weekend in the city 2: you belong to me

(man, was my last entry ever down. i need to cheer up, get some cranberry juice, or something).

I'm in new york right down, typing on a tiny computer in a hostel, loacted something on manhatten island. which, is weird. the reality of me being here has not caught up with me yet. i'm going to try and write this entry as unself-righteously as possible. we'll see.

we started our jouney by almost missing our bus to seattle, at 7 am. Then we flew from seattle, across america, the mississippi and lake michgan. the flight was half empty, so dave, renee, and I had three seats to ourselves- which allowed for some prime sleep.

and the flight had this TV screeny thing built into the backs of seats, which had some good music. most of my flight was listening to "neon bible" and "wincing the night away".

then we touched down in NY- really abruptly. Then we found the subway and ended up in manhatten. taking the subway, by the way, is a lot more adventurous (an sketchy) than taking a cab. dave, renee, and I understand the concept of being a "backpacker" over a tourist.

being a backpacker allows you to step into the life of a place you are visiting, rather than observe the culture at arms length.

its halloween here, so the sub was packed with constumed people. after we found our hostel we found our first sketchy New York pizza.

quick tangent- new york pizza places are very straightforward. as in, say what you want, pick it up, go. its not like a typical subway where you take ten minutes to order and gradually go to the cashier. i'll explain it later. long story short, i shouted 'stromboli!" and ten minutes later i was eating a ball of dough with special guest- cheese.

after that we wandered into a park crowded with people, smoking clove cigarettes (to my shame. i feel lightheaded, and my mouth has a dry taste to it. never again).

so now i'm trying to find the balance of keeping to myself to avoid conflict, and meeting interesting people. tommorow we're going to try and watch a broadway show, and drink pints of samuel adams.

and maybe, sometime between being tired and anxious, we'll get to walk through the village. i almost feel guilty for getting to do all this.

there are many more details, which are probably irrelevant, and i'm dead tired. tomorrow, we start discussing sustainability and climate. my head will be full for years to come.

later.