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!! 

Week 2 in New York! Classes started, things are done very differently over here compared to back home, we were allowed to arrange our own schedule so Emma and I made sure we have Fridays off so a 3 day weekend! :) 

So far I've found all the classes to be really interesting and have already been set a lot of work to do, but in between classes I still managed to find time to have fun!

 On Tuesday, Joaquin (a new mexican friend) Jed and I went for a bike ride in Central Park where we stumbled upon a free Whitney Houston gig, so naturally we jumped at the chance to go watch it.... she played a very short set that ended just in time for me to then hurry off to my screen printing class. That evening I met up with my friend maria, we went to a very swanky japanese restaurant on 10th avenue. I felt a little out of my depth but the food was really yummy!

 

Wednesday is a full day of classes for me from 11am to 9:20pm but it seemed to go quite quickly and because everything stays open so late here 9:20pm doesn't feel late to be finishing work. 

On Friday I met up with my family friend, Jane who lives in Brooklyn, we went to see the Richard Avedon exhibition at the International Center of Photography, followed by dinner back at her house which was really cool, I got to meet her partner who conveniently is a practicing Photographer, so we had lots to talk about over dinner! 

Saturday afternoon I was invited to Maria's niece's first Birthday party, held in Prospect Park, Brooklyn,  it reminded me a lot of Richmond park minus the deer! We ate lebanese food and amazing cup cakes! It was so nice getting away from the busy city for a couple of hours and I got to meet some really interesting people too!

 Sunday...Emma, Jed and myself went back to Brooklyn to visit a flea market in DUMBO (under Brooklyn bridge) after Jed had purchased his much desired Bon Jovi t-shirt we proceeded over the Bridge and walked all the way back to dorms...stopping off in Little Italy for more food!!! That evening I was just about to get settled for the night and I got a call from Emma, she'd found a band night happening in the east village, so off we went, it turned out to be a really fun night where we saw The Shivers perform.

 

          That now brings us to today, Monday.....well here in America it's Labour Day so we all got the day off...I was determined to get some much delayed work done...but it somehow never happened, Emma and I took a trip to a place called Coney Island, I guess it's like the American version of Brighton but even that's not giving it justice...it's the most bizzare place, amazing for taking photographs and just a really interesting study of life. We went on probably the most scary roller coaster of my life called Cyclone, it was built in 1927, extremely rickety and not very comforting that they sold T-shirts saying "I survived The Coney Cyclone" After our traumatic experience we got some candy floss and sat on the beach looking out to the Atlantic as the sun set. Along the sea front there was a crowd of people of all ages standing in a circle, where families were dancing together to live music, it was so nice to see people looking so happy and care free. I definitely will go back it was such an experience! I'd recommend it!  So then this evening I was all set to work but some how I got distracted again and ended up playing pool with Jed and now I'm writing my blog!  Class doesn't start till 2 tomorrow so I guess have the morning! I'm going to try and knuckle down this week but it's so difficult with so many distractions!!!!!