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!

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!

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'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.