Nic Trips

2019 Road Trip, Stop #1 New York City, NY Day 2 After working for the first half of this lovely Friday, I met my cousin and her 5-year-old daughter at Bowling Green Station on the southern most tip of Manhattan. They wanted to take me on the free ferry ride to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan city skyline from the water. The Staten Island Ferry The Staten Island Ferry is a completely FREE Ferry that runs between Manhattan and Staten Island. The ride takes about 30 minutes and ferries typically leaves every half hour from each terminal. (Meaning that while you are getting off your boat after your first ride, the next boat is already leaving and you will have to wait 30 minutes for the next one.) The ride out was amazing! It was beautiful, sunny and warm weather, and all of the windows on the Ferry were open and so we had a nice breeze to bring cool fresh air. Looking behind the ship as you leave the terminal, you'll get a perfect view of the c...

2019 Road Trip, Stop #1 New York City, NY Day 1 I drove into the city at night around 9 PM on a Wednesday from Jersey to Manhattan to Brooklyn, where my cousin lives in Park Slope. There was NO traffic whatsoever. I highly recommend it as a good time to drive in if you want to avoid traffic! The next afternoon I had set to meet up with my host-sister from Japan who was doing a month long study abroad program at Pace University. We met for lunch right by her school and then took the subway north for the highlight of the day... The American Museum of Natural History There was a HUGE line for tickets when we walked through the doors. Apparently there is no set price for tickets, just a "suggested donation". All the signs at the entrances around the lobby say "admission ticket needed past this point", but none of the guards were checking tickets. We were really confused by this. After a few moments of standing in line, I noticed a sign that said tickets w...

On March 13, 2019 I departed for a 4+ month road trip across the United States! I sold my old sedan for a newer SUV, added a roof top cargo box, and as a finishing touch for my new home-away-from-home I got a vinyl sticker decal from ShraderlandDesigns on Etsy to record my progress as I go for all to see. As I posted before, I have a very general map and timeline laid out to try and get me around all of the southern and western states (I'll do the northeast later in the fall) and back in late July. But I know myself well and I have an inkling I'll be moving slower along the trail than I expect as I make spontaneous side trips and want to spend longer in each location I love. And so the "4 PLUS" month road trip is a tentative name as I'm giving myself the freedom to change it and lengthen it as I go along. The only stops of my trip planned and laid out so far are my stops down the East coast on my way to my first LONG stop in Tampa, Florida where I will stay...

Next week I'll start a 4+ month road trip across the US. With one week to go before leaving my home in Syracuse, NY (and plans to return by mid July for a friend's wedding and a family reunion), I've finally put together a very ROUGH itinerary map to chart the distance I expect to cover. Over the next months, I'll be blogging a lot! Stay tuned for adventures across all of the mainland states, and beyond thereafter!

Back in August, when I thought I would be leaving Korea, my students threw me a bunch of surprise "goodbye" parties during our last week before summer vacation. There were lots of tears, gifts, letters and pictures. The next week, while all the students out of school on vacation, my co-teacher came to me with a special offer that the program was willing to let me change my contract to stay 6 more months (this was something that usually doesn't happen), and I decided to say "YES!" Lo and behold...a few weeks later when school resumed, all the students were surprised and ecstatic that I hadn't left and school life continued as normal again. Since I didn't leave Korea at that time, I didn't end up putting the pictures from the goodbye parties on my blog. But since I'll be leaving in 11 days now, I suppose I'll add them now... I actually woke up late the day that my 4th graders threw a surprise party for me and arrive to school about 5 m...

The first classes I ever taught independently (with out a co-teacher or any sort of guidance for subject material), in my first few months in Korea back in 2014, were a mess. I had lots of big ideas for sure, but I know now my execution of them was poor and overall they were generally unorganized. After a year of teaching regular classes, after school classes, 2 camps, and several Saturday classes, I was ready to make my last Winter English Camp the best of all. Not only did I collect a plethora of great ideas for this 2 week camp from my year of experience and from my other teacher friends, I was able to finally put everything I've learned about teaching together without any outside assistance and create a camp itinerary, system and syllabus I was proud of. For starters, the theme of my camp this year was "America". I wanted to take the students to the USA in terms of teaching about the country, culture and language. I told them that while we were in English ...

We arrived in Hong Kong after a short flight from Beijing at about 11 pm. By the time we made it to our hostel at around 1 am, we were exhausted and passed out immediately to regain our energy for the long day ahead of us. To start our day we met up with my mom's boss' niece, who is currently living and teaching English in Hong Kong. She took us to "Tim Ho Wan" a famous Chinese dim sum chain restuarant that originated in Hong Kong. The food was amazing, but also ridiculously cheap! We were stuffed by the time we left and only spent about $18 (for  three  people!). The restaurant has been dubbed "the world's cheapest Michelin-stared restaurant." Our hostel was in an area called Mong Kok, which is filled with famous markets and great shopping. Including: the ladies market, the flower market, the bird market, and the goldfish market. There's also the Temple Street night market a couple subway stops south. The streets are filled with vendors and a...