New York 2026
manhattan, brooklyn, central park
times square
Exchange started in New York, which was probably the right city to begin with. It does not let you ease in. Brooklyn Bridge, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, and Central Park came one after another, partly because that is how I travel and partly because the city itself seemed to set the pace.
The landmarks were good, but what stayed with me was the texture of the place. The subway, the noise at street level, the density of everything happening at once, and the feeling that there was always another block worth walking. After a few days, exchange stopped feeling like a normal semester abroad and started feeling much bigger than that.