Minneapolis
Well, time has rather flown by recently. When I wrote the last entry, on Friday, I thought "hold on, where did the week go? I'm sure it was Monday yesterday!" It's now Monday once again, and high time to update you on what I got up to last weekend in California.
I was out there primarily to see Aimee and Lauren, two fellow native-speakers from the camps in Poland I've worked at for the last two summers. I was able to tack on going to Los Angeles and driving around as well, which I've already written about. I returned the hire-car to downtown San Francisco on Friday evening, and then lugged my luggage [very apt] to the train station to head down to Palo Alto, home of Stanford University. I stayed with Aimee's boyfriend Brice, who shares a roomy room with his rheumy roomie [how long can I keep this up?].
Let me say this much: Stanford is amazing. For a uni that's only 115 years old, it has the cachet (and the cash) of somewhere like Cambridge. The campus is pristine, every building is named after someone. The weather was great too, which of course helps your impression...
As members of the gymnastics team, the girls had access to some golf carts which injured team-members can use to get around campus - everyone has a car, naturally, but they're not practical for getting around locally. I got the grand tour through the quad, past the church, under the colonnades, down the main steps, up the Herbert Hoover Tower (great views of the whole place and beyond), round the Oval, down Palm Drive and back to the frat houses. To get out of their hair (it's exam season) I went for a walk up to the hills behind the university, and then back through into Palo Alto which also qualifies as "swank".
On Saturday night there was a frat party at Brice's house. Free beer and loose women - just my idea of fun! (I'm joking, by the way.) Still, for the ten minutes I was there it was pretty interesting - as "interesting" as the state of the house the morning after! Yowser.
Sunday was a chilling-out day, enjoying the sunshine for the most part, and then going to church in the evening. After that, we popped along to a choral recital at the Stanford church (as you do). Fantastic acoustics + fantastic singing + candle-lit church = nice atmosphere.
I popped up to the city (San Francisco) on Monday - it's my third trip there, and as is traditional I didn't visit Alcatraz, instead wandering around Chinatown and watching Mexicans march against the Immigration hoohah on Market Street. "Un dia sin imigrantes" apparently, although that might not be a great idea, seeing as I haven't seen a single white person working in a fast-food restaurant around here...
In flashback style, you already know what happened next: my ridiculously long train ride across the country. On Friday afternoon, I cashed in a hefty $1 investment in a bus ticket to Minneapolis, home of Jess, Sandy and Lucy - three troopers from Poland 2004. I spent the weekend with Jess, also visiting her family in rural redneck Wisconsin, and today, after three traumatic hours at the Mall of America, I'm staying at Sandy's house, probably for the next few days. Apparently there's plenty to do in the Twin Cities area (Minneapolis and St. Paul, if you were wondering) so that should keep me busy.
Hasta la vista!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Friday, May 05, 2006
You know you're taking a long train journey when...
Chicago
Yes folks, I took a train from San Francisco to Chicago. 2438 miles in 57 hours (59 if you count timezone changes). It was a remarkable journey, hence this post...
- You go to Walgreen's first to pick up some groceries
- You unpack when you get on
- You put your watch forward an hour
- You take photos of scenery every so often, and end up with over 70
- You pass over two mountain ranges
- You add five states to your USA total
- You pur your watch forward an hour, again
- You arrive five hours late, and that's less than 10% of the total
- You get accustomed to paying $2 for a Snickers bar
- You spend three days and two nights on the train
- You have to take a shower and wash your hair twice when you arrive (eew!)
Yes folks, I took a train from San Francisco to Chicago. 2438 miles in 57 hours (59 if you count timezone changes). It was a remarkable journey, hence this post...
- The first day was spectacular - climbing from sea-level at Oakland/Sacramento up to 7000ft over the Sierra Nevada. The train paralleled I-80 which I drove along last Friday for the whole day, but not driving, I could see a lot more of the scenery. Stunning stuff! I went to sleep somewhere in eastern Nevada.
- The second day was also spectacular. I woke up in eastern Utah, having passed through Salt Lake City at 4am. We spent most of the day alongside the Colorado river, passing through nine canyons and climbing to over 9000ft at the Moffat Tunnel (before this tunnel was built, the train climbed a 4% grade to 11000ft - yikes!) and then descended to Denver. Mercifully, I slept through Nebraska.
- The third day was just cornfields. Oh, and waiting in one spot for over two hours waiting for freight trains to pass over a single-track bridge over the Missouri. Fun.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Driving in America
Stanford University, California
Well, here it is - the post you've all been waiting for. I've returned the rental car and made it back to San Francisco after 8 days of driving all over the place. Here are some vital statistics:
Total mileage: 1794 miles
Average mileage: 225 miles per day
Gas used: 60 gallons
Price of gas: $3.15/gallon
Cost of gas: $200
Cost per mile: 9c (5p)
Miles per gallon: 30
As you can see, I wasn't hanging around. The car I rented was a Chevy Malibu, a 5-door hatch with all sorts of cool features. It had a 3.5l, 200bhp engine - when you put your foot down, it GOES; automatic gearbox, cruise control, remote entry, remote engine start (!), air-con, CD player and genuine fun. Having never driven on the right before or an automatic, it was a bit of a culture shock to get used to: a good job then that I only rented it in downtown San Francisco during Friday morning rush hour... for the first 10 minutes I just stayed in my lane with very little idea of where the corners of the car were!
It was surprisingly easy, actually, to get used to the car and the driving. American drivers are pretty docile and law-abiding, although they have an annoying lack of observation to see that they're sitting in your blind spot on the freeway.
So where did I go? Well, from San Francisco I hit the 101 south to Monterrey, and picked up route 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway - from there most of the way to Los Angeles. That was the most fun I'd ever had driving - empty roads, twisty yet well-built and awesome scenery. It took me 11 hours to get to LA and I was pretty knackered by the time I got there, 500 miles on the clock.
In LA I had a pretty easy time with the infamous freeways: I didn't get stuck in any major jams and found it quite easy to navigate around the city. I even found a roundabout to drive around at Venice Beach! I put on another 150 or so just driving around one part of the city, which gives you an indication of just how big it is...
On Monday, as I've already blogged, I left LA and drove up to the Sierra Nevada mountains for a few days. Leaving LA on Interstate 5, the road had to climb over the mountains surrounding LA, and reached over 4000ft! Surely that's pretty high for a freeway, I thought. For one section the carriageways actually crossed over while passing through a valley, presumably because they built one originally and then when they widened the road it was easier to use the other half of the valley to build on.
The Sierras were just fantastic fun to drive in. There was so little traffic I wondered whether something was wrong! Driving up to Sequoia NP the road is wide at first and with lots of high-speed curves, but inside the NP it gets narrrow and very twisty, climbing to over 6000ft. Unfortunately, my fuel gauge light came on as I was driving up, so I had to turn around once I reached the main forest and drive back. Nursing the car down the hill in "L" (mainly in first gear) I only touched the throttle about four times in 20 miles before reaching a beautiful gas station. I don't know exactly how much further I could have driven, but when I turned the ignition on again after filling up, the engine didn't start right away. Could the spluttering be because it was right out of fuel and had to bring the new stuff straight in? Who knows - either way, I was very fortunate to not run out of fuel.
After a night in a Motel 6 (getting into John Urry's auto-culture with its supporting industries...) in the city of Fresno, I headed up into the mountains again to King's Canyon NP and then to Yosemite NP. As I wrote earlier, those were both spectacular (and so they should be for $20 each!) and the driving was once again a lot of fun. Cruise control really comes into its own when you have a lot of miles to cover and no traffic to regulate your speed.
I never got around to buying a map of California, instead relying on Alamo's rather small-scale attempt that didn't always make the grade. Yesterday afternoon, killing time before returning to San Francisco, I drove around the Napa and Sonoma regions which are very hilly. I ended up driving round in a circle for about an hour and finishing where I started! D'oh. I got the car back to the garage - via the Golden Gate Bridge [$5 toll!] and twisty Lombard Street - 2 minutes before the stated time. Poifect. Overall it was a great week and although it cost quite a lot of money, it was worth it.
Driving? It's so hot right now. Driving,
Well, here it is - the post you've all been waiting for. I've returned the rental car and made it back to San Francisco after 8 days of driving all over the place. Here are some vital statistics:
Total mileage: 1794 miles
Average mileage: 225 miles per day
Gas used: 60 gallons
Price of gas: $3.15/gallon
Cost of gas: $200
Cost per mile: 9c (5p)
Miles per gallon: 30
As you can see, I wasn't hanging around. The car I rented was a Chevy Malibu, a 5-door hatch with all sorts of cool features. It had a 3.5l, 200bhp engine - when you put your foot down, it GOES; automatic gearbox, cruise control, remote entry, remote engine start (!), air-con, CD player and genuine fun. Having never driven on the right before or an automatic, it was a bit of a culture shock to get used to: a good job then that I only rented it in downtown San Francisco during Friday morning rush hour... for the first 10 minutes I just stayed in my lane with very little idea of where the corners of the car were!
It was surprisingly easy, actually, to get used to the car and the driving. American drivers are pretty docile and law-abiding, although they have an annoying lack of observation to see that they're sitting in your blind spot on the freeway.
So where did I go? Well, from San Francisco I hit the 101 south to Monterrey, and picked up route 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway - from there most of the way to Los Angeles. That was the most fun I'd ever had driving - empty roads, twisty yet well-built and awesome scenery. It took me 11 hours to get to LA and I was pretty knackered by the time I got there, 500 miles on the clock.
In LA I had a pretty easy time with the infamous freeways: I didn't get stuck in any major jams and found it quite easy to navigate around the city. I even found a roundabout to drive around at Venice Beach! I put on another 150 or so just driving around one part of the city, which gives you an indication of just how big it is...
On Monday, as I've already blogged, I left LA and drove up to the Sierra Nevada mountains for a few days. Leaving LA on Interstate 5, the road had to climb over the mountains surrounding LA, and reached over 4000ft! Surely that's pretty high for a freeway, I thought. For one section the carriageways actually crossed over while passing through a valley, presumably because they built one originally and then when they widened the road it was easier to use the other half of the valley to build on.
The Sierras were just fantastic fun to drive in. There was so little traffic I wondered whether something was wrong! Driving up to Sequoia NP the road is wide at first and with lots of high-speed curves, but inside the NP it gets narrrow and very twisty, climbing to over 6000ft. Unfortunately, my fuel gauge light came on as I was driving up, so I had to turn around once I reached the main forest and drive back. Nursing the car down the hill in "L" (mainly in first gear) I only touched the throttle about four times in 20 miles before reaching a beautiful gas station. I don't know exactly how much further I could have driven, but when I turned the ignition on again after filling up, the engine didn't start right away. Could the spluttering be because it was right out of fuel and had to bring the new stuff straight in? Who knows - either way, I was very fortunate to not run out of fuel.
After a night in a Motel 6 (getting into John Urry's auto-culture with its supporting industries...) in the city of Fresno, I headed up into the mountains again to King's Canyon NP and then to Yosemite NP. As I wrote earlier, those were both spectacular (and so they should be for $20 each!) and the driving was once again a lot of fun. Cruise control really comes into its own when you have a lot of miles to cover and no traffic to regulate your speed.
I never got around to buying a map of California, instead relying on Alamo's rather small-scale attempt that didn't always make the grade. Yesterday afternoon, killing time before returning to San Francisco, I drove around the Napa and Sonoma regions which are very hilly. I ended up driving round in a circle for about an hour and finishing where I started! D'oh. I got the car back to the garage - via the Golden Gate Bridge [$5 toll!] and twisty Lombard Street - 2 minutes before the stated time. Poifect. Overall it was a great week and although it cost quite a lot of money, it was worth it.
Driving? It's so hot right now. Driving,
Mastercard
Ski rental? $16
Lift ticket? $52
Practicing carving turns while your friends are writing essays? Priceless.
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's exchange programs.
Lift ticket? $52
Practicing carving turns while your friends are writing essays? Priceless.
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's exchange programs.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Sequilia
Lake Tahoe, California
It's official: I love California. Over the weekend in LA I was puzzling over what to do this week with a rental car, cheap fuel and unlimited mileage. The obvious answer is "drive a lot!" but the question was where - do I go to Las Vegas? The Grand Canyon? Hoover Dam? Mammoth Mountain? Well, I've ended up driving through the Sierra Nevada mountains in eastern California. Since leaving LA on Monday, I made it to Sequoia and King's Canyon national parks on Monday and Tuesday, Yosemite on Tuesday afternoon and now Lake Tahoe, further north in the same range. The scenery is (and I don't use this word very often) AWESOME.
Quite literally actually - when coupled with some hymns on the stereo. What an amazing God we serve, who we can worship by combining engineering (sweet car, twisty roads) with creation (mountains, forests, lakes, fields, birds). Several times on my journey up I actually broke out in a huge grin; one such time was during this verse:
Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all!
Tomorrow I hope to go skiing around Lake Tahoe - the season ends this week - and then on Friday return to San Francisco the long way round, and then spend the weekend with Aimee and Lauren at Stanford, who I met in Poland last year.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Are you a good person?
Los Angeles
Well, here I am in the City of Angels, although the population (and the driving) could hardly be described as angelic*. I'm only here over the weekend, staying with friends of a friend, as I've developed quite a knack of doing.
I arrived here on Friday night after an all-day journey down from San Francisco*. When I arrived there was a Bible study going on at the Dandurands' house, so I was able to sit in - the subject was developing grace and humility in our daily lives. Good stuff, I reckon.
On Saturday - after sleeping in a little - I took off for a day as a tourist (also something I've developed a knack of doing!) and drove first over the Santa Monica mountains to Malibu, then along the coast to Santa Monica and Venice beach. Venice, you might recall, is a place populated by a lot of weirdos. I saw a short man with no legs and one arm listening to a walkman and pushing himself along on a tiny trolley. I also saw a hippie on rollerblades playing the electric guitar and having a good time, man.
One strange thing I saw at first was a group of three men huddled together with their eyes closed. "They look like they're praying" I thought, but walked on. A little later on, a man walking the other way held out a piece of paper to me and said "would you like a million dollars?" He had some $1,000,000 bills that he was giving out. "Actually" I replied, "I have a whole stack of those at home - but they're Canadian!" It turns out that a group of 50 people - 10 of whom were at Venice - were on a Way of the Master 'bootcamp' to learn how to evangelise!
Some guys were on a soapbox asking passers-by if they considered themselves good, with the promise of $20 if they passed. Needless to say, nobody did, as the criteria we use for goodness can be summarised in the 10 Commandments.
After listening to them and talking with a couple of the guys - it seems that Ray, Todd and Kirk weren't at Venice - I went back to the car and drove on: first through downtown LA and then west on the 101 to Hollywood. After some to-ing and fro-ing, I found a street heading straight up towards the Hollywood sign. There was a warning diamond saying "NO ACCESS TO HOLLYWOOD SIGN" which told me I was on the right track to get to the Hollywood Sign! I drove up the street as far as it would go, then parked the car at the top and hit the dirt trail heading up-hill.
It was a nice evening (past 6pm by now) and surprisingly quiet for Los Angeles. The trail eventually hit a tarmac road, and I followed it one way - which was wrong - and then headed back the other way, which although looked to be the wrong direction, curved around the hill, crested the mountain (giving a view of the north valley instead of LA) and eventually reached the top: a radio mast on Mt Lee.
When I got to the top, I realised that unfortunately I'd overshot the Hollywood Sign! I was standing 100ft above it, and there was a fence blocking access. But what's this? A gap under the fence where others have gone before? Some ropes hammered into the slope leading down to the sign?
Yes, that's right. When I shimmied my way down to the sign itself, I saw on the back of 'H' a small notice saying "NO TRESPASSING OR LOITERING" which was a little late as I'd already gone under the fence! What can I say - I'm a bad person, but remember that the Bible addresses this issue. When I did reach the sign itself a loud beeping suddenly started - I noticed the motion sensor, the tannoy and the CCTV camera, took a quick photo and left!
Today (Sunday) I had the opportunity to go to Grace Community Church and hear John MacArthur preach twice! In the morning he was talking about the rich man and Lazarus, and how a lot of people who don't expect it will end up in Hell; not Heaven as they expected. Straight after that service there was a student ministry where the pastor spent 40 minutes introducing the sermon for the next few weeks on valuing the Bible highly. In the evening, John was preaching again, and on (controversial!) the idolatry of Mary worship in the Catholic church. Lots to think about, for sure... in any case, I'm incredibly fortunate to be saved by God's grace and even more fortunate to be able to travel around like this!
* I'll write a blog on driving sometime later this week. Suffice to say, it's fun.
Well, here I am in the City of Angels, although the population (and the driving) could hardly be described as angelic*. I'm only here over the weekend, staying with friends of a friend, as I've developed quite a knack of doing.
I arrived here on Friday night after an all-day journey down from San Francisco*. When I arrived there was a Bible study going on at the Dandurands' house, so I was able to sit in - the subject was developing grace and humility in our daily lives. Good stuff, I reckon.
On Saturday - after sleeping in a little - I took off for a day as a tourist (also something I've developed a knack of doing!) and drove first over the Santa Monica mountains to Malibu, then along the coast to Santa Monica and Venice beach. Venice, you might recall, is a place populated by a lot of weirdos. I saw a short man with no legs and one arm listening to a walkman and pushing himself along on a tiny trolley. I also saw a hippie on rollerblades playing the electric guitar and having a good time, man.
One strange thing I saw at first was a group of three men huddled together with their eyes closed. "They look like they're praying" I thought, but walked on. A little later on, a man walking the other way held out a piece of paper to me and said "would you like a million dollars?" He had some $1,000,000 bills that he was giving out. "Actually" I replied, "I have a whole stack of those at home - but they're Canadian!" It turns out that a group of 50 people - 10 of whom were at Venice - were on a Way of the Master 'bootcamp' to learn how to evangelise!
Some guys were on a soapbox asking passers-by if they considered themselves good, with the promise of $20 if they passed. Needless to say, nobody did, as the criteria we use for goodness can be summarised in the 10 Commandments.
After listening to them and talking with a couple of the guys - it seems that Ray, Todd and Kirk weren't at Venice - I went back to the car and drove on: first through downtown LA and then west on the 101 to Hollywood. After some to-ing and fro-ing, I found a street heading straight up towards the Hollywood sign. There was a warning diamond saying "NO ACCESS TO HOLLYWOOD SIGN" which told me I was on the right track to get to the Hollywood Sign! I drove up the street as far as it would go, then parked the car at the top and hit the dirt trail heading up-hill.
It was a nice evening (past 6pm by now) and surprisingly quiet for Los Angeles. The trail eventually hit a tarmac road, and I followed it one way - which was wrong - and then headed back the other way, which although looked to be the wrong direction, curved around the hill, crested the mountain (giving a view of the north valley instead of LA) and eventually reached the top: a radio mast on Mt Lee.
When I got to the top, I realised that unfortunately I'd overshot the Hollywood Sign! I was standing 100ft above it, and there was a fence blocking access. But what's this? A gap under the fence where others have gone before? Some ropes hammered into the slope leading down to the sign?
Yes, that's right. When I shimmied my way down to the sign itself, I saw on the back of 'H' a small notice saying "NO TRESPASSING OR LOITERING" which was a little late as I'd already gone under the fence! What can I say - I'm a bad person, but remember that the Bible addresses this issue. When I did reach the sign itself a loud beeping suddenly started - I noticed the motion sensor, the tannoy and the CCTV camera, took a quick photo and left!
Today (Sunday) I had the opportunity to go to Grace Community Church and hear John MacArthur preach twice! In the morning he was talking about the rich man and Lazarus, and how a lot of people who don't expect it will end up in Hell; not Heaven as they expected. Straight after that service there was a student ministry where the pastor spent 40 minutes introducing the sermon for the next few weeks on valuing the Bible highly. In the evening, John was preaching again, and on (controversial!) the idolatry of Mary worship in the Catholic church. Lots to think about, for sure... in any case, I'm incredibly fortunate to be saved by God's grace and even more fortunate to be able to travel around like this!
* I'll write a blog on driving sometime later this week. Suffice to say, it's fun.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
New York experiences
Los Angeles
It's high time that I wrote a blog on New York, seeing as I left there two days ago. When I last wrote, I had just arrived in the East Village with its ghetto hostels and different shops and restauarants. I spent basically the whole time I was in New York walking around the city, and mostly in Manhattan.
This was my third trip to New York, so there were some activities and sights I didn't need to do - the Empire State building, the Staten Island ferry and so on. I think that after this visit I'm pretty much done with NYC for a while - it is very big and diverse, but the diversity is quite similar (if you see what I mean). Nonetheless, here are a few things I did see and enjoy:
On Tuesday, I had intended to walk south from 14th street to the bottom of Manhattan at Battery Park. Instead, I ended up walking north and west, past Union Square, the Flatiron Building, some government housing and to the Hudson River at Midtown. It's easy to forget in the bustle of Manhattan that there are over 7 million people living just on that one small island. They don't just live up north either - down the west side of the island there are lots of apartment blocks (not all mega-tall) and even three blocks west of Times Square there are 4-storey houses turned into restaurants and apartments. The human side of New York, if you will.
I had a glimpse of how the other half lives when I walked uptown past Central Park to the Upper East side on Wednesday evening. Strolling down Park Avenue with its immaculate flowerbeds in the centre of the road, condos with uniformed doormen outside and money growing on every tree was a somewhat different experience to 5 miles due south of there in the Lower East side. The other, other half eats at hot dog joints and KFC, where a notice says "Nutrition available on request". How true is that!
The weather was great while I was in New York - the sun was out and I had to respond and buy some flip-flops and shorts, which I had no need of in Toronto... the clear skies also made for great sunsets. After walking over the Manhattan Bridge at 6pm, I was perfectly placed to see the skyline silhouetted as the sun went down over the harbour. Very romantic...
As I said earlier, I spent nearly all my time in Manhattan. As I had plenty of time to catch my flight on Thursday, I left the hostel and took the subway to a stop in deepest Brooklyn and then a local bus to the airport. Just like last time, I was able to play "spot the Caucasian" and I still got to the airport ahead of time.
So, one city down, several more to go. Watch this (cyber)space!
It's high time that I wrote a blog on New York, seeing as I left there two days ago. When I last wrote, I had just arrived in the East Village with its ghetto hostels and different shops and restauarants. I spent basically the whole time I was in New York walking around the city, and mostly in Manhattan.
This was my third trip to New York, so there were some activities and sights I didn't need to do - the Empire State building, the Staten Island ferry and so on. I think that after this visit I'm pretty much done with NYC for a while - it is very big and diverse, but the diversity is quite similar (if you see what I mean). Nonetheless, here are a few things I did see and enjoy:
On Tuesday, I had intended to walk south from 14th street to the bottom of Manhattan at Battery Park. Instead, I ended up walking north and west, past Union Square, the Flatiron Building, some government housing and to the Hudson River at Midtown. It's easy to forget in the bustle of Manhattan that there are over 7 million people living just on that one small island. They don't just live up north either - down the west side of the island there are lots of apartment blocks (not all mega-tall) and even three blocks west of Times Square there are 4-storey houses turned into restaurants and apartments. The human side of New York, if you will.
I had a glimpse of how the other half lives when I walked uptown past Central Park to the Upper East side on Wednesday evening. Strolling down Park Avenue with its immaculate flowerbeds in the centre of the road, condos with uniformed doormen outside and money growing on every tree was a somewhat different experience to 5 miles due south of there in the Lower East side. The other, other half eats at hot dog joints and KFC, where a notice says "Nutrition available on request". How true is that!
The weather was great while I was in New York - the sun was out and I had to respond and buy some flip-flops and shorts, which I had no need of in Toronto... the clear skies also made for great sunsets. After walking over the Manhattan Bridge at 6pm, I was perfectly placed to see the skyline silhouetted as the sun went down over the harbour. Very romantic...
As I said earlier, I spent nearly all my time in Manhattan. As I had plenty of time to catch my flight on Thursday, I left the hostel and took the subway to a stop in deepest Brooklyn and then a local bus to the airport. Just like last time, I was able to play "spot the Caucasian" and I still got to the airport ahead of time.
So, one city down, several more to go. Watch this (cyber)space!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Checking in
Long Beach, California
This is a slightly different transit experience to the last time I had to change planes, on January 2nd. On that occasion I landed at Newark airport near New York with 80 minutes between flights. I had to go through US customs, pick up my baggage, carry it to the recheck point, find the check-in desks, check-in, go through US customs again, and find the gate. Needless to say, I didn’t make it! Here I am in Long Beach airport, one of jetBlue’s hubs. JetBlue is a low-cost airline but with some frills, like seat-back TV and some free food. They’re onto something with this Long Beach lark – the terminal building is about 20m end to end, and from deplaning to sitting here at the gate for my next flight took literally two minutes!
My next flight leaves in 10 minutes, but I thought I'd take advantage of some free wireless internet and let you know I'm still here! I should have some more internet time over the weekend, and I'll update you on New York, San Francisco and LA. Jackpot.
This is a slightly different transit experience to the last time I had to change planes, on January 2nd. On that occasion I landed at Newark airport near New York with 80 minutes between flights. I had to go through US customs, pick up my baggage, carry it to the recheck point, find the check-in desks, check-in, go through US customs again, and find the gate. Needless to say, I didn’t make it! Here I am in Long Beach airport, one of jetBlue’s hubs. JetBlue is a low-cost airline but with some frills, like seat-back TV and some free food. They’re onto something with this Long Beach lark – the terminal building is about 20m end to end, and from deplaning to sitting here at the gate for my next flight took literally two minutes!
My next flight leaves in 10 minutes, but I thought I'd take advantage of some free wireless internet and let you know I'm still here! I should have some more internet time over the weekend, and I'll update you on New York, San Francisco and LA. Jackpot.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Small world, Big Apple
New York City
New York is a shock to the senses, and always so much bigger, busier and edgier than I imagined. My train got in to Penn Station soon after 10pm, and once I figured out which subway to take (not a problem in Toronto!) there wasn’t much of a wait for a train. Some of the lines are seriously ghetto – graffiti-scratched windows, wannabe gangsters, real gangsters, general lack of maintenance and so on. The hostel I'm staying in is a bit ghetto as well - it's in the East Village which is quite a nice neighbourhood (at 14th and 2nd) but it's certainly solved my oversleeping problem: it turns out that all I needed to do was sleep on a plastic mattress in a small room with 7 other people! Simple solution to a simple problem.
On the subway to the hostel I noticed three people - a gay black man who was talking congenially to the guy next to him; and a couple wearing Sheffield uni hoodies. When they got on I thought to myself "I bet they're going to my hostel." I was right - not only that but they're in my room! After that it didn't surprise me to see the gay black man at the hostel front desk. He's not in my room though.
This blog post is brought to you by Starbucks at 9th and 2nd, in association with T-Mobile wireless hot spots. I wish it could be brought to you by Orange Mocha Frappucino - but they don't do them. It's time to hit the town - bye for now!
New York is a shock to the senses, and always so much bigger, busier and edgier than I imagined. My train got in to Penn Station soon after 10pm, and once I figured out which subway to take (not a problem in Toronto!) there wasn’t much of a wait for a train. Some of the lines are seriously ghetto – graffiti-scratched windows, wannabe gangsters, real gangsters, general lack of maintenance and so on. The hostel I'm staying in is a bit ghetto as well - it's in the East Village which is quite a nice neighbourhood (at 14th and 2nd) but it's certainly solved my oversleeping problem: it turns out that all I needed to do was sleep on a plastic mattress in a small room with 7 other people! Simple solution to a simple problem.
On the subway to the hostel I noticed three people - a gay black man who was talking congenially to the guy next to him; and a couple wearing Sheffield uni hoodies. When they got on I thought to myself "I bet they're going to my hostel." I was right - not only that but they're in my room! After that it didn't surprise me to see the gay black man at the hostel front desk. He's not in my room though.
This blog post is brought to you by Starbucks at 9th and 2nd, in association with T-Mobile wireless hot spots. I wish it could be brought to you by Orange Mocha Frappucino - but they don't do them. It's time to hit the town - bye for now!
End of an era
It’s pretty hard to believe that my time at York is over. Every term at university has gone faster than the one before, and I knew that four months wasn’t a long time – but come on! It really feels like about two weeks ago that I had a 24-hour odyssey from Gatwick to Pearson, via Newark. Was it really three and a half months ago that I met the guys on my corridor? Bumped into Patrick, a friend from home who I didn’t know was coming? Went to my first C4C meeting and met Steve, Andrea, Andrew, Jessie, Josh, Danielle, Ryan, Matt…?
I guess it must have been. The term has been broken up into several pieces though, which made it seem quicker. First of all I had to revise for my exams at the end of January. Then I was looking forward to reading week in mid-February. Then it was only six weeks until the end of classes. Then I had exams to revise for again. Then I had five days left!
Overall, it’s been a fantastic term, probably my best yet. Meeting a whole new group of friends has been great – in Founders, in classes, at church and at C4C. It feels almost strange to know so many people from one city and I definitely have to come back and visit in a year or two – or wait for people to start visiting me :)
I guess it must have been. The term has been broken up into several pieces though, which made it seem quicker. First of all I had to revise for my exams at the end of January. Then I was looking forward to reading week in mid-February. Then it was only six weeks until the end of classes. Then I had exams to revise for again. Then I had five days left!
Overall, it’s been a fantastic term, probably my best yet. Meeting a whole new group of friends has been great – in Founders, in classes, at church and at C4C. It feels almost strange to know so many people from one city and I definitely have to come back and visit in a year or two – or wait for people to start visiting me :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)