A Summer in New York City

Well, after a two month hiatus, I finally got to sit down and write a little update about life here in New York City.

I left Italy in the middle of May after the best semester of my entire life. Not only did I have a great time, but I made new friends and managed to get even closer to the people back home (as always). 🙂 I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to do all I did while I was in Europe. I wouldn’t trade a single second of it for the world.

After leaving Italy, I returned home to Ohio for a week to spend some time with family and friends before my return back to the city. I couldn’t have asked for a more exciting week! I got to see everyone that I wanted to see, and I got to spend a lot of time with my family, which is always nice.

Once I got back to the city, I got right to work. Currently, I am interning at RestaurantGirl.com as an Editorial Assistant. I am having a BLAST! My boss, Danyelle (Restaurant Girl) is awesome. I really hope I get to spend more time at the company in the future. I am learning so much about writing and what it takes to make it in the world of food journalism. So far, I have been working on stuff behind the scenes on the site, as well as writing up pieces for the Gizmo Girl column. My own column, Restaurant Boy, debuts this Thursday! I am aiming to give a guy’s take on the restaurant scene in NYC. I’m really excited to finally get my voice out there. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a lot to say, so it’s no surprise that this is as exciting as it gets for me. It’s still surreal that people will be reading my opinions on restaurants!

Part of the reason it took me so long to start posting on here again (besides the fact that I’m hard at work at Restaurant Girl) was the class I was taking during the first month of the summer. The class was called The NYU Hyperlocal Newsroom Summer Academy, and it was quite possibly one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I didn’t realize going into it that half of the class was going to be multimedia journalism (pictures, videos, etc.), and it definitely took some time to get used to. I learned a TON though and enjoyed every bit of it. I finally learned how to shoot and edit my own videos on Final Cut Pro, so I’m hoping that’s a skill that will be helpful in the future. You can check out my class’s final broadcast here, and you can check out my final video project here!

This past weekend, my mom came to visit and it may have been the funnest weekend of my entire life. Finally getting to see my mom here, just letting loose and having fun with us, was amazing. We had a ton of fun shopping and exploring the city. We even did a little bar hopping on Saturday night with Dan and Dario. W checked out Coyote Ugly (yes, it’s a true story and the bar is still open). It was JUST like the movie. I ended up doing a body shot off of one of the bartenders and getting whipped with her belt. This was all in front of my mother. I really don’t know if I could ask for a cooler mom.

So, what’s next? Well, I am planning on spending the rest of the summer working hard at my internship and relaxing with friends. Dan is my roommate for the summer, so every night is a party. Duh. I’m going home to Ohio in a couple of weeks for a few days and then Sara is coming at the end of July to visit! It’s going to be an exciting summer! 🙂

x Ricky