Valerie Arok, Twitterer extrodinare!

So this week was my first week at my internship. Monday we had a quick meeting to go over everything. The owners seems awesome; they were relatively young especially considering they had their own business but I feel like that will be in my favor! They seem really open to hearing our ideas and giving us responsibility to do things on our own. After our meeting I roamed around the city, walking about 30 blocks to get to the D & D Building, AKA an interior designers haven. What a cool building!! The exterior wasn't much to look at but as soon as you got to the front doors, you could tell it was the home for interior designers with all of the amzing details. I went to ask about job openings but it wasn't quite that simple to just get a list of openings so I left my resume. Hopefully going there for my internship will lead to connections and work opportunities! Wednesday and Friday I became a social media expert. Already on day 2 my boss thought my proposed ideas were great and told me to run with it...sweet!! I created a webpage on a design website called Houzz which has thousands of images of different companies projects for design inspiration and company promotion. I also came up with an idea for a new blog which will be about New  York architecture...be sure to check it out next week! I also wrote up a blog about a local museum in the lower east side and by connecting it to other social media sites, my blog got noticed on Twitter and reposted by a large promoter of things to do in New York...a big deal when you're trying to expand your company!! So glad my first experience with Twitter was uber successful. Totally thought I'd do it wrong....yes, I had to ask my little sis about Twitter and what it was really about. Boy, does that make me feel old and not "with" the times. Hahaha
Saturday I met some new friends thanks to a friend from Orlando. I had my first New York brunch with these ladies and brunch turned into hoping all around Chelsea. This might sound super lame, but I felt like I was on an episode of Sex and the City hahaha. So nice to meet a great group of girls so soon!! At one of our stops we were talking to a group of guys and OF COURSE they are Florida Gator fans...seriously?!?! I'm in New York!!!! I had a real interesting experience on the subway and bus that day too...1 train trip included some "hood" type of boys who must have been no older than 13 ATTEMPTING to rap and break dance on the subway. That ended very quickly when a boy struggled to do a back bend and walk over. I also was there for a woman who made a speech about how she needed help for money or food to help her family. Ooooh boy, only in New York! I also was super smart and got on the bus going in the opposite direction when I was heading home. Yup, I'm a genius!! I guess you live and you learn.

Jewish Rye Bread....What Have I Been Missing Out On All These Years?!?!

So I've been in New York for a week now and loving every minute of it!! During our decent into the White Plains airport the entire landscape was white...words cannot describe how excited I was!! Everyone was calling me crazy for moving to NY in the middle of winter but with seeing snow only a handful of times in my life I was super excited. And naturally they didnt have a bridge for us to get off of the plane so we had to walk down the plane steps like you always see in the movies. Just what I wanted, to slip down the stairs or on the ice with my kitty in tow the moment I step foot onto New York soil. Luckily that did not happen!! My little boy Atilla was so well behaved on the plane and we were heading to upstate New York with my Aunt Liz to her place to settle in my little Hun. For those of you who don't know, Atilla is my kitten that I rescued back in April and is essentially my child. He is staying with my aunt until I find my own place. Her home is an animal haven so there was no place better than there for him. I ended up staying there til Wednesday both to make sure Atilla was doing ok and also to go with Aunt Liz's friend Anna to the city for her to show me around Greenwich Village. Well upstate was still virtually untouched with snow and it was just absolutely beautiful. Sunday I went for a hike with my Uncle Fred through a state park and it was the best hike I've ever been on. Everything was covered in snow or ice and there wasn't a sound except for the crunch of snow beneath our boots. On Tuesday I went our and about my aunt's town and it was 10 degrees outside, yet it felt like -6!! This Florida girl's blood still needs to be thickened up, burrrrr!!! Wednesday I was to leave my Atilla, thank goodness he made himself right at home. He loves all the windows and heights and even started to make friends with my aunts cat. The dogs not so much...We met up with my aunt's friend Anna Wednesday to head down to the Village and what a cool place!! It was like its own little place within the city. Tons of shops, restaurants, art galleries and BEAUTIFUL buildings. Definitely a place I will look into moving to when that time comes. However it was sooo cold that day that we ended up doing part of the tour in the car. We went up to the  Bronx right after to move me into my new temporary home with my Nana. The next day I met up with a friend who was visitin NYC from high school in the city so it was techincally my first day out by myself! I survived my first solo bus/subway ride as I was nervous that I had to pick it up in a sketchy part of the Bronx. Definitely not taking that route at night! We met up in Time Square and got super touristy and went to the Ripleys museum and the Empire State Building. I realized I had never been in the city at night and boy is it different! So beautiful! Atop of the now 2nd tallest buildings in NYC and seeing all the twinkling lights amd the colorfully lit buildings just made me so happy to be able to call this city my new home. The next couple of days consisted of making my business cards and part time job searching...not much excitement there! However since I live in a mostly Jewish area, there is this Jewish bakery down the street and OH MY GOD does it have the best bread ever!!!! Especially the rye bread....oh its heaven!! Never has a sandwich with just meat and cheese tasted so delicious!!!  Monday starts my internship and I just cannot wait!! It will be my first day as a New York designer :) Let's do this!!!!!