Down to Business in the U.S.A.

During the September holidays, seven students in Years 10 and 11 were lucky enough to travel with Ms Navanteri and Ms Hudson to the USA for the College’s Business trip.Our journey started off early in the morning and after checking in our bags and taking some group photos, we were ready for the 20-hour trip ahead to New York.

Following a short stopover in Vancouver, we finally arrived in the Big Apple, one of the world’s biggest financial capitals. The group tired from a day’s worth of flying and travelling took a short car ride to the Chelsea Inn, where we stayed for our little adventure.

Our first night saw us walking to Times Square and as the bright lights of the blinding billboards started to engulf us, it finally hit us that we were in New York. We were excited for what the next two weeks could have in store for us.

Some notable highlights of the trip include going to the Top of the Rock during sunset, which allowed for an excellent view of the Empire State Building. For an hour we took photos, while poor Keanu had to wait. The tour of Madison Square Gardens is where we learnt the history behind the world-class venue and where we explored the VIP rooms and locker rooms. Then there was the Wall Street tour, exploring Central Park (the natural gem in the middle of madness), the 9/11 memorial museum, enjoying a Mets baseball game, seeing the Statue of Liberty, doing lots and lots of shopping and the list truly does go on.

Among all these activities, we attended the British International School of New York for two days which allowed us to experience school life in America. Although the class sizes were very small, we were able to make many friends and have fun conversations on school-life and what it is like living in New York.

We also had the chance to take a day trip to Boston to explore many famous locations including the Boston Harbour where the Boston Tea Party took place. We also visited the Harvard campus with our tour guide Bruno. There was also a trip to Washington D.C. to see the White House, the Capitol building, Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.

A personal favourite experience of mine was the NBC Studios tour. This tour allowed us to go on set of various famous shows including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, SNL and NBC News. It was fascinating to experience these sets in real life after seeing them on TV or YouTube. We had the opportunity to go behind the scenes and explore the areas in which the magic of live television took place. With large screens lining the walls of rooms, it was easy to understand the huge amount of effort it takes to make live television perfect. Along with all of this, we created our own late night show and with Stevie acting as the host and Keanu acting as the celebrity guest we were able to create quite a comedic piece. Although we did not see Jimmy Fallon or any famous celebrities while on the tour, it was a very enjoyable experience for us all.

It is safe to say all of us had an amazing time navigating New York. From group dinners at Olive Garden, to late night runs to Target to stock up on snacks, to seeing vomit on the subway, we were all able to truly experience every aspect of New York, making memories that will last a lifetime.