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Once in a while try to do something that you have never done before - challenge yourself everyday!
Never try never know! Read more New York, United States
  • TravelerJune
    Day 18

    Last hours in NYC

    June 28, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Hello guys,

    Oh my God, I cannot believe it! It is my last post from NYC. Not sure if I might keep on writing here or not afterwards.
    Anyways, it has been one hell of a year! I made so many experiences that I have a hard time to even process all of them. Moreover my head knows that I am leaving in two days but my heart is still here and I enjoy every seconds that I still have.
    Of course I am also very much looking forward to going home to Switzerland but still the worst part has not happened yet. I am not very good at saying goodbye and it is not just a goodbye from the amazing people here but also a goodbye of my life here which makes leaving even harder.
    But I know life in Switzerland will also be nice and I have some exciting job offers on the table that I still need to evaluate and I will also have some more interviews next week. So no news there, I will do the big announcement once I know it for sure.

    See you soon my friends and family - I cannot wait to hug all of you! It has been a long year!

    Xoxo,
    Nina    Read more

  • TravelerJune
    Day 2

    June

    June 12, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Thank you guys for the lovely birthday wishes! I spent some wonderful days in Miami with my flatmate and coworker Florin.
    The weather forecast looked horrible before we took of from Newark. But since it was my birthday wish, we were lucky and had much better weather than expected. We stayed at an amazing Hostel called Freehand. I can highly recommend it. On the first day we stayed at South Beach and discovered its beauty. The whole Ocean Drive and the Nikki Beach are exactly they way you picture Miami from the movies. There are plenty of fancy cars, summer sound on full volume and all the old hotels that sparkle in the sun. In the evening we started the night with a drink at the very high frequented bar in our hostel called Broken Shaker. After that we took off and had a delicious meal and headed to the party street where we found a nice outdoor club.
    At 12am we celebrated into my birthday. We had a blast!
    The next morning we went to the beach and after that we discovered Wynwood (a hipster area with lots of streetart) and little Havana where we felt as if we would be in Cuba.
    In the evening we went to a famous italian restaurant that Hana recommended us. They served their well known Spaghetti out of a Parmesan wheel. Moreover the Pasta is homemade and you can watch the chef freshly doing it during the evening.
    On Monday, our last day we could not resist but to try out the new fancy way to drive around in the city. There are battery loaded Trottinetts called "birds" all over the city. With their own app you can unlock the bird and off you go. The cool thing is you can leave it wherever you want to - just make sure to hit the button "lock" in the app. This is how we drove around for about 45 minutes for only 8 dollars.
    It was lots of fun but also really American - just standing on the bird and not doing any movement but just clicking on the speed button.
    Of course we also spent some time at the beach again and at the pool in our hostel.
    Now we are back in NYC and back at work as of tomorrow.
    Happy Tuesday everyone!
    Cheers,
    Nina    Read more

  • TravelerMay
    Day 21

    May Boston and NYC

    May 28, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌫 11 °C

    Happy Monday everyone!
    Finally summer caught up here in NY!
    I told you that Vera was not the last visitor but there was spontaneously someone else coming. It was Stephan. He is in Fort Lauderdale and thought it would be a nice idea to visit NYC! For sure I encouraged him. We spent some great days together. Of course a little party hurt nobody. So we we went out like Küssnachter party style with Florin and Katja 💃🤙
    On Sunday Katja and I went to Boston for the last bike sharing station event. It was a mix between San Francisco and Chicago. The Bostonians are not on a diet nore vegan as the Bay Area people, so at least they took the cheese and chocolate but they were not as open as the Chicagoans to really engage about our campaign. Nevertheless we tried our best and had lots of fun. Katja and I were so tired that we did not even particiapte in the happy hour that our hotel organized.. imagine! Instead we were really taking it easy, did some home office from our hotel beds and went to the cinema in the evening. For the both of us this was exactly what we needed. We went to eat in the littly italy area and hoped on to the ferry or went up to the Bunker Hill Monument.
    On Wednesday evening we arrived later than expected, the greyhoundbus drivers are not really risk takers. So we slowly made our way back from Boston back home to NYC.
    On Saturday the Rego Park Family went to the Rockaway beach. The water is still freezing cold but it was nice to chill at the beach and read.
    As of yesterday I am dogsitting Mr. Mini, the little dog of my coworker Michaela. Annnnd as a huge plus, I get to live in her apartment in the upper east side.. which means I am just blocks away of the Central Park. Finally I get the chance to go running like a local in the Central Park. Yaaasss! 😎 Also my goal is to bike to work everyday with the citibike together with my other coworker Paolo who also lives in my new temporary hood 😁

    Xoxo,
    Nina

    P.S only 5 more weeks until I'll be back in Switzerland again 😉🇨🇭    Read more

  • TravelerMay
    Day 10

    Chicago and New York City

    May 17, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Another week has gone by like that *imagine clicking fingers*

    Last week I spent one full day at the office and on Wednesday I flew to Chicago for the bike sharing station events. They went great! People in Chicago are so kind and really take their time to listen what we are actually trying to promote!
    It was a great experience and the brand ambassadors of the bike sharing company were totally stoked about our campaign which helped a lot!
    Chicago is a very beautiful city with lots of green space and great buildings. Katja and I even did an architecture boat ride. It was a great experience even though it started raining and it was quite windy.
    We felt like locals because we always drove around with the Divvy Bikes. Exploring a city by bike is really great fun. All you gotta know is how to use Google Maps 😉 and of course having a little adventurous spirit always helps.

    When I came back from Chicago, Vera was already in town. We spent a wonderful Sunday in rainy NYC. We even went to a museum that I have not been so far: the Museum of Natural History of America. Quite interesting. After that we spent lovely evenings in great restaurants and rooftop bars! We also experienced two totally different sides of homeless people. One approached us and said: "get out of the fucking country" and the other one asked for some money and as we said 'no' he said "have a great day and God bless you". So as you see not only the city is full of diversity but also the homeless people.

    Now you thought that's it with visitors from Switzerland? Oh hell no! Someone else will be coming today. Stay tuned. 😉

    Happy Thursday everyone!    Read more

  • TravelerMay

    Texmex

    May 7, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    I am so in love with this life!
    Looking back what I experienced for the past 10 months leaves me speechless!

    While writing this I am in the airplane flying back home to NYC after having spent 4 lovely days in Houston. My energy level is back to 100%! The first breath I took in Houston made me feel like I am on holidays since a week or so.
    Houston belongs to the State of Texas. It really is close to Mexico and one can certainly feel it. There is mexican food or as they call it "texmex" everywhere. The weather was just perfect, people are so happy and friendly and there is latino music everywhere. Where in other parts of the US they say you guys or you all, in Texas you just say y'all! Very funny to hear it that often and not in a hilarious but serious way!
    The reason why I went to Houston was because Annamarie got married. They organized an amazing wedding which lastet almost 18 hours. Even tough I was alone and basically only knew 5 people of more than 200 invitees, I felt like I knew these people all my life. The so called "Swissies" fraction was so nice and welcomed me with open arms as a new member of their group. All the mexicans and americans were really nice too and so much fun!
    Annamarie looked so beautiful in her wedding dress that when she appeared in the church I could not help it but shed a few tears. The ceremony was not like something I have ever seen before, (despite maybe the Mexican wedding of Elio and Patricia, when a phone was ringing and after like 2 minutes, the priest figured out it was his own) the priest made one joke after the other; his best one was probably that he would like to meet all the single ladies after the ceremony because he is (obviously) still single himself.
    His three advices to Annamarie and Chuy were the three following:
    1. Communication
    2. Forgiveness
    3. Make babies

    Even in his three recommendations for the marriage he could not stop being funny, he insisted that the newly weds start making babies as soon as possible. The whole crowd was laughing.
    This funny start of the wedding guided us through the whole day.
    The next part was: saddle up on your bikes and start pushing the pedals. Almost 70 bikers in total made a 30 minutes drive through the streets of Houston to A&C's home to the Apéro. The whole bike parade was accompanied by music, cars and lots of laughter.

    At the Apéro they served Tacos and I finally learned the real difference between a taco and a burrito. It is just a size difference. If you can hold it in one hand it is a taco and if you need both hands it is a burrito. Voilà, now we know it!

    After the Apéro was Siesta time, some of us were taking it literally and took a nap, others like me went for coffee.
    At 6pm it was again time to go on our bikes. This time though it was a much longer ride than expected, the crowd sized down to about 30 people. We paddled along the "river" Bayou and embraced a beautiful scenery of Houston.
    Arriving at Annamarie's aunts house, the party started. Lots of eating, dancing, drinking, talking, playing games etc. I felt so comfortable that I even showed my DJ skills that I practiced in a few bars in Florence back in the days and played some real Swiss German music. We had a blast until the police came to tell us to shut the music. But as Annamarie said: it ain't no good party without the police coming!
    The party was still going on and a few of us even jumped in the pool. Guess who joined the group? ;-)

    On Sunday I was the honoured one who was invited for Sunday Funday with only the close ones of Annamarie and Chuy. We reflected the whole wedding and laughed all over again. We ate craw fish which was originally eaten in Houston went over to Vietnam, where the spicy sauce was added and is now back in Houston where it is a traditional dish - still with all the spicy sauce added in Vietnam. It is super delicious but a ton of work until you opened it and can actually eat it.

    Today I drove down south to the Galveston beach. I really enjoyed it and could reflect all the memories from the past 5 intense weeks.

    Happy Tuesday everyone!

    Love,
    Nina    Read more

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