Eek I can't believe I’ve been away for a month already! Currently I'm sitting at camp, orientation well done, week 2 with the kids nearly over!! But I's so behind on this i better start from the start!!
So: San Francisco rocked!! I think I wrote a few bits and pieces before, but it was really hard to sum up how much I loved just walking around that place in a few highlight paragraphs! from the Golden Gate Park, to the Haight and Ashbury, to the Grace Cathedral and Union square it's an amazing city, so much history, so much to do! It was really inspiring to see how the city had re-built itself after a massive earthquake and fire which leveled the city early last century.
I met some AMAZING people! Everyone was so much friendlier than expected! I also made some great friends at the hostel :) Anna, Sarah (x2), Mags, Mary, Danny, Paul and Andy deserve honorable mentions! Nights out at crazy Irish and american pubs, DJing the last set, and just sitting in the Hostel Dining Room till 3am chatting about everything and nothing. (including a rather heated debate as to whether NZ or the UK would be better off if the worlds economy collapsed?!?! Paul I'm still saying I won that one!)
After 5 whirl wind days I spent my last day in California with some old family friends, we went out to a beautiful national park just south of the city and spent the day trekking and talking. It was a wonderful way to end my time there :)
Following came a beautiful early morning wake up call to catch a red-eye to NYC, a bit of advice: never fly American Airlines! They have the most ridiculous in-efficient check in system (I got there 2 hours early and nearly missed my flight) the food costs and there's no TV on a 6 hour flight! Oh, and they're not even cheap!!
NYC is CRAZY! I got lost on the airport train! Lucky I met possibly the ONLY nice new yorker in the world, and he ended up staying with me and chatting all the way to my stop on the subway, even though it was 7 stops passed his! When I got it I met up with Kate Funston (Funno) for 3 days of shopping, chilling and drinking beer! Highlights include: getting our photo's taken with some police officers in central park, and getting to wear their hats! (and getting their numbers....hahaha) going to wall street, and seeing the statue of liberty, and last but not least, seeing Ground Zero. Not to be missed, I never fathomed the enormity of the disaster until I went there.
We did spend a lot of time chilling out, we knew that camp would be full on & I'm sure I'll get back there through the summer :) one of my friends from SFO Paul flew in the day after me, so we met him and another kiwi guy Mitch in Manhattan and painted it red! (the upper west side at least...) On our last day we did grand central station and time square, then met up with all our new camp buddies for dinner and drinks! we ended up at a place that was like time zone, but with a bar! It was hilarious and a good way to get to know a few more of the people we were about to share a summer with!
That's it for now, camp is both wonderful and challenging, I wish I had done it earlier! But all those details will be in another post.
Much love xoxo Billie
