ITALY TO NYC :
As you all may or may not know back at home in New Jersey I work for an Italian restaurant, they are literally like my family. I couldn’t ask for a better place to work, everyone is so nice and they really appreciate you. So I wanted to do something for them to give back a little. One of the guys I work with named Carlo, had his niece and her boyfriend coming from Italy and they had to see NYC.
We had such a fun filled day, first we went to the mall to buy jeans and clothes for them ( don’t ask me why but people from Europe love our jeans). It was very hard for me at first because I was the only one that spoke English, I can understand Italian to some extent but I cant hold an entire conversation. So I felt very out of place , but then we went out to lunch and his niece and I automatically bonded, what girl no matter where your from doesn’t love shopping and food!
Soon it was time to go back to work and pick everyone up to head to New York. We ended up taking three cars with everyone, Carlo ( the pizza guy ) his niece and her boyfriend, Joe( one of the other servers), Mino ( Chef) and Mino’s daughters and his girlfriend. There was so many of us, it was hard to keep track of everyone on the parkway.
Finally we were getting close, everyone in the car was freaking out because it was there first time in New York. Taking pictures of the buildings, with each other, of all the traffic, of everything you could possibly think of. We parked on 8th avenue and 30th street, at a place called the park and lock ( it was really cheap). Then we walked up towards school and met up with my friend Nicole ( one of the girls I’ve written about from school before). They were amazed by all the buildings and especially our school. They kept asking me ” You come here everyday” ” Don’t you love it” ” Your so cool”, which living in NYC must be amazing, but commuting isn’t always as fun.
Everyone was all together now and I had to take them onto the subway so we could get to times square. It was about six o’clock and at that point the subways are packed ( Its rush hour ). We had to try to squeeze about 20 people in one subway car to stick together, I didn’t think it was going to be possible but we did it! We went to times square went to the TOYS R US, took pictures with the characters, ate some pretzels and dirty water dogs, and had a ton of fun! If you’ve never been to times square I highly suggest it the two best times to go are in the summer, and right before Christmas you see a lot of interesting things.
– That’s us in the subway ( from left to right ) Carlo, Nicole, Me, Joe.
Make sure you pay the characters, they work for tips and they will bug you after if you don’t tip them ( I learned the hard way ) I never took a picture with a character in times square before!
Then last but not least we made our way to the tree, there faces lite up as they saw it in front of them, I don’t know why but my favorite thing to see in NYC is peoples faces the first time they see anything, they look at it with such beauty and awe. When your in the city everyday that look in your eyes gets taken away from you, you become a New Yorker, its a part of everyday life.
Just being away for a few days gave me that twinkle back to appreciate everything in the city. It made me feel amazing to be able to show people around and tell them about everything, and impress them with my navigating skills.
We had such a nice time, if you get a chance go see the tree before Christmas!- XOXO Kailee 