(USA back track 1) Watch out USA... here I come!

June 20 2004... i leave the shores of Durbs again and after an extremely long flight (now that is what i call a long-haul flight)... something like 30 hours of travelling, i touch down in the Big Apple on June 21 2004! Next challenge, putting on a sweet, friendly face (the only one i have) to get past immigration (they are not my favourite people)! So my first experience of New York... the guy taking us to the au pair school on Long Island falling asleep at the wheel... i mean, i'm the one who has been awake for 2 days but he falls asleep... needless to say i got the fright of my life and was wide awake from then on!

The au pair school was located at St. John's University campus, it very interesting and it was good to meet all the other au pairs (although i was the only one who spoke English as my first language, this becomes a tread throughout my 2 years here)... kind of like being part of the UN!!!!

The highlight of my stay at the au pair school was our trip into New York City on the last day! It was mindblowing to see all the buildings and sights we have all seen on TV and heard so much about! Times Square was our first stop... all the posters and billboards, it was amazing and the naked cowboy was there to entertain us all (what will they think of next, a gay, rapping cowboy... oh wait, there is one already)! We then had a walk around Rockafeller Centre, unfortunately all the flags had been taken day in honour of the death of Ronald Reagan! All aboard the bus and off we went past more famous landmarks... Madison Square Gardens, Wall Street (got to touch the brass bull's nose for luck), the street which was used at the location for Friends (it wasn't the actual set, just the street the set was based on) and finally we got to the site of the WTC. I don't know how to put in words what it was like to stand there and look down into that huge hole... very airy and sad! You don't realise the distruction until you see it first hand... it wasn't only the trade centre that was distroyed but every building around it, except a small church... very airy!

The WTC site... looking down instead of up

Next stop the Stanton Island ferry, we were just going there to come back, mainly to go past the symbol of NYC... the Statue of Liberty! Pretty cool, saw loads of little sea taxis (with the famous black and yellow checks), the NYC skyline and the statue itself... it's huge! We then made our way back into the heart of the city and were given 2 hours to do our own thing... a group of us decided to head straight to the Empire State Building! After standing in a pretty long quene with the rest of the tourists, we made it onto the platform... don't look down!!!! The view is absolutely amazing, you can see for miles, the thing that amazed me most was the number of tiny yellow ants (cabs) there were and the size of central park... it's huge!

The Stanton Island ferry with Ms Liberty in the background

All in all, we covered most of NYC in about 5 hours... i'm gonna have to go back there one day (i'll have to wait til my next trip to the states), but it was an experience and a fantastic way to start off my American experience! The next day (June 25) all the UN of au pairs was rounded up and dispersed into the states... i headed for Denver!