Cairo

I made it back alive, hazaah! Managed to stay awake until 9:30 last night and then crashed until 9:30 this morning. Best sleep of my life.

I shall pick up where I left off:

Wednesday: Went with Texan to this market up in god knows where on the side of the highway outside of Cairo. We basically and literally drove up a mountain to get there. It was a co-op designed to teach women how to clean recycled materials and weave them into bags, rugs, purses, and other things, as well as using recycled paper to make all kinds of jewellery and other stationary. Best of all, it is DIRT CHEAP. So I bought a hand woven rug for 5 dollars. WIN. After that we drove back home and tried to get some work done (NOPE!) and then Mark came home and we went to the Khan el Khalili, aka a giant outdoor market in Cairo similar to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. We did a bit of shopping there, and learned that mark is the worst haggler ever.

Eg. Seller: I will give you these lanterns for 50LE each (about 8 dollars)
Me: If we buy two, can we get them for 40LE each?
*Seller thinking about it, clearly about to say sure*
Mark: I dunno Erin, 50 each is a pretty good deal.
Me: *facepalm*

So, we paid the 50 and went on our way to collect numerous other goodies like rings, perfume bottles, and bedouin scarves, and Mark was not allowed to talk to any sellers. Then we went to El Fishawi's which is one of the oldest tea rooms in Africa, and we had a cuppa mint tea, which was fabulous.

Thursday: We decided to call up Alaa and get him to take us to the Citadel, which is a fortress with a huge mosque kinda on top of a hill. They have an army museum there as well, so we just walked around all of it and also met some school kids (as it is a big field trip stop) who seemed fascinated by us. They all yell "Hello! How are you? What is your name?"...always in that order.
Then we drove to Coptic Cairo, which is the Christian section of the old city. About %10 of cairo is Christian. We went to a couple of churches as well as the Coptic Museum, which we heard was better than the Egyptian Museum in Tharir Sq. so we did it instead. I regret not making it to the other one, but we just didn't have enough time! That night we went with Mark's friends on a Felucca ride down the nile, which was awesome! I love me some boats. After that we went out for swiss fondue for a girl's birthday, which was so weird...just to be having fondue in egypt is incredibly strange. Then we went to the Ace Club, which is like an outdoor bar/club for expats. It was super cheap, but also super weird because there were tonnes of oldies there. Like TONNES. So much so that I did not want to dance. So we hung out there for a bit and then went home.

Friday: We brunched at the birthday girl's apartment and sat around talking for a long time, which was super nice. I'm glad that Mark is surrounded by really genuinely good people. Then we went to downtown cairo to shop a bit more and see the big hotels right on the nile. SO NICE. One day...one day....
That night we went for Mark's "birthday dinner" courtesy of Nana, and then we went home to pack. Alaa picked us up at 12:30 and we were on our way out! Flights on the way back were uneventful thank god, and I had the chattiest customs officer of all time, which would normally be nice, except I was exhausted.
Him: "Oh magazines? I read those...I like the New Yorker! What would you suggest I should read???" etc etc
Me: hrghrghrghhghghh I read Spin. uhh try Slate.com
Him: Really!? GREAT THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION I SIT IN AN OFFICE ALL DAY AND SO I LIKE TO READ NEW THINGS HEY YOU HAVE A NICE DAY NOW AND WE'LL SEE YOU SOON ENJOY NYU BYE NOW
Me: hhhrhgrhghghrghhghhh

Enjoy my pictures below, the rest are on FB should you so choose to view them.







title track: Hot Hot Heat

Walk Like an Egyptian

So, I'm in Egypt! I realize my NY part of the blog has basically been non-existent, BUT when I get back, I will try and do a catch up post. But for now, EGYPT!

We're about half way through, so I have 5 days to cover:

Thursday: Travel day! After hauling my suitcase all the way to school, hulking it through the turnstiles in the subway 4+ times, and then finally dragging it from school to Penn station, it had already been a long day. We left out of Newark, which was our first mistake as the plane ended up sitting on the tarmac for THREE HOURS while they fixed stuff - I think it was the falangies. Anway, we sat and sat and finally took off at 9:30 pm instead of 6:45. We consequently missed our connection in Zurich, which meant we had to fly up to geneva and then down to cairo instead of just from zurich to cairo, causing us to not make it into cairo until 7 pm on Friday night instead of the original plan of 2pm. We were le tired

Friday: Once we got in, we showered, had a bite to eat, and then went to a party at one of mark's friends apartments. It was baller. Two floors, all marble flooring, balcony, huge kitchen, bar set up, spiral staircase...and it only costs 1500 a month split between three people. I WISH. Everyone was super nice - and then came the dance party. All the dudes starting dancing around and singing with each other, totally disinterested in any women whatsoever. This is a new concept for me, but it was fun to watch for sure. Came home and slept forever

Saturday: Mark took us to Road 9 where there are lots of little cafes and things; it's about a 20 minute walk from his place. We hung out there for a bit, and then came home and ordered dinner. Since Deanna and I had a really early flight in the morning, we just crashed early.

Sunday: For some god awful reason, D and I decided it would be great to fly to Luxor super early in the morning. SO, we got up at 3 (there's a 3 in the morning now?), and stumbled our way to the airport to catch our 5:30 flight. We landed in Luxor an hour later and our tour man picked us up and took us to his office. On the way he stopped to pick up a bunch of baked goods and breads for us to eat, and he made us coffee while we waited for our guide. Amr, our guide, took us around to all the sites on the east and west banks including Valley of the Kings, Hatsepshuts Temple, Luxor Temple, and Karnak Temple, as well as an alabaster processing place. Valley of the kings was first - we got to go into the tombs and look at all the carvings and paintings, and then we got to get chased to our guide by men trying to sell us things/buy me. I learned I am worth many different amounts of farm animals as well as produce. Good times. Then we did Hatty's Temple, which was also pretty cool, though you can't really go IN inside, more like just wander around the outside levels. By this point it was like 35 degrees and we were dying on no sleep, so we hopped in the car and went for lunch. We had this curry lentil soup that was actually amazing, and then an appy of taziki and babaganoosh, followed up by a "mixed grill" plate of chicken, beef shish, veggies, a cevapcici type thing, and rice. And after all that, we still got fruit for dessert - all of that cost 15 bucks. I am aghast. Karnak and Luxor rounded out the afternoon - Karnak is one of the largest temples of antiquity, and it was pretty astounding. There is a room with 130-something columns that are 9 and 12 meters tall, it was probably one of the most incredible things i've seen ever. Luxor was cool because they had just discovered these rows of sphinxes that travel from the entrance of luxor to Karnak, three kilos away. After we were thoroughly dehydrated and informed on all things luxor, we headed back to the airport to try and get on an earlier flight. It seemed to be a more complicated process than we had expected, as per everything, but managed to get it sorted ,for a small fee of course. Basically, if you are willing to pay, you can get anything done around here. Also, we've discovered that there are only two categories of egyptians...they are either very very nice or absolute ass holes. There is no grey area. IE security man that wanted to throw out my sunscreen, and I told him he could and that I didn't care, and then he said "it's ok, you are beautiful, you can take it." Like, wtf is that? Such a bonjankity way of running things. We made it home a few hours later and collapsed.

Monday: This was my fave day so far. We went with mark's driver guy Alaa to Giza to see the pyramids. He took us right up to them, and then we got to climb inside the Great Pyramid. Holy shit was that steep. It's not even like a ladder, it's just wood slats with metal pieces protruding for foot holds. Not ideal for klutzy people like moi. And it was fracking hot in there. By the time we made our way through the claustrophobic steep shafts, we were sweaty messes. But, at the top, there was the king's room with a tomb which was pretty cool. After we stumbled our way back down, Deanna was set on riding a camel, so we did! Alaa got us a good deal, so we trekked through the desert to see the 2 other large pyramids, and the sphinx. It was really fun, even though my camel kept trying to like backwards head butt me, and Deanna was convinced he was going to bite her leg. Thankfully, no camel bites occurred, and only minor crotch-region discomfort ensued. Though, my arm hurts a lot today from holding on to the saddle so tight- I was quite concerned about falling off, which is a pretty legit concern if you know me. That night we went to a mexican place with mark that's owned by this dude from texas who offered to drive me and Deanna to this cool store tomorrow, so we're going to do that. Our nights have been pretty chill so far as D and I are usually exhausted, as is mark, and he has to get up for work in the morning early still.

Tuesday: Up early again to head out to Alexandria. It's about a 3 hour drive, and this time we did the tour with a couple from Toronto. We've really lucked out with the weather in general (apart from the scorcher in Luxor) and today was no exception...about 20 with a breeze. On the way to Alex, some people decided to walk out in front of our van and throw bricks and shit on the road; they were carrying sticks and holding rocks poised to throw and they wouldn't let us pass. After much yell-talking back and forth between our driver, our guide, and the crazies on the road, they allowed us to pass since we were the first in line, but held up everyone else behind us. Our guide then explained that they were not receiving electricity in their village, and the government wasn't listening to them, so they were blocking the road so that people would call the govt to come down and since we had nothing to do with that, they let us pass. A little scary when people look as though they are about to throw rocks through your window, but still really interesting. We made it to alex alive to see Pompey's Pillar and to check out the remains of an underground library. Next up was the Roman catacombs which were incredibly huge and so well preserved. The carvings look like they were done 10 years ago, not 2000 years. Unfortunately, in a lot of these places we were not allowed to take pictures, so google it! so awesome. Then we went to the fortress right on the mediterranean sea, which we didn't go into because it's actually empty inside. Next was lunch as a seafood place (yum *sarcasm*), everyone else was so pumped so I didn't want to be a debbie downer. I realized this was a mistake when a) literally everything had fish in it and b) some stuff had shrimp. I at least tried everything, sans shrimp...so we had a fish soup that was just with white fish and kind of had a spicy almost curry but not quite taste to it, I didn't mind that so much. Then there was calimari, which I didn't eat but everyone said was delish. Then came the shrimp, eyes and legs and all...I clearly passed on that one. There was also a naan like bread with different sauces which i ate a lot of haha. And then came my worst fear - the waiter came and plopped a whole fish on my plate; head, tail, bones, eyes, EVERYTHING. I died inside. However, m&d would be proud because I just went right in there and ate at least some, trying super hard to get the bones out. Disregard the fact that we ordered mcdonalds when we got home. The point is that i tried! After lunch we hit up the Alexandria library, which was the most fantastic library I've ever seen. It. Is. Huge. I think she said there are enough seats for 2000 readers, and 8 million books, though they only have 1.5 million now. They also have one of the few super computers in the world as well as an instant book copier/binder that will copy and bind (cover and all) an entire book in anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. SO COOL. The architecture is neat as well, but i won't explain it so just look it up!

Thats it for now, shopping and coptic cairo coming up later this week! Wee!

Title track: the bangles

Deadlines

BAM! I am alive! I'm just really bad at updating when nothing exciting, at least in my eyes, is going on. But now I will do a HYPER MEGA CRAZY POST to catch up on everything right in time for me to be home..hahaha. Timing is everything...

SO HERE WE GO

Rest of October: Halloween was a hoot, the party was excellent apart from the ridiculously random snowfall that dumped on NYC for about a day. Regardless, I trekked out to Queens, as snow on Halloween is not a novelty pour moi. Drank too much, stayed out too late, but had an excellent time.

NOVEMBER: The first weekend was the NYC Marathon, which I was writing a piece for. The guy I wrote about ended up being a bit of a flake/too busy to actually meet me, so I ended up having to do the whole interview via phone and email. HOWEVER, even after all my panic and stress, I got an A, so I was pretty happy. The marathon itself was incredible. I was not expecting it to be as emotional an experience as it was, but I mean all these people are just giving their all for whatever cause, and you just become so proud of them, even though you will probably never meet them or see them again. It's a strange strange feeling, but it was great! The crowd was awesome and the race went right by my apartment so I didn't have to go out of my way to see it.


The rest of the month was pretty much just a build up to Thanksgiving, which is a ridiculously big deal here. I did a few more assignments, one involving a stint covering NYC night court (which was nothing like the TV show), and beginning my final piece which I will talk more about later. What else, what else....OH! I went to see a Jets game at Madison Square Garden which was AWESOME, even though we got our ass kicked. NY Rangers fans are jerks, that is what I learned. They called us "loser peg"....really new york? really? Joe and Tara were nice enough to fly me out to Kansas to experience a real american thanksgiving so I did that. It was great! So much food, and it was so nice to be in a normal house in a normal city with(relatively) normal people.


The night before I flew out, I went to a midnight screening of the muppet movie, which was so awesome that I felt it necessary to mention here. If you have not seen it yet, go.

DECEMBER: Now I'm just on the home stretch with school stuff. One of my finals is about canadians in new york, which has led me to meet many really interesting people. One of them runs the Canada Cabin, a bar in midtown only on saturday nights that serves poutine, keiths on tap, caesars, beavertails, etc. IT IS AMAZING. Another one is a lady who lives just two blocks away from me and has already taken me out for dinner and offered her second bedroom should I ever need a place to stay. And the last one, a guy I interviewed last night, took me to my first NYC party, which he called an "event" so I had no idea what to expect until we walked up and I saw that it was a cocktail party. At Swarovski crystal in Soho. I was wearing a sweater vest. Not ideal, but I went in anyway, rubbed elbows with the rich and famous (The OLSEN TWINS) and had free booze/food. Totally surreal but kind of awesome in an "I will never fit in here" sort of way. And now I know the code..."event" means "wear cocktail attire" Live and learn I suppose. So that piece is going really well, and another one I am writing is about a Slovenian church in the east village, but that one hasn't really gone anywhere yet so nothing really to talk about. This past weekend I went to Brooklyn to see my beloved Sondre Lerche...he was just as amazing as always, and i still secretly (or not so secretly) wish to marry him. So talented, so sweet, and so humble. When I told him this was my third show, he actually looked shocked that I had come so many times..and then after I said I used to go to Minni to see him, he remembered Heather and I. And then he inquired as to how I like NYU. And then I died. I fully intend to see him every time he plays.



THAT IS THE LAST TWO MONTHS IN A NUTSHELL. BELOW IS MY FAVOURITE PICTURE SO FAR. SEE YOU ALL SOON! <3




Title Track: Arkells

Book Club

hazaah, I have returned to blog about all that has been going on!

just as an aside before I even start...it's supposed to snow here tomorrow, and that is not regular for NY in October. I'm pretty sure I am cursed.

School: I finally broke my prof and she gave me an A! hazaah. I knew it was only a matter of time before my Canadian charm became more than she could bear. It was on the piece that I hated writing the most too, but that's usually how it goes. Next on the docket is a nyc marathon story for which I had to find a winnipegger running to profile. I managed to find a former winnipegger who now lives in vancouver, but he is running for Ed Norton's team and gets to meet him! Also, this dude i am interviewing is some crazy business man who is flying up to toronto to receive some award the day before the marathon! Aka he will have no time to actually talk to me in person, but at least he is interesting and I can get a story. I have to pitch it to my local paper, so the free press or metro, so it may be in there in a couple of weeks if they like the idea. I will keep you posted.

Our guest lecturer last week was the one and only Sarah Jessica Parker! She came in to talk about her experience with the media, especially during interviews. Now, I'm not even the biggest fan of hers, but I was really impressed with her knowledge of the journalistic field, how articulate she was, and how informative she was. I thought this would just be an excuse to have a celeb in class, but she actually gave us some useful info. She was extremely personable and humble, and it was an altogether great experience. And she smelled really good. (I was right next to her, so that's not as creepy as it sounds)

Not School: I joined a book club and we had our first meeting last week. I learned that only 20 minutes out of 3 hours will ever be spent talking about the book so I shouldn't worry if I don't have time to finish. I figure it's a good way to get out and meet new people who are lame and like to read books and watch movies like me, cause I can't deal with the peeps in my class who just go out and get drunk all the time. I mean I'm the youngest one there, shouldn't that be me and not the 30 year olds? I'm just bitter I guess. And I think it's dumb. And I think it's a waste of money. It's one think in Koper when beer is like 80 cents, but here where it's 8 bucks a bottle...NO THANKS.

Emily came last weekend with her sister Stephanie so we did a bit of touristy things. We shopped and went to two broadway shows, Sister Act and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliffe. Tickets for How to Succeed were more difficult to get than we expected, so Emily and I ended up getting up ass early on Sunday morning to go wait in line for rush tickets. We got there at 8am, thinking that the box office opened at 10, but were quickly informed it opened at noon. SO, i went to toysrus in times square (which everyone should do because they have a GIANT t-rex that moves and growls) and bought spongebob monopoly for us. We sat down, grossly close to a homeless man sleeping, on the ground that kinda smelled like pee, and played monopoly until the box office opened. Do not fear, as soon as we got home we washed and sanitized accordingly. It was worth it though, for 30.00 we got to sit in the 3rd row! We also went to Justin Timberlake's restaurant, Southern Hospitality because it is literally around the corner from my place. Emily and I made the brilliant decision to each pick something and split it, so she got chicken and i got ribs.

Holy. shit.

so much food, i cannot even explain it. We had leftovers for three people for three days. And even after they left i had enough chicken for two sandwiches. We couldn't even eat because we were laughing so hard at how stupid we were to order full portions. We forget that portions here are NOT the same as in WInnipeg. ugh. But for the amount of food we got, and how good it was, it was pretty reasonably priced. I'd go back for sure. On the day they left, we managed to squeeze in a walk through central park and a trip to the natural history museum to see the dinos and space exhibits, among others. I'm hoping these tales will entice other friends to come visit...hint hint nudge nudge.

Tomorrow I'm going to my friends place in Queens for a Halloween party (i am reviving my cereal killer costume) and then on Sunday I am meeting a friend Elisabeth from France that i met in Koper, for brunch. She is in town with her boyfriend so we are going to try and meet up. I didn't really know her THAT well in Koper, but it will still be good to see her! So that's my weekend, and of course tackling my massive amounts of reading. blargggg. I feel like I'm forgetting things, but I think that's bound to happen, so I shall stop here. ALSO I will post pictures or a video of my place soon, i promise! Miss you all!

Title Track: Arkells

Catching Up

So I'm pretty bad at keeping up with this, but I will try and sum up the past couple of weeks.

school. homework. school.

Yup, that's pretty much it! My courses are pretty intense, but I like them for the most part. On Mondays I have law, and my prof is one of the lawyers for the new york times. He is pretty hilarious and goes on tangents for ages. He also often rejects people's questions by saying "that is a good question, but I'm not going to answer it..moving on....". Tuesdays I have a class called Storied New York, which is basically a class in the form of a book club. We read famous and not so famous works featuring new york, and talk about writing styles in both fiction and non fiction. My prof for that class, Suketu Mehta, is a pulitzer prize finalist and just generally sweet man. He has a degree in fiction writing and it's nice to not be so focused on journalism for one class and more on actual story telling. My Thursday class is a whopping 6 hours and it is Writing and Reporting with my crazy prof Mary Quigley, or Quigs as we like to call her. She is super nice in person, very new yorky both in accent and attitude, but man oh man is she a hard marker. She is taking the "break you down to build you up" approach, which is hard, but I think i'm starting to crack her. Slowly but surely I will get my grade up to an A lol. That is my goal for december, but I don't know if that will happen. So between those three classes and all of the outside of class work, I have no time for anything!

This past weekend, though, was Columbus day, which is apparently a big deal here because I got monday and tuesday off. So, with that extra time, I went to the MET, which was awesome! A lot of the exhibits I wanted to see were closed though, so I'll have to go back another day. Also, I learned that if you go to the MET alone, you will get hit on. Apparently, that's where NYC singles hang out on a holiday monday, who knew? All I wanted to do was look at some Monets and greek sculptures, but every time I turned a corner I had another man following me and trying to talk to me. GO AWAY. Next time I will have to bring someone with me. Lesson learned.

I've been bonding with classmates too these past couple of weeks, starting at a party in Brooklyn held by one of my classmates Philip. Most people were there and I met a norwegian man who lived in vancouver for 9 years. We spent the majority of the night bonding over our nostalgia for Canada. Lots of birthdays and things as well these past weeks, and also coming up, so there will be lots going on! Also, I'm trying to get a group of people together to go see the Jets play the Rangers at Madison Square Garden in a few weeks; I want to go so bad! Must get tickets.

I also had my first NYC chinese food. I don't know why but I feel it is important to mention. It was not bad, but apparently breaded veal is only a winnipeg chinese food thing? anyone know about this? My fortune in my cookie read, "never quit!"...not so much a fortune as an encouraging statement, but i'll take it. Fortune cookies come free with food here, my friend was weirded out that we often pay .25 cents for ours. "Oh winnipeg..." she said. That seems to be a catch phrase in the making when speaking to me. People often make fun of my "accent", and someone asked me if we have Halloween in Canada. I don't think my eyes could have rolled any harder. By my multimedia prof, I am referred to as "hey canada". I have a feeling the novelty will not wear off any time soon. Though, if you get a chance, you should listen to the NPR show "This American Life"'s canada episode. It's pretty great, and funny, and poignant. It's on my Facebook somewhere if you want to listen.

Last night, there was a Manitoba Music even in the lower east side. It was so oddly appropriate that I had to attend! Turns out it was more of a networking/ny media thing, but there was no cover so I was in like flinn. Basically, it was 4 hours of some of my fave winnipeg artists singing songs and talking about Winnipeg and how great it is. Yay! Also, there was free cheese and bread. I was able to talk to a couple of them after, and it actually really helped my homesickness. Exactly what I needed! I spoke with JP Hoe, a local winnipeg singer/songwriter for a long while, and he was just so sweet! In typical Winnipeg fashion, he asked how I was getting home and if I would be okay on my own. Though to be fair, the other day while I was wheeling home my old lady shopping caddy, which was very full and heavy, several dudes helped me up and down the subway stairs, often full out carrying it for me, so I have no complaints with the chivalrous nature of new york city men.

Speaking of homesickness, Emily is coming next week! That will be excellent. Broadway here we come! I'm sure there will be many updates after that.

So there! updates! take that. I will try to be better at this, but no promises. Also I will try and post some picture of my apartment sooner rather than later! Hope you all had a lovely thanksgiving and email me or something! fill me in on your lives! I MISS YOU! XO

Title Track: Great Bloomers

New York, New York

So I'm all moved in (mostly) to my new and wonderful apartment. I live with a lady in her early 60's in a hugely wonderful building in the upper east side of Manhattan. There is a 24 hour doorman and is just general 100% more safe than the place I was staying at before. I have a huge room with lots of closet space, and my own bathroom, as well as a kitchen I share with the lady. I will post a picture or video or something when all my furniture is here and built!

Classes are insane. like INSANE. grad school is hard. I cannot even believe the amount of writing and reading I have to do, but i'm hoping these are the "dues" i have to pay before I get a wicked sweet job. BUT on the plus side, attending a private university has the perks of it being excessively clean, large, and also equipped with 16 macs per classroom. I was agog at this. Again, I will post pictures when I get a chance, cause it will blow your mind. Also, it is excessively secure...you cannot get past the foyer of any building, including the library, without an NYU ID card. I'm used to U of M where you can get anywhere without anyone giving a crap.

My friend Laura was here the weekend before school started, so I was able to to a bit of touristy things...we did times square, and SOHO, and NOHO (now i know what these letters mean), and we went shopping on broadway by accident because we turned the wrong way but it turned out to be for the best! We ate lots of good food in trendy places, and I decided to make the rule that it is okay for me to indulge when friends are in town, because it won't happen THAT often. We went to see avenue Q on broadway, and decided it is my life, but with muppets. Look it up, you will laugh. It was really nice to see a familiar face during that time of homelessness and stress.

Other than that, I haven't really had a lot of time to explore the city during the day, but I've been to a few things at night. I went to Fashions night out for school, which was OKAY, but not my scene at all. I went on a boat ride around the island which was pretty cool, but packed full of grad students from other departments who were all insane, I ventured out on my own one night to see the canadian band Sloan play a show, which was awesome, and I went to see the comedian Bill Bailey the other night. I got discounted tickets cause I pay a million dollars to go to school here. sweet! I'm hoping to get out and about more, but it's pretty expensive so I gotta pick and choose. On the way home from BB I had my first insane new york subway experience! We got on and there was a man basically puking on the car, so we moved to the next one over. And then these crazy drunk men and women got on with a baby strolled (with a baby in it) and they started fighting. Basically the girls wanted the guys to hide their beers..." 'los (carlos) put it down...LOS PUT IT DOWWWWNNNN" and then she started yelling, for no apparent reason "DON'T DISRESPECT MY BABY!" which has now become a catch phrase in the magazine dpt after I shared this story. So, having an inkling that things may escalate, we went to the next car over. Sure enough, when we got off at our stop, the two dudes were having an all out brawl and people were running out of that car. So we told the conductor to hold to doors open so that a bunch of other people could get them out, all the while pushing this baby strolled which they left teetering at the top of the stairs. AH! I'm pretty certain one of us yelled "DON'T DISRESPECT YOUR BABY!" We watched until we knew the baby was safe and then went on our way. Fun times in the big apple.

This week nothing much is planned save for a trip to Ikea, which is exciting all on its own. I can't think of anything else to add at the moment, but I will update with photos soon. Miss/Love you all!

Title Track: Frank Sinatra

Moving to New York

Hazaah I made it!

My bag was overweight, as predicted, but the nice AC man let me go through without paying..woohoo! I had to go through customs in Toronto and BARELY made my flight to laguardia, but I caught it and my bags even made it too. But, I have a feeling the toronto customs man was supposed to give me a paper that he didn't, so we will see what the immigration peeps say tomorrow at my meeting thinger.

I am staying with a friend of a stranger in the GHETTO of northern Manhattan. I just don't feel safe at all here even though this girl jackii seems to like it just fine. Also, she is a messy, dirty person lol. There is cat hair EVERYWHERE, and the bathroom looks like it has never been cleaned ever. I didn't even want to take a shower because I thought I would be less clean getting in there than just not bathing. But I bit the bullet and showered. I just don't think I can stay here/want to stay here too much longer. Looking into vacation rentals right now for the weekend, but just the weekend becauseee...I'm going to see a place tonight that has a sept.4th move it date. So, here's hoping it's not a shit hole. The vacation rental is pretty reasonably priced though, so if we have to stay there a bit longer than expected that's ok too. Hopefully by later tonight I will have a better idea of what's going on.

Today though, I met up with Allison, a girl from my class and we went out for lunch at an itlian place in my area. It was delish and nice to talk to someone who knows a bit more of what's going on with school and stuff. She snagged a place closer to campus and I am jealous. She can only stay there until December though, so I do not envy her moving in the winter. Tomorrow I have my immigrant meeting thing, as well as some other errands to run while I am in that part of town (ie getting a cell phone and my NYU ID) and then Thursday I have my Journalism orientation all day. Hopefully tomorrow too I will be leaving this apartment and going to my vacation rental if all works out. Fingers Crossed!

Title Track: The Wombats