Run away Jackie, run away!

This is my blog (and my life) so of course we start with my excuses for not posting for two weeks. Well, if you know me, even a little bit, then it should be pretty self evident. However this week I will be largely blaming the internet for the delay in posting, the wireless connection in our dorms is exceptionally temperamental these days despite (or perhaps due to) a sit in protest at Hunter a few weeks ago. In any case, plenty has been happening in the big apple, and I’ve been jotting stuff down for the last ten days – so back to two weeks ago…

I love sunflowers. This one especially, because it was purchased for me with beautiful spontaneity and has magical powers.

Thursday night (5th), determined to have a bit of a boogie and undeterred by the fact most of us are under 21, a few of the girls (and Amy's boyfriend Peter, who gets two thumbs up) and I headed across town to Copa Cabana, an eighteens and over club. It was certainly an interesting experience, especially being one of the few present old enough to go to the cordoned off bar area - being 21 occasionally makes me feel very old here. Another oddity was the presence of several guys in Marine uniforms - apparently it's pretty common for guys in the military to go out to clubs in uniform here, but I couldn't stop laughing, especially as they all looked about 17. The whole evening made me think incessantly of Amina, as the place reminded me of CC club in Leicester Square, except packed with Puerto Ricans instead of Hounslownians - she would have loved it. After a couple of beers I was even capable of actually enjoying the evening, although the New York "cheesecake" I had at the diner on the way home left a lot to be desired.

The most pathetic fountain anywhere in New York. Ever.

Friday largely involved my weekly lie in, especially as this weekend was another 5 day extravaganza due to Colombus day on Monday - as one of my professors remarked, America should have been discovered more often. In the evening Ed, Roshni, Stacey and I went to MoMA - which is free entry for CUNY students, but we didn't remember that Friday nights are free general admission so the place was absolutely stuffed. I enjoyed quite a bit of what we did get to see, but had my usual "what is art anyway" dilemma, particularly highlighted by the fact that in a room full of interesting stuff all anyone cared about was Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' - which is great, don't get me wrong, but the tourist approach of seeing as much famous art as you can always makes me laugh if nothing else.

Saturday was Ed's 26th birthday, congratulations old man! Jen (of Alaska) came down from school in Massachusetts to visit, and the three of us spent the entire weekend together, seeking out ice cream and having adventures.

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." ~ Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"

Apart from touring my favourite spots in town (Caravan of Dreams, Central Park, Upright Citizen's Brigade), we ended up having an all night adventure on Sunday after missing the train to Brooklyn. While it would be difficult to truely capture the insanity of this evening in words, it did include a very emotional game of catch with a packet of Bounty (the same here as it is at home) which had been purchased as a cushion for me during the comedy show, several truly random conversations with people who either wanted to congratulate ed on having two girls on his arms or to sniff his beard, and a very energetic trampolining session on a mattress left on the street in Greenwich Village. Not to mention falling asleep by the East River at 4 am, despite not having a drop to drink the entire evening. Ed and Jen are now so enamoured of each other that there is now a quest for us to be able to have a three way relationship on Facebook. I love my weird friends.

See, I bring people together. It's beautiful.

After Jen headed back to college on Monday afternoon, Ed and I embarked on another, more frightening adventure: my first ever double date. I had run screaming at its initial suggestion, but after some chocolate and calm talking, I finally agreed to go out for dinner with Amy, whose about a year older than me, and Peter whose about a year younger than Ed. Peter had located a really cute Italian just off Bleeker, and the weather was just right for us to sit in the beautifully lit garden area. Now, just between you and me, I actually had a really pleasant evening - and some amazing profiterols - and there's talk of another such event when Roshni's boyfriend comes to visit. Keep that one to yourself though, don't want anyone to think I'm going soft. Tuesday evening the four of us were back out on the town, this time with a considerably greater contingent, to celebrate Amy's 22nd Birthday.

A really rubbish picture of Amy's Baked Alaska being flambéed

Mmmm, calorific!

The Gang of Cool, somewhere in the vicinity of Times Square

We went to a restaurant just off Times Square, and had some amazing deserts, and then headed home where the cool kids stayed up all night writing papers together. I was writing about Emerson’s idea’s of scholarship and learning which was pretty damned interesting. He essentially suggest that while reading great works is good, it is far more important to come up with your own ideas and internal truths rather than becoming a book worm. My favourite quote from his essay ‘The American Scholar’ is “Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.” It reminds me of the nightmare of Oxford where your views are made to seem so insignificant compared to the great works that have come before. Emerson suggests that all scholars have the potential for genius – which he describes as the action of independent thought. I certainly prefer it as an approach to academia and life – my pragmatism course is certainly bringing up some interesting stuff.

After being up well into the morning on Wednesday, I was pretty shocked to find that the sirens I had heard while finishing my essay were the result of a plane crash while uptown. Everyone reacted with the same confusion and disbelief at the news – surely, surely, it couldn’t be happening again – and it wasn’t. A very small plane had crashed into some high rise buildings just off the East River uptown – almost 50 blocks away, but visible from just outside the dorms as we’re also on the East River. The crash was only a few blocks away from campus, and on Thursday, for reasons beyond my understanding, I found myself walking around the area – there was really nothing to see other than vast numbers of news vans, which look just like they do in the movies. No one seemed to know quite how to react, especially when it became apparent that a Yankees pitcher - Cory Lidle - and his flying instructor died when their plane crashed into the apartment block. The city seemed to be in a combination of shock, confusion, but also relief that it wasn’t any worse, and that terrorism was quickly ruled out.

Picture gratefully nabbed from the BBC website

The rest of Thursday passed with little event other than the quest for a “water boiler” (a kettle – Americans generally only use the things you put on stoves, not the ones with plugs, wackos) and the discovery of an exceptionally dodgy computer warehouse shop uptown – they offer top of the range machines for next to nothing, but won’t let you check them out before hand… hmm…

The view from one of the skywalks at campus, and pretty arty photo even if I do say so myself.

I got to do some proper shopping on Friday because for some inexplicable reason, three pairs of shoes developed simultaneous injuries, I now have a shiny new pair and some funky socks, at last!

Oooh pretty new shooooes

Friday night we went out to see “Man of the Year” – a comedy about the possibility of a comedian (Robbin Williams) becoming president. Apart from a few funny moments and Christopher Walken, the film was a mess and didn’t know what it was trying to be – part comedy, part political commentary, part paranoid thriller. Even worse, it basically ended with the suggestion that if you want some kind of change, or to tell the truth, you’re pretty much doomed to fail in American politics. Woo. Probably true though. At least Robbin Williams was pretty funny.

Strut yo funky stuff, laydees. Ahem.

Saturday was the designated girls’ night, which was fantastic, I hadn’t realised how enjoyable rubbish American movies can be when you’re eating cookie dough out of a packet, or dancing like a funk chicken as if no one can see how silly you look. As the girls all live up and down the West Coast, there has been some talk of me visiting them all during my ridiculously long post Xmas holiday, which would be amazing. I’m very excited about getting to see more of the States, which will be interesting as everyone keeps telling me how unrepresentative New York is. The rest of my week has largely comprised of attempting catch up with work, and failing to get any sleep. The weather here varies dramatically day to day – Tuesday was freezing, yesterday was in the low 20s and today was somewhere in between. As a result my body is protesting by making me sleepy at odd hours and it’s very hard to concentrate in class as no one at uni seems to know what’s going on either, so the heating and the air conditioning are both on at full blast all day. In any case, the weekend starts here, so I’m going to go have a shower, watch Grey’s Anatomy, and then hit the town – I think we’re going back to Copa tonight. Tomorrow it’s back to studying - I’ve got midterms next week, so rest assured that’ll be my next excuse for posting late.

We don't know who Jackie is, but we still love her too.