Knees and Sharks

Okay, I am at the doctors waiting to get my ears washed out... so I have a little more time to type!

On Monday, I woke up and realized I needed a haircut. I got an appointment for the next day! The girl that had trimmed my bangs did not trim them enough, so I went to a different school that ended up being cheaper AND had better reviews. It was a funky place, and the stylist was good :) I was so pleased that later on in the day I took pictures of my hair on the webcam built into this. I should use it more!


Sooo that appointment was 1230, and I had another at McGill at 3:00. I walked all the way down to McGill, but I was still there an hour early or so. I don't know if I mentioned this before on here, but ever since that one night of hardcore hula hooping my left knee has been acting up. An outer tendon or ligament was getting really really painful if I walked around for too long. If I gave it a rest it would help, and in the mornings I wouldn't feel it for up to a half hour later (unless I had been walking a lot the night before...) which to me spells.....

Tendonitis.

The hour sitting on a table reading and watching students come and go by the elevators actually ended up being a welcome and good thing! The study itself was quick - I just pushed some buttons on a computer in response to pictures - and they gave me ten bucks. Yay! That means so far I've made 20 dollars here.

I decided that it was going to be too much for my knee to walk up the hill all the way back to the plateau, so I walked/hobbled to the Metro instead.

Marco and I had a Documentary-fest that night. There were a bunch on volcanoes, and one on sharks. The volcanoes series was interesting, but the one that really stuck out was Sharkwater. It was a cheesy name, and started off cheesy as well, but it turned into the opposite! It got into the shark finning industry, government corruption, and it had scenes where the filmers were escaping central america by boat being chased by the coast guard with machine guns! I recommend it!

I recieved some very good news about taxes on Tuesday too :)

On Wednesday, I met Renaud for coffee. I had not seen Renaud for years - he had disappeared (ie. worked a lot and got engaged) even before leaving Vancouver for Montreal. So after two years I got to share a hot drink and catch up with Renaud. He showed me this rad little bistro place with organic food and homeade chai. He had to go to school though, so the meeting was only a couple hours.

I went back and prepared to mail things home. A new Couchsurfer was arriving today! I had been the only one so far in the week or so that I'd been staying there, but that was about to change (for pretty much the rest of the time). Marco and Alex were both going to be at school possibly, so I tried to get back in time. I managed to get to the post office and mail my stuff before anyone was back. Marco arrived and then the couchsurfer. Her name's Stacey, and she was from Florida.

I got along with stacey instantly! I liked her. She arrived as I was getting really hungry, so the two of us went out for dinner! We went to the place with the shark coming out of the roof (I was curious - plus the shark movie had me thinking of this place). It turned out to be a fake mexican restaurant. I say fake because I had a burger lol. It was good though!

We got beer on the way back, and had one or two while watching Trainspotting. Both Marco and Stacey hadn't seen it, but both had heard of it. I said it was good, but felt bad afterward since I didn't think about the accents. If English is not your first language, it would be so hard to understand what the crap people are saying in that movie. Especially if you aren't used to thick scottish accents. Marco fell asleep.

Strange Places with Angela

okay so there are a couple days here that are a bit spotty... might add more things as we go, but right now I have about an hour or so before I might be meeting up with someone....

So I was having trouble remembering what I did on Sunday March 29th... considering it's the 15 of April today I'm not overly surprised. My theory from trying to write out things point-form in wordpad is that I showed Marco hula hooping videos on YouTube, then we watched the Frighteners. This was in rebuttal to Beetlejuice since Marco said he liked this movie better as a kid.

It was pretty cool, from what I remember.

On Monday, Rebecca (the girl shooting the documentary) came by to get us all to sign consent forms for being in her movie! I am looking forward to seeing my two blips in her film :)

After this I went down to see the library again. Unfortunately, Monday is the only day it's closed. Fortunately, it's connected to the biggest Metro Station in Montreal. On whim, I decided to go see the Olympic Stadium out futher east than I had been yet.

It was raining but not especially windy, so armed with my unbrella I walked around the Stadium, I took a picutre of some very tattered flags. I was the only one around for a while, so I got all contemplative and starting singing a little in the rain. I wallked around the biodome and such, but it was past five so it was closed. It looked a lot cooler than I thought it would be though, and I made a mental note to come back here.



After a while the rain started getting colder. It was starting to get dark by the time I got back. It was soup weather. I had organic soup at the house, so I made myself said soup and read on the couch for a couple hours maybe. It added to my quiet Leanne day.

This is when Angela called wanting to go for a walk! She walked up the hill to the house, and we took off on a random adventure! It worked out really well. We walked up around an area called Mile End. We found a restaurant with a shark coming out the front, We found interesting looking stores. We also found a few really weird buildings. One had a puddle shaped driveway/moat thing around it. I say moat because it was really deep - like a foot deep around this building emitting yellow light with barred up windows with things covering up what was behind them. We saw an open part and we had to look in.

Curiousity turned into confusion when the building was empty except for a surplus of fold-up tables. They were propped up along all the walls on the inside (blocking the windows a lot of the times) and one side had some disassembled park benches in a corner. Hmmmm. We weren't sure what was going on, so after looking for some sort of label (and failing at that) we left.

There were lots of other interesting buildings and things, so we got a little lost. We ended up arriving where we started at about eleven, and I was tired for some reason. I had been walking a lot I guess. I came back and meddled around before falling asleeeeeeeep!

okay gotta go!

Poutine, VISA mishaps, and Crafts

wow.. I am so behind still... I have about 45 minutes here so I'll try to type as fast as I can!

Ok so March 26th was a Thursday. I woke up and decided that my bangs were really in my face. I had gotten a bang trim for free in a school in San Francisco, so I figured why not try that again! I found a school two blocks away and sure enough, bang trims were free:)

Now that I could see properly, I was eager to use the new craft supplies I had bought. The bead store had a table in the back with lots of tools etc. where it looked like they gave classes on beadworking... I headed to the bead store and was able to use their equipment no problem. They remembered me from yesterday. I made a couple pairs, but getting started always takes the longest, and the feathers turned out to be kinda crappy.

Hunger kicked in. I didn't want to spend more money when I had groceries at the house though, so I walked all the way home and cooked myself dinner. While I was doing that, I decided why not start on the brownies?! I started reading on the couch in the kitchen waiting for them to cook, eating my dinner, and ended up falling asleep on the couch.

There had been talk of going to the sheesha lounge in the evening, but it was raining so it was called off. I was fine with that considering I had fallen asleep making brownies (don't worry I didn't burn them - I had set an alarm on my phone).

So instead the projector was used - we watched Beetlejuice with french subtitles so that I can learn more French :D

Over half the brownies were gone by that night haha.

The next day I was woken up by a phone call. It was Steve, someone I'd met from the Yukon while at the India House Hostel in New Orleans! He was in town for the day! I got out of bed and met him at the Berri Uqam Metro.

I was going to do a couple things that day, so we both went and got our picture taken at McGill (for that we're entered into a draw to win $50) and then got a list of movies that are shooting in town from an agency to see about extra work.

Next up was cheap pizza. It was such a beautful day we just sat on a bench outside eating pizza and talking :) When it was 5pm, we went to La Distillerie for the cheap mason jars full of alcohol that I had tried with Amy and Shareem last Friday. We met one of Steve's friends there, and the three of us had our yummy booze jars.

I was supposed to get back to the house to get to a house party, but when I went to close up there was a problem.

I went to sign my visa bill, but it was for the wrong amount.

It was also the wrong name.

It was also the wrong card.

I showed the bartender that it wasn't my bill, and he went "oh no... that's the only VISA I have, I must have given your card to that guy" this other guy had signed my bill with his name not noticing that our cards were different.

Shit.

I had to go outside and spend twenty plus minutes on the phone with Visa cancelling my card, and getting a new one mailed out to me. The guy on the phone was hilarious - he started going on about his travels, yapping away, while he figured all the stuff out.

I find this happens to me a lot. I don't know if people who spend all day on the phone get lonely, and just want to talk to anyone who will talk to them, or if they have that job they do becuase they like to chat with strangers on the phone.

Anyways, I get that all sorted out and the bar people feel really bad. They offer me free whatever I want. I ask for a gin and tonic and they give me a double :) Steve and his friend are leaving though, so I have nobody to drink this big drink with, and I have to get back to the house!

I sit down at the bar at one of the bartender's request. Between him and these two crazy french girls I am super entertained! To the point where I'm pretty sure if I had been stuck at that bar for real, I could have had a good time there all night - something that I had not felt since New Orleans. It was nice.

I walked up the hill exremely fast due to my inebriation.
When I got to the house an hour late or something, people were sitting on the couch drinking beer and playing mario. I wasn't late then yay!

We went out to the house party - pretty much all the people there were Franco, so I was much more shy than usual. I don't feel as comfortable approaching people speaking French (especially when I have no idea what kind of conversation I am interrupting) at a party and starting to blabber on in English. Just doesn't seem right. I got over it though, once everyone realized I didn't understand too well and spoke English to me.

I started to feel the effects of drinking since 5pm at about 3am... I was getting tired. By 330 I was sitting down and didn't really feel like partying anymore. Luckily another girl was feeling the same way so Marco and I shared a cab with the girl (I forget her name! and her boyfriend.

We got poutine at a restaurant and waiting for that was when I really started to feel like death. I was getting hung over, except all those horrible things that happen while you are asleep were happening to me while awake. I fell asleep face down fully clothed on the couch the second I got in the door.

Magically, I was okay the next morning!
Poutine really is the God of all hangover cures!

I was supposed to go to a potluck party at the house I used to be staying at. I arrived two hours late, but other people were arriving at the same time as me, so oh well.

I stayed for an hour in the sunshine (this was the warmest day I'd experienced since getting here) then I was off to a hoop class!

I was the only one who showed up due to the nice weather on a Saturday afternoon, so we took the class outside in the park!! It was rad - a contact juggler approached us and starting doing his thing with us while we hooped. It was a really good class - I learned a lot. I walked back in the sunshine with Becca, back to the potluck. It was still going. There was a fire though! As it got dark, we roasted marshmallows.

I was getting too relaxed. I was supposed to go out to a couchsurfing meet, but I was too tired. Amy was also going to go out somewhere closer, so I opted for maybe joining her, but she fell asleep and then was too tired herself to go. I was kind of relieved, so I went for a short walk while eating an apple, and ended up watching Wall-I on the projector :D It was rad to see it on a big screen.

Sunday was a pretty chill day. I got some cereal, went to the library. The library is HUGE! Well actually it's probably about the same size as the Vancouver Library. But it had a language learning section, so I looked at some french stuff, and read my book until closing time :)

I had brought my computer with me as well, so I went to the coffee shop and typed out some stuff there (the internet was too shitty to really use that much).

I can't really remember what I did after that right now, so I will leave it at that until I do some more memory diving. Peace!!

St Paddy's Parade and Moving to Marco's

I am slowly catching up - I am definitely going to forget stuff though...

okay, so I left off Saturday night. I woke up on Sunday at around noon, my usual time, and headed down to the parade! Kyle, Brittany, and friends were already down there (as previously mentioned, they intended to start drinking at ten or so). Surprisingly, I found them very easily! Beer was opened. Beer was consumed... yelling commenced..

even though I was relatively drunk, seeing this parade after Mardi Gras was... cute. It was on such a smaller scale than what I was used to! There were fire trucks and people walking around, random cars... The few floats there were didn't throw anything but it was still entertaining to yell at things. I could even run across the parade to use a pub bathroom on the other side. Here are some photos:










yep. Those two painted guys were not even in the parade... they just were like that when we saw them lol.

After the parade we walked down St. Cathrines and found a sketchy dive bar. There was someone in there with one leg. The jukebox worked! We made use of this!



We decided on food on the way up, so we stopped at Frite Alors. Next up was the grocery store (btw Quebec sells beer in the grocery store just like most of the the States does!) and then the house. Here we had a little youtube party! We watched Australian comedy shows, and stuff like that.

I GOT MY PHONE THAT NIGHT!!!! HOW EXCITING IS THAT!!!! I was so happy. I had to look everywhere for about twenty minutes to find the bloody SIM card I had bought though - that was a scary moment!

I went to bed very happy about my phone, and excited about moving into a new house! :)

Turns out the house I was switching two was a whopping two blocks away. They are short blocks at that! I didn't have to be there until after seven so I slept in, bought groceries, and did some dishes. While I was out grocery shopping I went clothes shopping a bit too... I bought a pair of pants (one pair is not enough in cold weather!) and two shirts. I bought a necklace but it seems to have broken already: Gotta fix that. I was able to fit everything into my pack still, so that was encouraging...

I ate dinner and took off for the new house! I found it, but no one was home yet. I read my book in a subway sandwich store across the street, and then when I was sick of reading I arrived and people were home :)

This place was so much better than the last! It was super clean, big couch, projector for movies, constant fast wireless internet, and a cute pet rat! Two brothers live here Marco (the person I had talked to via couchsurfing) and his brother Alex. Marco is in school for enginieering and works for the movie theatre. Alex is in school for fashion design and works at an ice cream store. Oh yes the freezer has like 10 different kinds of ice cream haha. Both brothers are super chill - I knew I was going to like it here when they asked me if I wanted to watch Robot Chicken with them on my first night. Oh yes my couch also turns into a bedddddddd.

I was informed that a girl had been filming them for a documentary on couchsurfing, and would like to film surfers the next day. I of course said yes!

so the next day I got up, and went to do a computer study thing at McGill. I found the building no problem, answered random questions, and got ten bucks for it. Wahoo! So on my way back I tried to maneuver as much as possible underground. There are so many malls downtown. I am not used to malls. I got lost. I ended up using my ten dollars to get lunch from the food court while lost. I found a metro eventually though, and I was off!

When I came back, the girl shooting the documentary came over and filmed me on the couch. We tried to film me doing laundry but the stupid washer was in use (its a shared apartment washer/dryer type deal).

Post filming, I remember watching South Park for ages while doing stuff on the computer. I think I was up kinda late doing that...

The next day was a craft supplies hunt! I decided I wanted to make some earrings, so Alex and I went out. It was SO NICE OUT! He helped me find a bead store - I bought some stuff for making earrings, and decided that I had to spend as much time outside as possible while it was so sunny. I dropped off my stuff, Alex went to work, and I brought my french tapes and my hula hoops to the park.

The ground was wayyyy too mushy to do anything interesting with the hula's, plus it was not warm enough to be without ANY coat... so I mostly listened to the tapes repeating stuff while just hooping around the waist. I came back from the park after this and decided to go down to a fair trade coffee shop named Pi on St. Laurant. I read for a while, enjoyed my drink, then stopped by the grocery store on the way back.

I bought brownie mix on a whim.

When I got home, Alex was home from work already and funnily enough had brought chocolate home from work!

speaking of chocolate, It's time to eat.

Vancouver Friends and Foufounes

Post St. Patty's was not as bad as I thought it would be, although I slept in a lot...

I had a little headache.

I looked for easy ways to make some cash on craigslist, knitted, layed around... in the evening the Contemporary Art Museum has a free night.

Pablo, Tim, and I went to free night! I looked around, they looked at art magazines that normally would cost lots of money. Other than the fact that I was staring at brightly painted circles/targets/monoliths with a headache it was quite nice :)

We came back and watched OZ (the prison show). I met the other roomate finally!

The next day I decided to be a little more productive! I went to look for a few massage schools to check out for cheap massage, and also to look if they posted jobs at the school or something.

I searched, but found one out of three sucessfully. I had drawn dots onto a map to show where they were, but didn't write down addresses. lesson learned. The one place looked nice, but they asked me instantly if I knew French. Not a good sign. I had a really nice walk around looking for the massage places though... explored a new part of Montreal! Plus it was so sunny and beautiful! I got another french tape under my belt while walking.

I went downtown to look at a few other things, continued my walk-a-thon. I gave in and ordered a code for my other phone, because the other one wasn't working... I was getting way too impatient. Parts are a bit spotty, but I know I ended the night watching the rest of season 2 of Deadwood.

The next day I wrote down the addresses. I found the first one right away (I had walked by it somehow the day before). I got a massage! It was fantastic. Amy got a hold of me, so after the massage I showed up at her house - we met with another of Amy's friends and we all went to a happy hour :)

This place played good music and served yummy drinks in giant mason jars. One will get you tipsy for sure - we all had one then shared another... we were definitely feeling it. We decided to go up to the top of Mont Royal to look at the city lit up at night!

After a stop for to-go beers, we took a bus to the top of the mountain. It was so Beautiful! I tried to take some pictures but they do not give it justice.





We had an interesting time getting down! It was dark and snowy and sometimes kinda steep - with lots of pure ice. We slipped, skidded and slid and somehow did not die going down the side of the thing! It was tons of fun going from tree to tree, sometimes going down on our butts.

The girls were getting tired so they went home, but I was super awake! I met up with Angela a few minutes after Amy and Shareen took off. I ordered donuts in French while I waited - no english at all! I was so proud!

Angela and I went to foufounes for one drink. We were not really feeling it so much tonight - the music wasn't that great, and it wasn't as interesting. Sooo we tried a punk bar. There was a punk show! It was free! The two of us stayed here till the show was over. I ran into someone I had met on St. Patty's at foufounes... it was so weird! We ended up taking a taxi back to East Island and hung out there till way too late.

The next morning was rough at first. I was really hung over until I went outside. It was sunny and beautiful again! I was in a quaint quiet part of town. There was a park right there on the water, so got to sit on a park bench in the sun and fresh air looking at the river :)

To give a little background, the farther east you go in Montreal the more Franco it gets, the farther West gets more Anglo.

After I rested on the bench a bit, I was fine to get back. I rested a little more when I got back to the Plateau. There was a DJ show in the night - so I wanted to be fresh and ready! I got myself ready, talked to Angela, had a nap... people came over and to be honest I didn't really care for a few of them (the other aussie is really nice tho). I was pleased to be leaving to go dancing...

And dance I did! Brought a hoop too!

In fact, after meeting Nathalie and her boy... and dancing sans circle for a bit... the hoops came out! Hoopdance!

Her teacher Rebecca came out with her hoop too, so we had a section taken over to the right of the stage.

When this was just not possible (some guy kept complaining we were too close to the VIP entrance) we moved closer to the back of the building (it was HUGE and took over a large area! There were 5 hoops there total - three of us - so there were strangers trying it out CONSTANTLY! It was a huge hoop party! I hooped it up hardcore! Hours later and many water bottles later, I was exhausted. Nathalie left, then around 230 Becca and I got poutine with someone else.



Walking up the hill bright eyed, sober, and happy... I walked straight into Pablo and Tim at an intersection! It was so weird! They were getting Tim's bike. We walked back together, and ate dolche de leche.

People were awake and slightly drunk at the house. The annoying people had left, and Brittney and Kyle were talking about getting up early for the St. Patty's day parade on Sunday (which was the next morning)! Kyle wanted to get up at 10am to start drinking to be drunk for the parade. I said that was crazy. I was not going to sacrifice my 8 hours of sleep if I was to be drunk all day the next day. On that note, I went to bed lol.

mmmmmm dolche de leche.

Graffiti in Montreal

So my first actual day started pretty late. I really did need that sleep.

I made up for it though by walking for a lot of the afternoon! I took pictures of graffiti:













I love the graffiti here!! It's sooooo well done!!

I figure if it looks better than the wall it has only done it's job.

Soooooo yes I walked all the way down St. Laurant, a major street here, and it went all the way to the old town. Old Montreal is very pretty. Here is the Notro Dame something or other...



So I walked and walked. There are lots of cheesy Canada tourist shops in old town.. some really not fitting in with the architecture of the building...

I stopped by a little food place on the way back... going uphill was harder but still pleasant :) I arrived at the house and Tried to unlock my phone online. Tim gave me french tapes onto my ipod, and I half listened while I relaxed for the evening.


Tuesday, March 17

St Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

At first I thought I'd slept through the parade - until I realized it wasn't until Sunday. I decided that it was time to do Laundry. I stopped by an art co op store on the way to enquire about yarn. It was cold - I wanted to knit a scarf hood combo contraption. She told me of a little place with cheap stuff :)

I listened to French for real at the Laundry place.

There weren't many people dressed in green. My green shirt was being washed. Ah well.

There was a little potluck at Tim's that evening (they all have school so on weeknights things are tame). Not many people brought food. My friend Amy from Vancouver has moved here, so she came out to visit!

It was awesome seeing someone I already knew! We got food, cooked it, had some gin... ended up meeting Pablo at a bar called "Foufounes Electriques". There is a giant spider above the entrance... it was very huge and very full.

I ended up there till close... there was a dance area and a stage which I was on for a period of time... I was also in a mini mosh pit... Walking home was a good thing, plus there was food on the way up as well :)

I think I did good for St. Patty's.

First day back in Canada

Oddly I felt I was in a more foreign place than when I was out of the country. Weird.

My first few experiences were kind of intimidating. I got off the train, and knew the metro was very proximal. However, there were no signs, so I went off towards a building labeled bonadventure - the name of the metro stop I was told to hop onto. There was no clear way in though that looked open.

I walked by a Tim Horton's right away and laughed to myself... Oh Canada! I'm home!

A guy walked by me holding a Timmy's cup, and started talking to me in French. This was my first "oh shit" experience. I was caught so off guard that I couldn't even remember how to say "parlez-vous anglais?". I just looked at him with a deer in headlights type look.

So we started talking in English. Hahaha. He showed me where to go.

The dude at the subway did the same thing. He let me on for free on account of me not understanding what was going on. Apparently weekly passes don't just go for any seven days. They only start on Mondays, and it was Sunday night.

I got off the Metro at the right stop, and realized that I had saved the address of my Couchsurfing host on a phone that was now DEAD. Great. So I decided an internet cafe is essential.

Magically, there is one right across the street from the Metro station - free wifi and a cafe au lait later, I have the address and I'm in no hurry. I get in at ten, and I am introduced to Tim and Roomates!

Turns out one of the roomates is from Grande Prarie. Crazy. I told her I used to date someone from there. Her boyfriend is from Delta! He actually knew where Langley was! It was all very nifty. Another roomate, Pablo, is from here. Tim's an Aussie.

We stayed up for a little while chatting around the kitchen table eating oreo's, before I decided I'd had a long day on the train. I needed Sleeeeeeeeppppp!!!

Montreal - first impressions and thoughts

It's times like these that I get angry at Langley Secondary School for canceling that damn late French Immersion Program. I could have really used that here!

I suppose this is the perfect transition city before Europe... It's the first place I've traveled to so far in my three months on the road that hasn't spoken exclusively English everywhere.

It's crazy to be walking down the streets hearing people talking and have no idea what they are saying (except the odd word/phrase). It's even weirder when you're at the bar and someone walks up to you and starts talking really fast asking questions in French...

and you just look at them (probably appearing very confused) thinking "oh shit". Then they're like "oh. Do you have any lip gloss?" just like BAM they just switch languages instantly. WTF

I have also noticed that since Montreal in March is not crazy like in the summer, plus it's not a heavy tourist spot anyhow... people constantly ask you why you are here and how long you are staying. Way more than when I was in the States. Sometimes people look confused when I tell them I don't know how long I am here for lol.

I think most young people here are students because it's SO FREAKING CHEAP to go to school here. Almost every person my age I have met is in college or university. Seriously. It's crazy. I told someone how much my schooling cost and they almost died. They were paying like 500 a year or something stupid like that. WTF

I am trying to think out a day to day type thing of what I've done here so far, but it's tough... It's been way too long. And some of my first week was filled with really boring to read about type stuff. Like searching for massage places etc.

Montreal has been nice so far, but it's really making me realize how much I like to understand everything going on around me... not knowing French is driving me kind of crazy.

New York, New York...

Alrightyyyyyy so I had left off at Times Square...

I was not expecting it to be that crazy! I was actually expecting a square haha - not a huge insane amount of lights and people:





I had not put in a few other pictures from the daytime... here they are now..

ground zero





soooooo I wandered around afterwards, thought about going up the empire state building... didn't end up wanting to spend the 20$ and freeze my butt off.

I ended up back around ten. There were people from Sweden staying at the house as well! We all had a chill night (no gin seeeeeee) so I could wake up the next day...

To get on a ten hour train.

This one was excellent! I slept multiple times, read the hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and looked out the window. It was pleasant all around! They took off that bloody piece of paper out of my passport YAY!

I made it to Montreal!!!

CANADA!!!

So happy my money counts as... what it's labelled as... yay!

30 Hour Train to New York

I am somehow super behind again lol

This is what I typed out in New York...

I couldn’t fall asleep on the train right away though… I managed to for a while in the afternoon. This was a single level train instead of the double level I had on the West Coast, so it was similar but not quite as nice looking. The seats were the same though… I managed to get pretty comfy though by sleeping across two seats :)

The train was an epic 30 hours. Midway through an Egyptian proffesor sat beside me, so I couldn’t lay down anymore. He did not want to stop talking to me… It was entertainign at first – he showed me practically every photo on his computer, including like 20 pictures of his wife and daughter standing in various rooms in his big house in Washington. His wife worked for the UN, so he had one of his wife shaking hands with Bill Clnton.

There was an awkward moment where he was talking about how pretty he thought I was, and how I am such a sweet girl… then he reached his hands towards me and asked if he could kiss me! I turned my head and said no pretty loudly and not very nicely. He was all “oh no no no I meant on your cheek! I am very respectful! That’s what we do - you are like my family blah blah blah” so I kind of went “oh”.

After that he would try to apologize repeatedly or express embarrasment about asking every couple hours. I was getting annoyed with this guy. I tried to watch some Deadwood I’d downloaded, but I was missing a codec so I pretended to be listening to other stuff while I typed a bunch of this catch up stuff up lol.

Eventually I tried to sleep again, but it was uncomfortable so I’d never last more than a couple hours before having to wake up. Once the Egyptian guy was gone, I was able to lay down, but it was only a few hours till NY, so I again I didn’t make it for more than a couple hours before getting up.

My first few hours in New York were confusing. Penn Station is MASSIVE!

I knew the numbers of the trains I could catch to get where I wanted, but there were sooooo many options and knowing the numbers 2 or 3 was not enough. There were actual trains there as well as subways, and people like to use the word train and subway interchangibly. I didn’t know if I was supposed to go to tracks 2 or 3 or go to subways 2 or 3, plus there’s two or three levels and lots of long hallways leading to a million different things. It took me over half an hour to get a coffee and find out what I was supposed to do. Once I was on the subway it all made so much more sense.

The house was super easy to find – I didn’t take one wrong turn :) Someone was home too which was a bonus, so I picked my couch and ened up taking a long nap. I slept until about seven pm.

Turns out I had perfect timing because the New York weekly couchsurfing Meetup was on Thursdays, and it started at eight! I was able to freshen up from the train, and get there in perfect time.

I was one of the first people there, but the bar slowly turned into couchsurfing central, and by eleven most of the bar had nametags lol. Yes, that’s right, they give you name tags out here it was charming! They had a bunch of food for us too; I was pretty happy with how active the scene is here  I ended up talking to a guy from Paris for a while – he’s been living here for three months or something. We got pizza after. The pizza is the same price here as san franciso pizza – they have not figured out the whole 1:50 slice thing that we have. They’re double! WTF.




So I slept in again yesterday (Friday). I know, I know, one day and half of it is sleep. Silly Leanne. Meh. I am a lazy traveler, and I would much rather sleep than be tired on a subway. For my day I decided to:

Take the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. WOW. I have never been to a museum that has even 1/1000000th of what that one has. Just unbelievable. Seriously. WOWOWOWOWOWOW.














Behind the Museum was Central Park. Walked around there.






Went back to the city part and walked down a Lexington street for ages half looking for a coffee shop, half just looking around. My feet got sore from walking for so long though, and I eventually found a little place after walking for over 20 blocks (started around 80th ended up around 60th).

I walked down Fifth Avenue, found Rockafeller Centre, the ice rink thing, a few big cathedrals, radio city, a big Apple thing (Minka you would like it), Union square, some other stuff… then got some gloves because it’s FREAKEN COLD here especially compared to the deep South. I got used to wearing a thin little hoodie thing out at night and it being plenty warm. NOT HERE.








I met up with my host - finally met him for the first time haha! He had been working a lot, and had to go play hockey while I was at the couchsurfing meetup. He took me to a much better part of the city, in the lower east side area. We went to a couple dive bars and ate poutine. I was much more happy with this!

I sort of realized that one day really wasn’t going to do it here. I mean, I hadn’t even been to Times Square yet… or seen the statue of Liberty.

I drunk called Amtrak at two in the morning. Amazingly I was able to change my ticket to tomorrow (the 15th! Just squeaking in!! ) for only seven dollars more!! Mwahahahahaha. That also means I could sleep in – still have to wake up tomorrow early but oh well. I will not drink gin tonight.

Today I went to Battery Park and saw the Statue from far away! Now I have seen it! I am currently in a coffee shop in I’m guessing Greenwich villiage – a funky area so far, tons of tattoo shops and café’s and the like. They have really good coffee here. It’s super yummy and has not hurt my stomach somehow. I am off to Times Square next :)

Well my battery is dying so I best be off!

.... and end the copy & paste time. more to come.