There's a song, there's a song, there's a song, it's in my head...

I've been a bit less busy the last couple of days, I think the fevered excitement of being in a new place is wearing off, and by this morning I felt totally exhausted. Yesterday I managed to meet up with Roshni, the other girl on exchange here from QM. She had arrived late on Tuesday to be faced with my worst fear - there was no room for her. She was given a temporary room, but had no way to contact me until the following morning. After many transatlantic phone calls and impressive amounts of admin, Roshni did get a room and everything looked a lot rosier.

Next we wandered down to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get some supplies. It's a pretty impressive store - a combination between Ikea, B&Q and Superdrug, stuffed with random home items that are all very tempting. I picked up some basics (cutlery and the like) but also got the most amazing floor lamp which I am already trying to figure out if I can ship home because I love it so much. Once I've found some functional batteries for my camera I'll put some shots of my room up - I spent a couple of hours today cleaning up and totally rearranging the furniture in the hope of improving my internet connection at my desk, which failed, but my room is a lot tidier. I also picked up a shiny black fridge today, which is amazing - the outside looks a bit battered, but the inside is brand new and works perfectly, and I can get plenty in - it even has an ice compartment which is much appreciated. I've stashed my new addiction in there - Vanilla flavoured organic Soy milk. Mmm. I have it in the mornings with (very expensive) apple & blueberry granola, which makes me feel better about the rubbish I eat the rest of the time.

Apart from shifting and tidying most of today was pretty quiet as I was so knackered, although some thrilling NY facts were learnt: T.K.Maxx is called T.J.Maxx out here, and to get from dorms to college, I take the 6 subway, which goes through Manhattan up Lexington Ave into the Bronx - famously ridden by the ever ridiculous J.Lo before she was famous, who called her first album 'On the 6'. If I ever write an album, I really hope I don't call it 'On the Piccadilly Line'.
At about 4 Emilie, my shiny new music friend, came by and we left for Brooklyn to catch Martha Wainwright, Joanna Newsom and Neko Case in concert. All went well as we queued outside, until a few spots of rain alerted us to the rather large and ominous looking black clouds approaching the decidedly outdoors venue. After some debate - apparently forecasts varied from severe downpours to possible showers - Emilie decided to go home, but as I'm a Londoner and a rower, a bit of rain seemed a poor reason to leave early, and I decided to stick it out. On my own. In Brooklyn. With no map, phone, or even watch to speak of. Wearing a vest top. I'm so cool.

After arriving at the place at 5pm, Martha kicked off just before 6 with a storming set as ever. It chucked it down during the entire thing, but the humidity and temperature are so high at the moment that it really wasn’t much of a problem, and after she finished, so did the rain. Joanna Newsom played a lot of tracks off her forthcoming album which were very long, several seeming well over 10 minutes. There were a couple off The Milk Eyed Mender which sounded good - it seemed to me that she'd toned down the strange childlike squeaky voice a little since the last time I saw her, and found it to be a bit of a relief. Her long new tracks were not crowd pleasers, and it was a bit odd to watch the audience getting increasingly fidgety - by this point we'd all been standing for around 3 hrs and I was very close to the stage so no hope of sitting down. Neko Case was in no way what I was expecting (possibly because I hadn't even bothered to find out what kind of stuff she did, just whizzed through a few New Pornographers tracks) and I did quite enjoy her take on the country kind of thing, which I will usually avoid at all costs. However, her set went on for what seemed an eternity once my back and feet were throbbing, and she came back for three encores, which seemed excessive. At 10:30 it was all over, and I managed to find my way back to the L station, get on a train going the right way, get off at the right stop, get a subway sandwich and walk 11 blocks home without consulting a map or asking directions. I'm very proud of myself, but - as I mused while checking out the Empire State on the way back - I need to stop buying Subways and find a proper late night deli.