Travel Updates

Hello! I promised I would reveal my travel plans and here they are!

In June, I will be headed to...*drum roll please*

Korea!!! My amazing friend Lydia invited me to go with her, so I will be headed to South Korea for 2 1/2 weeks! This will be my first time in Asia and my third continent! I had never even thought about visiting Korea, and it was never an item on my travel bucket list. However, when the opportunity came around I had to take it! We'll be traveling all over the country, so you can expect a lot of blog posts to come!

My other BIG announcement *cue next drum roll*-

I am studying abroad in Amsterdam next spring!! I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a scholarship program through Hofstra; we hold an exchange program with the University of Amsterdam, and only SIX students are selected per semester!! I am so, so excited to have this opportunity to be able to study in a beautiful, historic city (home to my favorite painter, Van Gogh), and be able to travel across Europe while in school! I can't wait for January- I am already planning all the places I want to see and things I want to do!

I have always wanted to go to Amsterdam because it holds everything I love: art, history, museums, and beautiful architecture! I still can't believe I will be in this amazing city for an entire semester, and even though it is far away I can barely contain my excitement!

I am so thankful for all of the opportunities I have ahead, and I can't wait to share them! South Korea, Amsterdam, and many more, here I come!!

College Tourist Writer's Roundups

Hello! I am finally home after a very, very long and rainy drive from New York to Texas!!

As I mentioned earlier, I am working as an editor for The College Tourist this summer. My job is to gather blog posts and articles from our Global Writer's Network and round them up every Friday.

Here are my round-ups from both this week and last week!
Week 2
Week 3

If you know of any good student bloggers, especially those that write about travel or study abroad, let me know!

Speaking of travel, I've got quite a lot of traveling coming up soon, watch out for a blog post about it soon!

Time for Tea

As I mentioned in my last post, I haven't explored enough of Long Island. So, I set out with the usual crew to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum. We all piled into my little bug and went east for our High Tea reservations. 

The Arboretum is the former home of New York millionaire William Bayard Cutting, and is now a state park. The entire estate is gorgeous, and features gardens, house tours, a view of the Connetquot River, and high tea. 

Our tower of pastries. You work your way from top to bottom; scones, sandwiches, and desert, as well as unlimited pots of tea! I personally went with the Moroccan Madness. 

Outfit details: Dress, Urban Outfitters. Coat, H&M. Heels, Guess. Rainboots (pictured later), Coach. Bag, Coach. Bracelets, J. Crew Factory, Charming Charlie, vintage. 

"Hey Amanda, turn around and look cute!"

I deserved that one. 

Rowers on the Connetquot River.

After seeing that we were only barred from the lake by this small fence, Lydia jokingly shouted, "Ashley, go jump in the lake!" 

So I did! In my dress and trench coat, but armed with my wellies, I hopped the little fence and scampered down the rocks, doing my best not to slip and fall. 

I shouted, "Do it for the blog!!" several times at this point. 

Time to pose for a picture when I'm not ankle-deep in a lake. 

"This looks like a tree from a movie." 

I'd like this a summer house please and thank you. 

Until next time, Bayard! We will definitely be back in the fall!

Also, check out this cute GIF that Google+ automatically for me!! I had never seen this before (I didn't even know Google did this!), but I checked and I have 2 other gifs they made for me out of my photos that look similar! So cool!

Stay tuned, I'll hopefully be updating more soon!

Mini-Escape

Sometimes I forget that there is a whole island surrounding me- I often catch myself thinking of New York as just Hofstra and then NYC, with nothing in between. In reality, there are tons of things around me just waiting to be explored!

Lydia and I have been trying to get out more and see what Long Island has to offer. To celebrate being done with classes (!!!!) on Wednesday we popped over to the next town, Garden City, to walk up and down 7th street and explore. 7th is sort of like a mini-main street for Garden City with adorable little shops and restaurants.

For lunch we chose The Burger Spot. When we first stopped by 7th Street on Friday night, where we had dinner at the cutest little Italian place called 7th Street Cafe, we saw that The Burger Spot was packed. Wanting a more sit-down meal we ended up at the cafe, but decided we would come back for burgers!

We ended up loving it! It was really inexpensive (just over $10 which is rare in New York, I've found) and unique. I had the Athenian, a Greek-style burger, while Lydia chose the Mexican- Californians will do anything to get their guacamole fix. There were so many different burger options we had trouble choosing. The fries were thick and crispy, and a great substitute now that Shake Shack has disappointed us by changing their fries! I especially loved the garlicy-herb ranch-type dressing that came with our meal. 

7th Street. We also stopped at New Leaf, a delicious little tea shop with every kind of tea imaginable. 

My grandma sent me flowers from this florist and they were beautiful! 

There are pineapples on everything in Garden City- all of the street signs are emblazoned with them and several shops had pineapple wares in the front or pineapple door mats. I'm not sure why, I tried searching! 

7th Street is also home to The Island, aka preppy heaven. The store is mostly Lilly Pulitzer but also offers Vineyard Vines, Kiel James Patrick, and other prep brands. I scored this hat and this tote!

I've been dying to score a Vineyard Vines hat forever- they're so classic and will be perfect for summer, especially with this Lilly tote. 

Garden City is such a beautiful little area, we could have walked and driven around all day! We will definitely be back to try all the restaurants come fall semester! 

College Tourist Writer's Roundup

I'm back! Sorry for the lack of posting, this is an absolute crazy time for me right now. However, school will be out in less than two weeks and then I'm free! 

For now, I am excited to announce that this summer I have an editorial position with The College Tourist! If you have been reading the blog for a while, I had a virtual internship with TCT last fall, and this semester I have worked for them as freelancer; you can see some of my work here. 

As part of my position this summer, I am responsible for gathering the Global Writer's Roundup each week. Every writer in the College Tourist network gets a badge for their site, and are part of a network of writers and bloggers. Each week, I will be assembling posts from some of the writers in our network, and making a list of the must-read posts for the week. You can check out my first roundup here. 

I will be updating every Friday with a new roundup all summer, so stay tuned! While you're at it, you can check out other posts on The College Tourist.