Thursday 12th June – Goodbye/Hello

I didn’t have my laptop handy for most of the day (and definitely didn’t have the internet handy) so the following is made up of notes I tried to write down during the day.

6.51am BST
I’m sat on platform 2 in Macc train station with Viva la Vida blaring out my headphones, surrounded by people in grey suits. Despite the weather in England having been really good for the past week or so, the country’s determined to leave me with stereotypical views of its climate. It’s dull, overcast, and drizzling with rain that just helps the people in grey suits blend into the grey background of the town I live in. It’s fair to say that I probably look fairly stupid sat here in green Bermudas.
It occurred as I said goodbye to my dad that I’m not going to see a single familiar face for over 3 months now. This will be the longest I have ever gone without seing my family, and as I walked onto the train platform, I suddenly got overrun with emotions. I feel sad that I am going to be leaving behind so many good things and angry because I feel like I haven’t said goodbye properly to my family. But the weirdest feeling is that of complete and utter loneliness. Despite having sat on this platform countless times before, and despite the fact that I am surrounded by people, I feel totally alone.

8.23am BST
Bored on the train. I’ve been listening to my music all morning (a mistake I was going to later regret), and am now listening to Kool & The Gang. To relive my boredom, I bought 4 tubes of smarties from the shop and eat all the blue ones, to see if Nestle have finally taken notice of my allergy and done something about it.
I’ve started writing a list of things I want to see and do in New York City before my time is up. 3 months sounds like a long time, but if I only get a chance to go into the city one day a week then my time in the city is going to be a lot shorter than 3 months. I think I’m going to try and ‘theme’ each trip in, in the hope of covering as many things as possible. So far I’ve got:
Parks (central park, battery park, brighton beach)
Music (jazz quarter, Harlem, see a musical on Broadway, electric ladyland studios, Lincoln centre) – possibly on the same say I come to see Bloc Party
Buildings (Statue Of Liberty, Empire State Building, Guggenheim Museum, Federal Hall, Grand Central Station, Times Square, Top Of The Rock)
Foreign stuff (Little Korea, Chinatown, Tibet House, Belmont (better than Little Italy apparently)

11.12am BST
Having had no problems getting to the airport or through security (ha! In your face Dad – ye of little faith!), I’m now sat in Terminal 3’s lounge, next to a bunch of Jamaican (maybe) girls who are very loudly checking their MySpaces. What the fuck’s so funny about a MySpace?!

5.26pm EDT (10.26 BST)
We’ve landed in JFK, but have now been waiting to taxi to the terminal for about half an hour. Probably some fat American can’t climb the stairs to the plane. Realised what I’d forgotten aswell – my Bloc Party t-shirt, and a towel. So I’m going to stink until the shops open tomorrow morning. The plane was meant to have hundreds of films to choose from, but it all broke, so we were forced to watch Golden Compass and then some film with The Rock in. The blue smarties haven’t affected me yet, so I eat all the other ones too in the hope that the sugar will keep me going for a bit.

7.30 EDT (12.30am BST) ish
Finally arrived at the hostel – everyone else in my room is doing Camp America instead of work, and everyone seems to be having to get up early tomorrow morning to catch connection trains, planes and buses to their camps. One guy’s got to get up at 2am. So in the hope of sleeping through everyone’s mayhem tomorrow morning, the plan is to get a bit drunk tonight. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep properly then. The hostel’s having a BBQ tonight, but I didn’t come all the way to NYC to spend my time in a hostel. Because of my earlier over-use of the music player on my phone, my battery ran out so I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures on the way into the city, which is a shame, because it would have been nice to show the way that the buildings just get bigger and bigger the closer you get to Manhatten, before rocketing up once you reach the island.

The Rest Of The Evening
On the advice of the stereotypically friendly American front of desk hostel guy, I went for tea in a French restaurant last night called Mattise. They served me asparagus soup (shockingly tasty actually) and Coq au Vin (I lol’d), along with a pint (or whatever it is you get out here) of 7% beer. My accent soon attracted the attention of the women on the next table, and we got chatting about New York. One of them is a doctor at one of the hospitals in the city, and gave me her phone number in case things go tits-up for me. Kinda like the NHS.
They then directed me to a Jazz club on Broadway which does live bands all night, so I spent the rest of the evening sat in there with a few beers, watching some of the most awesome guitar and saxophone playing I’ve ever seen. Also, the drummer looked like Carlton off the Fresh Prince.
I got back in at 11ish, and sat down on my bed to find that some ginger scot was now sleeping in it, so I robbed a different bed and nodded off to the most disturbed nights sleep I’ve ever had.


I feel like a small fish in a very very big pond (or an ocean) in this city, but already I love everything about New York.