Greetings from State-side!
So having only limited time on the internet I am going to try and get everything down that has happened over the last couple of days. Let's hope I do a better job of that than I have trying to decipher the difference between the American paper money that all looks the same.
We had our first cold day today, something I guess we should have expected after we tried to claim that New York's cold really had nothing. Apparently that's what happens when the Big Apple takes a bite out of you. I hope that metaphor works as well as I think it does.
So in between trying to inspire New Yorkers into the idea of “escalator etiquette”, these two Armidalians having been trying to squeeze in as much America-related extravagance as possible. An extended walk through Central Park resulted in way too many photos and quite possibly a pinch of frostbite, and we resisted the urge to be those truly lazy people who take the carriage tour around while covering their legs with an “I love New York” blanket. We also sampled both a hot dog and a pretzel from the local street establishments. Let’s just say we won’t be sampling the pretzels again.
I also got my first taste of a musical. And I have to admit that I absolutely loved Green Day’s “American Idiot”. It was like going to a concert, but instead of grasping a lighter in a sweat-filled moshpit, I had a playbill and a guy next to me with one of those stupid miniature binoculars. However, my theatre-loving aficionado – also known as Sarah – informed me afterwards that it wasn’t really a proper musical. I came to the conclusion that that’s probably why I liked it so much. Either way I can now proudly say I have seen a show on Broadway. The extra special treat was when Billie Joe – who was playing one of the lead roles – did an encore performance of “Time of Your Life” with the rest of the cast. Very cool.
Today saw us take in the Movie and TV tour with our delightful host Gary. After utilising my basically-useless-unless-on-a-tv-tour-knowledge to answer the first two trivia questions correctly, we saw many cool sites. These included the “Ghostbusters” firehouse, the Cosbys’ front door, the apartment building of my man-crush Will Smith from “I am Legend”, and the apartment building from “Friends”. It was also topped off with the inspiration for the Soup Nazi, and a slice of real American pizza, which is as stupidly big and delicious as it looks. Tonight we took in a comedy club which included as many laughs and disdainful stares for obnoxious audience members as you would expect.
So that’s about it. Tomorrow we head for Boston and the real RoadSide Project road trip begins. It will be sure to include our mascot Homer, as well as a cheat-sheet reminding us to drive on the right-hand side of the road. I’m sure “Born in the USA” by the boss Bruce Springsteen will also make at least one or two appearances. I leave New York with way too many photos (some of which I will get online at some point to prove I am not making all this up), some unforgettable memories (and some forgotten ones from New Year’s), and one piece of humble advice to the biggest city in the world: Honk your horns more, New Yorkers. Seriously.
Hope everybody is splendiferous. Hope the blog gives you a minute or two to waste at work. And I hope that everything a day ahead of us is treating you well.
Miss you all!
New York Nicks, xo
