Day 5 - The Happiest Place in Europe

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I love Disneyland! Today we all went to Disneyland Paris for our business visit. (Emily and I woke up late and got ready in 5 minutes. How's that for skill?) The execs of the park treated us with a nice business visit in a conference room and gave us a bus tour of the land as well. This visit was really interesting, as they weren't afraid to tell us of their big mistakes from the past and how they learned from them. For instance, when Disneyland first opened in Paris, the Europeans hated it, thinking it represented American imperialism at its worst. Sales stagnated for years, as Disneyland refused to cater to the Europeans, thinking the American way was better. When they finally decided to change (by focusing more on the experience, catering to the cultures, etc) that's when sales began to increase and they are now the top tourist destination in France. But it wasn't until about 2005 that it occurred. Interesting, huh?




After the business visit, they let us into the park! It looks pretty much the same as any other Disneyland, except with everything in French. But I still love it. Amusement park rides are one of my favorite things. We rode all the big rides and I also bought a souvenir water bottle, since I needed one anyway :) It was definitely fun to hear all the different languages in the park, from French to English to Spanish to Italian. 





After the park we went to dinner at this Turkish restaurant near the hotel. I got a kofte (flattened meatball) sandwich. It was pretty good and was pretty cheap. I have to watch my spending since Euros are higher than the U.S. dollar :)



On a slightly more depressing note, my foot still hurts pretty bad and looks like a tree stump, haha. KMac says it might be tendinitis. She rubbed my foot out real good and now I have ice on it and I'm elevating it. So I hope it gets better by tomorrow so I can bike around Paris! Let's hope!


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Day 4 - Paris!

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First of all, can I just say how much I hate my feet right now and walking in general? I have these mega blisters on my toes and this muscle spasm in my foot. And the walking.never.stops. We had to drag our luggage from the Paris subways to the hotel, steps included. It's a pretty good workout, but still.

Ok, enough complaining. I am finally in PARIS!! And it is GORGEOUS. At first it kind of felt like an extension of NYC, only cleaner and in a different language. Then we got downtown and saw the beautiful architecture and I no longer thought that. Also, I wish the weather in NYC was more like it is here. It's 70 degrees and perfecttt whereas NYC was 90s and humid. Bleh.

After the 10 hour flight (where I got better sleep but my feet swelled and just added to the problem) we took the subway to our hotel in Laumiere. The hotel is pretty small and ghetto (the showers are like pod cells), but I'm rooming with Emily, and we're having a pretty good time :)

Even in France they love Harry Potter!


Then we went to this absolutely amazing crepe stand near the Latin Quarter for lunch. I had a salami fromage (cheese) crepe, and it seriously hit the spot.

crepes done right

Emily and I


Then we walked around for a bit, saw the Notre Dame from afar and took pictures in front of the Seine River. So beautiful.

Notre Dame

Seine River



We then went to the Eiffel Tower!! I had seen a million pictures of it before, but you don't really realize how big it is until you're standing right there. It's absolutely amazing, and the view from the top was breathtaking. You can literally see all of Paris. Definitely worth the hype :)

Adam, Michael, and I at the top


so tall!

Paris seems to go on forever

Me and Jane!


After the Eiffel Tower we went and got dessert crepes at the same stand as before. I got a butter and sugar one, and it was divine. I then went back to the hotel because my foot was hurting so bad, but we finally have free wifi so I can update my blog! Yay!

Tim and  I at a gorgeous fountain near the crepe stand.


Also, even though it's only been a day, I think I've got the subway system down pretty well. There was a point where I got temporarily stranded from the group, but I found my way back! Plus one for being independent in a foreign land :)

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Day 3 - Goodbye, New York!

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I’m in the airplane, flying to Paris! I can’t believe I’m saying that! Ahh!

So my last day of New York was a really good one, even though it was short. We started off by visiting the McGarryBowen ad agency. They deal with clients such as Disney, Chevron, Burger King, and Verizon. No big deal. We got a tour of the agency and then they showed us some of their commercial spots and talked to us about what it was like to work in an ad agency. Very enlightening stuff.

The view outside the agency. Yeah, not a bad place to work.

Katy and I

Then we went to 5th Avenue for another business assignment, to go to 3 high-end businesses and talk to their store managers about the brand and get an overall feel for the place. We first stopped at DeBeer’s where the manager talked to us about their high profile diamond company and the new marketing efforts they are starting. Then we went to Armani, and Tim (who LOVES Armani) looked liked a kid in a candy store when we first walked in. It was seriously the sexiest looking store I’ve been in. I wish I had taken a picture, but it was super sleek and full of items I could never afford, of course. We talked to the store manager about the brand, and she was very passionate about it and even asked for Tim’s portfolio, haha. I think she wanted him to be a model or something. He certainly has the facial expressions down.

Trump Tower




We then walked around Central Park, which was really pretty, and got lunch at this tiny Thai restaurant, which was so good. I got the beef garlic. Mmm. I’ve found that the little hole-in-the-wall places have the best food, which is pretty interesting.

Central Park!

Tim C, Michael, Leanna, KMac, Hannah, and I

deliciouso





And that was about it! The shuttle ride to the airport literally took two hours, the traffic was so bad. Here comes Paris!!

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Day 2 - Empire State of Mind

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Second day of my adventure is complete! It was such an awesome day : ) I actually think I’ve learned the subway system by now. Another thing about NYC that amazes me is how different each section looks. Soho, Times Square, Fifth Ave, etc all look like different cities somehow.

We started off the day with a business visit to Agentry PR, a one year-old high-end fashion PR firm. The funny story behind this visit is that when we researched it during class, there was no website and we actually thought it was called Argentry PR, so we were really confused and doubted whether or not this place even existed. And when we got there, there was no sign on the door and the elevators didn’t work so we had to take this freight elevator around the corner… pretty sketchy. But when we got there it was actually really cool. They had all their clients collections on display in their office and the people were all super nice. PR is my field, so it reaffirmed that this is what I want to go into… but just not fashion PR. It’s just not my passion, unlike some people on the trip. I won’t even begin to act like I know what I’m talking about when it comes to brands and stuff like that. I just like what looks pretty : )

Racks of their client's collections. Their biggest clients are Ben Sherman and Uniqlo.

They took a picture with us :)

Milk and Honey shoes!


After that we went to the Shake Shack for lunch, a pretty famous place in Madison Park. It was kind of like 5 Guys and In-N-Out, but their custard shakes were delicious.

The line was like an hour long!

We're cool.

My delicious meal.


We then went to Johnson and Johnson’s design headquarters for another business visit. It was interesting to learn how a big business that operates across the world does their marketing and caters their designs to each culture. The guy was also slightly obsessed with sustainability, although J&J doesn’t emphasize how sustainable they really are. Another thing I really liked about J&J is how moral their company is. Like Chris Hacker said, “At this company, you’re more likely to get fired for breaking the credo than for a bad business plan.”

Then it was time for fun! We first went to this Polish restaurant for dinner (our group kind of has this weird obsession with Poland…) Polish food is SO good. I got some meat poleshkis (sp?) and they were amazing.  I think we should go to Poland too on our trip. Mmmm.



We then bummed around Soho for a while, did some shopping and walked around. Then a couple of us went to the Brooklyn Bridge, which was absolutely GORGEOUS. The whole walk felt like a postcard. We also got our very own tour guide, a guy named Travis that we met in Starbucks. He’s interning at a record company and was really nice. I really recommend going on the Brooklyn Bridge at night if you ever come to 
NYC : )

This display in Uniqlo in Soho was pretty crazy.

City Hall

Making a wish at City Hall's fountain

One of the views from Brooklyn Bridge :)



Our new friend Travis, Kimbra, and Michael.

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Day 1 - New York, New York!

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(I wrote all of this yesterday, but didn't have wifi access until today. Youd' think of all the places, New York would have free wifi, right? Yeah, not so. So I'm sorry this is late!)

Day 1 of my study abroad is finally over and it already feels like it's been a week. I haven't slept since 11 am yesterday... it's 8 pm now. Yeah... I'm a little tired. It was SUCH a great day though.

The flight was about 4 hours long and I tried to sleep but I couldn't. There were screaming children and I just couldn't get comfortable enough to zonk out. After the flight, we then took my first subway ride ever to get out of the airport and into Times Square. (We got our own unlimited metro passes! How cool is that?) We couldn't check into our separate hotel rooms, so we had to pile all our stuff into one room and somehow manage to change for church at the same time. We were all so sweaty and gross by this point that the odor in that room was pretty disgusto.

Katy and Mark loving the cramped space.

We had some time to kill before church, and since our hotel is right on Times Square, we bummed around there for a while, taking pictures.


Times Square!



Inspired by the Glee finale :)

These ads were everywhere! 



We then went to sacrament meeting at the Manhattan YSA 8th Ward. The church building here is so interesting! The church makes up the first few floors of a skyscraper and the temple is on the floors above it. Check out the angel Moroni:




Sacrament seemed pretty interesting, but by this point nobody in our group could keep their eyes open. If you looked around, you would have seem our whole group with our heads down, trying to fight off sleep. I felt kind of bad, but I honestly couldn't help it. My brain had a mind of its own at that point.

After church I then went and saw Jersey Boys, a Broadway production about the life of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It was really good - the musical numbers and production value was superb. It made me just wanna get up and dance, which is what I did on the final number anyway, haha.



After the show, we got some real New York pizza at John's Pizzeria!.I got the bruschetta pizza and it was sooo good.

Mmm Bruschetta



Emily, Jilli, Adam, Michael, Elizabeth, and Katy


After dinner, I went to the hotel and changed and rested for a little bit, before going out to Rockefeller Center (where 30 Rock is located). We didn't go up the tower because it costs like $30, but we took pictures around the gorgeous plaza and just walked around 5th Ave before getting some delicious New York cheesecake at Fluffy's.

The NBC room!


Looking up at the tower



gorgeous

Liz Lemon, where are you??



Fluffy's cheesecake!


Also, since New York just passed gay marriage, there was a gay pride parade going on today. I didn't actually get to see the parade, but there was gay pride stuff everywhere. I think I saw more gay guys than straight guys, actually. They were pretty hilarious. 

It was such a fun-filled day and it seems weird that we did so much in one day, but if this is how the rest of the trip is going to be then I am pretty excited. Everyone in my group is awesome and super fun.

Overall, I really love New York City. It's pretty dirty, especially around Times Square, but I love the hustle and bustle and the random street vendors who try to save you/make you donate/buy their cheap crap, the dirty water hotdog stands, all the billboards, everything. Let's hear it for New York!

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