really nice hanging out with some british people, we took them to our favorite local mexican restaurant 'Chitos' and drank many frozen magaritas and ate lots of nachos and salsa! :) That now brings us to this weekend, I got some bad news from home that my cat has passed away very sad but she'd had a good life and always had very nice fur :) It's very strange being out here when things are going on back home, for the first time since I got here I felt homesick, but I found out my aunt is coming to visit which is exciting news and I just got back from a museum visit at the Whitney and then brunch  at the boathouse. So things are good as always trying to make the most of every minuet! 

 

The Boathouse!

So Brooklyn that day was fun, the weather was really nice so Jed, Emma and I went to a roof top restaurant and ate Sunday lunch :) very pleasant! The following week was dedicated to working, for one of our classes we went to the Guggenhim museum, which was cool, we went to see the Kandinsky exhibition except I was more impressed by the architecture than the paintings! 

On the Thursday I went and had lunch at  the Rockerfella Unitversity, with my friend jane who works in the presidents offices, it is located on the Upper East side and has a view of the East river, a view i've not seen much since I got here. 

 

That Friday evening about 6 of us made our way to central park to celebrate John Lennon's Birthday, we all sat around singing Beatles songs in the middle of strawberry fields, I really enjoyed it there was such a good atmosphere and everyone was so friendly. 

The following night about 15 of us went to my friend's Cliff's 22nd birthday celebration, held at a really cool town house near union square, it was a crazy night, but amazing fun. 

This past week I've been working quite hard, so not had much time to go do all the fun things! I can't believe I've been here for almost two months, it's going by so quickly, It's beginning to get very cold here, and i'm in desperate need of a winter jacket...maybe some shopping tomorrow! :)

The four day weekend got off to a very good start! On the Friday evening Emma and I went to Central Park to try and buy tickets for a Passion Pit and Phoenix gig going on there, people were selling tickets for $90 so we resided to the fact we wouldn't go and sat outside the venue by security listing in, they were about 10 minuets into playing and one of the security guards came over and said he'd let us both in for $50 so Emma slipped him the money and we went in. We couldn't believe our luck! They put on a great show! 

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to getting work done and organised, as my Phantom Killer poster was due in that coming Wednesday, which also happened to be Becca (my room mate's Birthday) most of us had class till 9:20 so afterward we all went to Billy's Bakery in Chelsea for some birthday cake. 

                            My final design for the Phantom Killer Poster

To help with funding myself here I've started babysitting a little girl twice a week, it's not much but helps a bit! On Thursday Jed Emma and I went to really cool camera shop called B&H they sell anything and everything to do with cameras, along the ceiling runs a conveyor belt carrying all different camera bits, it's a manic shop but definitely worth a visit! I've chosen to study dark room photography out here, which I'm really getting back into, I've not used a film camera since finishing my A levels so I'm enjoying rediscovering the joys of photography!

                                                 Messy desk!

This friday night was amazing fun, Emma found a d.j. night with Annie Mac going on in the Tribeca area in the basement of the Grand Hotel, it was such fun, great music and great atmosphere! A night to remember! the next day was spent recovering watching movies and drinking coffee! 

It's Sunday today,  Brooklyn is on the agenda!

Ok so I've been neglecting my blog for a couple of weeks....this is due to the sheer amount of work i've been doing.......well work, and having fun! I think i'm really beginning to feel quite settled here now and no longer have the tourist mind set, the classes here are a really good and already feel i've learnt quite a bit. One of the classes I've taken is advanced advertising- where we get involved in live projects, I'm in the middle of designing a poster for an off broadway show called The Phantom Killer, the winner gets their poster published and $500 prize money! I'll put my design up once i'm finished with it. In other classes I've been making books, screen printing, cutting out wood for printmaking, mixing gouache and learning photography techniques in both digital and film. It's brilliant!

Image made in screen printing taken from photos I took in Coney Island

 Above is my first ever book I made, it's very simple but worth a photo!!

About 2 weeks ago now to kick off Fashion week, New York held a late night shopping event, where all of the big designer shops around manhattan stayed open till 11pm while celebrities circled around them, there was free champagne and cup cakes on offer, so the naglar girls and I got dressed up and went shopping :) it's the first time i've been shopping in a designer shop where the assistant actually believed I might of been able to afford a $300 t-shirt! We spotted Sienna Miller and her sister and the editor in chief of American Vogue- Anna Wintour which was cool. The atmosphere was crazy with paparazzi and shoppers everywhere running around trying to get a glimpse of the stars. Needless to say I didn't buy anything!

The next morning was September 11th, Emma and I woke up  early and headed to downtown Manhattan to watch the memorial at ground zero, except when we got there we were told we needed tickets...at this point the heavens had opened and we found ourselves in a torrential down pour, we headed to the nearest food outlet and got pancakes for breakfast and watched the memorial on the plasma instead, we were close though!

That same weekend we went to a Dutch festival that was going on on Govenors Island, (an island about 1 km away from manhattan) It used to be occupied by the coast guard and only until quite recently allowed the public to visit. The festival took place in a clearing of trees and houses, it felt very removed from the busy city, I felt as though I was in Holland, there were lots of different acts going on such a silent disco, live performances, lots of heineken on sale and yummy food! unfortunately because of bad weather we weren't able to do the silent disco, which was our main purpose for going! 

On the 18th my friends Alice and Sarah touched down in Newark airport, they arrived late at night so emma, jed and I took them to a 24 hour diner before going to bed! During their time here we went to the museum of sex.... their idea not mine! we went to the top of the rock, which I would really recommend, it was an amazing view, a really good experience!

 Emma, Jed and I took them back on the boat to Govenors Island for a second attempt at the silent disco.... this time we were successful, which was really fun... afterwards we headed back to manhattan...Jed had been invited by someone on his course to a house warming party, Alice and Sarah were still feeling pretty jet lagged at this point so went back to their hostel, but we carried on and went to the party...it was a one bed flat in Chelsea where we met some interesting characters, one guy had even lived in Kingston for some of his life, quite a funny night!!

The next day I woke early and met with alice and sarah, it was a beautiful day so we went to whole foods and bought ourselves a strange concoction of food for a picnic....buying things such as shrimps, vine leaves and rosemary bread. We then headed straight for central park. It was a Sunday so it was packed full of people, we got caught up watching various street acts before we finally found the perfect spot to sit and eat our strange lunch, on the rocks overlooking the turtle pond. After lunch Alice and Sarah wanted to visit Strawberry Fields, so we headed over to the mosaic memorial where just next to it was a motley crew of musicians playing Beatles songs, we ended up sitting watching them for 2 hours, it was such a high light they were really good and gave off such a great atmosphere!

 That night we met for drinks with Alice and Sarah's American friend John, just a civilized amount of gin and tonic, bars here stay open till 4am so it's easy to get carried away!  One night a man dressed as spider man took us for a ride in his rickshaw except instead of having a bike he ran and pulled us along while he jumped off walls, sounds strange but it was so fun!

 On their last night we decided to get dressed up and have a nice meal together, we went to Times Square and ate mussels in cream :) we were then recommended this cheap bar off one of the streets called Jimmy's corner....it was so cool, Jimmy the owner was sitting at the bar drinking with everyone and on the walls are picture of some of the greatest boxers such as mohammed ali, that Jimmy himself had trained. We played some music on a juke box and ended up staying until 4am! A great night! 

The day after Alice and Sarah left emma and I went on a pub crawl....this is not what you think, it's a publication crawl where you go and visit different magazine companies and the art directors talked to us about how the creative department is run. The first stop was at Inc. magazine whose offices were in the building next the world trade centre site, there was amazing views of the city and you had an aerial view of ground zero, very interesting. The offices were so cool I felt like I was in Ugly Betty, it was really interesting getting to see behind the scenes of the magazine and has definitely inspired me.

 Our second magazine was W magazine which was amazing the art director there was so enthusiastic and inspirational, She had actually studied at F.I.T. herself and said she was looking for interns. Definitely a worth while trip!

So that now brings us to today! Well it's Friday morning and I have a four day weekend as it's a Jewish holiday. I've got work to do but also a lot more exciting things on the agenda! I love it here!!