Studying abroad again

I’ve decided to reopen my blog as I have once again left Denmark to study abroad. This time I’ve headed to Georgia, USA, where I am to attend University of Georgia (UGA). Once again it is Rotary whom I can thank for the opportunity to study in a foreign country. The program I’m attending is called Georgia Rotary Student Program (GRSP) and is a program where students from all over the world can achieve a scholarship from a Rotary Club in Georgia that covers a year of university, housing, food, books and a host family for holidays in the state of Georgia. As you can see, GRSP is not an exchange program but a scholarship offered solely in Georgia but to people from all over the world. If you are interested, you can read more about the program at www.grsp.org .

    I left my family and friends in Denmark on the 26^th of July (this Wednesday) to fly to NYC where I’ve spent two nights on a YMCA (hostel). It is not very often I get to visit NYC so I decided to spend some days there even though my final destination was Atlanta, Georgia.

    It all started out really well with my flight to Keflavik, Iceland, but once I got on my connecting flight to JFK, New York, I faced my first challenge: I got the seat next to a baby… Luckily for me there was a man, who was eager to change his own seat for an aisle seat (which mine was). And believe me: he didn’t have to ask twice! So, my flight to NYC went fine as well, and the only embarrassing thing was, that I cried when watching Les Miserable which the passengers next to me might have found weird (they did not watch the same movie) :D

I had some really great days in New York City and everyone was so nice to me. Two kind men helped me carry my stuff to the Harlmen YMCA where I stayed, and although my room was very small it was good enough for me (I didn’t spend much time in my room anyway).

    Thursday I started off by going to a strech and placement class in lower Manhatten on Broadway. The teacher was really nice and the technique she taught was a special technique called Klein Technique™ which has been developed by a dancer from NYC called Susan Klein. After class I hurried to Bryant Park where musical performers from Broadway held a free concert/show to promote some of the (upcoming) musicals. My favorite was the teaser for Avenue Q – especially the song “Everyone’s a little bit racist” was really funny. I found it on YouTube if anyone wants to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM

In the afternoon I went shopping in SoHo shopping district which I REALLY enjoyed. I’m glad I don’t live there though – that would definitely ruin me! The only really cheap thing I got was when I got a manicure for just 9$!!! I’ve never gotten a manicure before, but if it is that cheap all over America I’m gonna do it again for sure. Another highlight was when what turned out to be a stylist for Rag & Bone complimented my buffalo shoes (and they got a lot of comments in the streets of NYC) :D At the end of the day I was so exhausted from shopping that I didn’t have the energy to go to the city, so I just returned to YMCA and got some sleep which I also needed, as I had to wake up at 5 am the following morning.

    The reason why I had to get up that early was because I wanted to go to Central Park to see Selena Gomez perform live at Good Morning America. I’m not a big Selena fan but she actually did pretty well, and even though it was very obvious that I was not at a concert but at a television show it was still worth waking up early for. The last thing I got to do before leaving NYC was to go to the High Line in the Meatpacking District which is a walking path that goes above the streets and that is planted up with trees and pretty flowers.

Now, I’m sitting at a veranda in front of my new host parents’ house (which is really American!) trying to get used to the humid weather. When Yvonne and Robert picked me up Saturday before noon I had had a horrible flight from La Guardia Airport in New York to Atlanta. Originally I was to arrive in Atlanta Friday evening but the aircraft had some technical issues that caused an 8 hours delay! No wonder I missed my connecting flight in Cleveland… Anyway, the Airline paid for a room at a very nice hotel in Cleveland that I got to sleep at for 3 hours (only!) during Friday night.

Robert and Yvonne are both VERY nice and the first thing they did was to take me to a really American restaurant to get some lunch :) They really do show the southern hospitality that the southern states are known for! This afternoon I’m going to their daughter’s house (that has a swimming pool!) where we are going to barbeque tonight :)

Below is a little (silly) video showing some of the stuff i did in NYC :)