ASOS & STA Travel “Round The World” Interns Take on NYC

Meet Shahbano Farid, one of two ladies, who won the “ASOS Around The World” internship. Over the next few weeks,  Shahbano will travel around the world visiting all the ASOS headquarters along with the second winner of the internship, Paige.

Paige and Shahbano will visit New York, London, Berlin, Lille, Sydney and Shanghai. Follow their journey here as they chronicle their travels around the world with STA Travel.

Week 1: New York City Since I am very familiar with New York City, having spent most of my childhood summers here, I was very excited to start my 6-week journey with ASOS and STA Travel in the Big Apple. My whole life I have wanted to live in this wondrous surprising and ambitious city so when I finally got the chance to dip my feet in the New York pool I was very enthusiastic. Visiting New York is never enough for me especially more recently when I come up only for the weekends to visit friends. Being in this amazing city for a whole week made it certain how much I loved it.

First of all, I never had to work in New York. I never knew what it would be like to wake up, go to work, get off and grab dinner and drinks with friends, and then do it all over again. I fell in love. The lights, fashion, art, music, food – I fell in love with everything. Paige and I decided to venture to different parts of New York to really get a sense of where we were. We went to a great hole in the wall Chinese restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, went to a food festival in Brooklyn (hopefully my future residence), and rode the subway until our brains hurt (we didn’t understand the subway system all too well at first).  I wanted so badly to be a New Yorker and this experience allowed me to see what it will be like when I finally make the move up from Virginia.

The ASOS office lit me up. There were clean white walls, beautiful garments and the sense of style out pouring from all the employees. Being in the heart of Soho, walking to work was just as enjoyable when it rained, which it did most of the week. However, that didn’t stop Paige and I from turning local and going to the corner deli for Manhattan style bagels each morning. Speaking of food, we tried all types: Italian, to Vietnamese, to a $6 kabob plate from a random Indian restaurant that was the size of my closet.

The beautiful thing about New York is that you see so many people on a regular basis, which you will probably never see again. You can be anyone and anything you want. You can dress how you feel and expect no one to think anything of it. Everything is fresh. Nothing is the same, every experience being unique. Starting this ASOS journey with STA Travel in New York was probably the best way to start. I was sent to a city of eye opening experiences for an internship that will do just that: open my mind, allow me to inhale different cultures, and learn exponentially.

Follow Shahbano’s journey on Twitter and Instagram @shahbabyy