Day 8

Saturday, 8 February - day of departure. This morning I packed the rest of my things into my suitcase and since I haven't been feeling well since yesterday, I decided to spend some more time alone, the stress and hustle and bustle and so many new people were just too much for me at that moment. This maybe sounds strange to people who know me, but yes, I also feel like that sometimes. And what is the best medicine? Sun, beach and sea! The sun was shining and the beach and the sea were only a one-hour subway ride away, so let's go...

I admit it wasn't the best time of year to go to Coney Island. A pretty icy winter sea breeze was blowing around my ears, but just hearing the sound of the sea and watching the seagulls on the beach gave me so much power within a short time that the trip paid off. You could roughly guess what it looks like here in summer when New Yorkers are drawn out of the city to the beach. Enjoying the sun, lying on the beach, strolling along the Broadwalk up to Brighton Beach or riding one of the many rides of Luna Park. New item on the to do list: NYC in summer! At Luna Park there are real "primary rocks" among the rides. The famous roller coaster "Cyclone" has been around for over 8 decades and is one of the city's landmarks. It has been used in countless movies and has withstood many forces of nature. Another remnant from old times is the "Wonder Wheel", which was built in 1920 and is also one of the official sights of the city.

Unfortunately the time passed quickly and I had to go back to the house to pick up my suitcase and drive to the airport. In the evening we flew back to Paris and then continued with the TGV to Brussels. Here it is already the morning of Sunday, February 9th.

It was a great trip with a lot of impressions and experiences, which you would not experience as a "normal" tourist. But I was also glad that I have been in NYC before and therefore I didn't have a lot of stress with sightseeing. Many things I saw for the 2nd time, but many things were also new! 

Day 7

Friday, February 7th - our morning meeting was today at the Museum of Illusions. There you enter the fascinating world of illusions and can try and experience everything yourself! A fun and exciting visit.

As we had some time before the next item of the program, we walked to the "Friends House" in Greenwich Village and also explored the surroundings as well as the bordering SoHo a bit. A beautiful neighbourhood where one can well imagine living if you had the necessary wherewithal to pay.

A heavy storm was coming up in the afternoon and so it was an advantage that we still had a tour with VOX Media. It was very interesting to get to know this multinational digital media company first hand and to see how people work in such a company. The working atmosphere looks very good there.

There was one more item on my do to list that I really wanted to check off - street art in Brooklyn. So I took the subway to Bushwick Collective, a large and growing graffiti exhibition in the Bushwick district of Brooklyn, known for graffiti and street art culture in NYC. Due to the lack of time, I could only view the artwork around the Jefferson Street Subway Station, but that alone fascinated me. I can't explain it, but this kind of art just has a special flair for me. It's also one of the to do's for my next visit to New York - to give me more time for street art and for the hip district in general. There is also the possibility of a guided street art tour. But if you want to do it on your own - on this page you'll find great information for a selfguided tour: Bushwick Collective - Info & Map 

  

Since it was already getting dark, I drove back to Times Square and strolled through it one last time, a little bit shopping and soaking up the atmosphere. I also visited the flagship stores of Disney and M&M's. Both shops are very New York-anized and a lot of merchandise is specially made for them, like the M&M's or Mickey Mouse Statue of Liberty and much more. Since I usually go to the Disney Store in foreign cities, I have a direct comparison here and this is particularly striking in New York.

The rest of the class went to the Karaoke night today, but because I'm a little bit health stricken and tired, I'll just pack my suitcase, because tomorrow is departure day.

Day 6

Thursday, February 6 - this morning we visited Beat the Bomb, an Paint Blast Escape Room. You have to solve games and puzzels to defuse a paint bomb. You have to complete different rooms and collect time credits for the "bombastic" final. Basically it was quite funny, but for my taste some things were a bit too technical and I needed to much time to understand, what I have to do. In the dark rooms you get a bit of a strange feeling also. But this is my personal feeling and opinion. The protective suit was completely destroyed at the latest after crawling under, between and above the laser beams, but thank god you get an additional protection at the end before the bomb goes off. It's a good concept, but maybe mor for hardcore Escape Room lovers.

After that we were walking to the DUMBO neighbourhood to take some pictures at the famous street where you can see the Manhattan bridge between brick houses.  For delicious food we went to the Time Out Market afterwards. Partly quite expensive because you just can't make up your mind and eat way too much, but it's a great concept. After this culinary boost we walked to the Brookyn Bridge, which we crossed in direction to Manhattan. Always an experience! Afterwards the other girls went to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, but as I have been there already during another NYC visit, I was just walking around in the neighbourhood and went a little shopping, as there is also a Westfield shopping mall in the Oculus World Trade Center.

I spent the evening with the girls in the BXL Café on Times Square with Belgian beer and food. A nice evening and a culinary view of what to expect in Belgium.

 

Day 5

Wednesday, February 5th - today we set off again early in the morning, because today the live taping of Good Morning America really took place. This news program is broadcasted live from the Times Square studios by the network ABC. Like every other live taping so far, this was a great experience and it was worth getting up early. The studio is completely different from the other studios, because here you sit at ground level and are surrounded by the action. On each side a presenter or one or the other guest can appear. It was very exciting when Ewan McGregor was sitting one meter away or Kim Kardashian West suddenly entered the studio and you were even allowed to take pictures during the little breaks. She talked about her life, her family and her decision to study law, as well as about her shape-wear business. A highlight was also when Meghan Trainor performed her song "Babygirl" from the new album. The whole thing was rounded off when they received free products at the exit, which were presented in the show. Simply an unforgettable experience!

The program today also included a tour through the NBC Studios. This was a behind-the-scenes tour to the studios of the shows Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers. During the interesting tour we learned about the entire TV production process and at the end we produced your own show in a studio. This was really fun!

We started the afternoon at the Chelsea market with some culinary delicacies, then we walked along the Highline, a former freight train road that has been converted into a park, to Hudson Yards. That's a neighbourhood on the west side of Midtown Manhattan and is the site of a large-scale redevelopment program. There you can find beside a lot of new buildings a mall in which also the Edge, the highest sky deck in the Western Hemisphere, is located, but not yet open. Too bad that it doesn't open until March. Opposite of the mall you can find The Vessel - the extraordinary centerpiece of Hudson Yards, a spiral staircase meant to be climbed. Comprised of 154 intricately interconnecting flights of stairs, almost 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings, the vertical climb offers remarkable views of the city, the river and beyond. You can get same day tickets for free directly there or on the website, but it's possible that you have to wait some hours, which you can spend in the mall. It was quite exhausting and a bit dizzying to climb the highest landing, but since it was already dark, you had a great view. 

In the evening we went back to Broadway as we visited the musical West Side Story. Maybe it wouldn't have been my No. 1 musical on the to do list, but since I'm a musical fan, I took the chance to see it. And I was totally surprised and excited about it. It was a thrilling new interpretation of this famous work with extraordinary dancing and interactive visuals. The performers all made their Broadway debuts, but they were brilliant. I think they will have a bright future!

Day 4

Tuesday, February 4th - today Romi and I got up at 5.00am because we mistakenly thought that the live taping of Good Morning America was today. When we stood in line and showed our ticket we were told that it is tomorrow. What a bummer! Going back home would have made no sense, so we strolled around the deserted Times Square, in a way you usally never see it.  After an extensive breakfast at Starbucks we decided to visit the Empire State Building. Beside the great view, there is an exhibition with all movies that were shot there including a great King Kong animation and a gallery with all visits of famous people. 

After the visit we met again at the Paley Center. Today we had a short lecture about radio. We learned some interestig facts including the information that there was no commercial radio before the 20's and it was not cheap enough to make it public before the 60's. Afterwards we recorded our own radio drama with an original text of The Shadow, a radio thriller that was broadcasted from 1930-1954. Some of us made the noises with all kinds of things and devices and some were the speakers. This was a great experience!

After that we walked to the Roosevelt Island Tram. This is a cable car that runs over the East River and from there you have a spectacular view of Manhattan, the East River and Roosevelt Island. In 2002, the Roosevelt Island Tram was also the setting for the movie Spider Man. We had lunch on the island and spent the afternoon there very quietly walking and enjoying the great view.  

In the late afternoon we went back to Manhattan, because we had to be at the NBC studios in time, because we had tickets for the live taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers. This was again worth an experience. Unfortunately we had to turn off the mobile phone here before entering the studio and so unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of the studio. Seth Meyers is also a comedian, but you can already notice differences to trevor noah, who I personally liked better or who was funnier for me. The show is also more of a talk show, not so much a news show and there is a live band in the studio. One of the program points was the second chance theatre and Andy Samberg from the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine was a guest.

After the show we went over the roofs of New York again. Since we were in the Rockefeller Center building anyway, we took the elevator to Top of the Rocks and enjoyed the view over New York by night. Unfortunately the rain drove us away and we had a nice dinner with the rest of the group in the Olive Garden restaurant at Time Square. Very good food and highly recommended. With full stomach we took the subway back home and to our beds. It was a long day and tomorrow we have to get up early again!

Day 3

Monday, February 3 - Today we started the day at The Paley Center For Media. The Paley Center is more an archive than a museum and is dedicated to the cultural, creative, and social significance of broadcast media (television, radio, emerging platforms). We listened to an interesting lecture about the 1970s, the decade of relevancy, in which the topics race, gender, class and sexual orientation played a major role. We looked at and discussed old sitcoms from the 70s (All in the Family, Charlie's Angels and The Jeffersons) together. In these series you can find many clichés from this time. After this we were able to browse through the archive ourselves.

Afterwards a part of us did the VR bus tour The Downtown Experience by The Ride. The tour told the hictorical story of New York and took us mainly through the Financial District. At some stations we saw videos through VR glasses and at some there were performances on the streets. All in all I can say that it is a different kind of sightseeing tour, but I had imagined it differently and some videos with VR glasses were not really spectacular. It was nice to experience it once, but I would not do it again. I think I would prefer the normal tour of The Ride instead. The tour ended at Pier 17.

The historic Pier 17 is located in New York City's founding quarter, the Seaport District, not far from the Financial District and the World Trade Center. The location of the port made this area important for New York's economic growth in the first half of the 19th century. Today's Pier 17, which also houses the Seaport Museum, fosters community with a dynamic concert of food, drink, art, architecture, retail and entertainment, involving citizens all year round. Numerous events and concerts - especially in summer - are held there. A mixture of past and future! The rooftop also offers great views of Brooklyn Bridge, the harbor and the financial district.

In the evening we went to the live taping of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, a late-night talk and satirical news program on Comedy Central. It was a very special experience to be in a studio for the first time live at a show like that and to experience it very close. The guest of the day was Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciado, who talked about the documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Further storys were: GOP senators reject impeachment trial witnesses & Jordan Klepper meets Iowa Trump supporters.

Day 2

Sunday, February 2nd - still a bit tired from the journey we started the day in the "Museum of the Moving Image" in Astoria/Queens. First we had an interesting tour, where we could see many original artifacts from film and television. The exhibition also has many interactive elements and you can take a look into the history of filmmaking. The visit was rounded off with a workshop about American election commercials and in the end we created an election commercial ourselves. I like it when museums are interactive and you can do something by yourself.

In the afternoon we went to Midtown Manhattan, including Times Square and the Frost Fest in Bryant Park. Afterwards we strolled along 5th Avenue up to Central Park, where the Apple Store is located. I have to say that the new concept of the Apple Stores is very impressive. Although there are countless people in them, a unique atmosphere of well-being has been created and the staff is very dedicated and competent. Of course, I wasn't only there because of the great concept, but I finally indulged myself with an Apple Watch. Yeah yeah, they know what they are doing!

In the evening we all met in the Sports Bar Dave & Buster's on Times Square to watch the Super Bowl - but not just for fun - because we should pay special attention to the commercials during the breaks. Nachos, burgers and beer provided the appropriate atmosphere and of course the amazing Halftime Show of Shakira & JLo.

In terms of advertising during the Superbowl, some of them stood out and remained in my memory. First of all the Hard Rock commercial with JLo in the leading role but also many other celebrities like Pitbull, Arod, DJ Khaled etc. The Mc Donalds commercial with the "Famous Orders" as well as the P&G commercial with the slogan "When we all come together, it's amazing what we can do" have attracted my attention. There was also an election campaign of Donald Trump "Stronger, Safer, More prosperous" as well as many advertisements from different car companies, such as Porsche, Audi, KIA, Toyota, Hyundai, etc.