08 Jan My Life in New York City
Many of you asked me whether I could speak about my time in New York because I used to live there for 1 1/2 years. I’m always super happy about blog ideas from you guys so of course I can do that 🙂 I try to give you a few tips as well for those who are interested in spending some time abroad. My tips do not only apply to New York but to all places abroad 🙂
My story is the following: After passing the pilot test at Lufthansa I had to wait some time until my flight training would start so I applied via Be-Lufthansa.com for an intern position in New York. During that time I already had a Bachelor degree in business which made it easier of course. After a relatively short time I had a telephone interview which I passed 🙂
I then only had to get my visa for the US. Lufthansa was very helpful in filling out most of my paperwork. The German embassy is located in Frankfurt where I used to live with my parents. Hence, it wasn’t very difficult getting my visa. If you are a foreigner I can give you the tip applying to a company in your own country that is also situated abroad. That makes it much easier as it speeds up the process of getting a visa. It also has the advantage that there will be more employees who are in a similar position like yourself.
Lufthansa in New York has many interns from Germany. Hence, I very quickly made new friends. Back then I moved to New York with not such a great feeling because I didn’t know anybody there. Furthermore, I’ve only visited New York once as a tourist and didn’t like it so much.
But most of the times those moments when your expectations are low and you start over again are the best moments 🙂 And that was exactly true in my case: through my work I immediately made new friends and I fell in love with New York very quickly. Living there is a totally different thing than visiting New York as a tourist. I’ve discovered many new and beautiful places so New York has become my favorite city in the world.
Unfortunautely my office was not directly in Manhattan, but on Long Island. Thus, I had quite a long commute. But it was totally worth it because I’ve always been wanting to live directly in Manhattan. Via New York Habitat I found a great apartment or rather a great room directly at Central Park (Central Park West). It was important to me to rent my first aparment via an agency because I didn’t know anyone in New York back then who might have been able to look at apartments for me. But our apartment was simply amazing 🙂
I lived there with an elderly woman and also had a sweet roommate. She is American, she did an internship in television and we got a long really well right from the start.
Because the elderly lady also had a house on the Hamptons we often had the apartment completely by ourselves. We were even allowed to host parties there somtimes 😀 For my first time in New York this living situation was simply perfect!
Here you can see more pics from the view of my room. When I look at these pictures now I almost cannot believe it that I actually used to live there 😀
If you are intersted in spending some time abroad I can recommend you doing it similarly to me: look for a job in a local company who is also based abroad. If you don’t know anyone living there you should think about renting your first apartment/room via an agency. This is at least the safest way.
A bit later I was looking for some more privacy so I found a great room via Craigslist. I was initially living with a guy who has later become like my brother. Surprisingly we found out that we were born exactly on the same day, in the same year and even during the same time 😀 So no wonder that we got along so well… ha ha. We lived together in a beautiful apartment right in Battery Park.
My last apartment in NYC was together with two guys which also worked out really well 🙂 Also there we had a really cool apartment! I wanted to live together with guys because I’ve always had the best experiences with guys as roommates.
New York has probably been the best time of my life! Even though it was a completely new start for me it was the best decision that I’ve ever made. Back then I had quite a difficult time as I’ve had a few disappointments in my life 🙁 Hence, I really wanted to escape Germany. But it was the best thing I could have done. It also grew me as a person and made me more independent. Hence, if you have the chance to spend some time aproad do it!! 🙂
If you have any more questions let me know 🙂 Do you also want me to write a bit about my High School year in Texas? Or is this something that doesn’t interest you? 😀
Xoxo
Maddi
This was with the beautiful Diane Kruger (famous actress from Germany who played the beautiful Helen in Troy) in Greenwich Village 🙂
Also the beaches on Long Island are beautiful 🙂 This is Jones Beach.
You often saw me walking through New York like this 😀
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