NYC Summer (2010) - Week 1

One week into my bite into the big apple I figured it was time for a highlights reel of my time so far...

I flew out of YVR, got to Toronto and missed a possible connecting flight at 2:15 by mere minutes which meant whiling away some time at the airport bar only to be confronted with the cancellation of the 4:30 flight I had originally planned on taking - I love air travel...especially standby air travel - I'm such a friggin' pro. So I sat tight and tried for the next flight (which was subsequently delayed) and you won't believe it but I made it on (in spite of having to nicely ask the agents to re-list me...for those not in the know, simply disregard or write in for a detailed description of the way that i travel....scintillating, or at least guaranteed to make you get down and kiss the standard issue airport carpet floor for not having to put up with what i have to put up with....i know, i know...my price sure is right)
Anyway, onto the plane I get and (here again is where I remember that my way of flying has it's highlights) they've got me up in business! G and Ts all round! Well at least all round my tray table (too bad about the Canada Dry tonic tho).
Arriving in NYC was exciting. Less exciting for my bags since they weren't arriving in NYC like I was...too bad for them :( I gave my info to the beleaguered lost baggage clerk and treated myself to a cab ride into town as it was getting on in the evening by this point. I arrived at Mott St to a wonderful welcome from Britta and Matt who I hadn't seen since Brisbane which seemed lightyears away.
For the next 3 days I enjoyed:
1) Britta and Matt's hospitality
2) Britta's clothes
3) My body remembering how to sweat - enjoyment debatable on that one
4) Not having my bags - ditto the above
....a great combination if I ever heard of one (THANK YOU BRITTA AND MATT!!)
On the upside I went to my first wine class where I learned some stuff and drank some wine. I also bought a toothbrush and a magical dress (long white dresses have some strange effect on people, they smile at you more, are generally nicer to you - I think it's a bridal thing - altho, ironically, I am definitely no bride)
Also squeezed in a visit to the Met where I saw the American Woman exhibit and some installation of a bunch of bamboo stalks on the rooftop - very cool. I love me some Met. Followed this up with some by donation yoga, just breathing in this city makes me sweaty. Doing yoga in this city...you don't want to know. I still hurt.
After 3 days of Mott Street living sans bags I arrived in Greenpoint at about the same time as my bags did - upside: I didn't have to schlep my stuff from Manhattan to Brooklyn...some sweet silver lining there!
Greenpoint has proven to be most interesting - I discover new stuff every day.
My favourite thing so far is that I now live down the street from Gimme Coffee, which is lovely, fab and delicious and staffed with friendly people.
On the way to Gimme Coffee from my house I pass by a curious silver food truck called Goods which makes this egg and cheese biscuit which is TO DIE FOR and mini powdered sugar beignet donuts - this makes for one embarassing breakfast - but very worth it :)
Today I figured it was time to try the best donuts in New York City - literally around the corner from my house - Peter Pan Bakery - they rival Granville Island donuts in their more exotic flavours but the Granville Island honey dip still reigns supreme.
Today's sweaty donut breakfast feels pretty emblematic of week one....so I think I'll leave it at that for this week :)

i went on a road trip...

here are some photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2697119&id=28100950&l=fe0b384fe4

so here i am...in the wilderness! to my right a giant god-knows-how-deep lake inhabited by 20 ft long sturgeon fish and to my left a seemingly ever-stretching vista of great canadian woods
i went for a walk yesterday. it was cold - because for some reason - they say it is normally warm here in summer - but since i am here - it is downright chilly here in canada this summer - anyway - so out i went but as it was cold - i put on a....fleece - yes a fleece - also hiking boots.
then phil gave me a knife to carry - just in case of bears, cougars, rapists, delectable cheese - you never know...
anyway - so i walked down the highway for a while - then i wandered into a meadow and as i was admiring the view a deer jumped out of nowhere just a few meters away from me....i was so spooked i went home right away
suffice it to say...for any of you listening out there...
HELP ME - i'm turning canadian!!!

Ah how life lurches around and sometimes forward but seldom in the direction you think. School is out. Travel is in. Leaving Lantana. Leaving London. Moving on. It's time to go. I will miss much about London. Mostly the lovely amazing people I have met here, my life as I know it. But I won't miss English people who treat you like crap and don't know how to act in a restaurant, or the psychos on the bus or the psychos who I constantly live beneath. Those things, I won't miss. It feels like I moved here and made friends with a bunch of people...all of whom are either from Australia or New Zealand, so I bit the bullet and faced the truth for once....and decided, if all I did was hang out with Aussie people here, I might as well just go there once and for all. And that is what I'm doing. La vie d'une dilettante continues, down under. Stay tuned for posts all about acclimatizing to the sunburnt country...it feels like I live there already...but that's what I thought about England...and remember how much we all learned (and then laughed) about that?