In pursuit of Health, Wealth and Happiness

wendz86

So exciting about new york!

Hope you manage to make a breakthrough on getting some experience soon.

Kepp

About 60km outside of Nice. Hiring a donkey to carry the bags and trekking through the mountains. Should be interesting

I was going to suggest the saver ticket thing. Defnitely worth having.

My absolute highlight from NY was Coney Island. It's like stepping back in time with the old fairground and sideshows and the beach is gorgeous.

Another one was the helicopter trip. A bit expensive but a perfect way to see everything.

Jealous you're going to see a play! We were never organised enough to book in advance and it seemed near on impossible once you were there without queuing for hours.

Definitely recommend getting the subway where possible - it was around $7 for unlimited travel for the day, although that was a little while ago. NIM is right, you will do a lot of walking! We were out the hotel from 7 in the morning till gone midnight and absolutely shattered!

It's also worth getting a yellow taxi a few times - get a mental driver and it's an experience!

Foodwise we found it was best to avoid the chain restaurants and go for diners, delis and little places. Had an amazing Italian in Little Italy sat in a tiny restaurant with plastic garden furniture. Although had rough Chinese in China Town so doesn't always follow! We ate in this restuarant one time - expensive but entertaining!

Budgetwise, it's really about what you want to do. Attractions aren't too badly priced and if you pick the right places you can eat for less than £20 a day. We went for a mix of that and more expensive places.

St Mark's Place is like NY's version of Camden. You can have a drink in the Coyote Ugly bar and there's plenty of gigs on, although tend to be more rock and punk.

Oooo, I'm getting all excited for you! :j

wendz86

Bit behind by the time i posted!

We went to empire state building, boat ride to ellis island and round the statue of liberty, helicopter ride (was pretty amazing!), went to see various shops plus places like wall street, went to central park, saw two shows. Think that was it? All of it was good to be honest. I was only 20 when i went so too young for drinking there!

In terms of budget i think it entirely depends on where you are going to et etc. If you are planning on eating at nice restaurants it is going to be a bit more. I wnet 5 years ago now eek so can't really remember how much things cost.

Kepp

Oh and one more thing and I'll stop going on! It's worth having a plan for each day. Doesn't have to be set in stone but it can take a while to get between places and some places are best at different times of the day, so without a plan it can waste a lot of time moving between things.

Kittikins

Very envious of the NY trip Tete, sounds amazing. I've been to LA and Vegas (couldn't stand the latter, full of dull people not enjoying themselves in my opinion, give me Brighton Pier and a couple of quid's worth of 2ps ).

I'm feeling less grumpy today, I just did a test maths paper and did very well, so think that I may have cracked my phobia of percentages and fractions....but I'm now worrying that my first choice of Uni does Primary with French and my second doesn't so will the first think I'm not committed. I need those uni's as they work for me location-wise and as a single parent with no money, I have to be practical and if necessary, do general primary and stress my love of languages at interviews for teaching jobs. Hmmmm.....

Anyway, in the office today and doing more research. Roll on lunchtime! I've got children's birthday presents to buy for the parties that DD has coming up, lucky her!

Tete_en_l'Air

Oh my god, I just looked at two of my preferred universities' entry requirements and they're now saying two weeks or 15 day (ie THREE weeks) classroom experience prior to application!!! I'm having palpitations now, I was struggling to fit in one week prior to 1 December... I really don't want to put this off til September 2014!!! Im sure it said 1 week last time I looked (for 2012-13) :(:(

ruby_eskimo

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Oh my god, I just looked at two of my preferred universities' entry requirements and they're now saying two weeks or 15 day (ie THREE weeks) classroom experience prior to application!!! I'm having palpitations now, I was struggling to fit in one week prior to 1 December... I really don't want to put this off til September 2014!!! Im sure it said 1 week last time I looked (for 2012-13) :(:(

I would contact them just to ask them if they have changed the entry requirements. I got into my insurance choice uni by arguing that they had advertised one set of entry requirements (which I more than achieved) but that the offer they gave me was considerably higher and near on impossible to get with the course I did at college.

Kittikins

Maybe you can do one week, arrange for further time in schools to be taken once you've got your place and apply anyway? My places want 2 weeks before the course starts, but I've read on the TES forum that they can be sniffy and reject people because they say they haven't got enough experience even if they've been doing loads in schools......*sigh*.....just keep positive though hon!

Dinah93

On cameras: Definately take your DSLR, I was on the fence about taking mine and I'd have been gutted if I had only had the point and click with me.

Tete_en_l'Air

Dinah, I think I'll take both cameras to be safe

ruby_eskimo wrote: »

I would contact them just to ask them if they have changed the entry requirements. I got into my insurance choice uni by arguing that they had advertised one set of entry requirements (which I more than achieved) but that the offer they gave me was considerably higher and near on impossible to get with the course I did at college.

They have changed I think, but from one academic year to the next so I don't think there's anything I can really say.

Kittikins wrote: »

Maybe you can do one week, arrange for further time in schools to be taken once you've got your place and apply anyway? My places want 2 weeks before the course starts, but I've read on the TES forum that they can be sniffy and reject people because they say they haven't got enough experience even if they've been doing loads in schools......*sigh*.....just keep positive though hon!

Augh I feel anything but positive I've been on the verge of bursting into tears all afternoon. I've been flying around doing my job in a massive tizz feeling really depressed that my escape plan is about ten times further away than it seemed this morning.

It's just typical of my luck, they've been paying untrained monkeys hand over fist to do the course for the last ten years and when I decide I want to do it suddenly it costs ten grand and you have to have this, that and the other.....

OK that's a generalistic whinge but I just feel so deflated