Your eyes are so green - one of your parents must be part traffic light

I'm a loooong way from home.

So is he - I think the removable quill pen really won me over

Good morning one and all from my newly functional computer! My shiny new AC cable all the way from Austin, Texas means I can get you up to speed on the latest in New York land. Although last weekend was pretty dull as a result of "studying" for midterms (so far I've got an -A on one paper, 4th highest in the class, so it could have been worse) there was some excitement in the form of Ben Kweller. The name rang a bell and he'd had a recent spread in the Village voice so when Stacey was looking for people to go with her, I agreed and I'm glad I did. We went just a short way down town for some awesome burgers (or so I'm told; apparently the more diversity of dead things you can get on it, the better it is) and then to the pleasantly proportioned Webster Hall to see Kweller preceded by the Sam Roberts Band (not to be confused with Sam Isaac of www.myspace.com/samisaac) who were very energetic and enjoyable. Kweller himself did a great set with a lot of range and despite its considerable length I really enjoyed the whole thing. He was very endearing and funny looking, and struck me as a lot older than he actually was - which is only a few years older than me and *gasp* younger than Ed - although I'm partially chalking that up to the fact he already has a wife and kid. Anywho he's great and I've been hype machining him to death ever since the laptop's been back in action.

The view from Jen's room. She gets a waterfall. I get a medical centre. Hmmm.

Two waterfalls. That's just greedy.

Monday night Ed and I were wandering up First Ave on the hunt for food after a long day of classes and exams, and eventually popped into a falafel place called Murray's just a few blocks south of the dorms. I hadn't realised before we went in that it was a kosher place and had the odd experience of being surrounded by Jewish people. It's pretty funny given that I grew up surrounded by people of so many religious backgrounds but didn't know any Jewish people until I was at uni. Anyway, it's still pretty novel to me and I was enjoying my falafel and hummus when a guy sitting at a table next to us and the rabbi he was sat with starting talking to us. The guy turned out to be Murray himself, and he told us stories of selling falafel on the streets of New York and being a tour guide in Israel where he lived for 25 years before returning to the States and opening his restaurant four years ago. There was some interesting religious debate - we all had a laugh when the rabbi commented on finding that I wasn't religious that it didn't matter as my not believing didn't alter the fact that God existed (which sounds less funny out of context). Murray then introduced us to his Hungarian mother, who was staying with him for three months. She was a wonderful, awe-inspiring woman who had led an amazing life and talked to us about her experiences which included surviving Auschwitz. She had gone on to travel the world and told us about how much she loved New York. Despite my total panic at speaking to strangers, it was a fantastic evening that gave me a lot to think about.

With poseable arms and gliding action. I kid you not.

Tuesday night we ventured out to the Bowery Poetry Club for a poetry slam - for $7 we got to hear some open mic stuff, the featured poet - Jeffrey McDaniel, who was awesome - and Ed was even a judge for the slam, which involved some pretty fierce competition. It was my first slam and I'd love to go more often, and hopefully we'll find a venue that's a bit less steep. Wednesday I finally completed my tour of the boroughs with a brief trip to Long Island City in Queens, as part of Ed's urban geography homework. That evening was the latest of the NSE events, a trip to see Les Miserables just off Times Square. I'm still not that into musicals (despite having a couple of serious aficionado friends) but it was reasonably entertaining, and at least I've seen it now. The next event is the opera and I'm really not sure how well I'm likely to cope with that.

This is me, practising for Halloween. Little bit too surreal maybe...

The festivities started a bit early for this guy - I can't help but think
maybe someone forced him to drink gin and vodka with gummy worms.

Early Friday I escaped from the city for the first time on my own, boarding a coach from Port Authority and heading north to Massachusetts (which I can at last spell). I spent a fantastic, relaxing three days with Jen, eating, sleeping and enjoying her very scenic campus which doesn't have a skyscraper any where near it. I hadn't realised quite how stressed I was until I left the city, but despite having a wonderful trip away, I was more than happy to come home to it Sunday night. It was also slightly spooky how much bits of her campus looked like Oxford. However it was much nice because anyone can visit Mt. Holyoke's library. And you can eat while you read. Awesome.


Jen and I came across a number of very appropriate signs and cards over our weekend. We both looked at this, looked at each other, and laughed. I love having weird friends. I also loved a card we found that said "I wouldn't have to be so bossy if you just did what I told you!".

This won. Hands down. My favourite.

Jen. W00t.


The bears are on an ice cream diet. Like Ed.

This was meant to be an amazing arty photo. My camera is very temperamental but with a bit of persuasion she occasionally co-operates (I'm feeling some kind of Swiss Tony moment coming on here, a camera is like a beautiful woman...). I have a stack of photos from the greenhouse at Jen's that I'll publish separately - but for now it's back to ploughing through Mrs. Dalloway (and secretly catching up on neighbours, woo!).