Wish you were here
da da da
Upon my German flattie's request I am getting Pink Floyd-erised.
Well it's been another long period of time since I wrote, which this time I will blame on the laid back culture here in Canada - I'm just trying to assimilate!
So, NY.
What I came away with:
1) Realising that all my preconceptions of the US were true, everything was like I imagined (except Times Square...there's nothing in the middle of the square?! It's not a square!), everything is like the movies...scarily so.
2) A pocket-sized Charter of the United Nations (after paying a visit to their HQ and checking to see if their buildings were nice enough for me to work in)
3) No longer being afraid of people with big guns (it's so normal to see hulk-sized men with guns all around the place...outside the NY Stock Exchange, on the ferry across to Liberty and Ellis Island, police walking down the street)
4) An ability to completely miss my desired subway stop and travel for a further 20 minutes to Brooklyn (we did this on 2 occasions - once we went underwater, the other time over the Brooklyn bridge)
5) An appreciation for the sheer magnitude of what happened on 9-11 (the gaping hole where the twin towers were was scary)
6) An affinity for big fat breakfasts, bagels and Ray's famous pizza (the best I've EVER had) - we did well with our culinary delights - Chinatown, Little Italy, Cafe Teresa, Katz's Deli (of When Harry met Sally fame), giant pretzels in Central Park (don't ever buy them! they taste like plastic - yich terrible!)
7) A greater appreciation for the arts - after 2 group tours around the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a whole day wandering around the museum, as well as an appreciation for free shows - outdoor Shakespeare in Central Park, jazz on the waterfront and nearly got to a Boyz II Men concert...how good would that have been!
8) A sighting of someone being proposed to on top of the Empire state building! (we think she said yes)
9) One fine programme from the STOMP! show. Lining up for cheap
broadway tickets paid off even though we didn't get to broadway - it was a faaaaaantastic show and I'd recommend it to anyone - simply amazing the ways you can use brooms, plastic bags, matchstick boxes and rubbish bins to make great sounds!
10) And rounding off the top 10...a nice suntan from a whole day sitting in the sun in Central Park. Beautiful.
Jenny and I have plans to return to NY to set up a backpackers hostel - kiwi style. There really is a lack of good accomodation unless you want to fork out a tree of those green bills.
Although after recently watching Bowling for Columbine and reading Stupid White Men, I'm not really sure I'd like to return to the States!!! A fellow exchange student here from Arizona has plans to marry a Canadian boy so she can escape - many scary stories such as phones being tapped, red/orange/green lights at airport security and people snooping around her apartment. Big brother? Where?!
Oh! and another interesting thing we found was that NYers are extrememly helpful. I never got to open my map fully as before I could some passerby would run up and ask if we needed directions. Good people. Although one man obviously had trouble with our 'accents' as we asked where we could find an internet cafe to which he replied "the Rockerfeller Centre is just down the road, you'll find a CIBC there". This
conversation went on for about 5 minutes whereby he still couldn't understand our
words "emailing" "internet" or "cafe with computers". oh well! we made it in the end after detouring through the Rockerfeller Centre (which turned out just to be a building lobby - very disappointing!).
ok, stories by pictures:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=vjrceuf.3hq4hjzr&x=1&y=-hk816k
My All Aboot Canada list will actually start to be about Canada very soon! Stay tuned there's heaps of juicy stuff coming your way - as juicy as the turkey I had at my first ever Thanksgiving last week :)
love to you all
xo tee
PS write to me at eelaseret@yahoo.co.nz
Upon my German flattie's request I am getting Pink Floyd-erised.
Well it's been another long period of time since I wrote, which this time I will blame on the laid back culture here in Canada - I'm just trying to assimilate!
So, NY.
What I came away with:
1) Realising that all my preconceptions of the US were true, everything was like I imagined (except Times Square...there's nothing in the middle of the square?! It's not a square!), everything is like the movies...scarily so.
2) A pocket-sized Charter of the United Nations (after paying a visit to their HQ and checking to see if their buildings were nice enough for me to work in)
3) No longer being afraid of people with big guns (it's so normal to see hulk-sized men with guns all around the place...outside the NY Stock Exchange, on the ferry across to Liberty and Ellis Island, police walking down the street)
4) An ability to completely miss my desired subway stop and travel for a further 20 minutes to Brooklyn (we did this on 2 occasions - once we went underwater, the other time over the Brooklyn bridge)
5) An appreciation for the sheer magnitude of what happened on 9-11 (the gaping hole where the twin towers were was scary)
6) An affinity for big fat breakfasts, bagels and Ray's famous pizza (the best I've EVER had) - we did well with our culinary delights - Chinatown, Little Italy, Cafe Teresa, Katz's Deli (of When Harry met Sally fame), giant pretzels in Central Park (don't ever buy them! they taste like plastic - yich terrible!)
7) A greater appreciation for the arts - after 2 group tours around the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a whole day wandering around the museum, as well as an appreciation for free shows - outdoor Shakespeare in Central Park, jazz on the waterfront and nearly got to a Boyz II Men concert...how good would that have been!
8) A sighting of someone being proposed to on top of the Empire state building! (we think she said yes)
9) One fine programme from the STOMP! show. Lining up for cheap
broadway tickets paid off even though we didn't get to broadway - it was a faaaaaantastic show and I'd recommend it to anyone - simply amazing the ways you can use brooms, plastic bags, matchstick boxes and rubbish bins to make great sounds!
10) And rounding off the top 10...a nice suntan from a whole day sitting in the sun in Central Park. Beautiful.
Jenny and I have plans to return to NY to set up a backpackers hostel - kiwi style. There really is a lack of good accomodation unless you want to fork out a tree of those green bills.
Although after recently watching Bowling for Columbine and reading Stupid White Men, I'm not really sure I'd like to return to the States!!! A fellow exchange student here from Arizona has plans to marry a Canadian boy so she can escape - many scary stories such as phones being tapped, red/orange/green lights at airport security and people snooping around her apartment. Big brother? Where?!
Oh! and another interesting thing we found was that NYers are extrememly helpful. I never got to open my map fully as before I could some passerby would run up and ask if we needed directions. Good people. Although one man obviously had trouble with our 'accents' as we asked where we could find an internet cafe to which he replied "the Rockerfeller Centre is just down the road, you'll find a CIBC there". This
conversation went on for about 5 minutes whereby he still couldn't understand our
words "emailing" "internet" or "cafe with computers". oh well! we made it in the end after detouring through the Rockerfeller Centre (which turned out just to be a building lobby - very disappointing!).
ok, stories by pictures:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=vjrceuf.3hq4hjzr&x=1&y=-hk816k
My All Aboot Canada list will actually start to be about Canada very soon! Stay tuned there's heaps of juicy stuff coming your way - as juicy as the turkey I had at my first ever Thanksgiving last week :)
love to you all
xo tee
PS write to me at eelaseret@yahoo.co.nz
posted by Tee at 2:16 AM
0 comments
