I have now been in the US for a week, after moving my life halfway around the world from Melbourne, Australia. I arrived in Newark, New Jersey, last Friday night at about midnight and came straight to my hotel and crashed out after the long flight.

Saturday morning I got up excited to see where I was and get out and about exploring, not going to lie, my first thought was ‘wow thanks boss, where the hell did you send me!’. I walked to a bank and opened a bank account, the lovely lady that served me told me not to walk any further south than the road where the bank is as it is too dangerous. On Monday in the office, everybody I met told me not to walk around outside after dark and reinforced not to walk south of Market Street. The area is being gentrified but it still has a long way to go. In saying all of this, everybody I have met around here is lovely and really friendly, they have all asked me why my boss sent me here though.

Sunday it was about 39 Celsius with 80% humidity, so I let the jet lag win for the day and stayed inside. I went to the bar in the hotel and watched the world cup games which were both very exciting matches. I can’t believe I have come all the way to the US to become a soccer fan!!

Monday I stared in the Newark office, IT wasn’t ready so I headed off to apply for my Social Security Number as you don’t exist without one over here! That took about 2.5 hours and I headed back to the office to find out that IT was still not working. So about 2pm I got sent home, which meant back to the bar to watch more world cup!

Tuesday, back to the office, still no IT, so at 2pm back to watch more soccer!

Wednesday, was the 4th of July so it was a day off work. I decided it was high time I figured out the public transport and ventured over to New York City. The train ride is about 20 minutes so pretty good, the trains are really clean and comfortable as well. I headed to Madame Tussauds to check out it out as it was walking distance from Penn Station, and I could cross Time Square off the list as well, plus it was stinking hot again!! Madame Tussauds was pretty cool, the work that goes into the wax figurines is pretty incredible.

Thursday, back to work, oh and guess what… Still no IT!! I had a meeting at the NYC office though so it wasn’t a totally wasted day. The NY office is amazing, I was blown away when I walked into reception, I’ll remember to take a photo next time I am in there. While in the office I also got to catch up with an old friend, Matt, from the Brisbane office who I worked with in Auckland, it was so good to see him again and get some tips to living over here as well.

Friday, back to the Newark office and finally IT was ready! After work, I headed to Hoboken, New Jersey, to get some washing done and have a look around. As soon as I arrived in Hoboken, I thought ‘I wish I was staying here’. It is such a great area and I really wish I had taken my camera as it has incredible views of New York, I took a few on my phone which I have put up on Instagram and Facebook, but will definitely be going back there and taking more photos with my camera soon! I went and had a few beers and dinner at a bar called Wicked Wolf, which is across the road from the Hudson River. The food was awesome and the staff are super friendly, definitely somewhere to put on your list if you ever head this way.

Today, Saturday, I had been invited by Maxine from the office to join her, her husband and friends watching the England v Sweden quarter-final over in Brooklyn. So I headed out of Newark on the train at around 8am, from Penn Station I then caught the subway to Brooklyn. It was my first trip on the subway and it was pretty much empty and I found it really easy to use. I arrived in Brooklyn at around 9am and headed about 6 blocks to the pub we were meeting at. Brooklyn is beautiful, tree-lined streets with brownstones and other beautiful buildings. It was nice and quiet with a few people around but it felt really safe and I straight away thought, ‘I could live here’. The bar that we watched the match at is called Atlantic Chip Shop (put it on the places to visit list as well), it is a small British bar and has a crowd of regulars who were all there to watch the match. Maxine and her friends had lined up at 8am luckily as just after I got there, it was filled up and people ended up watching the game through the windows. Maxine’s husband and friends are so lovely, by the end of the day I felt like I had known them for years. Most of the regulars had all said hello as well and it was like I had been living there for years.

The crowd before the match

Between the England v Sweden match and Croatia v Russia match, Maxine took me for a walk down along the East River. There is this huge parkland and many of the old piers have been restored and returned to the public, one pier has basketball, handball, and a rollerblade rink, that is all free to the public, and another one has a huge woodland park on it that is about to be opened up. It is so beautiful along there and everything is free for the public, plus it has multi-million dollar views! Below are a few of the photos I took on our walk, from the pub down along the water to Manhattan Bridge and back again was about 6km and such a lovely walk. Today I really wish I wasn’t moving to Chicago in a month and that I could go live in Brooklyn!!