It's A New Dawn, Its A New Day, Its A New Life and I'm Feelin' Good

So funny how everything seems to fall into place. Everything is right on track going better than I expected! As most of you know I got offered my dream job the other day and now im on cloud 9. For those of you who don't know, its with a hospitality design company that has produced some of the most incredible hotels and restaurants. Ever since my last semester of college, I've been DREAMING of doing hospitality design and its just crazy now that yet another dream is a reality.
Today i had lunch in central park and as I was sitting on one of the boulders and looking out at the ever inspiring skyline,  I felt so incredibly lucky that for once things are going the way I hoped. And that NEVERS happens to me.  It's also nice to know that this radical decision to move here wasn't just some silly idea but something that I was able to turn into a valid move that was going to go somewhere.  I start my new job April 29th...its going to feel so weird having a normal job (and an office!) again.  The office is in the ever so swanky Soho and is just such an cool area.
So a big girl job now means finding my own place!! Wahoo!! Starting the search with one of my new friends in NY so well see how lucky I get with finding a nice yet cheap apartment. NY has these ridiculous broker fees and finding a place without the fee but in budget has given me very few choices. Hummmphh....
My celebrity sightings has continued as I saw lady gaga coming out of a hotel. My coworker and I saw some barricades and a bunch of cops hanging around a hotel and the nosey people that we are hung around not knowing who we were waiting for. With all the cops and bodyguards I assumed someone political. Who would have thought lady gaga needs some po-po to protect her! Super cool though...definitely worth waiting in the cold and rain.
So anywho thats my update in a nutshell... excited to go back to Florida at the end of April for the weekend for my dear sissys graduation...going to be nice to see some of you again!!

New York City: Not For The Faint of Heart

As I was taking the bus to work the other day, a girl came aboard and asked the driver to tell her where the subway stop was. She looked as lost as I did on my first day. Like a new kid at school, it just takes time to get acquainted with a new place and new people. Seeing her brought back all the memories of when I first got to NYC and how much I've grown and learned. Some of them include:

Don't look em in the eye .... something that is extremely difficult for me as I looovw people watching.

There is no such thing as a normal subway ride. When they are quiet its creepy. 

Sketchy is completely relative.  What would have made me uncomfortable in Florida is completely normal here.  The first time at my subway stop completely sketched me out....and my dad told me to get over it. Hahaha...it turns out its really not bad at all.

Gotta blend. If you loom like a tourist you will be targeted as one. So essentially you gotta look impatient and pissed all the time.

Have an issue with people who can't speak English? Get over it... foreigners take over this place. Kind of cool actually. 

Gotta get over closterphobia.  Buses and subways get ridiculous and having someones gut in your side is completely normal. And if they don't smell you're lucky.

Essentially you have gotta be one strong and tough person to live here.  Besides be brutal financially and competitive careerwise, there's a lot of things out there that can make a person run for the hills. If you're scared or made uncomfortable easily, get outta here!!

This is one of the craziest yet most awesome city I've been in and I love it. So much to do and ao many different sides to it. Seeing a homeless man outside of a swanky restaurant filled with the uber wealthy is a sight and feeling unlike any other.  The grittyness of New York mixed with its exuberant amount of classiness and richness is what makes it something special.

Anyway, back to the chick on the bus...she ended up asking me about the subway and I was more than happy to help. What I would have given to have someone help me... we chatted on the train and found out she's an au pair from Israel. Super sweet girl. It's those random people and conversations that I love. You never know who you will meet. I can honestly say this place has changed me....for the better, don't worry :)

Life in the Arctic

So I know its been a while but the last couple of weeks have been crazy. I came down with the flu and while I should have been quietly recouperating in bed it was more dramatic than I would have liked. To put it lightly, I left my grandmothers to stay with my aunt and uncle farther up north so I wouldn't get her sick but I was asked not to come back until I was all better. Soooo, yeah.....I ended up staying with my dad's best friend and his family and let me tell you it was fantastic. Such a crazy and hilarious family. Their 2 boys have become the brothers I never had and I felt like I was more at home; coming home after work to the family gathered around the tv and just the hustle and bustle of their lives. Needless to say I didnt want to leave them.
In other news, I got a part time job! I am working at a yogurt shop in the Plaza Hotel. I like to call myself a yogurista (sounds better), even though it is a serve yourself yogurt shop, hahaha. I thought it would be super cool working at the Plaza but dealing with all the rich people and their snotty attitudes I take it back. Last week was horrible, it was one rude customer after another. Old, young, foreign, New Yorkers, it didnt matter and I so wanted to punch them in the face. I find it ridiculous how obsessed customers get with their rewards cards, especially when they make more money in a year than I ever will in my whole life! Uggghhh...its sickening. Ending rant now...on the plus side I really like my co-workers (minus the obnoxious boy who thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread and brags about how he's a musician...that's a whole other story!) and my boss loves me. She hired me as shift leader so I get to tell people what to do...woohoo!!
I started doing some real design things at my internship which I'm really excited about. I got to design options for some custom swinging chairs and met with contractors and painters for quotes for jobs. They are putting me on a project that's involving some major changes, not just furniture so I'm pretty stoked about that. Also met with a head-hunter the other day so I'm feeling optimistic about them helping me find a job. Not that I was going to start doing that for another month or two but it wont hurt to start a little now!
So I'm pretty sure since my last post we have had three snow storms...that's right THREE!! We had two in one week and while I don't mind the snow itself, its how it affects the travelling that's really annoying me. Late buses/extra long bus rides are no bueno...especially when it takes at least an hour to get to Manhattan and a late bus affects everything. However I did get to go on my first sleigh ridding experience the other week with my dad's friend and his son. And it was a legit sled, not one of these plastic things. I have never been so bruised or sore in my life, but boy was it fun!! We are currently in the middle of yet ANOTHER storm so I'm thinking I might need to have another first an build a snow man tomorrow....no I am not 5 years old but this is what happens when you experience snow at my age!! hahaha.....
I'm absolutely loving it here in New York....now that I'm spending more time in the city it's like more pieces are starting to come together. My walks home from the Plaza at night are so relaxing (minus the cold) and I just stare at the skyline in front of me and into the fancy restaurants and bars knowing that sometime soon that will be me, living it up here in NYC!!

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!!!!!

Time For a Change

  For those of you who do not know, I decided I was in need of a change of scenery and pursue my dream of moving to NYC! I'm flying up on January 4th and start my internship January 8th. Many people where very surprised by this decision but it has been something I've wanted to do since I was little. I always loved New York when we would visit every year and promised myself that one day it would happen. Well,  looks like it has! To say that I am finally going to pursue a risky and long term dream of mine is one of the most rewarding feelings I will probably ever encounter. It makes me realize that anything I want to do I really can do, it just requires a lot of determination,  motivation,  hard work, and passion. Now what all of a sudden brought this decision up? Well after my trip to London,  I decided that I HAD to live in a big city and I might as well do it now while I can! After college I wasn't ready for such a drastic change, but its been 2 years since and I feel like I've grown so much and can now handle the craziness that will soon be my life.
As an interior designer,  I knew that it would be competitive in NYC, but somewhat easier because of the vast amount of firms there. After a couple of months of sending out tons of emails with resumes,  cover letters and work samples and no answers in sight, I was starting to realize I was going to have to move up there to get people to respond to me. So I started responding to internship positions to have at least SOMETHING while I was searching around for a job. And finally I got a response.  After a phone interview and week of anxiously hoping for this to come through, I was accepted as an intern at August Black,  an interior design company in Manhattan. That day was one of the most exciting days of my life. My dream was no longer a dream but was about to turn into reality!
The support and confidence people have in me is astounding and gives me more strength and reassurance that I CAN do this. It's amazing to hear how many people think it's rare to find a person with this much couage to make a drastic and risky move like this. So, for those of you wishing to live vicariously through me, here you go! This blog is for you and for those friends and family members who want to be updated on my adventures in the big city!

 I will miss you all more than you know!