NEW YORK, NEW YORK

I feel like New York is the place everyone wants to visit; I've never heard anyone say they're not curious to see it or have bad things to say after being there. It's always been one of my dreams to go there but at the minute my desire to go there is on par with how much I'd like to hire Robbie Williams for a private concert in my garden (for those interested on buying me a present, he recently played at a wedding for €3m). It could be because I've watched 'Casse-tête Chinois' four days in a row and rewatched all six seasons of Gossip Girl in the last month, both of which are set (and filmed) in the Big Apple. Maybe it's because I sang 'New York, New York' with Robbie Williams three times in June. Maybe it's because it looks like one of the most beautiful and interesting places on the entire planet.


It's now at the point where I spend most days looking at photos on Tumblr or Pinterest or Trip Advisor. I live on Trip Advisor. I'm not really one for sight seeing but I would love to do all the tourist spots in NYC. I want to go to the top of the Rock, sit on the steps of the Met and then explore inside, stand in the middle of Times Square at midnight, see the famous Manhattan skyline. I want to visit Ground Zero, buy something daft at Bloomingdale's, see a Broadway show. But I also want to find a little independent cinema in Brooklyn and watch a French film. I want to stop somewhere in Central Park and people watch. I want to find the best chicken wings in the whole of America.

Just look at it man. 

 


A silly little idea popped into my head one night and I haven't been able to get rid of it since. I was once told if you go on holiday to New York you should do it properly - have plenty of money, stay in a nice hotel right in the centre, experience everything. That would obviously be expensive for a one off of a week, maybe two. What if I lived there for a year? As a student.
I've been researching Master's programmes at the big New York universities - NYU, Columbia, Vassar, Berkeley. NYU seems to be my favourite. How Dan Humphrey of me. I know that's more expensive in the long run, in the fees alone. BUT IMAGINE. For now it's a pipe dream but I feel like the more I research and look it up and think about it and pretend it's possible, the more I'll want to go. I want to live in a tiny little studio apartment and just explore everyday. Or maybe in the student dorms and be all American and get a roommate. 

I don't even know what I would study! Something to do with Spanish, maybe European literature or film. I don't even know if there are Master's programmes in that. I remember finding an amazing programme at NYU but upon further inspection it was at their Madrid campus... So totally defeating the point.

It's weird because cities usually freak me out - London feels far too big and I hated both Manchester and Leeds when I visited. I like small, chill cities like Newcastle and Norwich, enough going on to be exciting but small enough to not be intimidating. New York is probably one of the most intimidating places on the planet, with the size of the skyscrapers alone. But I can't help it. My wanderlust is bad enough already but when it's focused on a certain place I become pretty obsessed.

Maybe someone should tell me all the bad things about NYC to stop this crazy idea in its tracks.

Until next time, hasta luego.

twitter | tumblr | instagram | facebook | pinterest