Here we go… the first of many posts (hopefully!)

There is a group of 4 of us from Wichita traveling together this semester. We didn't really know each other very well before we left. Only a couple of meetings here and there. However, after this New York City side-trip. We got to know each other quickly! We left early on the 25th of August. It was a bittersweet goodbye. I love Wichita and everyone there, however, I've been waiting for years to finally take off on my own and study abroad. Our flights were relatively quick. Everything went well, except for the fact that a woman sitting next to part of our group got sick on the flight :/ Once in New York we met up with our bags and my family that was putting us up for the few days we were there. I had never met this part of my family before as they are like my 4th cousins or something crazy like that. I'm so grateful for them though and their incredible generosity. They took us for a quick drive through the downtown area to help introduce us to this massive city. Once back at the house we all got settled in and started to plan our adventures for the next day. That night the family had a cook-out for us and then took us to a boardwalk/park area that had an amazing view of the Manhattan skyline. It was fantastic!!

The next day we had an early start and had to figure out how to get into the city. We ended up taking a train into Newark, NJ and then another train into the downtown area of Manhattan. When we walked out of the subway station we were right next to "ground zero." We thought there would be some kind of memorial or something, but it was just a huge construction area. It was hard to imagine what the area would have looked like with the twin towers there. We grabbed breakfast at a small cafe and tried to figure out what we really wanted to see. We then walked past the New York stock exchange building and then into Battery Park to catch the ferry to see lady liberty!! We couldn't get tickets to go inside of the statue, but we were ok with that. We just wanted to stand next to her anyway! We took lots of pictures and headed back to the ferry. We bought some amazing foam crown hats on the ferry and took some pretty hilarious pictures on the ferry ride back. We walked A LOT! Through Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo, and Washington Square Park. Finally we took the metro up to the Empire State Building. We had dinner at a pizza place and then headed toward Times Square so we could catch our Broadway show. We made it to MARY POPPINS, and it was amazing!!! We all loved it!! We had to figure out the bus to make it home that night and we did, luckily.

The next morning we were off to a late start and exhausted from the day before. We had some Starbucks and that seemed to do it for us! We explored the Times Square area and then tried to get into the Letterman show. We didn't get chosen :( That was ok though, we went central park and had hotdogs instead!! After getting lost inside the park numerous times we decided to go to the museum of natural history. It was pretty cool, but overwhelming and we were all so tired!! We went to a show at the planetarium but most of us fell asleep! After the museum we walked like 20 blocks to go eat ice cream at serendipity. I'm still not sure exactly why it is so famous, as I had never heard of it before! But the ice cream I had was incredible :) Afterwards we walked through the city for awhile to see everything at night.

The next afternoon we were all off to Austria!! It was hard for us to leave for a number of reasons. First, the city is incredible! There is so much to see and we had so little time there! Second, my family that we stayed with was so sweet and I had only begun to get to know them! It was too soon to leave :( Third, New York was our last bit of the USA for quite some time. We were having some troubles saying goodbye. However, at the same time we were so excited to finally be off and explore Europe.

So it was goodbye USA...hallo Austria!!!