Welcome to the Good Life - Jay

I left off in my last post as I went to bed Thursday night in Boston.

On Friday morning, I headed to South Station to get on my bus from Boston to New York. It was a pretty uneventful bus ride (always a good thing) and I sat next to a really cool guy and we talked about everything from SC football to the economy to Twitter. It definitely made the trip feel a lot shorter. I was also able to grab some shut eye which was nice. I got into New York around 2pm and I grabbed a cab to the Hudson Hotel (just a few blocks south of Central Park). The hotel was really nice inside, but the rooms were so small. I shared a queen bed with my roommate and basicaly the room was the world's smallest bathroom and the bed. We barely had room to store our suitcases, but I guess that was OK because we really didn't spend time in the hotel. Once I got to the hotel, I helped make sure that everything was in line for the first night of the summit and then met up with some of my friends from USC and other schools. Two of my best friends from high school who go to Duke and UPenn were also at the Kairos Summit, so I was pretty stoked to get to hang out with them. We changed into dress clothes and then headed towards the USS Intrepid. We had some time to tour the ship and it was really cool. Tons of cool exhibits and old airplanes on the deck. All of the students with businesses had displays and an entrepreneurship movie called Yes! debuted. After the event concluded, we went to grab some late night NY pizza and Pinkberry.

Touring Times Square!

 Saturday started off with some omelettes from a cafe and then a tour of Central Park. After that we headed to Times Square to check out some of the stores and sites. It was crazy how many people were in such a small area and how many advertisements there were. After Times Square, we went to check out the Financial District and saw Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and the bull. We also saw ground zero which was definitely a powerful experience. Then we went back to the hotel, changed, and headed to the Kairos gala. There were a ton of tables set up for our tasty three course meal. Throughout the night there were a ton of great speakers. Bill Clinton and Bill Gates Sr. made video addressed. Joe Plumari, CEO of the Willis Group - they just renamed the Sears Tower) was my favorite speaker. He had a ton of energy, great stories, and tied it all together really well. Phil Condit (CEO of Boeing), Ellen Kullman (CEO of Dupont), Scott Mednick (Executive producer of 300, Where the Wild Things Are), and Admiral William Owens (former Vice Chairman of Joint Chief of Staffs) were some of the notable guests and speakers. It was really inspiring to listen to all these great speaker's stories and advice. Overall, it was an incredible experience to meet so many top students and industry representatives. I loved getting a chance to tour New York and I was definitely sad to leave the next morning. 

Two of my best friends from high school after the gala Saturday night

 But with that said, when I walked out of the airport and it was sunny and 80 degrees out, I didn't feel that bad about coming back to USC ;)

 Until next time,

 Jay