25th annual Taste of New Paltz.

All began during a sad afternoon at our motel. Everyone were busy, someone studied in their room someone else in the library and three girls were doing kayaking. In my mind there was only one word: STUDY, but it was a beautiful Saturday, last summer weekend, it was hot and there weren’t clouds in the sky. Okay, I can’t spend my time here.. I want go out!During the week, I saw many posters about an annual festival in New Paltz: Taste of New Paltz. I was so curious … so I called a cab and decided to spend one hour there with one of my friends, before start to study. In less than 10 minutes we arrived in a unknown part of the city; there were many beautiful houses, among km of wheat fields and sunflowers and then.. a huge green lawn, many families with children running around on the grass. It was a wonderful scene!

It was the 25th year that New Paltz organised this event and we could not miss it. After paid $10 to enter, my friend Gaia and I started to taste every kind of food. Wasn’t that the purpose of the fair?! We started with a strange fried empanadas with beef, I discovered that this is one of the typical dishes in Jamaica.. It was delicious! The next stand prepared, however, a special kind of corn with cheese, curry and paprika, but the best taste of this incredible afternoon was a amazing pizza cooked with wood-oven, as the Italian tradition. Everything about the pizza reminded me of my country. At the end, as a real lunch, we bought an exquisite mini chocolate cupcake. After about an hour, at the end of our tour, I realized that there were many activities to raise awareness of their food and products to the citizens of New Paltz .. Wow, this was great! In this way, I was able to try dishes from restaurants that I didn’t know before and certainly I’ll try after this experience.

It was a really good afternoon spent with my friend! Beautiful place, nice people, good music and new food. Now, are you asking why the symbol of this fair is an apple? Try to get out of this fair without tasting a dish in which there was the apple! It’s impossible, trust me.

Visit also:

www.newpaltzchamber.org

Facebook: Tast of New Paltz

New city, new stories

photo-1-2When experiences start overcoming your expectations, that’s when you know you are having a great time.

Coming to New Paltz has been an amazing adventure, the place, the weather, school, classes, the food. But above all it all, what has made my experience so amazing is the people.

Even though I’ve been here for a few days, I’ve had the opportunity to meet very interesting people from all over the world. I thank all of those who have made my day better just by sharing this experience with me.

Waiting for New York!

It’s almost the end of our adventure in New Paltz and we had a great time during these weeks, but I think that now we all are focused on just one thing: New York City!
I can’t stop to imagine how our next two months will be! I’ve never been in the City before this experience and my first time was few weeks ago: during that trip I discover an amazing place, where I will spend a lot of time, the High Line.
Some days before I left  for the U.S., I was watching television and there was a documentary about Chelsea and the Meatpacking. What I immediately liked the most was  the High Line. So you can imagine how  curious I was to walk in the middle of it. Well, now I can say that that park is more beautiful than I expected. It’s really particular! The rails, the wood benches, the plants all around…there aren’t enough words to describe this place…here are just some photos.

Sipping green tea in an old sofa

Too many changes all at once.

I am now living in an unfamiliar place with 21 strangers who don’t speak my language.

I’m feeling just a tiny bit confused.

Being an incurable introvert, I sometimes feel the need to take a moment for myself, just to organize my thoughts. It’s not that I don’t like the place I’m in or the people I’m with, don’t get me wrong, this experience has by far been incredible, I’m loving every single second. I just feel like having a comforting place where I can go to collect my thoughts and all these new feelings.

And I found that place: it’s the New Paltz Cafeteria.

It’s such an amazing place to study in, or to just chill with your friends. When you walk in, it feels like a familiar place, maybe because of all the old furniture or maybe because somebody is constantly practicing with his guitar right next to the entrance door. The wooden floor creaks with every step, until you reach one of the many sofas in the room, and believe me they’re as old as comfortable, you’ll feel like you’re sitting on a cloud. The lights and music are never too strong or overwhelming, they are just perfect for the atmosphere, letting the harsh light from the outside world peak through the large windows on one side of the room, but not letting any of the noise or worries from the chaos of your everyday life in. You feel like nothing can affect you, while you’re in there.

Can you tell how in love I am with this place?!

So if you’re looking for a relaxing place to lay down your tired bones and sip something hot (or cold) go to the New Paltz Cafeteria, you won’t regret it. I suggest to try the Jasmine Green Tea, they serve it either hot or cold and it smells heavenly. It’s the icing on the cake.

My New Paltz

Three weeks ago my first experience abroad started. I still haven’t realized yet that I’m living in the U.S.,  I feel like I am in a movie. There are some moments, some places, that remind me of different films and I start to feel like I am part of them.

New Paltz is how I pictured the typical American town: it’s calm and it has a lot of different places where you can have fun (pubs, restaurants, cafes, fields, libraries and much more).

Personally, what I love to do here is to spend my free time strolling around the town, in order to discover unknown places and to enjoy the tranquility.

Everyone knows Main Street, but what about the other minor streets? Here is a little taste!

Already a family

We’ve been here for almost 3 weeks and it feels like we have known each other for so much longer time. We are already acting like a family and its very comfortable to feel that you can trust 17 new people who, out of the blue, appeared to form part of your history.

For example Jenny (the best roomie ever) got sick the first week and we were all very concerned for her health, some of the girls brought her a big bag full of things to do & eat while she was resting so she would not get that much bored at the Super 8. Also last week was Nora’s 22 birthday and we had many surprises for her that day, Jacopo created a FB group just for planning her birthday, and I’m sure that Nora loved her birthday and all of her birthday presents!!

We have traveled as well to Boston and New York and we have had an amazing time!

Everyone is different, but we are the perfect combo! Differences brought us together. We are having a great time, and time passes so fast, we are already searching for the internships!!

Italy, Sweden & Mexico united in the Super 8 motel.