Day 8 - 18th April

Today was warmer than previous days and the sun was out, still only 12 degrees but lovely in the sun out of the wind.

Textiles:
Finally Textiles got a sleep in! We headed to Tom Cody's studio where the students learnt about what the company does. This was very interesting as it was a contrast to The Textiles Centre, Tom Cody's design 100 textile designs a week using Photoshop, send the designs to Italy where they get printed onto silk and other lightweight fabrics, sent back to be viewed and then clients are able to buy the designs. The also send some fabrics to India to be made into mock up garments. They do textile designs and embroidery and beading, they had out a large table with this weeks 100 samples and on racks all the available mock ups for clients to view and buy. We had so much fun searching through the amazing colours and patterns and left feeling inspired. Unfortunately there was a mix up with our afternoon booking for the Garment District Educational Tour so we we rescheduled that for tomorrow and had lots of shopping time around Macy's. These students will shop till they drop! I think I have dropped already.

Digi Tech:
We had hoped to do an NBC (tv network) tour but discovered the tours book out well in advance (next availability was Sunday which is when we leave NYC). We had another look around the Rockefeller Center before heading to Roosevelt Island for a Cornell Tech public tour. After fueling up with a subway sandwich had about an hour to explore the island. It is a lovely quiet retreat from the chaos of Manhattan. At the southern end of the island is the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park and an old small pox hospital.  We also spotted a squirrel! The Cornell Tech is a new campus for graduate students (opened mid-2017). It was designed with sustainability, net zero energy and future growth in mind. It has beautiful rolling lawns! After the tour we caught an aerial tram back to Manhattan which was amazing (and free with our unlimited metro card).

Food:
Went to Insitute of Culinary Arts today for a greet & tour @ Brookfields which was opposite to the 9/11 Memorial. Then shopped until they dropped, which they didnt at Times Square!

Evening:
Everyone has been craving a home cooked meal so tonight we had oven baked chicken, roast vege salad, lettuce salad and chips, a nice night in at the hostel to rest.