Welcome to My World

I made a lot of first-time experiences. Today I woke up in a empty room; I realized I stayed in a motel, of course I had to have breakfast alone! This motel supplies simple American breakfast. When I walked to dining room, other guests looked strangely at me. I guess it’s weird a weak Asian girl stayed here without company!

All it started at a simple idea. At the beginning I just wanted to take every transportation of MTA system to visit around New York; after hearing from my teacher’s recommend, I decided to take Metro-North Hudson Line which driving along Hudson River and is rated highly on Yelp! On the other hand, it’s hard to travel out of Manhattan without a car; also one of my American dreams is driving a car in USA countryside! That’s why I wanted to do! I only considered about the car rental plan for three days and must let it come true!  

Yesterday I was extremely excited at playing in the snow; Today when I woke up, I know I am a little ill! Even though I didn’t sleep well and had a running nose, I still went out to explore New York City!

The Cloisters Museum and Gardens is located in the most Northern of Manhattan; it takes over half hour to get there. I took red line number 1 and got off the subway at 191 street station. Now I start to record the sign of every station. Every passenger has to take an elevator to go back to the ground. There is an operator inside operating it.

I looked forward to snowing for a long time. After I arrived, I checked the weather broadcast every day to check if it snows or not. The first snowy day was in the end of October, but it finished very soon, not heavy snow. Today when I woke up in the morning, my roommate told me it was snowing outside!!! I was so excited and got ready quickly to go see snow! When I opened the door, everything was covered with snow!

Last night my friends and I had discussed how to celebrate New Year’s Eve until 1 am, because we had different purposes. Finally I decided where and what time I wanted to go; It’s my First New Year’s Eve in New York, I must go to Times Square!

昨晚和同學們討論跨年的活動一直到凌晨一點，因為我們有不同意見。但是我決定我就是要去時代廣場，這是我的新年，當然要照我的意願，就看誰要跟或不跟，反正我就是要去！ 

When I woke up this morning, I realized finally I was back to a lonely life as the first month I just arrived San Francisco or New York. Last night, no, maybe from my Korean friend’s last week, I started to say good-bye to him and did lots of memorable things together. This morning I cried again.

到紐約玩了一個多月的韓國同學終於也要離開回韓國，前晚和他道別後，今天早上醒來突然發現要是沒有玩伴，整個心境都好不一樣!要是我一直待在家裡，我會得憂鬱症吧！我決定還是要獨自去探索曼哈頓，就像我剛到舊金山或紐約一樣，總是要面對一個人的孤寂吧!

離開溫暖的Florida和親愛的家人後，回到紐約再重回中央公園，發現又不一樣的風貌了，捉住秋天的尾巴，樹葉幾乎掉光了。人說秋天的紐約最美，現在的時期剛好卡在不秋不冬，再來覆蓋著白雪的中央公園應該又是不同氣氛。

I left from warm Florida and came back cold New York City; at the time it was the end of fall, so almost leaves had already fallen. I caught the beautiful view of Central Park in November; next time I will wait until white snow covers all trees. It must show amazing scenery!

My first morning classmates are leaving this week; the tradition on Fridays is taking the whole class pictures! But it’s a risk to asking someone to take pictures─everyone looks strange!!! Guess who is the teacher? Remember the teeth and the eyes’ color?

(禮拜五啦!!我最早認識的早上課同學要離開了！又是個離別的團體照。只是請人幫忙拍照都會有風險，每個人看起來怎麼都怪怪的！哪個是老師？還記得我說過特別的牙齒和不同顏色的眼睛嗎？)

It’s tonight! Halloween Parade!!!

I heard there was a party in SF branch but NYC branch held a “wearing costume for free pizza in the afternoon”,,, only few students wore to school. I bought McDonald back to school, I found we could eat free pizza without costume!!! I would wait for tonight!

令人期待的萬聖節快來了！這個活動將會是我來紐約後第一個大節日，所以我當然要投身參加！雖然人生地不熟，還不知道能去哪裡參加萬聖節遊行，不過決定今天下課後一定要去好好物色我的萬聖節服裝！

(One of the biggest events –Halloween, is coming, it would be my first big holiday in New York! Of course I wouldn’t skip it! Actually so far I hadn’t had any idea about it, but I decided to but my Halloween costume after school.)

今天是禮拜五，沒錯，又有同學要離開了!這次離開的是瑞士女生年紀跟我差不多，她非常的好相處又很風趣，才剛變朋友又要離開了!這種事總是反覆上演！

(It was Friday! You bet, my classmate was going to leave! My Swiss classmate is very outgoing and interesting; we blinked eyes each other in class when we felt our lesson bored! We just became familiar and then she had to leave!)

這週開始同學慢慢變多了，從一開始的兩個同學到這週已經有五六個，也比較有機會認識新同學！午餐和同學一起買了韓國城的東西到Herald Square Park在陽光下吃飯。

(I got new classmates this week, now we have more than five classmates in the class! We bought Korean food to go, then we ate at Herald Square Park.)

上星期早上課老師討論到紐約現在最有名的示威活動，Occupy Wall Street，就曾說這週要挑一天所有同學一起去做個現場訪問，問看看示威者最直接的意見和出發點。整班同學就只有我一個人要上下午課，本來是幾乎放棄跟她們一起去了，不過我發揮我勇於發問的精神，跑去跟類似教務主任的人說情，她也同意我用禮拜五下午來補這天的時數！實在很高興可以跟同學一起去示威現場訪問，這會比當觀光客只拍照參觀好多了！

(My morning teacher assigned us to interview the protesters of Occupy Wall Street. But only me have afternoon, I supposed I couldn’t go with my classmates. I almost begged to the chief of courses, finally she allowed I went with my classmates to Wall Street and made up my class on Friday!)

已經到紐約快一個禮拜了，除了禮拜二去East Village吃日本料理和去酒吧那次，就幾乎沒有離開我住的地方太遠。因為這禮拜開始一個舊金山認識的韓國朋友從昨天到紐約後，我就多了玩伴！今天我買了Subway monthly pass後，決定要開始來好好遊歷這個城市！

( Since I arrived in NYC, I haven’t left far from my residence. One of my friends, whom we met in San Francisco, came here to stay for one month. I got a friend to hang out and I also bought a monthly pass. Ready to start my NYC tour!)

今天早上在很愉快的氣氛中上課，開始和老師同學比較熟以後，也能從中獲得一些不同人的優點和幽默，雖然還是不能叫作crazy people，不過她們的生活經驗比舊金山的同學要多一些，可能也是因為年紀比較大一點吧！

( After several days getting along with classmates and teachers, I felt much better. I start to admire their advantages and humor, even though they are not kind of CRAZY.)

Yesterday afternoon I met a Taiwanese girl in the restroom. She smiled at me first, then we talked and felt very happy to meet each other. We also stay on the same floor in the residence! She came to my room and told me lots of experiences in NYC, and recommended good delis and restaurants because we have the same traveling guide! She is really nice and outgoing, and she said she would leave some stuffs for me! We Taiwanese are mad friendly. You should come to Taiwan; you will feel you stay at your home!

昨天中午下課時，在廁所遇到了一個台灣女生！他先看到我還對我笑，最後來問我從哪裡來？真是難得的相見歡，但是一個壞消息就是過兩天她要回台灣了！昨晚她來我房間教我紐約的交通和好吃的餐廳，因為我們有同一本旅遊書！她在我房間待了一小時，我們也聊了很多，這還是來美國後很難得的經驗。果然台灣人真的是非常親切又對人很好，每個人應該來台灣見識一下我們的人情味。

昨晚刻意早點睡，想要恢復我失去已久的活力，沒想到早上鬧鐘響了還是按掉繼續睡，所以我遲到了！！為何我當學生後就變成慣性遲到？我實在很難早起，一路上匆匆忙忙的趕去學校，還是遲到了20分鐘！還好早上課的老師不太計較，前一天下午休息時間後晚回班上，還被老師念說下次遲到就等下節課才能進教室。(I tried to get up early and found my energy back! But I ignored the alarm, I was late again! Yesterday afternoon the teacher warned me if I was late again, I had a wait outside until next course!)

我們今天還找了另一個新同學一起去找老師推薦的漢堡店，走了六個街區先看到有名的熨斗大樓。

昨晚依稀聽到雨聲，早上不甘願的起床後，微涼的房間外看到路上行人撐著雨傘。在舊金山很難得的下雨天，這裡似乎是常態，第一次在紐約遇到下雨天。雖然在台灣很常下雨，但是我已經習慣舊金山的天氣，這種下雨天加上沒睡飽的精神，讓我備感疲倦。

( It had started raining since last night, I woke up in a bad mood because I didn’t like rainy days whatsoever! I used to sunny days in San Francisco, but just the second day in NYC it rained so soon! Still felt tired. Gosh! My first month in SF, the most words I said is LONELY. Now I said TIRED most!)

The second day to school, I still felt sleepy and bored. This morning class we had another teacher. It seems to change teachers very often in St tiles New York, and students sometimes know who their teacher is until the class starts. Today a female teacher came to class, and her teeth are a kind of a new fashion: there is a gap between her front teeth like a famous model Vanessa Paradis! Even though she has special teeth and different colors eyes, her class still made me sleepy!

(第二天到學校，仍然感覺非常疲累。早上的課來了另一個有牙縫的女老師，人很嚴肅又沒什麼活力，只好一直看她的牙縫振作起來!後來還觀察到她的瞳孔有不同的顏色，看我上課多認真！)

經過昨夜的疲勞後，在新的房間的睡眠品質還算不錯，不過第一天報到照慣例要提早到學校聽介紹和分班測驗，今天懷著期待前往學校交朋友！沿著W34th Street一路直走，約走15分鐘就可以到學校了！一路上體驗到了紐約上班族的步伐和繁忙的街景，第一次到學校要記好路線免得又迷路。

( On the first day to school, I tried keeping the way to school. I got up so early and I was excited about meeting new friends!)