An Action-packed Day in the Big Apple

Bonjour tout le monde, or as we say on our trip “Hi everyone!”

So today was our first day in the city that never sleeps, aka New York. Exciting, right? We left the hotel early in the morning to meet our awesome tour guide Garret in front of the New York public library, which by the way is not the “real” one.. I know it’s confusing. Did you know that if you wanna borrow a book from this library, you can’t!

Group shot in front of the library

Then, after our little “study time” we went to Rockefeller Center. It was pretty interesting to see this huge building next to a small ice skating open rink! Also, we learned about the egg contest that is taking place in New York: basically the goal is to find more than 600 hidden eggs in the whole city such as museum, shops, and streets... to win a prize. We had a couple minutes to take some pictures.

As everyone knows, New York would not be the same without its Central Park and its marathons!  We had the chance to go for a wonderful walk in Central Park and take more pictures of a break dance show, lakes (although they are man-made), and of course SQUIRRELS!!

Strawberry Fields in Central Park

Until now, you have to admit that we are pretty lucky, but wait it’s not over! We went to see the Cathedral Saint John the Divine. If you just walk over there and look quickly at the cathedral, you may not see that a lot of statues are missing, not because it’s pretty old but simply because they don’t have enough money to finish it.

St. John the Divine

Right after this, we stopped at Columbia University to walk around and guess what? We took even more pictuuuures! I know it’s only the first day and we already have so many pictures.

For lunch, we had some free time at Greenwich Village where there are lots of trendy restaurants and cafes.

Columbia University

Then we went to the MET. It was amazing because we all had something to see from all our countries—European paintings, African artifacts, Asian buddhas, and Ancient Egyptian tombs! After that we headed to Alvin Ailey dance studio for the funniest part of our journey: a hip hop dance class with an amazing teacher! Can you imagine that? Having a hip hop class in NY, craaaaazy!

Showing off our moves

Group shot with our dance teacher!

Ok it’s time to talk about dinner guys (since we were all starving from our dance class)! We went to the famous Hard Rock Café in Times Square. Who would not like a hamburger in one of these famous places? No one, I’m sure.

    

After a good dinner, it’s time to walk around Times Square! We were told that the best time to go there and take pictures is at night, and guess what? They were right! All the buildings were enlightened by lights all over the place! Here is a picture of me (right) and Lina (left) there!

After this amazing, but long day in the Big Apple, we took the bus back to the hotel. This day was incredible and we’re sure that tomorrow will be even more wonderful!

-- Chloe and Lina, France