Yesterday was a very rainy day. It was more or less the worst weather we could have had for our planned sightseeing tour around New York City. The ferry to the Statue of Liberty didn’t even leave the harbor because it was too windy. So we changed plans and decided to do the major sight seeing spots today. We just visited the 9/11 memorial including the museum and exhibitions. There we first watched a short movie about September 11th 2001 and then we looked at parts of the original twin towers and a lot of pictures... pictures documenting that tragic day... pictures of the victims, pictures of the streets during that day, and pictures of the terrorists at the ariport before boarding.

Later we had late lunch / early dinner at a veeery yummy burger place. After that we went back to the hotel and got ready for BROADWAY. The show we watched was CHICAGO, a musical about 6 women who killed their boyfriends / husbands for different reasons and who tried to warrant that they are not guilty. The theater stage was beautiful and the only word I can find to describe the show is “wow!” The performers were incredibly good singers, actors, and dancers. It was a great experience. When the musical was over we went to the New York Times Square and there I understood why New York is called “the city that never sleeps”. We got there around 12 in the morning and it was packed with people. The shops were open and we went shopping in the middle of the night.

Today we had a lot more things on our list so we got up early in the morning and took the 9 o’clock ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The statue is huuuge and I learned in my Us History class about how much effort it took to ship it from France to New York and to build it together. It is originally made out of bronze around a steel framework but over the years the bronze has turned green as it is now. Today also happens to be Miss Liberty’s 132nd birthday, so maybe it was meant to be that we couldn’t take the ferry yesterday.

After that we had to hurry up to get to the Big Apple Circus where we watched an artistic show. That was pretty cool, too. A New York City Circus is definitely different from the traveling circuses I know from home.

To end our tour we walked to and through tbe Central Park. It was pretty because the leaves of the trees start changing colors at the moment. Then we went to THE MET at the Upper East Side which I know from Gossip Girl. The ones of you who have also watched Gossip Girl might recognize it in the pictures.

New York was amazing and I want to thank my host family and my parents for giving me this opportunity. Thank you!

- Lea

What’s up everybody?

I’m back at my blog. ;) Yesterday my host sisters (including Sara) and I got up at 2 in the morning to drive to the Atlanta Airport. Then we took a flight to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here we met my host mom. We were all very tired so we decided to take it easy and just went to a couple of malls to go shopping. One of these was the King of Prussia Mall which is the second biggest mall in the entire country. Later we had lunch at a place called “The Cheesecake Factory” where they serve not only normal food but also all different kinds of cheesecake. I tried a little of the Oreo Cheesecake, the Red Velvet Cheesecake, and the Chocolate Cheesecake.

Today we went sightseeing in Philadelphia. As you might know it is the city where the United States Declaration of Independence as well as the US Constitution were debated and signed. If you have seen the movie “National Treasure” (or in German: “Das Vermächtnis der Tempelritter”; an dieser Stelle liebe Grüße und vielen Dank an Papiii ;)) then you might remember the Liberty Bell (one of the final steps in clearing up the mystery). But that bell is only one of the things we saw today. We also visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art with the famous “Rocky Steps” in front of it and we ran ran up all the stairs until we were at the top with the foot prints of Rocky’s Converse. Furthermore we took a sightseeing hop-on-hop-off-bus to the Eastern State Penitentiary. This was one of the first prisons in America’s history and they turned it into one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. We could walk through it and into the cells, our audio guide played the real voices of former prisoners and guards, and they had an exhibition about prisons today compared to the ESP. It was really interesting but also a little scary. I would definitely say that this was today’s highlight for me.

Right now we’re in the car on our way to New York City where we will spend the next days.

Let me know what’s going on in good ole Germany in the comments below.

Yours Lea