A Trip to "Bawston", got us into Harvard, and we met a real live lobster ... before we ate it.

Since I had Memorial day weekend off (the same weekend as the last Bank holiday in May this year) I wanted to make the most of it and travel somewhere. Not being able to decide, prices sky-high because of the holiday, and hotel availability dwindling by the minute, I didn't make a decision of where to go until the last second. I had originally planned to go solo but at the last minute my friend Annali called me asking if she could go with me, which of course I jumped to!

So we left early on the Saturday morning, planning to get an 8am bus from NYC to Boston. In order to make this time I had to get up at 4:45am in order to get the first train (at 5:53am) into the city. Although I was very tired, we made it, and there was not too much traffic on the way up, finally reaching Boston at around noon. We then had the matter of getting to the hotel... which was meant to be located in the airport area, but it was a little further out than we first expected. There was a complimentary shuttle from the airport which we had to ring up for, and we were told we'd have to wait 30minutes... annoying, yes, but even more so when it didn't show up on time. After nearly an hour we finally got picked up (apparently due to bad traffic but on the way to the hotel we hardly saw any in the opposite direction) and it took us around 15minutes to get our Holiday Inn. I personally love Holiday Inns because of the quality and the reasonable price. Our room was really nice, perfect for what we needed for the weekend, and with a large flat-screen TV! Then we had to get back into Boston, after quickly planning what we would be doing. 

The first thing we decided to do was the Freedom Trail which is a red walking route that takes you all around the main sites of Boston, mainly becuase we had limited time left for the day and it would help us get our surroundings. We did get distracted by some of the street vendors on the way who were selling nice food! (Obviously we had to stop, because the Trail said so!) and took some pictures of the sights before reaching the famous Quincy Market -- which I immediately fell in love with! There were two main sections; a boutique/souvenier section and a food section. The food part had all very unique stands, no chain stores here, mainly local delicacies and many other foods from across the globe, and everything looked so good and yummy! I think we ate every meal there except breakfast across the weekend!

My feet were starting to hurt me because of my shoes, so we went to some of the surrounding shops to see if I could find anything... of course we had to make a stop at American Eagle! Because of the Holiday weekend they had an offer on - as you came into the store you recieved a voucher which had a prize on. Mostly they were just 10% discounts, like mine was. Annali was about to throw hers away when I showed her mine and she decided to open it... only to win a $75 giftcard! I was extremely jealous!

We also found a very cool shop which everything inside it changed colour in the sun! It was pretty amazing... everything changed colour from hairclips, to t-shirts, to even nail polish! We spent a good hour or so just being amazed by everything! I didn't even get a new pair of shoes in the end...

That evening we decided to have a taste of Boston and eat Lobster! They cooked them in front of us, and we even met one right before we got to eat it! And it was very tasty, definately worth it!

We started making our way back to the Hotel shortly after, and made plans for the next day... where we planned to finish the Freedom Trail (Quincy Market had distracted us) and go to Harvard and Salem. 

After having a good nights sleep and enjoying our complimentary breakfast, we went about asking how to get to Salem, the man at the front desk told us that we could not get to it unless we had a car and a taxi would cost $30 one way. (We later found out, too late, that we could get a train...) but told us how to get to Harvard and we also wanted to book a duck tour for the next day. We made our way around the rest of the freedom trail which was very interesting... but very hot... we had been told it wouldn't get over 70F (21C) but it was a lot warmer (and more humid) than that. We were also treated to an amazing thunderstorm with forked lightening - over here I normally see sheet lightening instead - later on that afternoon. And upon finishing the trail, we went across the river to Cambridge which is where Harvard is. Luckily for us we stumbled across the Unofficial Harvard Tour (which we had no idea about until we saw them) which was carried out by some of the Harvard students, and best of all, it was free - even though we did give a donation at the end. The tour was one of my favourite parts of the trip, they showed us around the campus, and told us information about it that we otherwise wouldn't have had any idea about, and there was humour too which is always a plus!

After Harvard we headed back to Quincy Market (of course!) and shopped a little... being forced into H&M during heavy rain! And decided to have Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl for dinner, which was equally as tasty as the lobster the previous night! Then we went to the harbour where we enjoyed the nights lights and the view before deciding to head back to the hotel. Our night was about to get worse, as after ringing the hotel for the shuttle and being told we had to wait 30minutes, we were already grumpy, but then the shuttle didn't show. I rang again and apparently we had to wait another 20minutes. Twenty-five minutes and another phonecall later the shuttle finally arrived... after we had waited an hour. Then the shuttle proceeded to circle around the airport for another 30minutes picking up passengers - which weren't there. Upon asking the driver what on earth took him so long he told us he'd only been told 20minutes ago that he had to pick us up. We were not impressed. We definately made sure we complained to the manager -- getting back to the Hotel 2 hours later -- only to be offered a discount for our future stay at that hotel!!

Our final day consisted of going to the Science museum (my host Mom Lynne had a members pass and we got in for free!) and went to the Butterfly exhibit (after our IMAX experience failed) which was really cool as we got to see lots of exotic butterflies upclose, flying around us. Then we went on our duck tour (a duck tour is one that goes on land and water) which was nice to see more of the city before we had to return home. We did go to Quincy Market one more time before our departure to grab lunch and a Boston Cream Pie. Luckily we had no bad traffic and returned to New York on schedule, after having a really great weekend away!

To see more of my photos, you can go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126330&id=542575504&l=93e8bf15c7

Last week was Zane's 8th Birthday (I got him an England Football Shirt -- or "Soccer Jersey" --which he loved, and had to wear it to his practice!) and to celebrate we went out to a Habachi Japanese restuarant. It was very cool becuase the chef actually cooks the meal in front of you performing tricks. I got an awesome picture of fire and a cool video of one of the most famous tricks, the "Flaming Onion Volcano" which I'll attach to the blog post. 

This weekend I am heading up to Niagara Falls, Canada! It's a long trip (about 7hours) but it'll be worth it!

That's all for now... remember to leave a comment :)

Charlotte xx

Roof Garden at the MET Looking Over Central Park

Out of Hibernation and into the Spring!

Many people have recently been asking me when I will be posting a new blog... and here it is! The much anticipated Next Blog! I can only apologise for being so neglectful, but as I have been back to England twice since my previous blog, I mostly caught up with everyone who wanted to know what I have been up to.

For those who don't know, here's a brief summary:

I went home for Christmas -- surprising all my friends!

In January we had a LOT of snow (almost 8inches), and I went to Philadelphia for the weekend (in -17C temperatures, I may hasten to add!), and went Line Dancing (not that I was any good at it!). I also started a new spanish class at college (hola!)

In February, I was heading back home again - just for one week

 and went Snow Tubing (which is kind of like sledging, but you use a large donut shaped ring instead)

March, the weather started to get slightly warmer (although we did

 have a few days of snow) and I visited the Jersey Shore for the first time and Joe came to New York where I met up with him! I also started a Linguistics class at college, which I love. 

April, came and the weather started to get better and this month I've been to the newly opened TOPSHOP in Soho, New York. Over the Easter weekend I went to Washington, DC! Our cluster meeting for this month was a scavenger hunt in New York between loads of different clusters and we split up into groups -- my team won for our cluster of course! Then we had a brief preview of summer, where we had about 5 days where the weather was 28-32C (absolutely gorgeous!) and I visited the Jersey shore again (when it was warmer this time), sunbathed in Central Park and visited the genuine English Fish and Chip shop in Greenwich Village :)

So I've been pretty busy really.

My biggest news though, is that I have decided to stay out here for another year! My host family are all really pleased (especially the kids!) becuase I would not have even been with them for a year if I left in July. So now my new date to come home is the end of August 2010! Which means I'll be 20 before I return to England - in your second year you can't leave the country, due to my visa being expired... but I can work there legally. Anyone is welcome to come and visit me though! (hint hint!)

Another post is on the way with more details about DC!

Charlotte xx

PS. Leave a comment :)

Capitol City & More :)

Hi again!

Here's some more of what I've been up to of late!

So Joe came to New York for a couple of days at the end of March/start of April so obviously I

 had to meet up with him. After bringing me a HUGE bottle of Apple and Blackcurrant Juice, 2 bags of Mini Eggs and 2 large bars of cadburys - which unfortnately I couldn't eat bcause I had given up chocolate for lent - we went for a lovely meal at John's Pizza (one of my favourite New York restuarants, due to the fact they do lovely Brick Oven Pizza, and it's a renovated church, which makes it a beautiful setting), it was bizarre to see someone I knew but really nice as well.

Topshop Opening

On April 2nd, after months of anticipation, TOPSHOP finally opened! I was extremely excited to see this "flagship" store so I headed down to Soho that weekend to see what it was all about. On my way to the subway station, I happened to stumble upon a free concert that was taking place outside of Macys -- but it was a band I hadn't heard of, called "Push Play" but they weren't half bad... 

Anyway, after getting distracted, I headed downtown to SoH

o and went to Topshop. I had to queue outside to get in at first (for 15 minutes or so, but I got a free bottle of water) which I thought was kinda crazy at first, but then it turned out to be a good thing as they were only letting so many people in at one time so the shop wasn't mad-busy. 

When I eventually got in, I was in heaven! It felt like Topshop inside, they were playing British music and even the clothing sizes were in English AND American sizes. 

The shop was spread out to four floors; Topman was in the basement, but it was not as big as I had expected it to be, but it was still a decent size. Then I had to head over to the fitting rooms, where I waited 30minutes for a fitting room! Of course as most people didn't know what the clothes would look like on, they were grabbing everything they could and taking a while to try them on - there was no limit to how many items you could take in either. I ended up purchasing a lovely Black Cotton dress and a pair of footless tights. Lynne (my host Mom) had given me $50 to spend in the Store because I had been so excited about it, so it made it quite a cheap purchase! 

Because it was within the first fours days of opening, they had stations where you could get complimentary makeovers for nails, hair and make-up. Unfortunately they didn't have any available appointments for nails, but I did manage to get my make-up done, and hair styled for free - also, while I was waiting for my hair appointment, I sat down in a area where they had free mini scones with jam and clotted cream! Overall, it was an amazing day, and I will be going back again very soon!

Washington DC

Easter weekend was my weekend off, so to make the most of it I wanted to visit Washington DC, on the premise that it was also the famous Cherry Blossom Festival. I went with 2 other Au Pairs, Jenni (English) and Annali (German), and we left Friday evening, heading into New York and getting a bus from chinatown. We arrived in the capitol at around 1.30am and took a taxi to our hotel, which was about 20minutes from the city centre... we managed to get one which had complimentary "continental" breakfast -- though in my previous experiences a continental breakfast doesn't included waffles -- but that helped save the cents! 

On the first day we had book a "Hop On-Hop Off" tour, which turned out to be the best bet because it was lashing it down with rain, so we decided to take the complete tour and saw everything and only when we had been through one complete circle did we get off and take a closer look. We saw all the main attractions like the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument and of course the White House. We had been told that if we got there early enough to the Washington Monument then you would be able to go to the top of it (for free!) but we were pretty sure that we wouldn't be able to get that. So instead we had been told about the Old Post Office which you could also go up for free but you could go any time of the day and be able to get to the top -- and from the top you could see the whole of DC! 

One thing I really liked about DC was the complete and utter contrast to New York -- so much cleaner and smaller, and the buildings were breathtakingly beautiful due their high rising white columns. And the subway system was like stepping into the future, the underground was in a kind of a cylindrical shape, much more pleasing on the eye than the ancient New York ones.

The only thing which I found odd was that most of the shops and restuarants closed very early -

 at about 5.30pm on a Saturday, which is very early compared to New Jersey even! At one point we saw a Starbucksm, but when we got up to the door it had been closed since 6pm (at this point it was 6.15pm).  

In the afternoon we visited some of the museums (which were all free of charge!) which was interesting and a good way to avoid the rain fall. Unfortunately we did not get chance to visit the National Archives because the queue went round about 3 blocks and as we only had a short amount of time to see everything, we didn't want to waste time in a queue. 

By late afternoon the weather had cleared up and we went to visit the White House, which was surreal but fantastic to see. That evening we went to watch some of the fireworks which were going on due to the ending of the Cherry Blossom Festival -- most of the blossom had disappeared on the saturday because of the rain. We also got to see the Capitol, the Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and the White House (which are all lined up with each other in some way) all lit up at night which was breathtaking, then we finally went for some food as we were all extremely exhausted having had little sleep and been on our feet all day, getting back to the hotel just after midnight. 

The next morning we had planned to get up early  -- but due to the alarm not going off, we had to make do and cut out some things. On the positive side the weather was much more nicer on the Sunday, with no clouds in the sky. Because of our hotel being outside of the main city limits, we had to carry our bags with us the whole day as we would not have had time to go back before we had to catch our bus back to New York, which made getting about tougher than the previous day. But we went to see the Lincoln Memorial and we got to walk through some of the parks, before we had to leave. 

It was a short but sweet visit, but one that I enjoyed completely, and it's definately a place I would like to go back to!

May(so far)

I've now finished my college courses that I was taking at Drew University - Spanish and Linguistics - and so I'm free in the week, but I've just started taking a weekend class in New York. The class is interesting enough, it's about the history of America and Niagara Falls, but the teachers competence can be questioned -- he couldn't describe what "treason" meant and was pretty patronising. Part of the course requires us to visit the falls as well! This turned out to be a really good deal because as it was part of my educational requirement, my host family has paid for the course and the trip! The trip takes place June 5th-7th. 

Also this last weekend I had a Manhattan Boat Cruise, which I had booked back in March. Most of my friends had also booked for it too so it was a really fun evening. We all had the opportunity to dress up, and it was only for Au Pairs and West Point Military Cadets. Luckily it didn't rain, even though it was forecast to (and therefore I had to bring with me a jacket, a coat AND an umbrella.. in true English fashion, but ended up not needing any of them) and so we got to see a stunning Sunset, and the New York Skyline at night and the Statue of Liberty. I had a great time, although the girl-to-guy ratio wasn't that good, but on the whole it was a good night out.

That's about it for now, I'll try and keep up to date from now on!

Charlotte xx

PS Please leave a comment if you read it! :)