10th January- Home time.

7am- muffin time.
We got up, showered and packed up our last bits ready to meet in the lobby at 10am where we put our cases in the back ballroom.
For the rest of the day I went up to the upper east side with Toni to look around as this is the only area we had not been to yet.
We also went to research some baby shops for one of the next modules briefs and came across a shop called 'buy buy baby' which was massive and had buy in bulk everything.
After our short outing we headed back to the hotel to meet the group and get onto the coach back to JFK.
We had heard the flight before ours to Heathrow had been cancelled so we were all a bit worried about getting home. But all was fine and we checking in as normal and our flight was on time at precisely 7.01pm.
I hate night flights and this one was not too enjoyable.
First of all I had to experience the dreaded take off. We decided to all watch 'The Time Travellers Wife' where we all cried, had a not so enjoyable Turkey dinner and as we came into land unfortunately I was sick.
Very bad times.
So I stepped off the plane, feeling like death, but seriously missing NY.
I loved my time in New York even though it was my third time I don't think I could ever get bored of that place.

I will live there someday.

9th January- Downtown.

Awoken again by Claire the muffin lady, but I didn't mind really.
We were up and ready fairly sharpish as we had to get the subway downtown. We got the 2 train downtown to chamber street. This took us right outside ground zero so we had a look around the area and the new development site. Around 11am we walked just around the corner to century 21 where I purchased two guess purses both at $20.
By mid day we were hungry so went to Mc Donald's for lunch. From there we walked down to Battery Park to see the statue of liberty, where at a food stand I got hit on with the pick up line...''you sexy''.
Mmmm not so attractive.
From there we got the tube back up to Madison avenue where we looked at Roberto Cavali, Jimmy Choo, DKNY, Bloomingdale's, Barneys.
That evening we went to the Hard Rock Cafe at 6pm with the girls and waited for 2 hours to be seated.
I was ravenous.
We finally got seated and got dinner fairly quickly.
We got back to the hotel around 10pm and packed up all our stuff for the trip home.
We got into bed fairly early and watched Harry Potter on abc family.

8th January- SoHo.

This morning I woke up at 7am by Claire bringing us coffee and muffins from reception. Then being greedy we wanted to go out for an all- American breakfast so got a cab up to central park north and had breakfast at Sarabeths. I had a massive stack of pancakes and syrup.
It was b-e-a-utiful.
But we had a hefty bill of $144.
Because it had snowed over night we decided to take a walk through central park in the snow, which was so romantic. It looked like a movie scene.
From there we took the subway from Columbus circle and the C train to Spring street.
In Soho we walked through DKNY, which had a cafe, Diesel, Prada- AMAZING, Anthropologie was not what I expected and seemed quite a bit like Habitat, Topshop was way over priced, Urban outfitters had the same vintage feel.
We walked up to Canal street which was absolutely awful! I thought I was going to be mugged.
At 4pm we got the subway back to 34th street and walked back to the hotel. We refreshed and went for an early dinner at a Chinese round the corner from the hotel.
SO MUCH FOOD.
We got back and chilled in Lauren, Rebekah and Naomi's room.
BED.

7th January- FIT and 5th Avenue.

Due to jet lag I was wide awake at 4am. I didnt really mind though because and early start is always good n NYC. I stayed in bed until the girls woke up then we got ready to head out. We met the whole group in the lobby for coffee and muffins and made our way across to 7th and 27th- Fashion Institute of Technology.
The first exhibit was 'American Beauty' which showed modern American fashion, the ''philosophy of beauty and presented the modes of construction. The main dress from the exhibit was Halston's 'American Beauty Rose gown'. It was made from Red silk organza in the fall of 1984.
Some of the construction methods the exhibit presented were: Geometries, embellishment, dress making and tayloringg, Arcs , overlapping circles and architectural influences.
This was my favouite display out of the two exhibitions as I am from a textiles background and enjoy learning about the construction of garments and the end result that construction methods have.
The second exhibit was 'Night and Day' which showed how the traditional rules of fashion have dictated how women should dress. It explores the evolution of the rules over time and how fashion has been decribed throughout these times. Some of my favourite quotes from the boards dotted around the displays was: fashion hs been characterised as ''a capricious goddess'' and in the 1950s: '' Think pink, banish the beige.''

We left FIT around 11.30am and walked down 5th Avenue takin photos along the way. American Apparel had some interesting ways of displaying their tights by handing manikin legs in the windows, Benneton had a manikin christmas tree in the front of their store, the usuals Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton had a minimal display, but all had the similar theme of travel and new year.

My purchases of the day were: MAC make up from Bloomingdales which came to $60 in total, a fur coat from H&M which was $60 reduced to $18.00 which was an amazing buy and Underwear from Victoria's secret which came to $25.00.

After a tiring afternoon of shopping we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and left at 7.30pm. We walked to the Empire state building and decided we wanted to go up to get a night view of the city and we thought $20 was not bad. After the 86 floor elevator ride we came to the top and it was undescribably cold!
But it was worth it.
The view was incredible at night.
We just left the empire state and were considering getting a cab to the Olive gardens restaurant then a man from a LIMO company approached us and said he would take us to our destination for $5 a head.
AMAZING.
We rode to the Olive gardens restaurant in a limo blasting out black eyed peas.
Dinner was really nice and very filling, we left around 11pm.
As we were walking back through times squre (no return limo ride) the road was full of police cars and armed police officers surrounding an anonymous bag.
We stopped and stared as you do but got moved on.
We walked back absoulty knackered after an eventful day.

6th January- Heading for the big apple.

Waking up at 3.35am was painful this morning. And looking out the window at all the snow made it worse. But we got up, just about, and all got ready for the taxi to take us to terminal 5. The morning was a bit of a blur if I'm honest. I don't tend to function too well at ridiculous times in the morning.
As we walked out the front of the hotel to the taxi the ice cold and snow hit us. I can't think of anything worse at 5am.
While were in the taxi, my nerves really kicked in about the flight and thoughts kept crossing my mind so I remembered the oh so useful, reassuring tip about flying everyday for 19,000 years. Somehow it does NOT help at all. But being me I kept it to myself and tried to carry on.
Pulling up to terminal 5 we hurried into the building to check in with the rest of the group.
Only to find out that flights are not leaving Heathrow until 8am, giving us a delay.
I don't take to well to waiting around at the best of times, especially when I'm nervous.
So off I went with Claire, Toni and Lauren to get some breakfast and find a comfortable spot to sit and catch up with the girls. Who by the way had clocked on to my not so well hidden nervousness.
So after all the waiting we went through for our full body searches and onto the plane. It all seemed a bit rushed for my liking, but that was probably my worrying.
Sitting on the plane is the worst part for me, Toni and Claire really helped though which was great. We had a two hour delay on the run way and eventually got off at 10.30am. I kept my eyes closed for the whole of take off grabbing hold of both Claire and Toni's hands. When a magazine fell from an overhead cabin I instantly shouted out: ''what the hell was that?''. I was so loud Lauren who was four rows ahead of me turned around and apparently laughed at me, which I did not witness as my eyes were now closed even tighter.
Once I had settled down on the plane we had lunch which was a not so enjoyable chicken curry. I tried to block out most the flight and when sandwiches came round, to our delight it was chicken again. This time chicken corrination.
We arrived SAFELY at JFK around 12.30 New York time, went through immigration and collected our bags.
We got a coach from the airport to the hotel. On the journey everyone was snapping away through the window as we approached the skyline, I loved arriving to Manhattan. Everyone was so excited and anxious to get exploring.
We arrived into our hotel room. I was sharing with Claire and Toni. We stepped through the door and instantly compared it to Fawlty towers.
None the less we got changed and freshened up and decided to go for food. When I was in New York in July I ate at Bubba Gumps and decided that the girls would love it.
We had the best lemonade at Bubba Gumps- it had strawberry's in it!
After the meal we took a walk around times square and took many a photo.
When we arrived back at the hotel we were officially knackered and ended going to bed at 8pm.
The best sleep ever.

5th January- A snowy experience

Today is the day before us FMB students fly out to New York city. As I had just finished up packing sitting on my bed waiting for the time to pass I get phone call from Lauren: ' I'm still in Cambridge doing last minute shopping, can you get to my house at 6.30pm instead of 6pm.'
Typical
A longer wait... to pass the time I decided to google 'fear of flying' as I am PETRIFIED right now of the flight tomorrow, even tho I have done the exact same flight to NY twice before. Ive never been a good flyer and always think of the worst when it comes to possible accidents.
It has actually made me feel a bit better as I now know that you would have to travel everyday for 19,000 years to come across a fatal accident.
Reassuring.
At 6.20pm my mum gathered up my belongings and helped me drag my no doubt already overweight case down the stairs and into the car. I sad my farewells to my dad, whilst receiving the usual lecture of taking care and not spending all my money. So as I ignored this lecture I swiftly moved out the door and climbed into the front seat.
I arrived at Lauren's house around 6.30pm where her dad was ready and waiting to take us down to Heathrow. I said my goodbyes to my mother ,who always gets over-emotional when I go away ,and got into the car to avoid any more awkward emotional situations.
The drive down to Heathrow was fairly standard, chatted away with Lauren, went over everything we had packed and how much we thought our cases weighed.
Then all of a sudden the snow hit. It came as if from nowhere.
Ridiculous.
Ques of traffic formed, snow got heavier, how is it only our country that cant cope when snow hits?
So I decide to ring Claire who is in Nottingham to give her a heads up of the snowy situation down in London. But it turned out the snow was just as bad up there, if not worse.
Excellent.
Then the thoughts of: their not going to make it to Heathrow tomorrow, We will miss our flight, even worse: our flight will be cancelled began to occur.
Anyway, we arrived to the Jury's inn hotel at Heathrow around 8.15pm to meet Rebekah, waiting for us in reception. Our room was really nice, and we settled in straight away by ordering room service! Had to be done. Again, we compared cases, clothes and thoughts on the snow situation as Rebekah's flight from Manchester had earlier been cancelled.
After this we decided to try to go to sleep and not worry about it. I was sharing a bed with Lauren who did not want us to fall asleep before us so ended up staying awake most the night. Dreading the alarm!