THE SKY IS "AZZURRO" IN NEW YORK TODAY!

This post is a “Pre-recorded Broadcast” ;-)… but enjoy it!!!

Yesterday was an ordinary day for me.
I was in New York with a friend of mine and my only concern was to find the right shoes at Macy’s rather than the right Jacket at Zara store….Then, something happened.
Rumors came from the street and I surprisingly found out that Roberta Vinci, a 33 years old unseeded Italian veteran, playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal, had defeated Serena Williams, considered by many the best female tennis player in History.
WOOOOW… Let me say it, a day to forget for the great Serena!… But that wasn’t the biggest News!
The second finalist who had to “fight for the crown” with Vinci, in the Grand Slam final, was another Italian girl, Flavia Pennetta.
Thus, to sum up: Two girls, not only from Italy but also from my beloved Puglia… One Grand Slam final… The US Open 2015… and no one (NO ONE) could have ever imagined it!
How could I miss the opportunity to watch this entirely Italian, Live and Epic One-Time Event???
Well, I couldn’t! So, my day became a race against time to find this one GOLD ticket for the final match… And after a while I found it!!!! 😉
The next day, I went back to NYC, took the train from Penn Station to the Arthur Ashe Stadium which is incredible by the way, and reached my craved destination.
I was by myself but too excited to feel lonely!!!
People from all around the world were there to see the match and I felt the adrenaline running into my body as never before!
The game started and the few Italians that luckily were there didn’t know who to cheer for! So, everyone started cheering and whooping and hollering for both the Italian girls that actually knew each other since childhood… and it was amazing.
At the end, Flavia Pennetta won but that was a victory for Roberta Vinci as well because they will both be remembered as the two Italian girls who left America speechless!
When I thought it was enough for one day, another crazy thing happened. After winning the US Open 2015, Pennetta announced her retirement in front of the entire world…
… and I realized that, one day, THAT moment would have become an adventure worth telling to my grandchildren, great grandchildren and friends!

Hope you loved the story as I loved living it!!!
Hugs and Kisses.
Gaia.

A 180° Change

Twenty days ago I was celebrating New Year’s Eve almost 10.000 miles away from where I am now writing. We were toasting with my family and friends for our good summer and the incredible 110°F we had at that time, planning a trip to the beach for a week and other usual summer activities. I mean, I had to enjoy as much as I could, my summer was only going to last 10 days.

I must say back then I was complaining on the Heat Wave we were suffering, but, as long as I had a swimming pool or the seaside nearby it was good. Now, with -15°F I can’t help regretting all those wishes against weather being that warm.

But this whole change was not all about going from a super hot summer to a freezing winter, that is a small part of it. I also changed my holidays back home to study and work in a foreign country with a pretty different culture. This I think, is the most important part of the change. The one that I am still getting to understand and explore.

The best is still to come. As I heard in a song:

I can’t tell where the journey will end, but I know where to start

Girls on the road

I’ve always dreamt about travelling around US. Living in New Paltz I can do a lot trips at the weekends and I really love it.

Last Saturday I went to Boston and Cape Cod where we had a lot of fun in Provincetown. It’s a nice place full of hippie shops, design corners and vintage stuff. There are also a lot of nice bars and restaurants where you can eat special lobster rolls and fresh salmon, so tasty!

I also went whale watching and it was amazing, they are the giants of the ocean. The day after we enjoyed the beach and the typical landscape like Truro’s cottages.

Hello Mr. President!!

Hi!! The weekend from February 16 to the 18th, Marce, Blanca, Lucy, Nora, Pontus and I decided to visit Washington D.C. We visited the main attractions such as The White House, US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, WWII Memorial, Air and Space Museum, and some other interesting places!! I had the opportunity to visit a friend who studies in Georgetown and she showed us the university and it’s surroundings. Everything is so beautiful, totally worth it!! Even though it was really cold we had a great time.

Here are some cool pictures about our trip and our beautiful hostel.

Like Americans do

Three weeks are already gone and there would be so much to tell..it’s really hard to decide what to talk about!

We all love to travel, as proven by the fact that in three weeks we have already gone to Boston and to New York City and that we are already planning to go to the Niagara Falls, Washington D.C., Philadelphia..someone (including myself :P) is also dreaming about going to Miami, Las Vegas and why not..Hawaii!! Anyway, I didn’t mean to talk about travelling (you should know that I get distracted very easily)!

Since we’ve got here, we tried to absorbe American culture in every aspect, such as American food, American coffee (I’m Italian, these are the first things that came to my mind!) and, of course, American sports!!

We went to see the basketball match between New Paltz Hawks and Oswego Lakers and we ended up cheering as if we were attending SUNY for years..HERE WE GO NEW PALTZ, HERE WE GO!!

In order to become more and more like Americans, last Sunday we made a reservation at McGillicuddy’s to watch the Super Bowl!! Someone (again, including myself) painted two black stripes on their cheeks, thinking to blend with American fans..but at the end we were the only ones!! ..tourists..! -.-‘     Only Jenny knew football rules and she tried to explain them to us.. but without success.. Anyway, we enjoyed the game, the commercials and most of all Beyoncè’s show!!

We are only at the beginning of this amazing adventure and we still miss a lot of the “American style” .. but at the end of these four months I hope we can say we tried everything!!

Road trip to Boston!!

For our first weekend in New Paltz we decided to rent three cars and drive all the way to Boston, Massachusetts. We barely knew each other and we were already going on a trip all together. It was so much fun!! We stayed on a beautiful hostel, we went to a nightclub, and visited the most important attractions in Boston. We also visited MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard, both universities are incredibly huge and beautiful!!

We had such a great time and it was an excellent opportunity to get to know each other outside the Super 8 and the university.

Here are some pictures of the trip!!

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.

A Manhattan Weekend!

Every other weekend we seem to travel somewhere. This weekend the 17 of us split up and while some went to Canada or Boston I was one of those who went to Manhattan.

We arrived to Manhattan on Friday evening, ready to hit the first rooftop bar. It had an amazing view and I, who haven’t been on a rooftop bar before, was stunned.

Saturday we decided to explore Midtown Manhattan. Well okay, explore might be an exaggeration as we went shopping all day.. A not so student-friendly way of exploring Manhattan I would say. The evening ended in a similar way to the night before. We ate dinner and went to another rooftop bar called Le Bain.

Sunday was a perfect day for walking (again). So we went the opposite direction from the day before and headed towards East Village. East Village is, according to me, the best place in Manhattan. When you’re walking the streets there, you feel almost like home. In comparison to Times Square, with all the tourists and high buildings, East Village has a slower pace with a lot of vintage stores, and cozy cafes.

20.00 pm it was time for us to take the bus home to New Paltz..

…..Now I really need to get back to my studies. First exam is only 1 ½ weeks away from now.

Long Weekend!

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So here it is! another long weekend in New Paltz just one week after our first long weekend, and I love it 🙂 and actually it will coincide with a very mexican festive day!

September 16 it’s independence day in Mexico, and I think it is proper to say it is our most important festive day, because we celebrate our independence from the Spanish empire in the XIX century! In every town in Mexico there’s a party because of this, this year we will honor 202 years of independence; I’m gonna be missing home this weekend !!

But I thing I wont worry that much because Karen and I are going to Boston for the weekend, trying to take advantage of the 4 days off we have from school to get to know every big city we can; the past long weekend was Washington, now Boston, I’m very excited about it! So I think I wont even have time to miss the mexican parties, or maybe we will celebrate it our way in Boston, who knows!

Also some of our friends will be going to Toronto and some other to NYC, so I’m sure there will be a lot of things to talk about next week 😉 hope everybody has a great weekend and take a lot of pictures!