Welll I wouldn't call myself one yet, but I'm getting there haha. Pretty sure you have to live in actual Manhattan for more then a year but hey, I can relate to some in the meantime...
1.You say "the city" and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan
2.You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building
3.You're always looking out for cool free things to do in the Village Voice
4.When you're standing in a packed subway car with 200 hundred other people and everyone manages to avoid looking at each other
5.$50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag
6.You live in a building with a larger population than most American towns
7.Your doorman is Russian, your grocer is Korean, your deli man is Israeli, your building super is Italian, your laundry guy is Chinese, your favorite bartender is Irish, your favorite diner owner is Greek, the watchseller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was Pakistani, your newsstand guy is Indian and your favorite falafel guy is Egyptian.
8.You get pissed at people who say they're from NY and they tell you they're from upstate
9.You can pick out the tourists when they turn their heads to the "ladies and gentlemen this is an important announcement from the MTA" message
10.You know what a bodega is.
11.You're on the train and you see two kids walk in and one says "EXCUSE ME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN..."
12.When you're in the background of a tourists' photo.
13.You use the rats in the subway tracks to tell you when the train's approaching the station
14.When you say "mad" and "son"
15.You don't buy newspapers in the morning, because you know somebody will leave theirs on the train
16.Your door has more than three locks.
17.You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
18.You ride in a subway car with no air conditioning just because there are seats available.
19.You don't buy a copy of the Sunday Times without checking if it has all the sections.
20.You've gotten jaywalking down to an art form
21.When you're away from home, you miss "real" pizza and "real" bagels.
22.You hate it when your out of town and you ask people where they're from and they say the city, so you say what part? and they say one the following: New Jersey, Long Island or Westchester. That's not the city!
23.You know that Staten Island, although a borough of New York City, isn't really part of the city at all
24.There are 3 bodegas in a 1 block radius.
25.When you are surprised that other places actually have school sports and cheerleaders
26.You're not in the least bit interested in going to Times Square on New Year's Eve.
27.You wonder what the fuck "pop" is
28.You hate it when people that sit opposite you on the train stare at you.
29.You can ignore homeless people without feeling too bad
30.You know the differences between all the different Ray's Pizzas.
31.The only reason you don't like HS is because NY is the only state with the Regent
32.There's a Kennedy's Fried Chicken close to where you live
33.Your local news is national news.
34.More than half of the people you know have names that take 3+ tries to pronounce correctly
35.There is no North and South ... it's uptown or downtown
36.When you see at least one person you know no matter where u are or when
37.You hate it when ppl who live upstate call themselves "new yorkers?'
38.When you see those big red tourist buses and want to throw shit at them...
39.You can walk through "The City" for hours and not get tired but once your out of NYC and walk for 10 minutes you feel exhausted. (every single time without fail!!)
40.You don't own a "I LOVE NEW YORK" shirt
41.You're so tired of hearing "If you see something say something", or the Spanish version: Si ves algo, di algo, in either the subway or LIRR
42.You watch movies and TV shows "filmed" in NYC and say "wtf..that shit does NOT exist anywhere in the city
43.You have trained yourself to hold your breath upon entering a subway elevator
44.You move up one block to steal the cab from the person waiting for it below you
45.When you've held the trains doors open so you and 50 of your friends can get in.
46.You refuse to eat pizza anywhere other than NYC because the pizza everywhere else is just horrible in comparison
47.You can tell a bum from a crackhead-bum and you disperse your money accordingly
48.You know how to fold the New York Times in half, vertically, so that you can read it on the subway or bus without knocking off other passenger's hats.
49.Someone bumps into you, and you check for your wallet
50.When you refuse to pay for a newspaper ever since the am and metro came out
51.People from other states can't tell a polar bear from a peanut, but they know you're from NY the second you open your mouth.
52.Rather than waiting safely on the sidewalk to cross the street, you wait inches away from speeding traffic waiting to cut through it.
53.You never take the first newspaper in the stack at a news stand.
54.You consider Westchester "upstate"
55.You walk a mile in 13 minutes and think that everything should be open 24/7.
56.Yellow light means speed up. Red light means speed up because you know have that 1 second pause until the other light turns green.
57.Communicating with people on the road only takes one finger.
58.You order your dinner and have it delivered from the place across the street.
59.Rats are your new subway friends.
60.You know exactly which subway car & door is closest to the stairs at the stop ur getting off
61.You have jaywalked in front of a cop. More than once. And they didn't care.
62.You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual
63.You've considered stabbing someone just for saying "The Big Apple"
64.You can't find an umbrella anywhere when its nice out but the second it rains 5 people are fighting to sell them on the same block
65.You haven't seen more than twelve stars in the night sky since you went away to camp as a kid
66.You get lost whenever you drive in long island b/c you're used to all the street being numbered
(25 outta 66, thats like a third. wooh. haha)
Friday, September 18, 2009
You know you're an aupair when...
You know you’re an Au Pair in the USA when…(blue i find true, purple is my comment)
…you always introduce yourself with : ‘Hi! my name is (your name), I’m from (country) and I have (amount of children you are taking care of) children!!’
…everybody is greeting you with a ‘Hi.How are you!’
and you can’t respond fast enough, so you say it first!
…the worst thing is, when the dad is working from home (or mom!!!)
…you know what a S’MORE is (they are soooo good)
…you spent all your money at the MALL and you still have nothing to wear
…you hate Dora, The Wiggles and Thomas
…you say silly instead of stupid
…you go to PLAYDATES
…you’ve seen more movies in one month than in your whole life at home
…you drive ove 30 minutes to a friend and you think it’s not far
…you only have other Au Pairs as your friends (besides one girl but shes a nanny, and she use to be an aupair so i guess it doesnt really count haha)
…you can make bacon (pretty sure i knew how to do this before!)
…you say ‘like’ and ‘totally’ every three words
…someone has asked you stupid questions like:
- ‘do you have cars in your country?’ – ‘You don’t have Valentine’s day?’ – ‘Where is your country?’ (yes! the other day someone asked what language we speak in australia and i had to do everything in my power not to SLAP THEM DOWN! other ones that take the cake are 'do u have traffic lights there' and 'are your native people civilized')
…you don’t think it’s wrong to have cake AND ice cream
…you park as close to the store as possible so you don’t have to walk even one yard too far
…you cherish moments of silence more than ever before
…you notice yourself saying ‘GOOD JOB’ a hundred times a day
…you wonder why you slept the whole night long so uncomfortable and you notice the next morning, you slept on a barbie, a lollypop, sandtoys etc.
…you need to be creative to find new punishments because a time-out doesn’t work anymore
…you have to admit to mistakes you never did or put the blame on you day for day (this is so draining and true and frustrating)
…you’re sure you don’t want own kids within the next 100 years (haha oh god no)
…you know now exactly how difficult it was for your parents to have little kids and you feel like saying thanks for all you’ve done to your mum and dad every day (oops haha was i really this bad? haha)
…you’re ready to drink anytime of the day
…you start to love disney movies again and can copy every passage of them (pretty sure i have always and will always love disney movies)
…you’ve learned what it means to be patient
…you know what a LCC is
…you know that you should never SHAKE A BABY !!! (knew this before)
…you take a nap, after you dropped of the kids at school(after being up for just 2h )
…you are DRIVING to the busstop to pick up your kids, which is only 200 meters from your house.
…the kids call you mum cause you spend too much time with them… (happened for the first time this week haha)
…you think $200 every weekend just for shopping and coffee are not that much
…one cup of coffee doesn`t make you awake anymore, it just makes you alive
…you or your friends are KELLERKINDER!!!! (shoits, froielin!!!)
…you miss the good ol’ days when you were able to go to the bakery and get real bread w/ real butter (not that American shit called bread..haha) (omg its ridiculous, bread here is like candy. not ok)
…you don’t walk into the bank, you use the drive inn to get your money (well my friends drive us)
…you use Purell instead of washing your hands
…instead of singing song from the radio your singing childrens songs
…you always introduce yourself with : ‘Hi! my name is (your name), I’m from (country) and I have (amount of children you are taking care of) children!!’
…everybody is greeting you with a ‘Hi.How are you!’
and you can’t respond fast enough, so you say it first!
…the worst thing is, when the dad is working from home (or mom!!!)
…you know what a S’MORE is (they are soooo good)
…you spent all your money at the MALL and you still have nothing to wear
…you hate Dora, The Wiggles and Thomas
…you say silly instead of stupid
…you go to PLAYDATES
…you’ve seen more movies in one month than in your whole life at home
…you drive ove 30 minutes to a friend and you think it’s not far
…you only have other Au Pairs as your friends (besides one girl but shes a nanny, and she use to be an aupair so i guess it doesnt really count haha)
…you can make bacon (pretty sure i knew how to do this before!)
…you say ‘like’ and ‘totally’ every three words
…someone has asked you stupid questions like:
- ‘do you have cars in your country?’ – ‘You don’t have Valentine’s day?’ – ‘Where is your country?’ (yes! the other day someone asked what language we speak in australia and i had to do everything in my power not to SLAP THEM DOWN! other ones that take the cake are 'do u have traffic lights there' and 'are your native people civilized')
…you don’t think it’s wrong to have cake AND ice cream
…you park as close to the store as possible so you don’t have to walk even one yard too far
…you cherish moments of silence more than ever before
…you notice yourself saying ‘GOOD JOB’ a hundred times a day
…you wonder why you slept the whole night long so uncomfortable and you notice the next morning, you slept on a barbie, a lollypop, sandtoys etc.
…you need to be creative to find new punishments because a time-out doesn’t work anymore
…you have to admit to mistakes you never did or put the blame on you day for day (this is so draining and true and frustrating)
…you’re sure you don’t want own kids within the next 100 years (haha oh god no)
…you know now exactly how difficult it was for your parents to have little kids and you feel like saying thanks for all you’ve done to your mum and dad every day (oops haha was i really this bad? haha)
…you’re ready to drink anytime of the day
…you start to love disney movies again and can copy every passage of them (pretty sure i have always and will always love disney movies)
…you’ve learned what it means to be patient
…you know what a LCC is
…you know that you should never SHAKE A BABY !!! (knew this before)
…you take a nap, after you dropped of the kids at school(after being up for just 2h )
…you are DRIVING to the busstop to pick up your kids, which is only 200 meters from your house.
…the kids call you mum cause you spend too much time with them… (happened for the first time this week haha)
…you think $200 every weekend just for shopping and coffee are not that much
…one cup of coffee doesn`t make you awake anymore, it just makes you alive
…you or your friends are KELLERKINDER!!!! (shoits, froielin!!!)
…you miss the good ol’ days when you were able to go to the bakery and get real bread w/ real butter (not that American shit called bread..haha) (omg its ridiculous, bread here is like candy. not ok)
…you don’t walk into the bank, you use the drive inn to get your money (well my friends drive us)
…you use Purell instead of washing your hands
…instead of singing song from the radio your singing childrens songs
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
New York Scavenger Hunt
Saturday that just passed, I didn't do anything with the girls during the day, just a night at the river.
Sunday that just passsed, was the big aupair New York scavenger hunt. It was suppose to be 700 aupairs from new york, new jersey and conneticut but to me it looked like maybe a bit more then 300 turned up. Team aussie was me, Sarah, Steph & our honourary Frannie who had done the hunt last year. She told us about 5 or so things that she remembered from last year which were like subway cars, empty starbucks cards or bags - things that were pretty easy to get anyway. The other aussie team was Alice & Alissa who had done it last year plus Emily & Danyale. As well as the things they remembered from last year, they also found the list of scavenger items online the day before the hunt and so had bought most of the items from home. A few aussie friends didn't want to do the hunt so they stayed home for the day. I noticed a lot of aupairs came and signed in, then left without doing the hunt - how boring!
We started on the steps of the library and got handed the list at 10.30 and the race began! We had a list of questions to answer about ourselves, about new york and then a list of things to find around the city. It ranged from mundane things like napkins, fortune cookies, straws, chopsticks to more new york things like pretzels, something yankees, something empire state, times sq movie stub etc. I was really proud of myself because I answered about 75% of the new york questions by myself then we googled the rest and asked my host mom about 4.
It was so much fun running around midtown like crazy people trying to get impossible things like hotel recipets, broadway ticket stubs and airplane boarding passes (come on!) and we had so much fun being inventive like putting items together 'pencil' and 'something with big apple on it'....and then even more creative when it said things such as two dollar bill, and as its very hard to find an american one, we used a singapore one instead!!
The race finished at 1230 at Washington Square Park and we waited for about an hour to have the winners announced. Alice and ALissa's team won with 130 points. They got $25 off silverbay each and $25 prepaid visa card each. My team came second!!! With 106 points and got $15 giftcards. We were so so proud of ourselves and most of all had an absolute blast! We got such a high score, especially for our first time!
After we finished we were all tired and exhausted and headed to Whole foods (awesome organic supermarket with a lot of premade salads, hot meals, sandwiches, etc) for a delicious lunch before train home to make it in time for Frannie's host mom's BBQ for Fran's going away. We met her host parents and kids for the first time, and had a great time all the aussies together (me, sarah, steph, frannie, alice, alissa, jade, emily, emma) taking photos and telling stories about how we first met Frannie. It was really sad, but it will be worse this SUnday because that is when we are throwing her going away just from us aussie girls without her host parents, and then she leaves MOnday morning. After the BBQ, the four of us (sarah, steph, fran, me) headed to our fav hangout, the river, and were in the most active, giggly, crazy mood - we took lots of photos and had lots of laughs.
This was definitly one of the top ten days this year.
Sunday that just passsed, was the big aupair New York scavenger hunt. It was suppose to be 700 aupairs from new york, new jersey and conneticut but to me it looked like maybe a bit more then 300 turned up. Team aussie was me, Sarah, Steph & our honourary Frannie who had done the hunt last year. She told us about 5 or so things that she remembered from last year which were like subway cars, empty starbucks cards or bags - things that were pretty easy to get anyway. The other aussie team was Alice & Alissa who had done it last year plus Emily & Danyale. As well as the things they remembered from last year, they also found the list of scavenger items online the day before the hunt and so had bought most of the items from home. A few aussie friends didn't want to do the hunt so they stayed home for the day. I noticed a lot of aupairs came and signed in, then left without doing the hunt - how boring!
We started on the steps of the library and got handed the list at 10.30 and the race began! We had a list of questions to answer about ourselves, about new york and then a list of things to find around the city. It ranged from mundane things like napkins, fortune cookies, straws, chopsticks to more new york things like pretzels, something yankees, something empire state, times sq movie stub etc. I was really proud of myself because I answered about 75% of the new york questions by myself then we googled the rest and asked my host mom about 4.
It was so much fun running around midtown like crazy people trying to get impossible things like hotel recipets, broadway ticket stubs and airplane boarding passes (come on!) and we had so much fun being inventive like putting items together 'pencil' and 'something with big apple on it'....and then even more creative when it said things such as two dollar bill, and as its very hard to find an american one, we used a singapore one instead!!
The race finished at 1230 at Washington Square Park and we waited for about an hour to have the winners announced. Alice and ALissa's team won with 130 points. They got $25 off silverbay each and $25 prepaid visa card each. My team came second!!! With 106 points and got $15 giftcards. We were so so proud of ourselves and most of all had an absolute blast! We got such a high score, especially for our first time!
After we finished we were all tired and exhausted and headed to Whole foods (awesome organic supermarket with a lot of premade salads, hot meals, sandwiches, etc) for a delicious lunch before train home to make it in time for Frannie's host mom's BBQ for Fran's going away. We met her host parents and kids for the first time, and had a great time all the aussies together (me, sarah, steph, frannie, alice, alissa, jade, emily, emma) taking photos and telling stories about how we first met Frannie. It was really sad, but it will be worse this SUnday because that is when we are throwing her going away just from us aussie girls without her host parents, and then she leaves MOnday morning. After the BBQ, the four of us (sarah, steph, fran, me) headed to our fav hangout, the river, and were in the most active, giggly, crazy mood - we took lots of photos and had lots of laughs.
This was definitly one of the top ten days this year.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Coney Island and more
So when I last left you, I was coming off a few quiet weekends and hoping for a big weekend in the city. I've definitly had that now! The past two weekends have been awesome! Starting with first week of September (5/6)...
Saturday morning we all got an early train, Sarah and Steph on one line, me and Frannie on the other, and met at Grand Central. We then got onto a 45 minute subway ride into Brooklyn so we could go to Coney Island. When you consider that Hastings where I live is only about 30 minutes from the city, thats one lonnnnnnnnng subway ride. But we had one of the nicer subways and it wasn't busy so we all got a seat. We were really worried as the subway passed Coney Island, because none of the rides were moving. We'd taken the 9am trains to assure us to get into the city realtively early and when we stepped off the subway it was about 11.30am and no rides were operating! We walked in the direction that the few crowds of people we going, and walked past the famous 'Nathans' a good hot dog place. We saw a really small flea market which basically just had cheap perfume and sunnies - oh and kebabs and dead pigs on the grill grossssss. Then at noon, all the rides started up - big collective sigh of relief!
We walked onto the boardwalk - which was really nice with a few sideshow games, souvinear shops and carnnie/beach food. The beach looked amazing and lots of people were there as it was a 3 days weekend cuz of Labour day. The mini amusement park/carnival is right on the boardwalk, so right next to the beach. There is two famous rides we all wanted to go on - the wonder wheel (ferris wheel) which offered amazing views of the beach, boardwalk and all of Coney Island. After that we got some awful booth photos and then all but Steph went on the infamous Cyclone wooden rollercoaster. It was crazy, so many dips and so fast and jolty.
We then had carnie food - I had corn on the cob and fries. By now it was about 2 or 3, and we decided to head back to Manhattan and go to the Museum of Sex. It was really interesting they had their permenant collection then two exhibitions one about animals and sex, the other about sex and the moving image. It wasn't at all dirty or seedy.
After the museum I was keen for dinner in the city, but the girls wanted to go back to westchester. We ended up getting stuck at Steph's place without a car, so we ended up having chinese delivered!
Next day same girls and I went to the Palisades, which is the 2nd largest shopping centre in all of America. Its about 30 minute drive from my place, over this big bridge over the Hudson. I didn't buy anything (except some aussie chocolates, wooh) and we met Alice & Alissa (lismore girls) for dinner at our favourite restaurant The Cheesecake Factory.
Monday was Labour Day so a few of us had work off. I didn't do much, just chilled at home for a while catching up on stuff, then met girls for starbucks for a bit, then home for a nap, then chilling at the river (best way to end the night!)
Saturday morning we all got an early train, Sarah and Steph on one line, me and Frannie on the other, and met at Grand Central. We then got onto a 45 minute subway ride into Brooklyn so we could go to Coney Island. When you consider that Hastings where I live is only about 30 minutes from the city, thats one lonnnnnnnnng subway ride. But we had one of the nicer subways and it wasn't busy so we all got a seat. We were really worried as the subway passed Coney Island, because none of the rides were moving. We'd taken the 9am trains to assure us to get into the city realtively early and when we stepped off the subway it was about 11.30am and no rides were operating! We walked in the direction that the few crowds of people we going, and walked past the famous 'Nathans' a good hot dog place. We saw a really small flea market which basically just had cheap perfume and sunnies - oh and kebabs and dead pigs on the grill grossssss. Then at noon, all the rides started up - big collective sigh of relief!
We walked onto the boardwalk - which was really nice with a few sideshow games, souvinear shops and carnnie/beach food. The beach looked amazing and lots of people were there as it was a 3 days weekend cuz of Labour day. The mini amusement park/carnival is right on the boardwalk, so right next to the beach. There is two famous rides we all wanted to go on - the wonder wheel (ferris wheel) which offered amazing views of the beach, boardwalk and all of Coney Island. After that we got some awful booth photos and then all but Steph went on the infamous Cyclone wooden rollercoaster. It was crazy, so many dips and so fast and jolty.
We then had carnie food - I had corn on the cob and fries. By now it was about 2 or 3, and we decided to head back to Manhattan and go to the Museum of Sex. It was really interesting they had their permenant collection then two exhibitions one about animals and sex, the other about sex and the moving image. It wasn't at all dirty or seedy.
After the museum I was keen for dinner in the city, but the girls wanted to go back to westchester. We ended up getting stuck at Steph's place without a car, so we ended up having chinese delivered!
Next day same girls and I went to the Palisades, which is the 2nd largest shopping centre in all of America. Its about 30 minute drive from my place, over this big bridge over the Hudson. I didn't buy anything (except some aussie chocolates, wooh) and we met Alice & Alissa (lismore girls) for dinner at our favourite restaurant The Cheesecake Factory.
Monday was Labour Day so a few of us had work off. I didn't do much, just chilled at home for a while catching up on stuff, then met girls for starbucks for a bit, then home for a nap, then chilling at the river (best way to end the night!)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Few quiet ones
So my last blog left you at the end of my holiday. I got back the Friday night, and then that Sunday, Sarah Steph and I all decided to stay in and have a movie marathon, seeing as they wanted to save and my holiday had wiped out my week's pay! We then went out to our fav restaurant The Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
The following weekend, Sarah and Steph ventured to D.C for the weekend, and Frannie came home from her month long holiday. On the Sunday her and I went into the city to walk the streets of Chelsea and into a bit of Greenwich Village. We went into some vintage stores and the Barney's Coop where they send all the sale items from Barney's. It was so scary, because they lead you down a few alleys, into a huge room, make you sign your bag in, and then when you enter the female section, there is women EVERYWHERE! Getting undressed, trying things on, grabbing shamelessly at sale clothes and shoes! It was crazy and very claustrophobic so we got out of there quite quickly! Then we ate lunch at Papaya Grey's, which is a famous hot dog store that also sells Papaya (paw paw) drinks. It was the first good New York hot dog I've had - I don't like the ones they sell in the side vendors, but these ones were amazing.
That night we headed back to Frannie's place and Alissa came over so we could eat dinner and watch the Sex and the City movie.
Then the weekend that has just passed, Saturday Sarah, Steph and I went to see a movie, get a quick bite to eat, and chat at the river. It is now Sunday, 4pm, I'm waiting for the girls to pick me up so we can go out bowling maybe or for dinner. I've had a few good saving/low key weeks so hopefully next weekend I can plan something big in the city, maybe even go to see Wicked!!
The following weekend, Sarah and Steph ventured to D.C for the weekend, and Frannie came home from her month long holiday. On the Sunday her and I went into the city to walk the streets of Chelsea and into a bit of Greenwich Village. We went into some vintage stores and the Barney's Coop where they send all the sale items from Barney's. It was so scary, because they lead you down a few alleys, into a huge room, make you sign your bag in, and then when you enter the female section, there is women EVERYWHERE! Getting undressed, trying things on, grabbing shamelessly at sale clothes and shoes! It was crazy and very claustrophobic so we got out of there quite quickly! Then we ate lunch at Papaya Grey's, which is a famous hot dog store that also sells Papaya (paw paw) drinks. It was the first good New York hot dog I've had - I don't like the ones they sell in the side vendors, but these ones were amazing.
That night we headed back to Frannie's place and Alissa came over so we could eat dinner and watch the Sex and the City movie.
Then the weekend that has just passed, Saturday Sarah, Steph and I went to see a movie, get a quick bite to eat, and chat at the river. It is now Sunday, 4pm, I'm waiting for the girls to pick me up so we can go out bowling maybe or for dinner. I've had a few good saving/low key weeks so hopefully next weekend I can plan something big in the city, maybe even go to see Wicked!!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
My Lovely Little Holiday
My lovely little holiday started Friday 7th August, as soon as my family left for their vacation. Very like me for most things in life (except usually when I travel) I had left things to the last minute. So after the family left, I did a load of laundry, and packed my bag, ticking things off a check list I'd made a few days earlier, so I wasn't completely rushing around like a headless chook!.JPG)
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I then took in the Imax film, that used cute little cartoon characters to explain the creation of the falls. Then you move into a 4D viewing room, where you have to hold onto a handlebar. In 360 degree screen, they take you on a journey through the ice age, through nature, through the creation of the falls, then take you down them. YOu have to hold on because they spray you with water, shake you about, it snows, there is fake lightening. It was so awesome, and I got saturated with water!
Then I lined up for 'Journey through the falls'; which is a serious of tunnels underneath the Canadian falls. You can stand at the end of the tunnel and see the water flowing down in front of your eyes!.JPG)
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and people are so stupid, because they all had their cameras out (as did I) but as we got closer to the falls, they didn't put them away (I did cuz I have brains) and then started crying and complaining when their cameras got wet and wouldn't work!The boat goes first past the America falls, which are beautiful but don't seem as powerful, then you go right up to the Canadian falls and the boat is getting throw in this direction and that direction, and so is everybody on board, everyone is screaming and cheering because they are so close and they are getting so wet. All you can see is water, feel is water, and taste is water! Of course you can feel the wind and power too. It was one of the most amazing experiences of nature, and I Will never forget it.
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I had dinner, and went souvinear shopping (so expensive!) and got my little jar of maple syrup, my cute misty bear
and my usuals (postcards, patches, magnets). Then I waited to view the falls at night. It was really pretty as they shine all the different coloured lights on them, but much more breathtaking and worthwhile in the day. MY camera wouldn't capture the falls at night, but I will always remember them.After this, totally exhausted,I made my way to the bus station to wait until my 1am bus! The bus trip was an absolute disaster, and after I write this blog, I am writing a letter of complaint to greyhound buses. The 1am bus was late picking me up (and I had to pay twice as much for the trip, then stated on the website, for no apparent reason), and then we were alotted a small amount of time to make it through customs, however the American customs people are very thorough and quite frankly very rude, which meant that we took about three times the alotted amount. This factor, plus the initial 30 min late pick up, meant when we arrived at Buffalo, our first rest stop, we were obviously very late. What I didn't realise, was that I was suppose to get on a connecting bus at Buffalo, that would take me to Boston. This is course had left, meaning I had to wait from 3am till 6am at the empty and freezing cold bus terminal until another bus arrived. In the end, a 12 hour trip was suppose to have me into Boston by 130pm, instead the bus crawled in at 530pm. Needless to say that night I slept quite well, and finally in a bed!
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Tuesday, I took a 9am train down to Plymouth, which was about an hour trip. I then bought a pass for the Plymouth trolley and took that straight to Plimoth Plantation (It's spelt differently cuz some old guy back in the day, couldn't spell, so the plantation thought that would be clever name for them. wrong). Annnyway, so P.P is two different colonies the Wampanoag Native Americans and a 17th century pilgrim colony. Then Native Americans aren't roleplayers, but actually Native Americans, who work at the plantation, building things for the village and teaching visitors about their life and history. Some people I found very short and didn't really seem to want to answer any questions, but some people were very talkative and open to even silly questions.
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this lady was lovely! Then onto the pilgrim village, we roleplayers dressed and spoke as those back then did, and got all confused if you me mentioned things like nikes, the internet or obama. Youcould also ask them all kinds of questions about the time or their "history" or "beliefs" - it was a very fascinating museum overall. After this I took the trolley down to the beach, and got the 'world's best icecream' (voted 05) and bought my souvys and then had a gaze at plymouth rock.JPG)
where the pilgrims sailed in on the mayflower. wasn't that exciting, but what was kinda cool was the replica of the mayflower..JPG)
It's run by same people that do the plantation, so it had all roleplayers as the captain, crew and passengers. It was very interesting as well, and down by the beach and wharf was so pretty, it was a lovely end to my day.JPG)
Because I was going to Niagara I decided against taking my laptop, and decided to zip lock everything - camera, cords, passport, money! NOTHING was getting wet!!At 9pm that night, I set off, carrying a backpack and handbag. I walked down to the train station, took the train into Grand Central in the city then taxi to Port Authority where all the buses leave from. My bus was at 11.45pm, and you are suppose to arrive 1 hour before, so I arrived at 10, but the line had already formed, and I was lucky to get the last window seat! I ended up having a guy sit next to me, who used me as a pillow the whole trip! Everytime I tried to move, he would just fall more in my direction, it was so frustrating. The trip was 8 hours, I probably slept for 3 or 4, and arrived safetly in Canada (customs was a breeze) at 9am.
I decided to go for a pass that included transport, through the falls, maid of mist, imax and white rapids walk. I took the 5 minute bus from the bus station to the main strip of Niagara. They dropped me at the first lookout and the falls were utterly breathtaking!
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I decided to go for a pass that included transport, through the falls, maid of mist, imax and white rapids walk. I took the 5 minute bus from the bus station to the main strip of Niagara. They dropped me at the first lookout and the falls were utterly breathtaking!
On the Canadian side, you really get the best view, because you can see across to the American, and you can look across to or stand literally right next to the Canadian (or horseshoe falls). Its funny because on one side you have these amazing powerful forces of nature, and then on the land you have all these touristy gimmicks, and amusement parks and casinos. Its ridiculous. After I got my first glimpse, I wanted to get closer, so I went right over to the Canadian falls, and looked from right next to it. I could see the river that lead up to the falls and the water gushing over the top..JPG)
I then took in the Imax film, that used cute little cartoon characters to explain the creation of the falls. Then you move into a 4D viewing room, where you have to hold onto a handlebar. In 360 degree screen, they take you on a journey through the ice age, through nature, through the creation of the falls, then take you down them. YOu have to hold on because they spray you with water, shake you about, it snows, there is fake lightening. It was so awesome, and I got saturated with water!Then I lined up for 'Journey through the falls'; which is a serious of tunnels underneath the Canadian falls. You can stand at the end of the tunnel and see the water flowing down in front of your eyes!
Another tunnel takes you to a landing, thats half way down the falls, and literally right next to them..JPG)
This tied with the Maid of the Mist, as the best Niagara experience. You really got a sense of the power of the falls, even though you could hardly look at them from all the water sweeping down into you!
After lunch I took the 'White Water Rapid Walk' which is located a few ks (omg they use the metric system in Canada, horray!) down from the base of the falls. You walk along side the rapids, on a wooden boardwalk, and see classification 6 (highest classification) white water rapids, in fact the Niagara ones are said to be the world's most dangerous!
Finally, in the afternoon, I got to the 'Maid of the Mist'. I wanted to leave it to last, so I wasn't walking around wet. The sight of all these little blue people boarding a ferry is hilarious
This tied with the Maid of the Mist, as the best Niagara experience. You really got a sense of the power of the falls, even though you could hardly look at them from all the water sweeping down into you!After lunch I took the 'White Water Rapid Walk' which is located a few ks (omg they use the metric system in Canada, horray!) down from the base of the falls. You walk along side the rapids, on a wooden boardwalk, and see classification 6 (highest classification) white water rapids, in fact the Niagara ones are said to be the world's most dangerous!
Finally, in the afternoon, I got to the 'Maid of the Mist'. I wanted to leave it to last, so I wasn't walking around wet. The sight of all these little blue people boarding a ferry is hilarious and people are so stupid, because they all had their cameras out (as did I) but as we got closer to the falls, they didn't put them away (I did cuz I have brains) and then started crying and complaining when their cameras got wet and wouldn't work!The boat goes first past the America falls, which are beautiful but don't seem as powerful, then you go right up to the Canadian falls and the boat is getting throw in this direction and that direction, and so is everybody on board, everyone is screaming and cheering because they are so close and they are getting so wet. All you can see is water, feel is water, and taste is water! Of course you can feel the wind and power too. It was one of the most amazing experiences of nature, and I Will never forget it.I had dinner, and went souvinear shopping (so expensive!) and got my little jar of maple syrup, my cute misty bear and my usuals (postcards, patches, magnets). Then I waited to view the falls at night. It was really pretty as they shine all the different coloured lights on them, but much more breathtaking and worthwhile in the day. MY camera wouldn't capture the falls at night, but I will always remember them.After this, totally exhausted,I made my way to the bus station to wait until my 1am bus! The bus trip was an absolute disaster, and after I write this blog, I am writing a letter of complaint to greyhound buses. The 1am bus was late picking me up (and I had to pay twice as much for the trip, then stated on the website, for no apparent reason), and then we were alotted a small amount of time to make it through customs, however the American customs people are very thorough and quite frankly very rude, which meant that we took about three times the alotted amount. This factor, plus the initial 30 min late pick up, meant when we arrived at Buffalo, our first rest stop, we were obviously very late. What I didn't realise, was that I was suppose to get on a connecting bus at Buffalo, that would take me to Boston. This is course had left, meaning I had to wait from 3am till 6am at the empty and freezing cold bus terminal until another bus arrived. In the end, a 12 hour trip was suppose to have me into Boston by 130pm, instead the bus crawled in at 530pm. Needless to say that night I slept quite well, and finally in a bed!The next day (Monday, in case you lost track), I met up with Allysha, one of the girls I flew over with. We walked part of the Boston Freedom Trail (a walk through the town, stopping at historic places and buildings) and saw the Public Library, the Boston Gardens and the Boston Common. The Gardens have the swan boat rides, which are known to Boston, and looked so fun, but I didn't end up going on. The Common was okay, basically another name for a park haha. Then we had lunch at Quincy Markets, which like last time, I loved. Then a brief stroll (With some yummy icecream) down to the wharf, and lazyed around chatting till dinner time.
Tuesday, I took a 9am train down to Plymouth, which was about an hour trip. I then bought a pass for the Plymouth trolley and took that straight to Plimoth Plantation (It's spelt differently cuz some old guy back in the day, couldn't spell, so the plantation thought that would be clever name for them. wrong). Annnyway, so P.P is two different colonies the Wampanoag Native Americans and a 17th century pilgrim colony. Then Native Americans aren't roleplayers, but actually Native Americans, who work at the plantation, building things for the village and teaching visitors about their life and history. Some people I found very short and didn't really seem to want to answer any questions, but some people were very talkative and open to even silly questions.
this lady was lovely! Then onto the pilgrim village, we roleplayers dressed and spoke as those back then did, and got all confused if you me mentioned things like nikes, the internet or obama. Youcould also ask them all kinds of questions about the time or their "history" or "beliefs" - it was a very fascinating museum overall. After this I took the trolley down to the beach, and got the 'world's best icecream' (voted 05) and bought my souvys and then had a gaze at plymouth rockwhere the pilgrims sailed in on the mayflower. wasn't that exciting, but what was kinda cool was the replica of the mayflower.It's run by same people that do the plantation, so it had all roleplayers as the captain, crew and passengers. It was very interesting as well, and down by the beach and wharf was so pretty, it was a lovely end to my day Wednesday's plan was Salem, and I was most excited about visiting here. I wanted to catch the 8am bus, to be there by 9, to make sure I got everything in. So I ended up waking up way to early, and waited around for 30mins at the bus stop, took the 740 bus, and got there at 840, and found out nothing opened till 10! But at least I was first in line for the trolley and bright and ready :D
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I did one whole run on the trolley, to hear all the history of the town - the architecture, maritime history, witch trial history and literature history. It was really interesting and is such a beautiful town with lovely homes and buildings. The first museum I went to was the Witch History Museum.It had pretty poor audioanimatronics.JPG)
but it still told the story well. A priest and his daughter and niece moved to the town of salem, and bought with them their slave Tatunya from Barbados. She began to tell the girls stories of voodoo and witchcraft, and then the girls began to fall ill, sometimes going days without speaking, moving, blinking and being stiff as a board. They would hurl their bibles, acting crazy, speaking in tongues or worse. So they went to the doctor, and he said he could find nothing physically wrong with them so it must be spiritual. Then the word witch got brought up and its all down hill from there. The girls began accusing everyone under the sun, those people accused others - even a 4 year old girl accused her mother! In the end 19 people were hung and one person was crushed to death by rocks. In the end the girls revealed it was all bullshit, and now its all history. As dreadful as this time in American history was, it was rather a blip on the timeline when you compare it to the thousands of people persacuted for being witches in Europe.So back to my trip...after the witch history musem I went to the salem witch museum, .JPG)
where they pretty much did exactly the same thing - retold the story with audioanimatronics, pretty lights, and deep scary voices. Same thing again at the Witch Dungeon. I missed out on going to the pirate museum because it closed early, but the witch museums were my top priority. Each one was very good, but they were all so similar it would have been okay just to go to one. While I was in Salem, I also saw a psychic. I wasn't going to originally because I thought being Salem, they were probably all fake and gimmicky, however then I found a lady who had been dubbed the 'witch of massachusetts' by the govener, so made an appointment with her. Unfortunately she wasn't there, and I saw her assistant, and I didn't think he was very good at all, to say the least!I ended up leaving on the bus at about 730, home about 9, and crawled into bed very exhausted but happy!.JPG)
I did one whole run on the trolley, to hear all the history of the town - the architecture, maritime history, witch trial history and literature history. It was really interesting and is such a beautiful town with lovely homes and buildings. The first museum I went to was the Witch History Museum.It had pretty poor audioanimatronics but it still told the story well. A priest and his daughter and niece moved to the town of salem, and bought with them their slave Tatunya from Barbados. She began to tell the girls stories of voodoo and witchcraft, and then the girls began to fall ill, sometimes going days without speaking, moving, blinking and being stiff as a board. They would hurl their bibles, acting crazy, speaking in tongues or worse. So they went to the doctor, and he said he could find nothing physically wrong with them so it must be spiritual. Then the word witch got brought up and its all down hill from there. The girls began accusing everyone under the sun, those people accused others - even a 4 year old girl accused her mother! In the end 19 people were hung and one person was crushed to death by rocks. In the end the girls revealed it was all bullshit, and now its all history. As dreadful as this time in American history was, it was rather a blip on the timeline when you compare it to the thousands of people persacuted for being witches in Europe.So back to my trip...after the witch history musem I went to the salem witch museum, where they pretty much did exactly the same thing - retold the story with audioanimatronics, pretty lights, and deep scary voices. Same thing again at the Witch Dungeon. I missed out on going to the pirate museum because it closed early, but the witch museums were my top priority. Each one was very good, but they were all so similar it would have been okay just to go to one. While I was in Salem, I also saw a psychic. I wasn't going to originally because I thought being Salem, they were probably all fake and gimmicky, however then I found a lady who had been dubbed the 'witch of massachusetts' by the govener, so made an appointment with her. Unfortunately she wasn't there, and I saw her assistant, and I didn't think he was very good at all, to say the least!I ended up leaving on the bus at about 730, home about 9, and crawled into bed very exhausted but happy!The next day I had originally set aside as a spare day, to do whatever I missed out on or whatever I could find. So earlier that week I had decided to go whale watching. However, when I woke up on Thursday I was in so much pain from my blisters on my feet, I literally couldn't move. I ended up skipping the whale watching, and stayed in bed till I could walk, then took a bus to the movies.
Friday, my bus to new york left at 1230, and I got in at 6, and met up with the girls that night! Such an awesome holiday in the end, I loved it so much!
Friday, my bus to new york left at 1230, and I got in at 6, and met up with the girls that night! Such an awesome holiday in the end, I loved it so much!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Quick Catch Up....
So after the last post, I had two weekends with not two much going on. The first weekend, a good friend of mine here lost someone back home, so me and the girls put all plans on hold to be there for her. The following weekend, we had a farewell party for Matt on the Friday night. We knew we couldn't afford anything fancy, so decided to be as lame as possible with party hats, kids games, leis and of course some vodka in water bottles haha. Then Saturday morning Frannie left on her one month vacation, and on the Monday, Matt moved to a family in Minnesota. Frannie is having her vacation before the end of her work time. She went to Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles, she gets back this friday and then has 3 more weeks work before she finishes aupairing and moves back to Germany! So sad!
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