Nicole Meets New York

Welcome to Nicole in NYC!

So in case I haven't already told you, for the next 6 months I will be living in New York City while on an internship with the Miss Universe Organization (MUO). I have been hired as a web/video intern and will be traveling the world with Miss USA and Miss Universe while creating videos for the MUO website (missuniverse.com). It is such an amazing opportunity and I cannot tell you how excited I am!!!!

Yesterday I flew into the city early in the morning. It is my first time in NYC, and I love it already! I am staying in a women's dormitory in Manhattan where I get a small room and two meals a day. The building was built in the 1920's as a place where young women could stay while working in the city. My room is very cute! It's actually bigger than I thought it would be and has enough room for a bed, sink, closet, dresser, desk, and chair. I'm on the 4th floor and the view out my window shows parts of the beautiful New York skyline. From the rooftop balcony there is an amazing view of the Empire State Building. I have also met a lot of girls who are all interning for interesting companies like DKNY and The Today Show. There are from all over the world and speak all kinds of languages. I had fun this morning at breakfast talking to two British girls about London. Living here for 6 months sounds like a very long time, but I know it is going to be a blast!

After settling in yesterday I practiced walking to work so I wouldn't get lost on my first day. It's about a 30min walk to work, which feels much faster because of all there is to look at. Along the way, I passed through Times Square by accident and also detoured over to Rockefeller Center. To my surprise, the Christmas tree was still standing there, which is something I have always wanted to see. I stopped and watched the skaters for a while. I also passed Radio City Music Hall, walked through Macy's, and explored Bryant Park, which was so cute and also had a skating rink! After that I went back to the dorm where I got a tour of the building and then went to bed in excitement for the first day of work!

Today was such a great day! I got up so early that I arrived at my first day of work 40min early. I waited in a coffee shop across the street until it was time to go in, haha. MUO is going to be so much fun! Everyone was so nice and made Andy, the other OU intern, and I feel very welcome. Colin, our boss, is going to be a lot of fun to work with! He encouraged us to be creative and think of new story ideas for videos to make for the website. It sounds like we are going to be given a lot of responsibility, which is great! We also met Miss USA and Miss Universe who are both very beautiful. There was also talk of a trip to Venezuela with Miss Universe coming up next week, but they haven't decided yet if Andy and/or I will get to go. I really hope we do! After work I came back to the dorm and got dinner with my new friends while we all talked about our exciting days with our new internships.

I am so tired now from such a fun day, but I cannot wait to get up early tomorrow and go back to MUO. It's going to be such a fun 6 months here! I'll try to keep this blog updated as much as possible with what I am up to. Hopefully there will be a lot of travel stories!

Having fun, but already miss you all,
Nicole