As I write this post, “Empire State of Mind” ? by Jay - Z featuring Alicia Keys is playing at the back of my mind, especially Alicia’s part.
"…In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothin’ you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand-new
Big lights will inspire you
Let’s hear it for New York
New York, New York."
This trip started as a joke in our girls’ whatsApp group.
One of us was finally graduating from Grad school in Greensburg, Pennsylvania . It was six months to the graduation when we decided that we are going to try to see if the almost impossible mission was going to be possible.
I had never been to America, tried applying for the visa once, but got denied, story for another day. With this in mind, I was scared to my boots that it would be the same story because no one really knows the criteria they use to issue visas. But like they say, “There is strength in numbers”, the eight of us took the leap of faith, applied and we all got the visas. Imagine that!
I personally could not believe it until the plane started taking off. One of my neighbour’s in the plane must have been wondering what was wrong with me because someone was sobbing uncontrollably for an hour straight. I could not believe that my dream was becoming a reality! You can imagine how huge this was for a budding Local Guide 
!
We finally made it to America ??. I was given two and a half weeks leave from work and I decided to bow to fate and visit as many places as I could afford?. Bay City, Michigan was my first stop, where I got to visit my bestie and her family. We had such an amazing time, got to have to visit Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland , where it’s Christmas 24/7, had my first McDonald’s meal, had my first Starbucks hot chocolate, got to do my nails at G & H Nail Gallery and visit the town.
Stayed in Bay City for five days and because I really wanted to see America, my bestie was gracious enough to take me to Greensburg by road. The drive was close to 9 hours and you should have seen me staring out the window with excitement like a little girl . Not only did I love the beautiful landscapes as we drove past cities and towns, I also enjoyed the conversations and memories we were creating with my her.
We finally made it and we were able to join the rest of the squad as they had gone straight to Greensburg as I detoured to Michigan. The day we had been waiting for was finally here!! GRADUATION DAY at Seton Hill University.
We really had a ball celebrating our girl. Had some hot chocolate from Eat’n Park and of course, some yummy doughnuts from… yap, you guessed right, Dunkin’ ?.
And because we were daring faith, we decided to go to New York, by train!
How can we go to America and not have a picture at the Times Square to show off on Instagram, or see the New York that Carrie Bradshow described in Sex and the City or where the majority of the Gossip Girl gang lived,“…Upper East Side.” (insert Gossip girl’s voice)?
For this part of the adventure, I will let the pictures do the talking and all thanks to Local Guides, it was easy to navigate and make informed decisions on where we to visit with the limited time we had. The places we visited in New York City were, Penn Station, New York Times Building, Staten Island via The Staten Island Ferry and we got to see Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, Charging Bull, Trinity Church Wall Street, Trump Tower, saw the Brooklyn Bridge from a distance, ate at Chinatown, had some gelato at Little Italy to wash down the lunch we had, despite the rain we made it to Central Park and finally ended at our dream destination, TIMES SQUARE .
We stayed at Secaucus, New Jersey which is a short bus ride to New York City a.k.a The Big Apple.
Once our heart beats settled, we went back to Greensburg, visited Pittsburgh and finally started to prepare for the journey back to reality.
Every good thing has an end, it was time for me to head back home, to where I belong.
As I look back, all I can say is that, “There’s God!”
