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

Moving to New York

Adventures Ahoy pt 2 here we go! It is 10 days and counting until I take the leap into the wild unknown of NYC. Why am I doing this again? I have no idea. So much uncertainty is certainly not a great thing at this juncture.

I wish everything was free, and then I'd know I was making the right decision by leaving. I think also the fact that I have no stable housing situation is adding to my stress and feelings of not wanting to go at the moment. I know, well I hope, this will be for the best and will result in me having a career in something that I love, that will also pay the bills (and student loans).

So I guess this blog will now shift from European adventures of craziness while I was supposed to be in school learning things to actually being in school and learning things in NYC. Probably won't be as funny, but I will have a higher IQ and less alcohol related body/property damage this time around.

I have a roommate already, just no place. His name is Victor, he is originally from Bulgaria, and my dad is convinced he is a vampire. Sounds like a good piece of teenage fiction, no? He seems nice enough, and promised to bake me bread. To appease my mother, I will however be getting locks for my door. I will be staying with a semi-family friend for the first few days and have already talked to several of my classmates, all of whom seem super nice and willing to help anyway they can. Fingers crossed for another group of wonderful people, koper style. Though unlikely, it would be nice.

Going away party tonight should be a good time, though I will be sad to say "so long" to all of my wonderful friends who I have grown to love too much. Sometimes I can't even believe how lucky I've been to be surrounded by such a large group of wonderful (most of the time) people, both here and all over. Can't you all just come with me? no? fine.

Title Track: The Wombats