Hey girls! I'm Shaana of SCG ( @MaeShaanaP ) and this is the tale of my trip to Manhattan, New York, New York!

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Day 1

I remember it like it was yesterday. The morning sun of late-August heating up the black cement of our empty parking space at the front of our house. My little sister's whining about the stifling humidity and my mother quickly reprimanding her to get back to conducting a meaningful conversation with my big brother about house-sitting for the weekend. All I could think about is how different the US was going to be from home. And maybe even scarier than dear old Canada.

Just as I was pondering on how we would deal with racism because of our dark skin, my father finally arrived with a shiny white Jeep. My parents had decided to rent a car for the trip, a rare thing for them to do. Hugging my brother one last time and taking a family selfie, we embarked into the leased car and drove off.

Inside the vehicle, my sister and I started setting up. On road, it would take us seven hours to get to our destination, so why not cozy up during the ride? We each brought two book (mine were novels, hers were comics), a neck-rest, a leather wallet with twenty American dollars, at least seven stuffed animals and, of course, our smiles!

It took us forty-five minutes to get to the borders (in which we had to cross a super tall, scary bridge). Once we entered New York State, our stomachs started rumbling. With no other restaurants within a mile, we settled for some McDonalds, but not just regular McDonalds, an American one. It was so American that we got sliced apples with our Happy Meals! After the lunch break, we got back on the road.

We rode the 81 interstate (or something) all the way up to NYC, going through multiple towns such as Watertown, Syracuse, Binghamton and Scranton. I especially enjoyed listening to the local radios (being a total music lover and musician myself), discovering new songs ranging from country to disco.

At one point, we needed a pee break, so my dad stopped at yet another McDonalds (it's amazing how many of those are in the US) in a town with a Native American name as well as a lot of shops selling dream catchers and such. Only when I went outside did I realize that we were right across a gun shop! We definitely didn't have a wide range of those in Canada! (I won't lie to you, after all that I've heard on how easy it was to buy a gun in the States, I was tempted to walk right in there and yell "Two semi-automatics, please!" Evidently, I did not.) So, we took the road again after everybody had relieved themselves.

Now, I will never forget the first view I got of the Chrysler Building in the horizon after a long seven-hour drive. My sister and I yelped with joy as many other skyscrapers unfolded before our eyes, magnificently lit in the nighttime. Just then, Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" (back when it was a brand-new single) played on the radio and it made me feel like I was a supermodel on her way to a photoshoot.

All that was left to do is to get to our 4-star hotel situated in Jersey City, just across Manhattan. Unfortunately, that was the tricky part.

The roads in the US are like labyrinths. For an hour, my dad swerve through complicated paths and asked five different people how to get to the Westin Hotel (where we were to stay). At some point, we stopped in a mall's parking lot to collect ourselves. All four of us were tired, hungry and starting to get frustrated. My mom and I prayed to God that he would help us find our way because we were lost. At some point, I just zoned out until, finally, the car stopped in front of our gorgeous hotel. Everything from there was like in slow-motion: taking out our luggage, checking in, making flight attendant friends in the elevator and entering our room.

After everything was settled (and by then, it was almost 12:30 p.m.), we ate our first New York style buffalo wings accompanied with pizza with an ample amount of water while watching a Whitney Houston documentary on the tv. I drifted to sleep around the middle of it.

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Day 2

Waking up surprisingly early considering the hour we went to bed, my family and I went through the motions for the morning. By eight o' clock, we were out the hotel.

First thing we did is eat breakfast. Since there was a mall nearby our hotel, we figured there might be something to eat in it. And bot, did we find something alright! I rushed to a Dunkin' Donut and got myself a donut with hot chocolate! Did you hear me? A DUNKIN' DONUT! (Now, it may not look like a big deal, but in dear ol' Canada, there hasn't been any of these places since I was five, instead, we have Tim Hortons and stuff like that.)

After breakfast, my family and I took the subway. (I was kind of underwhelmed; there were no alligators at all.) Bu t the ride was still enjoyable.

Once we got off and made our way to the surface, I realized that we were standing in Time Square! Though people make a big deal out of it during the night, I liked daytime Time Square much better. Everywhere, pedestrians walked in hurry, talking loudly into their phones and calling taxi cabs (yes, the yellow ones). It was a glorious, sunny day and I felt like the luckiest person in the world.

We spent the rest of our day taking a tour on a big, red tour bus (we saw where Leonardo DiCaprio lived), checking out the giant Time Square Toys R' Us, taking a ferry ride (like the one in Spiderman: Homecoming) to glimpse the Statue of Liberty, eating New York hot-dogs (my dad even got a free drink for his "charisma"), getting souvenirs, pee-breaking in a supermarket, taking a picture next to that bronze bull statue which formerly had a little girl (also a statue) standing in front of it, and just exploring Manhattan.

We made it back to our hotel by sundown. For the rest of the evening, my dad and I decided to go for a swim in the indoor pool (we were the only ones there).

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Day 3

It was a quiet morning. I was the first one awake and I didn't want to rouse the others so I silently stared out the window to observe an authentic New York sunrise. I felt a tug at my heart as I watched the sunlight illuminate the skyscrapers and the circulating cars. I knew that we were leaving once my parents woke up, but I promised myself to come back here, right here, for another journey like this.

Goodbye, New York.

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Well, that's all folks! Hope you will all give a thought on travelling to New York, because, trust me, it's definitely worth it!

- Shaana