I had a bit of time on my hands so I thought I'd do a quick update of what's happened this week. On Tuesday, I went to the library and got 6 pages of my essay done (I'd already done 3 so only had 1 left), I was pleased with my effort because it meant I had very little to do on Wednesday. However... when I went to the library on Wednesday morning to finish it off, it turned out that I didn't save it to the computer, so all of Tuesday's work was for nothing. This was 4 hours before the deadline so I was very flustered. I emailed my professor and she was very understanding and gave me until the next day but I eventually got it finished that afternoon. I went home and cheered myself up by ordering a MacBook Pro. I'd been trying to do it for a few days but had found it really complicated to order one in America because Apple wouldn't accept UK cards, I added it up on the UK store and it turned out that it was only going to be slightly more expensive than in America because the student discounts were much better (I'd originally expected it to be about £400 more to get it in the UK).
Classes finished for this semester on Wednesday so I spent Thursday relaxing after the stress of the last couple of weeks. In the evening we went to The Pub for 'trivia' which was fun but we didn't do particularly well, then we headed to WT's for an hour or so. Friday was another relaxing day, in the evening we went to see our friends Giulia, Natalie and Naomi perform in a dance show which was fun, although some of the dances were terrible. Afterwards, we headed to the coffee shop for its official opening party. They'd hired a DJ to play dance music but for me, it didn't really work out, as it seemed like a club that only served coffee... So after a while we went to WT's where we could actually get alcohol.
Today (Saturday) I went downtown with Paola and David in the morning as we'd never been all the way downtown in the day. We took lots of photos of the Empire State Plaza which is where all the political buildings are situated. It was really deserted which was creepy but I think it'll be nice in summer when there's people around and the fountains are turned on. We also went down to the Hudson River to have a look but there wasn't much to see. It's really different to England because all the shops are in the mall so there's nothing at all to do in the town centre. In the afternoon I watched the first part of The X Factor final. It was very nice, Cher was eliminated but I still think she's going to have a huge career. I want One Direction to win! In the evening we went to the mall, and went to a diner for dinner, it was fun watching the staff dancing to Respect by Aretha Franklin, then we went to see The Tourist with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. I had very high hopes, but in all honesty it was probably the worst movie I've seen since I've been here, and had one of the most convoluted plot twists I've ever seen! When we got out Macy's was open late and I found a Calvin Klein wallet for $20 which was a nice surprise.
That's about it for now, I have a couple of exams in the week then I'm going to New York for the weekend before flying home. I booked my hotel for Saturday night so there isn't much left to organise now. It's only 9 days until I'm home!
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Monday, 6 December 2010
Counting Down The Days
I've just counted and I've been in Albany for 107 days - in some ways it feels a lot shorter but when we talk about things that happened in the first few weeks it could honestly have been a year!
I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week studying for my American Legislatures final exam - it was quite difficult but I'm glad I put as much time in as I did. On Thursday night we went to WT's for our first proper night there for the best part of a month - it was a nice relaxing night.
Ever since I've been here, especially in the last few weeks, I've been craving Indian food so Joe arranged for us to have an Indian lunch buffet on Friday as he considers himself as a bit of an Indian connoisseur. Eight of us went to a little restaurant which was surprisingly busy considering it was quite unattractive from the outside. The food was good, better than the bad curry I had in Boston, but still nowhere near as good as British Indian food. A few people who I've talked to said they've had Indian food when they've been in Britain and it's the best they've ever had. On Friday night, a few of us went to a surprise party for Joe's room mate Alex that his girlfriend had organised to celebrate his graduation, he was pleasantly surprised which was nice. Afterwards, we went to a coffee shop that Joe, Ellen and Austin's friend had opened that week. I met him in the first week and he said then that he planned to open it within a fortnight but he's had a lot of trouble renovating the property, but it's finally open and it's very nice!
I spent Saturday afternoon watching The X Factor. I don't think it's been as good as last year but I'm still absolutely hooked. I'm happy for anyone but Matt to win but I think he'll probably win! In the evening, I went to the cinema with Ellen, Joe and Josh to see 127 Hours. It was directed by Danny Boyle and was about a man who went rock climbing and got stuck alone in the middle of nowhere so had to resort to cutting his arm off after realising that no one would find him and that he would soon die because he had no water. It sounds really gory but it was really well made and it's probably my favourite film I've seen since I've been here. At night, we went to Ellen's intending on going to Bayou at about 12.30 but just as we were about to leave I got some horrible stomach pains that I get occasionally so I couldn't go with everyone. A few others chose not to go, even Ellen couldn't go because she got a serious migraine. The pains stopped after about 20 minutes so we went to the coffee shop for a while before I went home.
I spent Sunday and Monday trying to do my 10-page essay that's due in on Wednesday but I always work best under pressure so I expect to have a heavy work session on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning! After that's handed in, I have a 3 page essay due in for Monday and exams on Tuesday and Wednesday then my first semester in Albany is over work-wise! The weather at the moment is quite awful, it's generally around -3 (26F) no matter what time of day it is and it tends to be quite windy which makes it feel even colder. We haven't had any snow besides the one day in November but today there was snow floating around in the air all day like dust, although it didn't settle - January and February are supposed to be the worst months for snow. Exams finish on Friday 17th so we're planning on having a goodbye party on the Friday night then travelling to New York City on the Saturday where everyone who's going home will stay until they fly. It's going to be really sad because a lot of my closest friends here are only staying for one semester so we have to say goodbye in less than two weeks! On the other hand, I'm very excited to come home, as the title of this post suggests! My friend Natalie who I lived with last year in Nottingham has booked flights to come to visit me from the 3rd to the 13th of March next year which is very exciting and I'm considering going to visit her in the Caribbean for Spring Break in April!
That's all for now, I'll try to blog again before I leave to come home for Christmas, but as you can tell it's going to be a very hectic time! Bye for now!
I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week studying for my American Legislatures final exam - it was quite difficult but I'm glad I put as much time in as I did. On Thursday night we went to WT's for our first proper night there for the best part of a month - it was a nice relaxing night.
Ever since I've been here, especially in the last few weeks, I've been craving Indian food so Joe arranged for us to have an Indian lunch buffet on Friday as he considers himself as a bit of an Indian connoisseur. Eight of us went to a little restaurant which was surprisingly busy considering it was quite unattractive from the outside. The food was good, better than the bad curry I had in Boston, but still nowhere near as good as British Indian food. A few people who I've talked to said they've had Indian food when they've been in Britain and it's the best they've ever had. On Friday night, a few of us went to a surprise party for Joe's room mate Alex that his girlfriend had organised to celebrate his graduation, he was pleasantly surprised which was nice. Afterwards, we went to a coffee shop that Joe, Ellen and Austin's friend had opened that week. I met him in the first week and he said then that he planned to open it within a fortnight but he's had a lot of trouble renovating the property, but it's finally open and it's very nice!
I spent Saturday afternoon watching The X Factor. I don't think it's been as good as last year but I'm still absolutely hooked. I'm happy for anyone but Matt to win but I think he'll probably win! In the evening, I went to the cinema with Ellen, Joe and Josh to see 127 Hours. It was directed by Danny Boyle and was about a man who went rock climbing and got stuck alone in the middle of nowhere so had to resort to cutting his arm off after realising that no one would find him and that he would soon die because he had no water. It sounds really gory but it was really well made and it's probably my favourite film I've seen since I've been here. At night, we went to Ellen's intending on going to Bayou at about 12.30 but just as we were about to leave I got some horrible stomach pains that I get occasionally so I couldn't go with everyone. A few others chose not to go, even Ellen couldn't go because she got a serious migraine. The pains stopped after about 20 minutes so we went to the coffee shop for a while before I went home.
I spent Sunday and Monday trying to do my 10-page essay that's due in on Wednesday but I always work best under pressure so I expect to have a heavy work session on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning! After that's handed in, I have a 3 page essay due in for Monday and exams on Tuesday and Wednesday then my first semester in Albany is over work-wise! The weather at the moment is quite awful, it's generally around -3 (26F) no matter what time of day it is and it tends to be quite windy which makes it feel even colder. We haven't had any snow besides the one day in November but today there was snow floating around in the air all day like dust, although it didn't settle - January and February are supposed to be the worst months for snow. Exams finish on Friday 17th so we're planning on having a goodbye party on the Friday night then travelling to New York City on the Saturday where everyone who's going home will stay until they fly. It's going to be really sad because a lot of my closest friends here are only staying for one semester so we have to say goodbye in less than two weeks! On the other hand, I'm very excited to come home, as the title of this post suggests! My friend Natalie who I lived with last year in Nottingham has booked flights to come to visit me from the 3rd to the 13th of March next year which is very exciting and I'm considering going to visit her in the Caribbean for Spring Break in April!
That's all for now, I'll try to blog again before I leave to come home for Christmas, but as you can tell it's going to be a very hectic time! Bye for now!
Monday, 29 November 2010
Many Roads I Have Travelled
I've left this far too long so the post will probably be lengthy and I'll miss out a lot but I'll have a go.
Two Thursdays ago (the night before Boston), I went to an American version of a pub quiz - called Trivia over here. We didn't win but we won a few individual rounds so we got pitchers of beer and shots of tequila for free. After that, I went to the cinema at midnight to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It was a good film and I was a bit tipsy which made it even more enjoyable! On the Friday morning we left for Boston which took about 2 hours 30 minutes in the car. We stayed at Ellen's friend Mallory's apartment which was fun. On the Friday evening we went to Quincy Market for food (I got curry, not up to English standard) then headed to the basketball game. The Celtics lost narrowly but all-in-all it was extremely enjoyable, I saw Shaquille O'Neal who was one of the few players I'd ever heard of, he was literally the size of a bear. Afterwards, we got the train to Cambridge which is one area of Boston and met Ellen's friend Michelle and went to a really good club called Middlesex. It just had one DJ doing a continuous mix which was a nice change and he threw a lot of different things in (Human League, Lion King, The Beatles, lots of rap). On Saturday morning we went to a diner called The Breakfast Club which played 80s songs and had 80s movie posters on the walls, the food was really good and reasonably priced, I tried Eggs Benedict which was nice but a bit sickly. In the afternoon we went for a tour of Boston on an amphibious vehicle, also known as a duck, which was a bus that became a boat on water. The tour was entertaining and Ellen was allowed to drive it on the water which was entertaining. Afterwards, we met Ellen's friend Michelle and a couple of her friends and they took us to a barbecue restaurant called Soulfire for dinner, the food was so nice and there were four different types of BBQ sauce to choose from! Later on, we headed out to a few pubs but they didn't accept driving licences as ID so went back to Mallory's and sat around for a few hours before we went to bed. On Sunday, we decided to go out for breakfast again so we drove to Cambridge to look for somewhere but there was no parking so we headed to The Breakfast Club again - one benefit of driving round Cambridge was getting to see quite a bit of Harvard which was really nice. In the afternoon, we went to downtown Boston and did a bit of shopping and sightseeing then went back to Mallory's and headed home at about 4.30.
Last week was a bit disjointed because classes finished and the dining halls closed on Tuesday for the Thanksgiving break. On Tuesday night a few of us went to WT's for a meal, I got steak which was lovely. On Wednesday lunchtime, I went to the international students Thanksgiving dinner which was more fun than it sounds. The food was good then afterwards we did some folk dancing which was weird but entertaining. On Wednesday evening Ellen picked me up and went to her house on Long Island for Thanksgiving. The drive took just over 3 hours and on the way we passed signs for Woodstock, Sleepy Hollow and Amityville, all of which I wish I'd taken photos of. That night we went out for a little bit but we were tired so went back early. On Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we got up quite early and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV which is basically lots of floats and balloons going through the middle of Manhattan with a huge crowd watching. In the afternoon we went to a lovely restaurant called Villa Lombardi's for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a buffet and there was basically everything you would expect and more, I had about 4 plates full of food and was stuffed (turkey, beef, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pumpkin crepes, spinach, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, ice cream). In the evening we visited some of Ellen's extended family who lived about an hour away. They were all really nice and friendly and we listened to lots o stories and ate more desserts! On Friday morning, Ellen took me for a Long Island bagel which was very nice (spinach and bacon cream cheese) then I got the train to New York City from a place called Ronkonkoma, which I thought was a very funny name. When I got there I met my friends Nikki and Sian from Nottingham in SoHo and we walked to Little Italy for a slice of pizza then we went to Grand Central Station for a look around and headed to the Rockefeller Center to look at the Christmas tree and ice rink. After they headed back to where they were staying I met my friends Pontus and Stine from Albany and went to eat at an Italian where David Letterman once took Madonna for pizza! I got the bus back to Albany at 8.30 so was home for midnight.
The weekend was very quiet, I did almost nothing besides going to Giulia's on Saturday night for pizza. On the way to her apartment, the winds were possibly the coldest I've ever had to deal with - my brain felt like it was frozen and took about 20 minutes to thaw out! I've got a lot of work coming up in the next few weeks. I have a final exam on Thursday and a 10-page essay due in next Wednesday then two exams the week after that. On the bright side, this time in 3 weeks I should be at home in Workington if all goes to plan, although I don't hold much hope after the hellish journey I had on the way here! That's all for now.
Two Thursdays ago (the night before Boston), I went to an American version of a pub quiz - called Trivia over here. We didn't win but we won a few individual rounds so we got pitchers of beer and shots of tequila for free. After that, I went to the cinema at midnight to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It was a good film and I was a bit tipsy which made it even more enjoyable! On the Friday morning we left for Boston which took about 2 hours 30 minutes in the car. We stayed at Ellen's friend Mallory's apartment which was fun. On the Friday evening we went to Quincy Market for food (I got curry, not up to English standard) then headed to the basketball game. The Celtics lost narrowly but all-in-all it was extremely enjoyable, I saw Shaquille O'Neal who was one of the few players I'd ever heard of, he was literally the size of a bear. Afterwards, we got the train to Cambridge which is one area of Boston and met Ellen's friend Michelle and went to a really good club called Middlesex. It just had one DJ doing a continuous mix which was a nice change and he threw a lot of different things in (Human League, Lion King, The Beatles, lots of rap). On Saturday morning we went to a diner called The Breakfast Club which played 80s songs and had 80s movie posters on the walls, the food was really good and reasonably priced, I tried Eggs Benedict which was nice but a bit sickly. In the afternoon we went for a tour of Boston on an amphibious vehicle, also known as a duck, which was a bus that became a boat on water. The tour was entertaining and Ellen was allowed to drive it on the water which was entertaining. Afterwards, we met Ellen's friend Michelle and a couple of her friends and they took us to a barbecue restaurant called Soulfire for dinner, the food was so nice and there were four different types of BBQ sauce to choose from! Later on, we headed out to a few pubs but they didn't accept driving licences as ID so went back to Mallory's and sat around for a few hours before we went to bed. On Sunday, we decided to go out for breakfast again so we drove to Cambridge to look for somewhere but there was no parking so we headed to The Breakfast Club again - one benefit of driving round Cambridge was getting to see quite a bit of Harvard which was really nice. In the afternoon, we went to downtown Boston and did a bit of shopping and sightseeing then went back to Mallory's and headed home at about 4.30.
Last week was a bit disjointed because classes finished and the dining halls closed on Tuesday for the Thanksgiving break. On Tuesday night a few of us went to WT's for a meal, I got steak which was lovely. On Wednesday lunchtime, I went to the international students Thanksgiving dinner which was more fun than it sounds. The food was good then afterwards we did some folk dancing which was weird but entertaining. On Wednesday evening Ellen picked me up and went to her house on Long Island for Thanksgiving. The drive took just over 3 hours and on the way we passed signs for Woodstock, Sleepy Hollow and Amityville, all of which I wish I'd taken photos of. That night we went out for a little bit but we were tired so went back early. On Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we got up quite early and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV which is basically lots of floats and balloons going through the middle of Manhattan with a huge crowd watching. In the afternoon we went to a lovely restaurant called Villa Lombardi's for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a buffet and there was basically everything you would expect and more, I had about 4 plates full of food and was stuffed (turkey, beef, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pumpkin crepes, spinach, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, ice cream). In the evening we visited some of Ellen's extended family who lived about an hour away. They were all really nice and friendly and we listened to lots o stories and ate more desserts! On Friday morning, Ellen took me for a Long Island bagel which was very nice (spinach and bacon cream cheese) then I got the train to New York City from a place called Ronkonkoma, which I thought was a very funny name. When I got there I met my friends Nikki and Sian from Nottingham in SoHo and we walked to Little Italy for a slice of pizza then we went to Grand Central Station for a look around and headed to the Rockefeller Center to look at the Christmas tree and ice rink. After they headed back to where they were staying I met my friends Pontus and Stine from Albany and went to eat at an Italian where David Letterman once took Madonna for pizza! I got the bus back to Albany at 8.30 so was home for midnight.
The weekend was very quiet, I did almost nothing besides going to Giulia's on Saturday night for pizza. On the way to her apartment, the winds were possibly the coldest I've ever had to deal with - my brain felt like it was frozen and took about 20 minutes to thaw out! I've got a lot of work coming up in the next few weeks. I have a final exam on Thursday and a 10-page essay due in next Wednesday then two exams the week after that. On the bright side, this time in 3 weeks I should be at home in Workington if all goes to plan, although I don't hold much hope after the hellish journey I had on the way here! That's all for now.
Friday, 12 November 2010
Viruses All Round
I looked up the plural of virus hoping that it might be viri or something nice sounding but instead it's just plain old viruses, anyway more about that later...
The first fun thing I did last week was on Thursday . We went to WT's for Joao's 24th birthday (a lot of my friends here are older than me). It was really fun, although the people who were under 21 and didn't have ID got asked to leave. They always go before the bouncers start working and have a meal there and wait for everyone to show up a bit later and it's usually fine, but this week they got asked for ID after they finished their meal and were made to leave when they didn't have any. Besides that, it was a really good night! Joao got very drunk and everyone sang Happy Birthday at midnight.
On Friday, I went to see Due Date at the cinema with Emma, Ellen and Josh. I had quite high expectations and it didn't really live up to them, most of the film was just Zach Galifianakis saying stupid things which weren't particularly funny. I did work for most of the rest of Friday and Saturday then on Saturday night we had a wine party in my room and the room next door. We'd been sitting at dinner and everyone was saying how desperately they wanted wine, so we went to the liquor store and bought some. It was a very nice event! Most people went out afterwards but me, Emma and David stayed in and drank some of the remaining wine.
Sunday to Wednesday was spent doing work with a few notable events. On Monday, it snowed quite heavily which was pretty to look at but annoying to walk around in but it was gone by Tuesday. It was a lot earlier than expected, most people told me that it would first start to snow at the beginning of December! I also got my 1970s America exam result back, and got 97.75%! I think this is the best test result I've ever got in my life so I'm very pleased. On Tuesday I woke up feeling ill and got a heavy cold, bad head and sore throat etc. (Virus number one), I had loads of work to do and had very little energy so I ended up missing all my classes from Tuesday afternoon until Friday morning but I'm feeling better now.
I had a disaster on Thursday morning when a virus took over my computer just as I was finishing my essay which was due in an hour later. After a lot of panicking, I managed to retrieve my essay and hand it in on time and luckily the virus was quite easy to remove. My anti-virus software had expired and I hadn't bothered to get some more, but I've downloaded a new one now! In the afternoon I went to the mall with Emma to get some supplies. I ended up buying a denim shirt for Forever 21 for $10 - absolute bargain! At night I psyched myself up to go to the gym for the first time since I've been here but I got there and it was closed, despite the fact that it was supposed to be open for another 40 minutes! I was very disappointed because the urge to go to the gym is a very rare occasion in my life. When I got back, Jacopo persuaded me to out so we went to Chubby's for a couple of hours but came home at 12 because he was going to Boston in the morning. I got Chinese on the way home which was lovely.
Today, I went to the cinema with Ellen to see Morning Glory this afternoon. It was basically The Devil Wears Prada in a TV studio. It wasn't anywhere near as good but there were a few hilarious moments and Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford were very good, as usual. Tonight, it was the first home basketball game of the season, against Cornell (ranked by The Times as the 14th best university in the world, no less!). Our basketball team is our best sports team and it was very entertaining but in the end we lost 65-61 which was a bit disappointing because we led for three quarters of the match. There's another game on Monday which I'm planning on going to.
I'm planning on having a lazy weekend because I've got a lot of work done this week but next weekend I'm going to Boston with Ellen and Josh which should be fun. Ellen's driving us there and we're staying at her friend's house, so we don't have to spend much money on transport or accommodation, which I'm extremely grateful for! We're going to see the Celtics game on Friday night and I'm hoping to do a bit of sightseeing on Saturday. I really want to go to Quincy Market, which is a giant food hall, and I'd like to go to Harvard if it isn't too out of the way. The week after is Thanksgiving so we get Wednesday to Friday off. I'm not sure what I'm doing on actual Thanksgiving but I'm planning to go to New York on the Friday and me and Emma are thinking about going to Washington D.C. from Friday night until Sunday morning, then back to New York for the day on Sunday.
I'll try to write another post before I go to Boston, bye for now.
The first fun thing I did last week was on Thursday . We went to WT's for Joao's 24th birthday (a lot of my friends here are older than me). It was really fun, although the people who were under 21 and didn't have ID got asked to leave. They always go before the bouncers start working and have a meal there and wait for everyone to show up a bit later and it's usually fine, but this week they got asked for ID after they finished their meal and were made to leave when they didn't have any. Besides that, it was a really good night! Joao got very drunk and everyone sang Happy Birthday at midnight.
On Friday, I went to see Due Date at the cinema with Emma, Ellen and Josh. I had quite high expectations and it didn't really live up to them, most of the film was just Zach Galifianakis saying stupid things which weren't particularly funny. I did work for most of the rest of Friday and Saturday then on Saturday night we had a wine party in my room and the room next door. We'd been sitting at dinner and everyone was saying how desperately they wanted wine, so we went to the liquor store and bought some. It was a very nice event! Most people went out afterwards but me, Emma and David stayed in and drank some of the remaining wine.
Sunday to Wednesday was spent doing work with a few notable events. On Monday, it snowed quite heavily which was pretty to look at but annoying to walk around in but it was gone by Tuesday. It was a lot earlier than expected, most people told me that it would first start to snow at the beginning of December! I also got my 1970s America exam result back, and got 97.75%! I think this is the best test result I've ever got in my life so I'm very pleased. On Tuesday I woke up feeling ill and got a heavy cold, bad head and sore throat etc. (Virus number one), I had loads of work to do and had very little energy so I ended up missing all my classes from Tuesday afternoon until Friday morning but I'm feeling better now.
I had a disaster on Thursday morning when a virus took over my computer just as I was finishing my essay which was due in an hour later. After a lot of panicking, I managed to retrieve my essay and hand it in on time and luckily the virus was quite easy to remove. My anti-virus software had expired and I hadn't bothered to get some more, but I've downloaded a new one now! In the afternoon I went to the mall with Emma to get some supplies. I ended up buying a denim shirt for Forever 21 for $10 - absolute bargain! At night I psyched myself up to go to the gym for the first time since I've been here but I got there and it was closed, despite the fact that it was supposed to be open for another 40 minutes! I was very disappointed because the urge to go to the gym is a very rare occasion in my life. When I got back, Jacopo persuaded me to out so we went to Chubby's for a couple of hours but came home at 12 because he was going to Boston in the morning. I got Chinese on the way home which was lovely.
Today, I went to the cinema with Ellen to see Morning Glory this afternoon. It was basically The Devil Wears Prada in a TV studio. It wasn't anywhere near as good but there were a few hilarious moments and Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford were very good, as usual. Tonight, it was the first home basketball game of the season, against Cornell (ranked by The Times as the 14th best university in the world, no less!). Our basketball team is our best sports team and it was very entertaining but in the end we lost 65-61 which was a bit disappointing because we led for three quarters of the match. There's another game on Monday which I'm planning on going to.
I'm planning on having a lazy weekend because I've got a lot of work done this week but next weekend I'm going to Boston with Ellen and Josh which should be fun. Ellen's driving us there and we're staying at her friend's house, so we don't have to spend much money on transport or accommodation, which I'm extremely grateful for! We're going to see the Celtics game on Friday night and I'm hoping to do a bit of sightseeing on Saturday. I really want to go to Quincy Market, which is a giant food hall, and I'd like to go to Harvard if it isn't too out of the way. The week after is Thanksgiving so we get Wednesday to Friday off. I'm not sure what I'm doing on actual Thanksgiving but I'm planning to go to New York on the Friday and me and Emma are thinking about going to Washington D.C. from Friday night until Sunday morning, then back to New York for the day on Sunday.
I'll try to write another post before I go to Boston, bye for now.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Death Clown
Helloooo! Time for quick update of what's happened in the last week or so...
Tuesday and Wednesday were boring - besides a trip to the mall to buy my Halloween costume I mainly just did work. One positive was that I finally located a box of Twinkies - I've been looking for them since I got here. They were sort of nice but it wasn't really worth the effort... I went to WT's on Thursday as per usual, which was a nice escape from work.
It was Halloween this weekend so we went out on Friday and Saturday. I dressed up as a "death clown" both nights but varied my costume slightly. On Friday, I was a sad, angry clown and on Saturday, I was a happy clown, the "death" part came from having a ripped up shirt covered in fake blood. Friday night wasn't particularly great, everybody had different house parties that they wanted to go to, but they always ran out of beer soon after we arrived so they were winding down. After walking the streets for a few hours, we decided to call it a night but it took a while to find a cab which was annoying. On Saturday night, Aimelyne had decided to have a party at her apartment following the previous night's disorganised events. We stayed there for about an hour and it was really fun having everybody in the same room in their costumes, especially for photo opportunities. Afterwards, a few of us headed downtown which was a big mistake. Most people left Aimelyne's just before us and managed to get a taxi but me and Ellen couldn't find one for ages but we eventually made it downtown and managed to sneak in to the front of the queue at Envy (I don't usually do it, but it was cold and the queue was absolutely huge). Envy itself was actually good for a change but trying to get a taxi back uptown was a horrendous experience. It took us the best part of two hours to manage to get one, as most refused to go to the university campus (I swear the job of a taxi driver is to take customers where they ask) and Ellen ended up having to walk home alone because he wouldn't take her home on the way. She happened to see people threatening each other with knives on the walk back while I'm sure was a very unpleasant experience!!!
Earlier on Saturday I watched X Factor (Cher was amazing) and Greg's friend David took us to a fish fry - an American version of a fish and chip shop. The fish was really small and quite bad quality and the chips were just cheap oven chips, so there was absolutely no comparison to English fish and chips - I'm now very excited to go to Superfish when I'm next at home! Sunday was a lazy day, I just watched X Factor and lay around. Our shower broke and now we have a new one which isn't as powerful which deeply upsets me. I watched the first few episodes of season one of Modern Family which is absolutely hilarious and one of my favourite TV shows already!
Yesterday, my 3 hour 1970s America class was cancelled which was a nice surprise, so I spent the whole afternoon single-handedly editing the latest episode of ATV 360 which was a good experience, but I;m scared to watch it in case I made any mistakes! In the evening I went to the cinema with Ellen, Emma and Emma's friend from Hull Uni who's on an exchange in South Carolina and came to visit for the weekend. We went to see it "Life As We Know It" which was a rom-com about two people who don't get on who have to raise a baby together when their best friends die. It was actually better than I expected but it wasn't one of the best films I've seen since I've been here.
Today, I woke up with a sore throat and missed one of my classes because I didn't feel up to it. I spent the afternoon watching Modern Family, 30 Rock and Dexter then I've been working in the library tonight. Today was the mid-term elections in America where all members of the House of Representatives, a third of the members of the Senate and a significant amount of State Governors faced election. It seems as though the low approval ratings for President Obama have cost the Democrats their large majorities in the House and Senate, which means that he's going to find it much more difficult to get his proposals made into law, an issue which was already a serious problem when the Democrats had the majorities. Let's just say his chances for re-election in 2012 aren't looking great....
I've got a lot of work to do for next week - 2 long essays and revision for an exam so I probably won't blog again until that's over which will be a week on Thursday. We're going out on Thursday for Joao's 24th birthday and hopefully I'll have the willpower to stay in for the rest of the weekend so I can get my work done without having a mad rush as the deadlines approach, probably wishful thinking...
Tuesday and Wednesday were boring - besides a trip to the mall to buy my Halloween costume I mainly just did work. One positive was that I finally located a box of Twinkies - I've been looking for them since I got here. They were sort of nice but it wasn't really worth the effort... I went to WT's on Thursday as per usual, which was a nice escape from work.
It was Halloween this weekend so we went out on Friday and Saturday. I dressed up as a "death clown" both nights but varied my costume slightly. On Friday, I was a sad, angry clown and on Saturday, I was a happy clown, the "death" part came from having a ripped up shirt covered in fake blood. Friday night wasn't particularly great, everybody had different house parties that they wanted to go to, but they always ran out of beer soon after we arrived so they were winding down. After walking the streets for a few hours, we decided to call it a night but it took a while to find a cab which was annoying. On Saturday night, Aimelyne had decided to have a party at her apartment following the previous night's disorganised events. We stayed there for about an hour and it was really fun having everybody in the same room in their costumes, especially for photo opportunities. Afterwards, a few of us headed downtown which was a big mistake. Most people left Aimelyne's just before us and managed to get a taxi but me and Ellen couldn't find one for ages but we eventually made it downtown and managed to sneak in to the front of the queue at Envy (I don't usually do it, but it was cold and the queue was absolutely huge). Envy itself was actually good for a change but trying to get a taxi back uptown was a horrendous experience. It took us the best part of two hours to manage to get one, as most refused to go to the university campus (I swear the job of a taxi driver is to take customers where they ask) and Ellen ended up having to walk home alone because he wouldn't take her home on the way. She happened to see people threatening each other with knives on the walk back while I'm sure was a very unpleasant experience!!!
Earlier on Saturday I watched X Factor (Cher was amazing) and Greg's friend David took us to a fish fry - an American version of a fish and chip shop. The fish was really small and quite bad quality and the chips were just cheap oven chips, so there was absolutely no comparison to English fish and chips - I'm now very excited to go to Superfish when I'm next at home! Sunday was a lazy day, I just watched X Factor and lay around. Our shower broke and now we have a new one which isn't as powerful which deeply upsets me. I watched the first few episodes of season one of Modern Family which is absolutely hilarious and one of my favourite TV shows already!
Yesterday, my 3 hour 1970s America class was cancelled which was a nice surprise, so I spent the whole afternoon single-handedly editing the latest episode of ATV 360 which was a good experience, but I;m scared to watch it in case I made any mistakes! In the evening I went to the cinema with Ellen, Emma and Emma's friend from Hull Uni who's on an exchange in South Carolina and came to visit for the weekend. We went to see it "Life As We Know It" which was a rom-com about two people who don't get on who have to raise a baby together when their best friends die. It was actually better than I expected but it wasn't one of the best films I've seen since I've been here.
Today, I woke up with a sore throat and missed one of my classes because I didn't feel up to it. I spent the afternoon watching Modern Family, 30 Rock and Dexter then I've been working in the library tonight. Today was the mid-term elections in America where all members of the House of Representatives, a third of the members of the Senate and a significant amount of State Governors faced election. It seems as though the low approval ratings for President Obama have cost the Democrats their large majorities in the House and Senate, which means that he's going to find it much more difficult to get his proposals made into law, an issue which was already a serious problem when the Democrats had the majorities. Let's just say his chances for re-election in 2012 aren't looking great....
I've got a lot of work to do for next week - 2 long essays and revision for an exam so I probably won't blog again until that's over which will be a week on Thursday. We're going out on Thursday for Joao's 24th birthday and hopefully I'll have the willpower to stay in for the rest of the weekend so I can get my work done without having a mad rush as the deadlines approach, probably wishful thinking...
Monday, 25 October 2010
Haunted Hayride
I'm sticking to my promise and updating the blog exactly a week after my last post!
I didn't really do much on Tuesday or Wednesday, I had a rare week of not having much work to do and most people were revising for exams so there wasn't much going on. We kept up the Thursday tradition of going to WT's which was good and we had a fun bus ride back with a drunk boy asking us if we knew certain people who he knows from England - Americans seem to think that England has a very tiny population!
On Friday, a few of us went to the mall in search of Halloween costumes as the big event draws ever closer. Most people, including myself, didn't find anything at all so we're going to have to make last minute costumes at some point this week. I found a bargain in Macy's as all Levi jeans were reduced to $29 for the day, so I got a pair of black jeans as I've wanted a nice pair for a long time. After a few hours of shopping, I went to the cinema with Emma and Ellen to see Easy A. It was a romcom based loosely around the theme of The Scarlet Letter, which all American Studies students are guaranteed to have read! It was very funny and not too girly, so overall very good. Later on, I got the bus downtown with Emma and the Italians and we met Joe, Ellen and Evan and spent the night in Professor Barley's. On the journey home, we had not one, but TWO eventful taxi rides. The first one drove around in circles for 10 minutes while on the phone to someone he was intending to pick up despite the taxi being full, and completely ignored us when we asked him to take us back. Eventually, he pulled over and demanded $4 each which is more than they're allowed to charge so we refused to pay that and he drove us back to where he picked us up and made us get out of the taxi. After a 10 minute wait, we got another taxi and the journey was going well until the driver spotted a girl walking along the dark road by herself so decided to pull over and shout at her to come over. Chiara didn't like him doing this, as the girl could have been anybody (an axe murderer, perhaps) and started telling him to go, which resulted in another argument - but he managed to take us home for $3 each - the standard rate.
On Saturday, I had a nice afternoon watching The X Factor. I wasn't keen on Cher this week, my favourite was definitely Katie, which I never thought I'd say! That evening we went on a trip with the International Student department to a Haunted Hayride about 30 minutes upstate from Albany at a place called Malta, New York. This consisted of a journey on a trailer being pulled by a tractor through a forest where lots of people jumped out on you and tried to scare you - mostly failing in my case. After about 20 minutes, you disembarked and walked through an area of clowns jumping out and blowing airhorns, which was slightly more scary then a haunted house, where it was pitch black in parts and a lot more scary. The final part was a prison style room of mirrors with lots of strobing, it was almost impossible to judge whether the prisoners were behind or in front of the bars and to work out where to walk - definitely the best part of the experience. Despite telling myself that I definitely wasn't going out on Saturday night, I found myself at Joe's apartment and then we went downtown to Bayou. We had to wait in a queue for around 30 minutes, then the bouncer didn't accept Emma's ID and took it off her, and threatened to get the police involved - really not a pleasant experience, so we went home.
Sunday was a lazy day - we watched Piers Morgan's interview with Cheryl Cole then the X Factor result, then Josh came round to revise as we had a test today. The revision session was actually productive, as we had to learn the historical significance of a huge list of events, people and organizations in order to identify them in our test and it turned out that the revision was extremely helpful. The test was good, so I'm expecting to get a decent score. Besides that, I haven't done much else today, I spent the night in the library doing some mundane work and now I'm going to watch the latest episode of Dexter before bed.
Nighty night!
I didn't really do much on Tuesday or Wednesday, I had a rare week of not having much work to do and most people were revising for exams so there wasn't much going on. We kept up the Thursday tradition of going to WT's which was good and we had a fun bus ride back with a drunk boy asking us if we knew certain people who he knows from England - Americans seem to think that England has a very tiny population!
On Friday, a few of us went to the mall in search of Halloween costumes as the big event draws ever closer. Most people, including myself, didn't find anything at all so we're going to have to make last minute costumes at some point this week. I found a bargain in Macy's as all Levi jeans were reduced to $29 for the day, so I got a pair of black jeans as I've wanted a nice pair for a long time. After a few hours of shopping, I went to the cinema with Emma and Ellen to see Easy A. It was a romcom based loosely around the theme of The Scarlet Letter, which all American Studies students are guaranteed to have read! It was very funny and not too girly, so overall very good. Later on, I got the bus downtown with Emma and the Italians and we met Joe, Ellen and Evan and spent the night in Professor Barley's. On the journey home, we had not one, but TWO eventful taxi rides. The first one drove around in circles for 10 minutes while on the phone to someone he was intending to pick up despite the taxi being full, and completely ignored us when we asked him to take us back. Eventually, he pulled over and demanded $4 each which is more than they're allowed to charge so we refused to pay that and he drove us back to where he picked us up and made us get out of the taxi. After a 10 minute wait, we got another taxi and the journey was going well until the driver spotted a girl walking along the dark road by herself so decided to pull over and shout at her to come over. Chiara didn't like him doing this, as the girl could have been anybody (an axe murderer, perhaps) and started telling him to go, which resulted in another argument - but he managed to take us home for $3 each - the standard rate.
On Saturday, I had a nice afternoon watching The X Factor. I wasn't keen on Cher this week, my favourite was definitely Katie, which I never thought I'd say! That evening we went on a trip with the International Student department to a Haunted Hayride about 30 minutes upstate from Albany at a place called Malta, New York. This consisted of a journey on a trailer being pulled by a tractor through a forest where lots of people jumped out on you and tried to scare you - mostly failing in my case. After about 20 minutes, you disembarked and walked through an area of clowns jumping out and blowing airhorns, which was slightly more scary then a haunted house, where it was pitch black in parts and a lot more scary. The final part was a prison style room of mirrors with lots of strobing, it was almost impossible to judge whether the prisoners were behind or in front of the bars and to work out where to walk - definitely the best part of the experience. Despite telling myself that I definitely wasn't going out on Saturday night, I found myself at Joe's apartment and then we went downtown to Bayou. We had to wait in a queue for around 30 minutes, then the bouncer didn't accept Emma's ID and took it off her, and threatened to get the police involved - really not a pleasant experience, so we went home.
Sunday was a lazy day - we watched Piers Morgan's interview with Cheryl Cole then the X Factor result, then Josh came round to revise as we had a test today. The revision session was actually productive, as we had to learn the historical significance of a huge list of events, people and organizations in order to identify them in our test and it turned out that the revision was extremely helpful. The test was good, so I'm expecting to get a decent score. Besides that, I haven't done much else today, I spent the night in the library doing some mundane work and now I'm going to watch the latest episode of Dexter before bed.
Nighty night!
Monday, 18 October 2010
Speedy Connection
I've got really behind on the blog, and only a message from Sean informing me of this reminded me to write a new post so I've probably forgotten things but I'll try my best.
The last time I wrote was a fortnight on Wednesday, and I managed to have three nights out on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday after that. I went to WT's on Thursday as per usual, then went out with the Italians on Friday, we went to a few different places, ending up at a salsa night full of Puerto Ricans, and then on Saturday we went to Ellen's apartment (which is amazing) then to a place called Bayou, which is the place that most resembles an English club that I've been to. Emma's boyfriend was over from England so she wanted to show him Albany and I think she succeeded. During the day on Saturday, it was homecoming, which was the first American football game of the season. Our team isn't great but luckily the opposition from Pennsylvania was terrible, and we thrashed them 49-0!
I had my first big essay to do on the Sunday and managed to leave it until the very last minute to write but still got it handed in on time. A few hours after I handed it in, I came down with some sort of virus, with a headache and general feeling of weakness but it lasted less than 48 hours so I was pleased when it finally went. On Thursday, I had two exams, in The World at War and American Legislatures. Legislatures was better but World at War wasn't too bad. At night we went to WT's (it happens every Thursday as you can probably tell). Everyone was drinking a strange concoction called a Star Trek, which has about 5 different shots in, but costs $8.50. After two, I came to the conclusion that they definitely weren't worth it.
On Friday, Ellen took me, Emma and Joe to BJ's which was similar to a cash 'n' carry so we could buy alcohol for cheaper. I found an absolute bargain - a 1.75 litre bottle of raspberry Smirnoff vodka for $20 (around £14) so I was very pleased with it. Later on, we all met up at the cinema and went to see Jackass 3D. It was very amusing but it cost us $15 because it was in 3D and it definitely wasn't worth that much!!
On Saturday, I managed to set up my computer so that it seemed as though it was in the UK, which ensured that I could watch The X Factor live and in all it's glory, which was very exciting! I'm a very big fan of Cher but I also really like Aiden and Mary but that could all change week by week. In the evening, we replicated the Saturday before, going round to Ellen's then out to Bayou, which was very good once again. A highlight of the night was the bus journey from Ellen's to downtown - when we got on everybody on board was singing Seven Nation Army then we sang a number of other songs including River Deep Mountain High, We Are The Champions, Baby Got Back and Barbie Girl amongst others! I spent Sunday catching up on British TV, I watched the X Factor result, Have I Got News For You and two episodes of The Apprentice. The internet was horrendously slow so it took nearly two and a half hours to watch one episode of The Apprentice so I was in a very bad mood!
Today I resolved the internet problem by purchasing an ethernet cable, meaning that my laptop has to be plugged in to the internet but I get a far, far better connection and I've managed to catch up with Dexter and Desperate Housewives without the video stopping every 3 minutes, so hopefully the nice connection will continue. I've also booked my flight back to New York after Christmas for January 14th, so I'll be back in England from December 20th until then. I'm really excited to come back although I'd quite like to stay here and travel but it's impossible because of how expensive it's been to live here so far!
That's everything that I remember, I really should try to update weekly so that I don't forget but it takes a long time to write a post! Bye for now.
The last time I wrote was a fortnight on Wednesday, and I managed to have three nights out on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday after that. I went to WT's on Thursday as per usual, then went out with the Italians on Friday, we went to a few different places, ending up at a salsa night full of Puerto Ricans, and then on Saturday we went to Ellen's apartment (which is amazing) then to a place called Bayou, which is the place that most resembles an English club that I've been to. Emma's boyfriend was over from England so she wanted to show him Albany and I think she succeeded. During the day on Saturday, it was homecoming, which was the first American football game of the season. Our team isn't great but luckily the opposition from Pennsylvania was terrible, and we thrashed them 49-0!
I had my first big essay to do on the Sunday and managed to leave it until the very last minute to write but still got it handed in on time. A few hours after I handed it in, I came down with some sort of virus, with a headache and general feeling of weakness but it lasted less than 48 hours so I was pleased when it finally went. On Thursday, I had two exams, in The World at War and American Legislatures. Legislatures was better but World at War wasn't too bad. At night we went to WT's (it happens every Thursday as you can probably tell). Everyone was drinking a strange concoction called a Star Trek, which has about 5 different shots in, but costs $8.50. After two, I came to the conclusion that they definitely weren't worth it.
On Friday, Ellen took me, Emma and Joe to BJ's which was similar to a cash 'n' carry so we could buy alcohol for cheaper. I found an absolute bargain - a 1.75 litre bottle of raspberry Smirnoff vodka for $20 (around £14) so I was very pleased with it. Later on, we all met up at the cinema and went to see Jackass 3D. It was very amusing but it cost us $15 because it was in 3D and it definitely wasn't worth that much!!
On Saturday, I managed to set up my computer so that it seemed as though it was in the UK, which ensured that I could watch The X Factor live and in all it's glory, which was very exciting! I'm a very big fan of Cher but I also really like Aiden and Mary but that could all change week by week. In the evening, we replicated the Saturday before, going round to Ellen's then out to Bayou, which was very good once again. A highlight of the night was the bus journey from Ellen's to downtown - when we got on everybody on board was singing Seven Nation Army then we sang a number of other songs including River Deep Mountain High, We Are The Champions, Baby Got Back and Barbie Girl amongst others! I spent Sunday catching up on British TV, I watched the X Factor result, Have I Got News For You and two episodes of The Apprentice. The internet was horrendously slow so it took nearly two and a half hours to watch one episode of The Apprentice so I was in a very bad mood!
Today I resolved the internet problem by purchasing an ethernet cable, meaning that my laptop has to be plugged in to the internet but I get a far, far better connection and I've managed to catch up with Dexter and Desperate Housewives without the video stopping every 3 minutes, so hopefully the nice connection will continue. I've also booked my flight back to New York after Christmas for January 14th, so I'll be back in England from December 20th until then. I'm really excited to come back although I'd quite like to stay here and travel but it's impossible because of how expensive it's been to live here so far!
That's everything that I remember, I really should try to update weekly so that I don't forget but it takes a long time to write a post! Bye for now.
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Snowed Under
Time for another quick update!
We went to Naomi's birthday on Thursday night at WT's which was nice. Most of our group of friends was there so it had a good party atmosphere. The night was spoiled slightly by the torrential rain as we left but we got Chinese which was very very nice.
Friday was a quieter day. In the afternoon I went to the cinema with Josh, Emma and Jacopo to see The Social Network (the movie about facebook) which was better than I expected, then I spent the night giving my room a proper clean for the first time...
I went to the mall on Saturday morning to buy a new camera as my old one still didn't work when the new battery arrived. I found a $250 Sony camera that had been reduced to $150 because it had been bought and returned, so I asked the shop assistant to show me how it works and it had lots of nice features so I decided to get it - and it's an absolute bargain! Afterwards, I met Emma and we went downtown and met some other friends to go to Oktoberfest, which was a street party trying to emulate the German beer festival. It was quite good but a bit too pricey and busy so we eventually headed back to Joe's apartment where he had a small party. Joe and Ellen managed to get into arguments with miserable bus drivers on the way there and the way back! At 12ish, we went to another party which wasn't as good so we stayed for a short while then headed home.
As the temperature is starting to drop at a quicker rate, I needed to buy some winter clothes so I met Josh at the mall on Sunday and bought a couple of jumpers from H&M. I still need to buy a winter coat but I've been looking for one that I like for about 3 years and still haven't found the right one. If I don't see one I like in the next couple of weeks, I'm just going to have to settle for one. At night, me and Emma went to visit our friend Austin who was doing his radio show, as we need to shadow 3 DJ's before we're allowed to get our own show. He showed us a lot of things and most went way over my head!
Since the weekend I haven't really done much because I've got two essays and two exams next week so I've been trying to get all the work for them sorted - I'd like to think I'll be relieved when they're out of the way but I'll probably have more work to do for the week after as they set smaller tasks on a more regular basis, compared to Nottingham where you tend to just have one essay and one exam at the end of each semester.
On a more positive note, I'm in the process of organising a trip to Boston in November with Emma and Josh. We've already booked tickets to a basketball game (Boston Celtics vs. Oklahoma City Thunder) because Josh is a huge Celtics fan, and I'm hoping to get the hotel and bus booked in the next few days, so that's something to look forward to while I've got so much work to do! I want to go out tonight for the first time this week but I'm not sure if it's such a good idea. We'll see.....
We went to Naomi's birthday on Thursday night at WT's which was nice. Most of our group of friends was there so it had a good party atmosphere. The night was spoiled slightly by the torrential rain as we left but we got Chinese which was very very nice.
Friday was a quieter day. In the afternoon I went to the cinema with Josh, Emma and Jacopo to see The Social Network (the movie about facebook) which was better than I expected, then I spent the night giving my room a proper clean for the first time...
I went to the mall on Saturday morning to buy a new camera as my old one still didn't work when the new battery arrived. I found a $250 Sony camera that had been reduced to $150 because it had been bought and returned, so I asked the shop assistant to show me how it works and it had lots of nice features so I decided to get it - and it's an absolute bargain! Afterwards, I met Emma and we went downtown and met some other friends to go to Oktoberfest, which was a street party trying to emulate the German beer festival. It was quite good but a bit too pricey and busy so we eventually headed back to Joe's apartment where he had a small party. Joe and Ellen managed to get into arguments with miserable bus drivers on the way there and the way back! At 12ish, we went to another party which wasn't as good so we stayed for a short while then headed home.
As the temperature is starting to drop at a quicker rate, I needed to buy some winter clothes so I met Josh at the mall on Sunday and bought a couple of jumpers from H&M. I still need to buy a winter coat but I've been looking for one that I like for about 3 years and still haven't found the right one. If I don't see one I like in the next couple of weeks, I'm just going to have to settle for one. At night, me and Emma went to visit our friend Austin who was doing his radio show, as we need to shadow 3 DJ's before we're allowed to get our own show. He showed us a lot of things and most went way over my head!
Since the weekend I haven't really done much because I've got two essays and two exams next week so I've been trying to get all the work for them sorted - I'd like to think I'll be relieved when they're out of the way but I'll probably have more work to do for the week after as they set smaller tasks on a more regular basis, compared to Nottingham where you tend to just have one essay and one exam at the end of each semester.
On a more positive note, I'm in the process of organising a trip to Boston in November with Emma and Josh. We've already booked tickets to a basketball game (Boston Celtics vs. Oklahoma City Thunder) because Josh is a huge Celtics fan, and I'm hoping to get the hotel and bus booked in the next few days, so that's something to look forward to while I've got so much work to do! I want to go out tonight for the first time this week but I'm not sure if it's such a good idea. We'll see.....
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
What A Lark
Hi. There isn't much to report but I thought I might as well write a new post while I have time.
I had a pretty boring day on Friday. We went to the cinema to see The Town, about bank robbers in Boston, which was really good. I resisted the urge to go out and managed to get a rare early night!
On Saturday, there was a local festival called Larkfest. It reminded me of Whitehaven Maritime Festival etc. because it was basically local businesses, food suppliers and craftspeople in white tents lining the streets. Anyway, it's considered a big deal here and it's one time of the year where people get really drunk all day! We went round to Joe's apartment at midday and drank and played beer pong for a couple of hours before we headed down to Lark St. where the festival was. In all honesty, it wasn't anything special, just lots of tents and lots of people. We stopped off at a bar called Bombers and ordered burritos which were absolutely huge but extremely delicious. We also got a free huge margharita because it was the birthday on Emma's ID. Afterwards, we headed back to Joe's for a couple of hours then went to a few bars. Overall, I'd been drinking for 13 hours so I didn't feel great but surprisingly didn't have a hangover the next day!
On Sunday evening, I went to see The Gaslight Anthem with Emma. The venue was in the middle of nowhere so we got a lift off a friend of someone from the radio station. The venue was really strange because there were bars and tables everywhere but I really enjoyed it, they were really good live and they played all of their songs that I knew.
On Tuesday, I went to the radio station for some training but didn't learn much, it was mainly about the rules of the station and not how to be a DJ. I also went to play tennis in the afternoon on an indoor court which is in an area called The Bubble. It's an airlocked area so your ears pop when you enter and exit and the air feels strange inside, I prefer playing outdoors! In the evening I went to WT's with Emma, Josh and Alex and we met our American friend Ellen. It was a nice relaxing evening and I managed to get home quite early. I gave into temptation and tried Buffalo Wings for the first time and I actually really liked them!!!
I got my World at War test result back and somehow managed to get an A - I was panicking about it and only expected a D or a C at best. In my Legislatures class, we're in the middle of doing a simulation of passing a bill in Congress which is actually more interesting than it sounds. I'm on the mock Appropriations Committee so I get to decide where the money goes which is nice. We're going out tomorrow night for our Dutch friend, Naomi's 22nd birthday so it should be fun!
That's about all I've done in the last week, maybe I'll have some more interesting news next time!
Thursday, 23 September 2010
It's Been A Long Time!
Hello! Sorry for taking so long in between posts but last week was really hectic and I've had so much work to do this week, this is the first time this week where I've actually had nothing to do. My last blog was far too long so I'm going to be succinct this time round.
Last week was really busy, it reminded me of freshers week even though it technically shouldn't have been any different than a usual week. On the Monday night, we went to the bar where Jonathan works to watch the (American) football game and have a relaxing night. They have a long list of different beers there so I tried a couple - the first, "Magic Hat #9" from Vermont was really nice but the second "Stone Arrogant Bastard" from California was absolutely disgusting. I accidentally ate the hottest chilli I've ever had thinking it was a bog standard jalapeno so I had to suffer watering eyes, a burning mouth and facial spasms for a good 10 minutes!
On Tuesday we went to a bar called Washington Tavern, or WT's as most people say, and just had a few drinks, lots of people had chicken wings but I don't like chicken on the bone so I've refused to try them so far. On Thursday night, Jonathan and Sara had another house party that was supposed to be a quiet affair but got quite loud towards the end of the night. Everyone was crowded on the back porch and my camera battery accidentally fell out and broke so I haven't been able to take any photos since then which isn't very good!
On Friday night, I went to Chubby's with Emma, Josh, Alex and Jacopo then we went to a house party where all the other international students were. It was $5 to buy a cup then you could drink as much as you wanted but the system didn't work very well as no one seemed to know where to buy cups, and one of the hosts got quite rude with people when he realised they hadn't paid. It was a very strange house party as they had 3 rottweilers and a great dane so there was about 50 people with huge dogs wandering in amongst them, but they were very calm. My friend Joe got into an argument with the rude host because of a beer can, so we all left and the party cleared out which was the perfect revenge!
On Saturday, I went back to New York City because a group of us went to see the Mets baseball game. Before the game we went to Good Burger ("the home of the good burger") for a burger which was "good" then we went to Grand Central Station to catch the subway. I couldn't resist the urge to shout SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE I LIVE IN GRAND CENTRAL STATION! The game was really good, I'd already seen the stadium when I went to the tennis, it was really modern but really empty. The Mets lost which apparently is a lot more regular than a victory but it was still really entertaining. Afterwards, we went to a bar called the Rodeo Bar which was really nice inside, it costs $45,000 a month to rent but I think they''ll definitely make loads more than that a month. I hadn't anticipated going back to New York so soon but it was so fun!
I worked all day Sunday and Monday because I had lots of reading to do and a quiz in my Legislatures class on Tuesday but I went out on Tuesday night. We went to WT's and met most of the internationals then went to a grotty bar/club called The Abbott which played hip hop and was full of people bumping and grinding but it was very nice anyway. Afterwards we went to the nice pizza place where seem to go about 3 times a week.
I'm now an editor on the university TV channel's news and debate programme, ATV 360. As of now, I'm not really sure what an editor is but I'm going to edit for the first time so I'll know soon! Me and Emma are also thinking about starting our own radio show on the university radio station. It's classed as an alternative station so we would have to play non-mainstream music. We're thinking about doing a show based around English music and songs that are popular in England but we haven't discussed it in great detail yet. Emma won free tickets to see the Gaslight Anthem on Sunday and she asked me to go with her so that should be really good!
Today, I had a 30 minute essay to write in my World at War class and nothing that I revised came up but I think I managed to write a decent answer on a subject I hadn't really revised.... Afterwards we went to the mall and played with a golden retriever puppy which looked adorable but was teething so enjoyed biting us and our clothes so it wasn't a pleasurable experience!
I'm just getting ready for another night out now, I think I've covered everything and have probably babbled on again but a lot happens in a week and a half! Tatty bye!
Last week was really busy, it reminded me of freshers week even though it technically shouldn't have been any different than a usual week. On the Monday night, we went to the bar where Jonathan works to watch the (American) football game and have a relaxing night. They have a long list of different beers there so I tried a couple - the first, "Magic Hat #9" from Vermont was really nice but the second "Stone Arrogant Bastard" from California was absolutely disgusting. I accidentally ate the hottest chilli I've ever had thinking it was a bog standard jalapeno so I had to suffer watering eyes, a burning mouth and facial spasms for a good 10 minutes!
On Tuesday we went to a bar called Washington Tavern, or WT's as most people say, and just had a few drinks, lots of people had chicken wings but I don't like chicken on the bone so I've refused to try them so far. On Thursday night, Jonathan and Sara had another house party that was supposed to be a quiet affair but got quite loud towards the end of the night. Everyone was crowded on the back porch and my camera battery accidentally fell out and broke so I haven't been able to take any photos since then which isn't very good!
On Friday night, I went to Chubby's with Emma, Josh, Alex and Jacopo then we went to a house party where all the other international students were. It was $5 to buy a cup then you could drink as much as you wanted but the system didn't work very well as no one seemed to know where to buy cups, and one of the hosts got quite rude with people when he realised they hadn't paid. It was a very strange house party as they had 3 rottweilers and a great dane so there was about 50 people with huge dogs wandering in amongst them, but they were very calm. My friend Joe got into an argument with the rude host because of a beer can, so we all left and the party cleared out which was the perfect revenge!
On Saturday, I went back to New York City because a group of us went to see the Mets baseball game. Before the game we went to Good Burger ("the home of the good burger") for a burger which was "good" then we went to Grand Central Station to catch the subway. I couldn't resist the urge to shout SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE I LIVE IN GRAND CENTRAL STATION! The game was really good, I'd already seen the stadium when I went to the tennis, it was really modern but really empty. The Mets lost which apparently is a lot more regular than a victory but it was still really entertaining. Afterwards, we went to a bar called the Rodeo Bar which was really nice inside, it costs $45,000 a month to rent but I think they''ll definitely make loads more than that a month. I hadn't anticipated going back to New York so soon but it was so fun!
I worked all day Sunday and Monday because I had lots of reading to do and a quiz in my Legislatures class on Tuesday but I went out on Tuesday night. We went to WT's and met most of the internationals then went to a grotty bar/club called The Abbott which played hip hop and was full of people bumping and grinding but it was very nice anyway. Afterwards we went to the nice pizza place where seem to go about 3 times a week.
I'm now an editor on the university TV channel's news and debate programme, ATV 360. As of now, I'm not really sure what an editor is but I'm going to edit for the first time so I'll know soon! Me and Emma are also thinking about starting our own radio show on the university radio station. It's classed as an alternative station so we would have to play non-mainstream music. We're thinking about doing a show based around English music and songs that are popular in England but we haven't discussed it in great detail yet. Emma won free tickets to see the Gaslight Anthem on Sunday and she asked me to go with her so that should be really good!
Today, I had a 30 minute essay to write in my World at War class and nothing that I revised came up but I think I managed to write a decent answer on a subject I hadn't really revised.... Afterwards we went to the mall and played with a golden retriever puppy which looked adorable but was teething so enjoyed biting us and our clothes so it wasn't a pleasurable experience!
I'm just getting ready for another night out now, I think I've covered everything and have probably babbled on again but a lot happens in a week and a half! Tatty bye!
Saturday, 11 September 2010
New York City
I'm back in Albany after spending three days in NYC and I had the best time ever! As I've said before, it's the one place that I've always wanted to go to and it certainly didn't let me down!
I caught the bus from downtown Albany at 9.30, the bus company seemed a bit dodgy - the ticket office was an empty shop front with a few plastic chairs, and the coach was a bit run down, but the trip only took 2 hours 45 minutes and it was only $35 return so there's nothing to complain about. I got dropped off outside Macy's and slowly walked up to Times Square. I only had a rough idea where everything was but I eventually found a map of the Times Square area which showed me where lots of interesting things were. I got lunch in an overpriced deli called Roxy's which was right in the middle of Times Square ($16 for a cheeseburger!) and then walked to the Rockefeller Center. Emma told me that the view from the top was really good so I went in and paid $23 to go up. The building itself is quite a lot smaller than a lot of the New York skyscrapers but the view is amazing. You can see more or less everything in Manhattan from up there and it was definitely worth the money.
I stayed up there for about 30 minutes then headed to my hostel which was on West 60th Street. The location was really good as I was only 10 minutes away from Times Square and 5 minutes from Central Park. I was absolutely knackered when I got there cos of the cold and having to carry my bag around for hours so I was quite annoyed when I found out that locks weren't supplied for the lockers in the room, so I had to walk to CVS to buy a padlock. The room was quite shabby but perfectly acceptable for $34 a night!
I got changed and headed out for the US Open. It was a 25 minute journey on the subway as Flushing Meadows is in Queens. As I was about to buy a subway ticket, a man came up and gave me his ticket that had two days left on it cos he was leaving New York early, so the subway journeys didn't cost me anything! The subway stop dropped me directly between Flushing Meadows and the Citi Field which is the New York Mets stadium, built where the famous Shea Stadium used to be. I had to queue for about 20 minutes but I eventually got into the grounds just as the Day Session finished, so I had a while to look around before I was allowed into Arthur Ashe Stadium. I looked at the lists of champions and the famous Unisphere just outside the grounds, I also saw Pat Cash being interviewed in the Eurosport booth and he was happy to pose for photos.
I eventually got into the stadium which was absolutely massive considering the size of the tennis court. The official attendance was over 24,000 which is 9,000 more than can be fitted into Centre Court at Wimbledon. The first match was Wozniacki vs. Cibulkova which was good despite the high winds meaning that the players found it difficult to serve. Wozniacki won the first set easily 6-2 but was challenged much more in the second but eventually won it 7-5. Wozniacki had Donald Trump sitting in her box and explained to the interviewer after the match that he'd called her agent to ask for a seat, which didn't go down well with the crowd. The second match was Federer vs. Soderling. I really don't like Federer so I was really hoping he'd lose but instead he played brilliantly and won 6-4 6-4 7-5. In hindsight, I really appreciated seeing probably the best player of all time at his best. Federer had Anna Wintour and Gwen Stefani in his box and they were shown on the big screen with "Vogue" and "What You Waiting For" playing really loudly. Gwen seemed to appreciate this more than Anna, who looked annoyed as usual. I got back to the hostel at about 12.30 and there were a few other people in the room who were all quite unfriendly so I went to sleep as quick as I could.
The next morning I got up early and got the subway to Battery Park at the very south of Manhattan. I met Claire and Dominique who are on my course at Nottingham and their friend Sarah from UEA, who goes to SUNY Binghamton with them over here. We got the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where we got off to have a short look around. It was amazing seeing the Statue of Liberty in person cos of how iconic it is. When we got back to Manhattan, we walked up to Wall Street and then I left them near Ground Zero to go and visit that. It's mainly just a building site at the moment so there wasn't much to see but there was a mural on the side of the fire station nearby dedicated to the victims which was really sad. There were lots of TV cameras around cos it was only two days before the ninth anniversary of 9/11 and there's obviously the whole Koran burning issue going on at the moment.
After this, I decided that I wanted some famous New York pizza so tried to find Little Italy but still had no map and didn't quite succeed, however I did find a pizzeria which was very nice. I walked on and ended up at a nice little area called South Street Seaport which was a collection of good shops, restaurants and bars. There was a ticket office selling tickets for the nights shows and I spontaneously decided that I wanted to go to one that night. I decided on Promises, Promises which I'd already read about and thought it sounded quite good so I bought a ticket for that for $69.
I carried on walking and found my way to the Brooklyn Bridge to take a few photos. There was a little parrot on the rocks next to the river that had obviously escaped from someone's house and was trying to survive, which made me really sad cos it probably won't survive the harsh New York winter. It seemed to be doing ok for the meantime as it was being fed bread by an old man. I was slightly lost but knew that I needed to head in a north easterly direction so I did that and found myself in Chinatown. It was a really strange experience cos about 90% of the people were Chinese and were speaking Chinese so it really made me feel like I was in China. I got a teriyaki chicken skewer and a spring roll from a street vendor which was very nice. I eventually ended up in SoHo and NoHo which had really good shops but the prices seemed to be higher just because of the location. I went in Topman and things that would cost about £30 in England were $80-90 there, so I left pretty quickly. I continued along Broadway to Times Square where I reunited with Claire, Dominique and Sarah for a McDonalds before we said goodbye and I went back to the hostel for a shower and to get changed.
The show was at the Broadway Theatre which was only seven blocks from my hostel. When I found my seat, I realised that I was only on the fifth row so the view was really good. The show is set in 1962 and was about a man who wants to get a promotion so he lends his apartment to his bosses for them to have affairs in. Sean Hayes (Jack from Will & Grace) played Chuck, the main character, and Kristin Chenoweth (Olive in Pushing Daisies and April in Glee) played Fran, his love interest. The show was excellent, really funny and the songs were good. Afterwards, I waited outside with around 100 other people to get their autographs. Sean Hayes came out pretty quickly and signed autographs before getting into an SUV and leaving. The security guards said that Kristin would be a while as she had to rehearse for something for 9/11. All of a sudden, there were screams and a man ran out and right past me and got into another SUV, it was just as he was about to close the door when I realised that it was Bradley Cooper! I didn't take a photo in time but the girl next to me had a really good one. We waited another 15 minutes or so, then Kristin came out and signed autographs. I told her that it was my first Broadway show and that I really enjoyed it and she clapped me and thanked me! She was so nice, and also one of the smallest people I've ever seen! I then went to Times Square to look at it at night which was so much better then headed back to the hostel. Some friendly Americans had moved into the room which was all well and good until one of them turned out to be the loudest snorer ever and kept me awake for ages at night!
The next morning he apologised for his snoring then I packed all my stuff up and checked out. I spent a few hours wandering around Central Park which was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the busy streets. I walked up to the Guggenheim Museum then walked back down 5th Avenue towards Midtown. On the way, I stopped off at what Wikipedia told me was Madonna's house. It was very nice but I'm not convinced it was hers as it apparently cost $40 million and I don't think that house was worth that, at least not from the outside. I then decided to go to Central Park Zoo as it was only $12 and I hadn't been to a zoo in years. It was lot smaller then a lot of UK zoos but I got to see a polar bear and a snow leopard so it was definitely worth it. Another highlight was being in the penguin room and remembering the scene in Definitely, Maybe when they go to Central Park Zoo and the little girl gets really excited and does a penguin impression.
After this, I walked down 5th Avenue to Bryant Park where I was hoping to get a glimpse of New York Fashion Week, only to get there and find out that it's not located there anymore and in actual fact was only a couple of blocks away from my hostel! So I sat in Bryant Park for a while and then made my way down to Macy's to wait for the bus. When I got there, there was a stage outside Macy's and a free Snapple stand - my new favourite drink - so I asked what was going on and they said Train were playing. I waited for about an hour and then Tommy Hilfiger came on to the stage to explain that it was Fashion Night Out in New York and this was his and Macy's event for the night. Train eventually came on and I only saw one song (neither Hey Soul Sister or Drops of Jupiter, unfortunately) before I had to leave for the bus!
I got the bus at 7 p.m. and it took 2 hours 45 minutes to get back to Albany. The trip was absolutely amazing even if my body disagrees - my cold got worse and I developed a cough, and my feet are covered in cuts and blisters from the excessive amount of walking I did!
I totally understand why so many people see New York City as the centre of their universe, it just has so much going on and seems like hundreds of communities in one place, and I cannot wait until I get to back there, which will hopefully be sometime soon!
I caught the bus from downtown Albany at 9.30, the bus company seemed a bit dodgy - the ticket office was an empty shop front with a few plastic chairs, and the coach was a bit run down, but the trip only took 2 hours 45 minutes and it was only $35 return so there's nothing to complain about. I got dropped off outside Macy's and slowly walked up to Times Square. I only had a rough idea where everything was but I eventually found a map of the Times Square area which showed me where lots of interesting things were. I got lunch in an overpriced deli called Roxy's which was right in the middle of Times Square ($16 for a cheeseburger!) and then walked to the Rockefeller Center. Emma told me that the view from the top was really good so I went in and paid $23 to go up. The building itself is quite a lot smaller than a lot of the New York skyscrapers but the view is amazing. You can see more or less everything in Manhattan from up there and it was definitely worth the money.
I stayed up there for about 30 minutes then headed to my hostel which was on West 60th Street. The location was really good as I was only 10 minutes away from Times Square and 5 minutes from Central Park. I was absolutely knackered when I got there cos of the cold and having to carry my bag around for hours so I was quite annoyed when I found out that locks weren't supplied for the lockers in the room, so I had to walk to CVS to buy a padlock. The room was quite shabby but perfectly acceptable for $34 a night!
I got changed and headed out for the US Open. It was a 25 minute journey on the subway as Flushing Meadows is in Queens. As I was about to buy a subway ticket, a man came up and gave me his ticket that had two days left on it cos he was leaving New York early, so the subway journeys didn't cost me anything! The subway stop dropped me directly between Flushing Meadows and the Citi Field which is the New York Mets stadium, built where the famous Shea Stadium used to be. I had to queue for about 20 minutes but I eventually got into the grounds just as the Day Session finished, so I had a while to look around before I was allowed into Arthur Ashe Stadium. I looked at the lists of champions and the famous Unisphere just outside the grounds, I also saw Pat Cash being interviewed in the Eurosport booth and he was happy to pose for photos.
I eventually got into the stadium which was absolutely massive considering the size of the tennis court. The official attendance was over 24,000 which is 9,000 more than can be fitted into Centre Court at Wimbledon. The first match was Wozniacki vs. Cibulkova which was good despite the high winds meaning that the players found it difficult to serve. Wozniacki won the first set easily 6-2 but was challenged much more in the second but eventually won it 7-5. Wozniacki had Donald Trump sitting in her box and explained to the interviewer after the match that he'd called her agent to ask for a seat, which didn't go down well with the crowd. The second match was Federer vs. Soderling. I really don't like Federer so I was really hoping he'd lose but instead he played brilliantly and won 6-4 6-4 7-5. In hindsight, I really appreciated seeing probably the best player of all time at his best. Federer had Anna Wintour and Gwen Stefani in his box and they were shown on the big screen with "Vogue" and "What You Waiting For" playing really loudly. Gwen seemed to appreciate this more than Anna, who looked annoyed as usual. I got back to the hostel at about 12.30 and there were a few other people in the room who were all quite unfriendly so I went to sleep as quick as I could.
The next morning I got up early and got the subway to Battery Park at the very south of Manhattan. I met Claire and Dominique who are on my course at Nottingham and their friend Sarah from UEA, who goes to SUNY Binghamton with them over here. We got the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where we got off to have a short look around. It was amazing seeing the Statue of Liberty in person cos of how iconic it is. When we got back to Manhattan, we walked up to Wall Street and then I left them near Ground Zero to go and visit that. It's mainly just a building site at the moment so there wasn't much to see but there was a mural on the side of the fire station nearby dedicated to the victims which was really sad. There were lots of TV cameras around cos it was only two days before the ninth anniversary of 9/11 and there's obviously the whole Koran burning issue going on at the moment.
After this, I decided that I wanted some famous New York pizza so tried to find Little Italy but still had no map and didn't quite succeed, however I did find a pizzeria which was very nice. I walked on and ended up at a nice little area called South Street Seaport which was a collection of good shops, restaurants and bars. There was a ticket office selling tickets for the nights shows and I spontaneously decided that I wanted to go to one that night. I decided on Promises, Promises which I'd already read about and thought it sounded quite good so I bought a ticket for that for $69.
I carried on walking and found my way to the Brooklyn Bridge to take a few photos. There was a little parrot on the rocks next to the river that had obviously escaped from someone's house and was trying to survive, which made me really sad cos it probably won't survive the harsh New York winter. It seemed to be doing ok for the meantime as it was being fed bread by an old man. I was slightly lost but knew that I needed to head in a north easterly direction so I did that and found myself in Chinatown. It was a really strange experience cos about 90% of the people were Chinese and were speaking Chinese so it really made me feel like I was in China. I got a teriyaki chicken skewer and a spring roll from a street vendor which was very nice. I eventually ended up in SoHo and NoHo which had really good shops but the prices seemed to be higher just because of the location. I went in Topman and things that would cost about £30 in England were $80-90 there, so I left pretty quickly. I continued along Broadway to Times Square where I reunited with Claire, Dominique and Sarah for a McDonalds before we said goodbye and I went back to the hostel for a shower and to get changed.
The show was at the Broadway Theatre which was only seven blocks from my hostel. When I found my seat, I realised that I was only on the fifth row so the view was really good. The show is set in 1962 and was about a man who wants to get a promotion so he lends his apartment to his bosses for them to have affairs in. Sean Hayes (Jack from Will & Grace) played Chuck, the main character, and Kristin Chenoweth (Olive in Pushing Daisies and April in Glee) played Fran, his love interest. The show was excellent, really funny and the songs were good. Afterwards, I waited outside with around 100 other people to get their autographs. Sean Hayes came out pretty quickly and signed autographs before getting into an SUV and leaving. The security guards said that Kristin would be a while as she had to rehearse for something for 9/11. All of a sudden, there were screams and a man ran out and right past me and got into another SUV, it was just as he was about to close the door when I realised that it was Bradley Cooper! I didn't take a photo in time but the girl next to me had a really good one. We waited another 15 minutes or so, then Kristin came out and signed autographs. I told her that it was my first Broadway show and that I really enjoyed it and she clapped me and thanked me! She was so nice, and also one of the smallest people I've ever seen! I then went to Times Square to look at it at night which was so much better then headed back to the hostel. Some friendly Americans had moved into the room which was all well and good until one of them turned out to be the loudest snorer ever and kept me awake for ages at night!
The next morning he apologised for his snoring then I packed all my stuff up and checked out. I spent a few hours wandering around Central Park which was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the busy streets. I walked up to the Guggenheim Museum then walked back down 5th Avenue towards Midtown. On the way, I stopped off at what Wikipedia told me was Madonna's house. It was very nice but I'm not convinced it was hers as it apparently cost $40 million and I don't think that house was worth that, at least not from the outside. I then decided to go to Central Park Zoo as it was only $12 and I hadn't been to a zoo in years. It was lot smaller then a lot of UK zoos but I got to see a polar bear and a snow leopard so it was definitely worth it. Another highlight was being in the penguin room and remembering the scene in Definitely, Maybe when they go to Central Park Zoo and the little girl gets really excited and does a penguin impression.
After this, I walked down 5th Avenue to Bryant Park where I was hoping to get a glimpse of New York Fashion Week, only to get there and find out that it's not located there anymore and in actual fact was only a couple of blocks away from my hostel! So I sat in Bryant Park for a while and then made my way down to Macy's to wait for the bus. When I got there, there was a stage outside Macy's and a free Snapple stand - my new favourite drink - so I asked what was going on and they said Train were playing. I waited for about an hour and then Tommy Hilfiger came on to the stage to explain that it was Fashion Night Out in New York and this was his and Macy's event for the night. Train eventually came on and I only saw one song (neither Hey Soul Sister or Drops of Jupiter, unfortunately) before I had to leave for the bus!
I got the bus at 7 p.m. and it took 2 hours 45 minutes to get back to Albany. The trip was absolutely amazing even if my body disagrees - my cold got worse and I developed a cough, and my feet are covered in cuts and blisters from the excessive amount of walking I did!
I totally understand why so many people see New York City as the centre of their universe, it just has so much going on and seems like hundreds of communities in one place, and I cannot wait until I get to back there, which will hopefully be sometime soon!
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
I'm So Excited
Hi. My last blog post was ridiculously long so I'm going to try and condense this one even though I've ignored my own advice and taken too long in between posts so I've probably forgotten lots of important things to write about, but here goes....
I've finally decided which classes to take: America in the 1970s, American Political Theory, The World at War and American Legislatures. I've already had my first essay to hand in - in American Legislatures we have to do five short essays this semester on one member of Congress. For no particular reason, I chose a Senator called Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas who seems like a bog standard southern Republican. It was quite easy as we were allowed to include two lists in the essay, something you'd never get away with in England! So far, I've found that the workload is much harder but the work itself is actually easier, if that makes sense?
Last Tuesday, we went on our first night out in Albany and met a few other international students. We started in a place called The Pub but I had to leave because I didn't have ID even though I only wanted a Diet Coke! After that, we went to a bar that we'd heard a lot about called Chubby's. The queue was huge but we waited and got in after about 20 minutes. At the door, they look at your ID and if you're over 21 you get a wristband and if you're under 21, you get a dot on your wrist with a marker - this is supposedly so the bar staff can see which people can be served alcohol, but they just serve everyone anyway!! Inside, it was stupidly hot, as it was the first night out for most people so it was really busy, added to this was the fact that it had been 35 degrees all day and was still at least 25 outside so we didn't stay for long but it was a nice experience anyway.
On the Thursday night, me and Emma spontaneously decided to go to a gig as she'd been handed a flyer but we got the wrong bus and somehow ended up outside Chubby's again! So, we went there and it was a significant improvement on the Tuesday night. It was less busy and we managed to stand by an air conditioning unit. Afterwards, we went for pizza which was probably the nicest I've ever had - in America you buy individual slices which are huge, instead of a whole pizza as you would in England.
On Friday night, we went for our first night out in downtown Albany, as Chubby's is in between downtown and uptown. Firstly, we went to Aimelyne's house then went to a club called Envy. The queue took a long time and it cost $10 each to get in ($20 if you weren't 21, but my ID had arrived) and it turned out to be a salsa night which was certainly an experience but not really worth the money. Afterwards, we had to wait on the street for the best part of an hour for a taxi and when we finally got one the driver took us up the highway and was an arsehole when we questioned why he was going that way - but he got us back safely.
On Saturday, we went to watch Alex play rugby for the university team, but by the time we got there he had injured his knee and couldn't play anymore so we watched but didn't pay much attention. Afterwards, I went to the mall with Josh, Emma and Melissa. We'd decided to go to the cinema at 7 p.m. which is in the mall, so we had a whole afternoon to kill. One highlight was going to the pet shop - you were allowed to choose a puppy to play with, so we chose a 9-week old Cairn terrier. It was really scared at first but eventually it's tail was wagging as he bit our shoelaces, it was adorable! We went to a 1950s-style diner for a meal before the cinema and we all got huge greasy burgers that were very nice. We met a few others and went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at the cinema, the film was really good if a bit odd but everybody really enjoyed it anyway. Afterwards, we went to Jonathan and Sara's for a party (for the third time in a week), we played poker and an American version of ring of fire which was entertaining. Two Italian girls, Paola and Giulia, got really drunk and everybody had to look after them.
Monday was Labor Day which is essentially the American equivalent of the August Bank Holiday in Britain. I wrote my American Legislatures essay in the morning and in the afternoon we went to a pool party. It was a really relaxing way to spend the day - beer, barbecue and pool. We stayed there from about 3 til 9 then went to someone's house closer to the university. The car journey was a bit horrific, as there were 5 of us on the backseat - apparently the police in America don't really care about that sort of thing. We got some pizza from the amazing place we'd been to on Thursday then went to a bar but Emma got kicked out when she went to order chicken wings cos she didn't have ID so we left and went home.
Today, I've came down with a bit of a cold which is probably down to the fact that I've been drinking more or less every night - it's probably like fresher's flu. This evening, me and Emma went to Jonathan and Sara's because Paola, Giulia and Jacopo were making Italian food. It was absolutely lovely but I couldn't eat much cos I'd already eaten earlier on.
Tomorrow, I'm going to New York City! I'm so excited cos it's the one place in the world that I've always wanted to visit. I'm going on the bus which is only $35 return (about £23) and I'll hopefully get there in the early afternoon. Tomorrow night, I'm going to the US Open tennis evening session which should be amazing. I'm watching Caroline Wozniacki (the #1 women's seed and title favourite) vs. Dominika Cibulkova and Roger Federer vs. Robin Soderling, which is a rematch from the French Open where Soderling beat Federer in the quarter finals.
I'm planning to go to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall St., Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, Times Square and the Empire State Building on Thursday then Central Park, Fifth Avenue and Bryant Park (cos it's Fashion Week) on Friday before getting the bus back at about 6.30.
I hope I manage to fit everything in! I'll blog when I get back.
I've finally decided which classes to take: America in the 1970s, American Political Theory, The World at War and American Legislatures. I've already had my first essay to hand in - in American Legislatures we have to do five short essays this semester on one member of Congress. For no particular reason, I chose a Senator called Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas who seems like a bog standard southern Republican. It was quite easy as we were allowed to include two lists in the essay, something you'd never get away with in England! So far, I've found that the workload is much harder but the work itself is actually easier, if that makes sense?
Last Tuesday, we went on our first night out in Albany and met a few other international students. We started in a place called The Pub but I had to leave because I didn't have ID even though I only wanted a Diet Coke! After that, we went to a bar that we'd heard a lot about called Chubby's. The queue was huge but we waited and got in after about 20 minutes. At the door, they look at your ID and if you're over 21 you get a wristband and if you're under 21, you get a dot on your wrist with a marker - this is supposedly so the bar staff can see which people can be served alcohol, but they just serve everyone anyway!! Inside, it was stupidly hot, as it was the first night out for most people so it was really busy, added to this was the fact that it had been 35 degrees all day and was still at least 25 outside so we didn't stay for long but it was a nice experience anyway.
On the Thursday night, me and Emma spontaneously decided to go to a gig as she'd been handed a flyer but we got the wrong bus and somehow ended up outside Chubby's again! So, we went there and it was a significant improvement on the Tuesday night. It was less busy and we managed to stand by an air conditioning unit. Afterwards, we went for pizza which was probably the nicest I've ever had - in America you buy individual slices which are huge, instead of a whole pizza as you would in England.
On Friday night, we went for our first night out in downtown Albany, as Chubby's is in between downtown and uptown. Firstly, we went to Aimelyne's house then went to a club called Envy. The queue took a long time and it cost $10 each to get in ($20 if you weren't 21, but my ID had arrived) and it turned out to be a salsa night which was certainly an experience but not really worth the money. Afterwards, we had to wait on the street for the best part of an hour for a taxi and when we finally got one the driver took us up the highway and was an arsehole when we questioned why he was going that way - but he got us back safely.
On Saturday, we went to watch Alex play rugby for the university team, but by the time we got there he had injured his knee and couldn't play anymore so we watched but didn't pay much attention. Afterwards, I went to the mall with Josh, Emma and Melissa. We'd decided to go to the cinema at 7 p.m. which is in the mall, so we had a whole afternoon to kill. One highlight was going to the pet shop - you were allowed to choose a puppy to play with, so we chose a 9-week old Cairn terrier. It was really scared at first but eventually it's tail was wagging as he bit our shoelaces, it was adorable! We went to a 1950s-style diner for a meal before the cinema and we all got huge greasy burgers that were very nice. We met a few others and went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at the cinema, the film was really good if a bit odd but everybody really enjoyed it anyway. Afterwards, we went to Jonathan and Sara's for a party (for the third time in a week), we played poker and an American version of ring of fire which was entertaining. Two Italian girls, Paola and Giulia, got really drunk and everybody had to look after them.
Monday was Labor Day which is essentially the American equivalent of the August Bank Holiday in Britain. I wrote my American Legislatures essay in the morning and in the afternoon we went to a pool party. It was a really relaxing way to spend the day - beer, barbecue and pool. We stayed there from about 3 til 9 then went to someone's house closer to the university. The car journey was a bit horrific, as there were 5 of us on the backseat - apparently the police in America don't really care about that sort of thing. We got some pizza from the amazing place we'd been to on Thursday then went to a bar but Emma got kicked out when she went to order chicken wings cos she didn't have ID so we left and went home.
Today, I've came down with a bit of a cold which is probably down to the fact that I've been drinking more or less every night - it's probably like fresher's flu. This evening, me and Emma went to Jonathan and Sara's because Paola, Giulia and Jacopo were making Italian food. It was absolutely lovely but I couldn't eat much cos I'd already eaten earlier on.
Tomorrow, I'm going to New York City! I'm so excited cos it's the one place in the world that I've always wanted to visit. I'm going on the bus which is only $35 return (about £23) and I'll hopefully get there in the early afternoon. Tomorrow night, I'm going to the US Open tennis evening session which should be amazing. I'm watching Caroline Wozniacki (the #1 women's seed and title favourite) vs. Dominika Cibulkova and Roger Federer vs. Robin Soderling, which is a rematch from the French Open where Soderling beat Federer in the quarter finals.
I'm planning to go to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall St., Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, Times Square and the Empire State Building on Thursday then Central Park, Fifth Avenue and Bryant Park (cos it's Fashion Week) on Friday before getting the bus back at about 6.30.
I hope I manage to fit everything in! I'll blog when I get back.
Monday, 30 August 2010
Party in the USA
Hellloooo, it's time for another blog entry - if you leave it too long, there's far too much to write about so I need to write at least two per week to keep up with it.
So, on Friday morning we departed for the mall and Walmart to buy our tennis stuff and essential supplies. The trip didn't really go to plan though cos we spent far too long clothes shopping which meant that we didn't have time to go to Walmart. I spent quite a lot of money, especially in Banana Republic but I got a $10 hoodie in Forever 21 which was a great bargain.
In the afternoon, we went to a baseball training session so that we understood the rules and how to play as we were going to a match on Saturday evening. I have absolutely no hand-eye coordination so I was absolutely rubbish at it but I learned the fundamentals of the game at least. Afterwards, I went to play tennis with Emma and Josh. Having not played for a good five years, I was really bad and could barely return any shots - but I aim to get better over the year that I'm here!
On Friday night, we went to a party at our French friend, Aimelyne's house. She lives with two older American men so they had a few friends there as well. I experienced beer pong for the first time which was very entertaining. American beer tastes so weak but definitely leads to a very bad hangover! Basically all of the international students showed up besides the Asians - we've all became quite close over the first week. Highlights of the night included a huge traffic jam outside caused by an insane taxi driver (leading to us shouting GET OUTTA THE WAY ASSHOLE in our best NY accents) and the police showing up to complain about noise levels - all in all a very good night. The alcohol laws made me feel like I was 17 again.
Most of Saturday was a write-off due to bad beer hangovers but at 5 p.m. we went to the downtown campus to get on the bus to go to a baseball match - Tri-City Valley Cats (Tri-City being Albany, Schenectady and Troy) vs. Hudson Valley Renegades. The quality of the match wasn't great as the league the two teams played in was apparently 4 down from the MLB where the likes of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox play. It was a completely different experience compared to a British sporting event - it lasted the best part of three and a half hours due to the constant breaks and the amount of advertising was ridiculous! Every couple of minutes or so, a strange event took place to entertain the crowd as the actual sporting event was pretty boring. The most memorable of these was a man dressed as a hot dog on a tricycle being chased by people dressed as mustard and relish on a car and motorbike and people with huge plastic heads having a race pretending to be local mayoral candidates. As we soon discovered, it was easier not to ask why these things were happening but to ask why not? After the match, all of the women who attended the match were invited on to the track to dig with spoons for a pair of diamond earrings that was buried - it must have been quite degrading for them as a crowd of men ogled them bending over and digging in the dirt but Aimelyne beat at least a hundred other women to win the earrings and hasn't taken them out of her ears since!
After the match, we went to another house party with lots of the international students. We played beer pong again and an American/French adaptation of ring of fire which wasn't very good for me as I ended up being violently sick in the toilet and having to get a taxi home by myself. In the taxi, the driver and his wife (who was in the front passenger seat) interrogated me over my thoughts on Barack Obama for about 10 minutes. I'm not entirely sure what I said but it probably wasn't the best time to talk to me about politics!
Sunday morning and early afternoon was used by most people to wallow in their hangovers but I felt fine as I must have thrown up all of the alcohol I'd drank! Later on, we went to a block party at a nearby halls, which was kind of like Freshers Fayre at English uni's - I signed up to the university TV and radio stations, newspaper and, more randomly, the ski club - as I'd like to learn but have never had the opportunity, apparently they go on trips every Saturday later in the year. There was another barbecue which was nice, then we went to the downtown campus to watch an open air film on a big screen. The film happened to be The Exorcist which I thought was an inspired choice! I actually found the film pretty freaky and I think if I watched it alone, I'd be terrified - but everyone laughed at all the scary parts so it wasn't too bad really.
Classes started today, which was quite strange because it was around 35 degrees so it felt like I was on holiday. My first class was History of American Foreign Policy which was far less interesting than it sounds - the lecturer mainly talked about corn - so I decided that I would drop it. The second class was American Political Theory, which was actually more interesting than it sounds so I'm going to keep it. The lecturer reminded me of Tina Fey, which has to be a huge plus point. My third class was Topics in American History, which is based around the 1970s and the emergence of Ronald Reagan which sounds very suitable as it fits in with what I'm thinking about doing my dissertation on. After classes ended, I went to Walmart with Emma to buy some much needed bits n bobs then popped into the mall as I ordered some trainers from Footlocker last week and they were due to be collected, but they'd completely messed up my order and sent the wrong trainers so I had to re-order them and I'll have to wait another week for them to arrive. So annoying!!!
I have three more classes tomorrow: The World at War 1939-45; American Social History and American Legislatures - one of which I'm intending to drop, as we only need to do 4 courses per semester to fulfil our visa requirements.
Anyway, I've blabbed on enough so I'll update you of more significant events in a few days time. The weather is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow which might be a bit unbearable cos my room is still too hot at this time of the day (00:16) even with the fan on!!!!
So, on Friday morning we departed for the mall and Walmart to buy our tennis stuff and essential supplies. The trip didn't really go to plan though cos we spent far too long clothes shopping which meant that we didn't have time to go to Walmart. I spent quite a lot of money, especially in Banana Republic but I got a $10 hoodie in Forever 21 which was a great bargain.
In the afternoon, we went to a baseball training session so that we understood the rules and how to play as we were going to a match on Saturday evening. I have absolutely no hand-eye coordination so I was absolutely rubbish at it but I learned the fundamentals of the game at least. Afterwards, I went to play tennis with Emma and Josh. Having not played for a good five years, I was really bad and could barely return any shots - but I aim to get better over the year that I'm here!
On Friday night, we went to a party at our French friend, Aimelyne's house. She lives with two older American men so they had a few friends there as well. I experienced beer pong for the first time which was very entertaining. American beer tastes so weak but definitely leads to a very bad hangover! Basically all of the international students showed up besides the Asians - we've all became quite close over the first week. Highlights of the night included a huge traffic jam outside caused by an insane taxi driver (leading to us shouting GET OUTTA THE WAY ASSHOLE in our best NY accents) and the police showing up to complain about noise levels - all in all a very good night. The alcohol laws made me feel like I was 17 again.
Most of Saturday was a write-off due to bad beer hangovers but at 5 p.m. we went to the downtown campus to get on the bus to go to a baseball match - Tri-City Valley Cats (Tri-City being Albany, Schenectady and Troy) vs. Hudson Valley Renegades. The quality of the match wasn't great as the league the two teams played in was apparently 4 down from the MLB where the likes of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox play. It was a completely different experience compared to a British sporting event - it lasted the best part of three and a half hours due to the constant breaks and the amount of advertising was ridiculous! Every couple of minutes or so, a strange event took place to entertain the crowd as the actual sporting event was pretty boring. The most memorable of these was a man dressed as a hot dog on a tricycle being chased by people dressed as mustard and relish on a car and motorbike and people with huge plastic heads having a race pretending to be local mayoral candidates. As we soon discovered, it was easier not to ask why these things were happening but to ask why not? After the match, all of the women who attended the match were invited on to the track to dig with spoons for a pair of diamond earrings that was buried - it must have been quite degrading for them as a crowd of men ogled them bending over and digging in the dirt but Aimelyne beat at least a hundred other women to win the earrings and hasn't taken them out of her ears since!
After the match, we went to another house party with lots of the international students. We played beer pong again and an American/French adaptation of ring of fire which wasn't very good for me as I ended up being violently sick in the toilet and having to get a taxi home by myself. In the taxi, the driver and his wife (who was in the front passenger seat) interrogated me over my thoughts on Barack Obama for about 10 minutes. I'm not entirely sure what I said but it probably wasn't the best time to talk to me about politics!
Sunday morning and early afternoon was used by most people to wallow in their hangovers but I felt fine as I must have thrown up all of the alcohol I'd drank! Later on, we went to a block party at a nearby halls, which was kind of like Freshers Fayre at English uni's - I signed up to the university TV and radio stations, newspaper and, more randomly, the ski club - as I'd like to learn but have never had the opportunity, apparently they go on trips every Saturday later in the year. There was another barbecue which was nice, then we went to the downtown campus to watch an open air film on a big screen. The film happened to be The Exorcist which I thought was an inspired choice! I actually found the film pretty freaky and I think if I watched it alone, I'd be terrified - but everyone laughed at all the scary parts so it wasn't too bad really.
Classes started today, which was quite strange because it was around 35 degrees so it felt like I was on holiday. My first class was History of American Foreign Policy which was far less interesting than it sounds - the lecturer mainly talked about corn - so I decided that I would drop it. The second class was American Political Theory, which was actually more interesting than it sounds so I'm going to keep it. The lecturer reminded me of Tina Fey, which has to be a huge plus point. My third class was Topics in American History, which is based around the 1970s and the emergence of Ronald Reagan which sounds very suitable as it fits in with what I'm thinking about doing my dissertation on. After classes ended, I went to Walmart with Emma to buy some much needed bits n bobs then popped into the mall as I ordered some trainers from Footlocker last week and they were due to be collected, but they'd completely messed up my order and sent the wrong trainers so I had to re-order them and I'll have to wait another week for them to arrive. So annoying!!!
I have three more classes tomorrow: The World at War 1939-45; American Social History and American Legislatures - one of which I'm intending to drop, as we only need to do 4 courses per semester to fulfil our visa requirements.
Anyway, I've blabbed on enough so I'll update you of more significant events in a few days time. The weather is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow which might be a bit unbearable cos my room is still too hot at this time of the day (00:16) even with the fan on!!!!
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Yeah! New York
Hey guys, how y'all doin?
The last few days have been very fun. After Monday's intense induction, the pace has calmed considerably and we've just had a few bits and bobs to go to since then. A major part of the fun is everyone's growing aptitude to mock the New York accent. Any noise at all can be turned into some stupid New York drawl. The downside of this is that occasionally your accent randomly changes - I said thanks to a man on the bus the other day in a full on accent.
Anyway... On Tuesday we went for an international students party at a downtown sports bar called Jillian's. It was quite fun, they made us do lots of bonding exercises which varied in degrees of success. For one game, you had to write down 3 interesting facts about yourself on a piece of paper which was put in a bag. Everybody then had to pick a piece out of the bag and find the person who wrote the three facts. The facts on the piece I pulled out were: 1. My blood type is O; 2. I have one brother; 3. I don't like American food. As it could have been absolutely anybody in the room, I gave up and played air hockey. A better exercise was a pub quiz (or trivia as they're known in America) - every team member had to be of a different nationality but we cheated and had two English on our team. We only finished second so I was raging!
After the party fizzled out we went to bar called Professor Barley's which was a stereotypical American bar - dimmed lighting, booths, buffalo head on the wall, lots of clutter, waitress service. It reminded me of the bar in True Blood, although it was a lot smaller. Most of us couldn't drink cos we didn't have ID but it was a fun experience nonetheless.
Me, Alex, Greg and Emma booked a taxi to take us back to the university campus and had another insane taxi journey! When it pulled up, Alex went round to get in the front but there was already a woman sitting there who looked like the crack addicted double of Whoopi Goldberg. The taxi driver proclaimed "Come and get in, we're all friends here" so we all basically sat on top of each other as he proceeded to explain that Albany's taxi system runs on zones and not meters so it's in their interest to pick up multiple passengers. He also explained that most taxi drivers are "assholes" but that he wasn't.
Yesterday, we had a fun trip to Walmart, It has absolutely everything that you could want! So we managed to get loads of stuff that we needed for our rooms. When you wanted to go up or downstairs, you put your trolley on a conveyor belt while you went down the escalator! I found this amazing, even though it's probably pretty standard in America. At night, we went to the mall to get American phones. The phone system is ridiculously overcomplicated - you can pay daily, top up monthly or get a contract, but if you get a contract you have to give a $500 deposit if you don't have a social security number so we went with topping up monthly. We chose an option where you pay $15 a month for unlimited texts and then you pay for your calls. As I said, very complicated!!!!! The big plus point was that we got to buy lovely retro phones. I chose a Samsung SGH-t239 which is a very basic slidy phone, but it's very nice anyway!
Today we played basketball, which was a nice experience despite the fact that I'm absolutely shit at it! Then we had to go the candlelighting ceremony that officially signifies the beginning of the new academic year. Lots of academics spoke about how today is the beginning of the rest of our lives and other silly cliches, then we all lit candles and watched some fireworks. There's a weird chant where someone shouts "UAlbany" then everyone shouts "You know" back - no one seemed to understand why. There was a 'party' afterwards which consisted of some loud music and glowsticks but absolutely nothing else, in other words, IT WAS WACK!
The dining room in our halls opened last night and my suspicions that I'll have put on twenty stone by the time that I return to England have been more or less confirmed. There's Subway-style wraps and Domino's-style pizza at every mealtime and pancakes and waffles for breakfast - it's very nice but you can feel yourself getting fat as you eat it!
Tomorrow morning, we're going to Walmart again as me and Emma have decided to start playing tennis and the local sports superstore "Dick's Sporting Goods" (no joke) is a bit on the pricey side. Then at night, we're going to our first house party which is all very exciting!!! The fact that I legally can't drink makes me want to drink so desperately and tomorrow my wish will finally be granted!!!!
See ya soon!
(P.S. I hate ranch!)
Monday, 23 August 2010
Big Yellow Taxi
I'm finally in Albany after one hell of a journey - at times I felt like we would never actually get there! Overall, it took about 28 hours from checking in at Heathrow to arriving at Albany.
All was going well until we boarded our connecting flight in Madrid and were told there was a computer fault and we would be delayed by half an hour or so. Eventually, the whole system needed replacing and we'd been sitting on the plane for about 3 hours before we finally left Madrid. The flight was already scheduled to take 8 hours but torrential weather in New York City meant that we spent an hour circling the airport and another hour sitting on the runway after landing, waiting to be assigned a gate for us to leave the plane.
The actual airport experience was actually much better than expected. Our baggage arrived fine and we were dealt with by a very nice lady called Bishop at the customs and immigration counter - she told us that Albany is a party college and that our parents were silly for letting us go and spend a year there, she also laughed at me because I looked nervous...
We thought that all was well and that we would be able to make it to Manhattan in time to catch the train from Penn Station at 23.50 (our flight had been due in at 17.10!), but the bad luck curse struck again, as the heavy rain had led to flash floods meaning that many roads around the airport had been closed and taxis were few and far between. After waiting for the best part of an hour, we eventually got a taxi driven by a man called Frank who was a stereotypical New York taxi driver. He badmouthed all the drivers around him for irresponsible driving despite being just as bad himself, and he also took great pleasure in laughing at the cars stranded in the flood water!
New York City has always been the one place in the world that I've wanted to visit and driving into central Manhattan was an absolutely amazing experience! I'm so excited to go back in just over a weeks time, when I'll be spending more time there.
Anyway, Frank dropped us off at Madison Square Garden and we walked down into Penn Station, believing that there was a train to Albany at 2.10 - however we were completely wrong and the next one was actually at 7.15. Considering it was only 12.45 and the station was full of roughies, we made the absolutely insane decision to get a taxi to Albany - a journey of just under 150 miles and two and a half hours. We asked a wise-looking old taxi driver and he told us it would be at least $550 but we were offered $200 by a younger driver. All the older drivers told us not to trust him and one even gave me his number to call him if we were conned, and he promised he'd ring the police if anything happened.
About ten minutes, the realisation of the absurdity of the situation dawned on me. We were trusting this man, who came across as a bit crazy and looked like he might be a member of the Yakuza, to take the three of us with all of our luggage to a destination hours away. In hindsight, it was probably very stupid.
We tried to take turns in staying awake and making sure that he was following the signs to Albany but it was very difficult. His driving was absolutely ridiculous - highlights included him running over a skunk, texting and phoning someone despite the awful rain and Alex having to shout at him to stop him from heading off the road!
When we finally reached Albany, he charged us $420 - the $300 that we agreed, plus $75 for tolls (including those on his journey back) and a $45 tip. We tried arguing but we were far too tired to put up a fight and we submitted to his demands. As much as I can complain, I felt more sorry for Greg as it was his 20th birthday and he'd spent the whole day sitting on planes and having to worry about getting to Albany.
A nice man who works in our halls let us into our rooms at 4.30 a.m. which woke up Alex's room mate Jacopo, who surprisingly wasn't annoyed, and we managed to get around two hours sleep before we had to get up to begin a full day of inductions, which weren't as bad as they sounded. I had a full-on idiot moment when I was posing for my photo for my SUNY card and I didn't understand when the flash was going off and the eventual photo was off me shrugging with my hands in the air - this even made the hardnosed woman behind the counter laugh - but she luckily let me have another one taken.
Tonight we went to the mall in Albany which was absolutely massive - like Trafford Centre style, and bought a few essentials but we only had an hour cos we were escorted by some older foreign students who took the whole thing very seriously.
I expected to have some sort of culture shock or homesickness but so far it hasn't been very different from being at Nottigham. The room mate situation is a bit odd but me and Greg get on well so it's been fine. We have more induction stuff for the rest of the week before the American students arrive and I think another trip to the mall is in order cos everybody kind of forgot what they went for.
I'm looking forward to the next few days and weeks and I'm most looking forward to going to the US Open - just over two weeks to go!!!
All was going well until we boarded our connecting flight in Madrid and were told there was a computer fault and we would be delayed by half an hour or so. Eventually, the whole system needed replacing and we'd been sitting on the plane for about 3 hours before we finally left Madrid. The flight was already scheduled to take 8 hours but torrential weather in New York City meant that we spent an hour circling the airport and another hour sitting on the runway after landing, waiting to be assigned a gate for us to leave the plane.
The actual airport experience was actually much better than expected. Our baggage arrived fine and we were dealt with by a very nice lady called Bishop at the customs and immigration counter - she told us that Albany is a party college and that our parents were silly for letting us go and spend a year there, she also laughed at me because I looked nervous...
We thought that all was well and that we would be able to make it to Manhattan in time to catch the train from Penn Station at 23.50 (our flight had been due in at 17.10!), but the bad luck curse struck again, as the heavy rain had led to flash floods meaning that many roads around the airport had been closed and taxis were few and far between. After waiting for the best part of an hour, we eventually got a taxi driven by a man called Frank who was a stereotypical New York taxi driver. He badmouthed all the drivers around him for irresponsible driving despite being just as bad himself, and he also took great pleasure in laughing at the cars stranded in the flood water!
New York City has always been the one place in the world that I've wanted to visit and driving into central Manhattan was an absolutely amazing experience! I'm so excited to go back in just over a weeks time, when I'll be spending more time there.
Anyway, Frank dropped us off at Madison Square Garden and we walked down into Penn Station, believing that there was a train to Albany at 2.10 - however we were completely wrong and the next one was actually at 7.15. Considering it was only 12.45 and the station was full of roughies, we made the absolutely insane decision to get a taxi to Albany - a journey of just under 150 miles and two and a half hours. We asked a wise-looking old taxi driver and he told us it would be at least $550 but we were offered $200 by a younger driver. All the older drivers told us not to trust him and one even gave me his number to call him if we were conned, and he promised he'd ring the police if anything happened.
About ten minutes, the realisation of the absurdity of the situation dawned on me. We were trusting this man, who came across as a bit crazy and looked like he might be a member of the Yakuza, to take the three of us with all of our luggage to a destination hours away. In hindsight, it was probably very stupid.
We tried to take turns in staying awake and making sure that he was following the signs to Albany but it was very difficult. His driving was absolutely ridiculous - highlights included him running over a skunk, texting and phoning someone despite the awful rain and Alex having to shout at him to stop him from heading off the road!
When we finally reached Albany, he charged us $420 - the $300 that we agreed, plus $75 for tolls (including those on his journey back) and a $45 tip. We tried arguing but we were far too tired to put up a fight and we submitted to his demands. As much as I can complain, I felt more sorry for Greg as it was his 20th birthday and he'd spent the whole day sitting on planes and having to worry about getting to Albany.
A nice man who works in our halls let us into our rooms at 4.30 a.m. which woke up Alex's room mate Jacopo, who surprisingly wasn't annoyed, and we managed to get around two hours sleep before we had to get up to begin a full day of inductions, which weren't as bad as they sounded. I had a full-on idiot moment when I was posing for my photo for my SUNY card and I didn't understand when the flash was going off and the eventual photo was off me shrugging with my hands in the air - this even made the hardnosed woman behind the counter laugh - but she luckily let me have another one taken.
Tonight we went to the mall in Albany which was absolutely massive - like Trafford Centre style, and bought a few essentials but we only had an hour cos we were escorted by some older foreign students who took the whole thing very seriously.
I expected to have some sort of culture shock or homesickness but so far it hasn't been very different from being at Nottigham. The room mate situation is a bit odd but me and Greg get on well so it's been fine. We have more induction stuff for the rest of the week before the American students arrive and I think another trip to the mall is in order cos everybody kind of forgot what they went for.
I'm looking forward to the next few days and weeks and I'm most looking forward to going to the US Open - just over two weeks to go!!!
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Leaving So Soon
The time is almost here.
In just over 78 hours I'll be boarding the plane to Madrid, where I'll have to endure a four hour wait in the airport before I finally leave for New York! The summer has flown by and I have very few goodbyes left to say. After Saturday's Arabian Nights leaving party which didn't go quite according to plan, I have bid adieu to all of my grandparents and my dad, and tonight was mine and Alan's farewell meal with our friends before we both go off to spend the next year abroad.
I probably came across as quite heartless as I wasn't massively upset to say goodbye to everyone but to be honest I'm just too excited and I still haven't really gotten my head around the fact that I'm going away BUT I'm definitely going to miss everybody more than they can imagine, even though I refused to make a speech to tell them that!
Tomorrow is going to be a day of packing and tidying so that I can spend my last day in Workington relaxing - although that's probably wishful thinking considering I haven't got a clue what to pack yet! I'm travelling to London (or a hotel just off the M25 to be more accurate) on Saturday with my mam and Brian before my very early flight on Sunday morning.
I'm ridiculously excited to get to America and hopefully this blog will inform my many followers - only two as of this moment (thank you Sarah and Hannah) - of what I'm doing and of all the fun I'm having!
See you in New York!
(P.S. Thank you for the diary Justine, it will act as a perfect companion to this blog)
In just over 78 hours I'll be boarding the plane to Madrid, where I'll have to endure a four hour wait in the airport before I finally leave for New York! The summer has flown by and I have very few goodbyes left to say. After Saturday's Arabian Nights leaving party which didn't go quite according to plan, I have bid adieu to all of my grandparents and my dad, and tonight was mine and Alan's farewell meal with our friends before we both go off to spend the next year abroad.
I probably came across as quite heartless as I wasn't massively upset to say goodbye to everyone but to be honest I'm just too excited and I still haven't really gotten my head around the fact that I'm going away BUT I'm definitely going to miss everybody more than they can imagine, even though I refused to make a speech to tell them that!
Tomorrow is going to be a day of packing and tidying so that I can spend my last day in Workington relaxing - although that's probably wishful thinking considering I haven't got a clue what to pack yet! I'm travelling to London (or a hotel just off the M25 to be more accurate) on Saturday with my mam and Brian before my very early flight on Sunday morning.
I'm ridiculously excited to get to America and hopefully this blog will inform my many followers - only two as of this moment (thank you Sarah and Hannah) - of what I'm doing and of all the fun I'm having!
See you in New York!
(P.S. Thank you for the diary Justine, it will act as a perfect companion to this blog)
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