Empire State of Mind

Broadway

18 hours. Thats how long it took me to get from Athens to the Big Apple. (By the way, it took me 16 hours to get from Germany to Columbus, with a layover in Charlotte, NC) But don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret taking the Greyhound instead of a flight. How else would I have seen and experience the beauty and excitement of the Greyhound stations in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Newark, as well as the wide variety of rest stops along the way. I also would have missed out on a stranger almost falling asleep ontop of me. But in all seriousness, taking the bus wasn’t the most comfortable option but i did save a lot of money. And if you need one thing in New York it’s money! Also, it was really nice slowly driving towards the Manhattan skyline, you don’t get that on a plane. And I swear as soon as I saw the skyscrapers emerge from the horizon, Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” came on my Spotify playlist. It was awesome!

Herald Square

On Tuesday I started my internship with Classwish.org/ChangingThePresent.org. Both companies are founded by the same person and work in the same space. It’s a similar concept as Heifer International with ClassWish being more focused on education, namely providing public schools with the supplies they need and ChangingThePresent being more spread out and covering a wide variety of causes. I encourage you to click the link and check both organizations out, they really are doing good work. I am mostly responsible for getting a new program up and running. That includes defining specifics of it, developing marketing strategies, reaching out to other non-profits and the media, etc. I have a lot more responsibility than I expected, but I like a challenge. I’m going to have to check how much I can actually talk about what I’m doing, but trust me it’s very exciting and I really feel like I’m doing something important. 

My view on the way to work everyday...

...and my view from the office.

Terrible picture of Times Square

That is one of the main reasons I wanted to go and intern at a non-profit, actually feeling like I’m doing something.

I haven’t really been able to do all the touristy stuff in the city. However, my office is in the middle of everything. It’s right across the street from Madison Square Garden. A five minute walk away you’ll find Times Square. Turn a corner and you’re at Bryant Park, the Public Library, and the Empire State Building. Everyday after work I start walking in a different direction to discover something new. It also saves me from the craziness on the subway during that time. The 30min commute is much nicer when you’re not squeezed into the cart like sardines…

Overall I am super excited to spent my summer here. I can’t wait to discover everything this city has to offer! Not that you could ever accomplish that in the few months that I’m here...