adventures in america
11 Jun 2009 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiTadaima~~~~~~~! Did anyone miss me? LOL!
It was one of those trips where everything seemed to really suck at the time but it all amounted to being much better than expected, so in all, it was great =D
4th June
We set off to the airport at 11-ish for a nearly-2-ish plane, and were informed as we stood in line that the plane was delayed. Apparently because of the thick fog over Sydney, all planes were prevented from landing for 2 hours after the morning curfew, so the airport admin was an absolute mess. Our LA plane was pushed back for 2 hours, which meant that we would miss our connecting flight to NY (I've had crap experiences with LAX customs and it takes like 2 hours to get out). Because everyone had to be rebooked, all the later flights were booked out and the counter chick told us that the earliest flight available was on the 5th. I asked her about accommodation and she shrugged at me and pulled a face like "Well, just deal with it." She later went and asked her supervisor who rebooked us for San Francisco because it had space on the connecting service to NYC. WHICH WE ENDED UP MISSING. Apparently people who were originally booked for that connecting service were all moved because their service people knew that they'd miss it =___= Bloody useless, that chick was. By the time we got to SFO our connecting flight was already gone, and after spending an hour in the rebooking counter we were offered a choice of either staying overnight and getting the earliest plane out the next day, or getting the last service that goes to NYC via Washington D.C., which would mean we'd get there the next morning, without sleep =___=;; We opted for the next day flight, cancelled our booking for our hotel, and the airline booked us in for a night's free accommodation. It turned out to be really awesome because we had free shuttle service from the terminal to the door and back, a $15 meal voucher each which turned out to be waaaay more than enough (the food was so wonderfully cheap and filling...although not quite gastronomically delightful), free wireless internet, and a decent room that gave a good night's sleep. The hotel itself was a bit like that dingy inn out of Hana Yori Dango Final movie, all the walkways were open and the room fronted by a giant window that offered no sense of security. Still, it was better than trying to stay awake in D.C. airport.
5th June
Everything went smoothly until we got off the plane - which was precisely on time - to a clouded sky spitting miserable rain down on the city and a temperature of 17 degrees - colder than Sydney was the day we left. WHAT IS WRONG WITH NEW YORK. Last time I went in April and it was MINUS 2 DEGREES AND SNOWING. Okay, so it was the first time I saw snow and I was really happy but SERIOUSLY ACT YOUR SEASON!!! We had a meeting at 6:45pm and we were out of the airport at 4:30pm. The meeting place was outside NYC and was serviced by a regional metro line which we've never used before, so we didn't want to risk navigating the unfamiliar public transport and be late, so we caught a taxi. We were told beforehand that it would be around $200 so we were mentally prepared for the cost, but OMG. It took us THIRTY MINUTES to get out of the bloody airport. I COULD PROBABLY WALK FASTER THAN THAT. It took us more than two hours to get out of New York city and then about 20 minutes to get to Tarrytown...so we were about 5 minutes late in spite of all my mum's fretting XDDD The meeting turned out to be really informal and I slept through half of it because I hadn't had food since 5am (LA time) that morning LOL. The poor taxi driver was really annoyed at the traffic and sighing and shaking his head, so we felt sorry for him and gave him a big fat tip that made the total up to $150.
I don't know if it was the radio station that the driver was listening to or if it's Americans in general, but they really love their politics =___= They spent 2 hours discussing everything from the economic crisis and employment rates to Obama's groundbreaking speech in Egypt to Lebanon's (at the time) pending election.
6th June
Our hotel was in Westchester, which is a lovely county north of New York City and east of Hudson River. Metro North follows the Hudson River down and it's a beautiful view of the river (though a bit...murky green) and lush green bushes (unlike Australia's half-baked eucalypts). There's a lot of resorts in the area, unsurprisingly. It's the sort of place you'd want to live in and then work in NYC, since it's only a 40-50 minute train ride to Grand Central station. For anyone who's watched the first episode of Gossip Girl, the interior of Grand Central is beautiful and golden and the very colour of New York opulence. Once you walk out of the station interior into the tracks.............it's another story. The platforms are narrow, smelly and dark, everything is despondently grey and old.
It was the parade on this day. I saw Steve and Jack and Paul and David Liang and Helena and others LOL. I was with the international TGYT until I got kicked to the New York band =( They only played the first 3 songs and FLK. FLK!!! Which I didn't know! But which I now do LOL. Fortunately it wasn't a hard song and by about the 5th time I knew how to play it but =___=;;;;; Their band made so many little changes, like adding trills and notes and stuff =__=;;;;;;; The parade had 5000 people supposedly. We were the first to start and we had to wait about 2.5 hours for the second (international) TGYT to arrive (they were almost the last bloc). There were about 10 lines of flutes and clarinets each =0=;;;;;; It only sounds good from a distance, I think, because once they start walking past you only hear one part at a time Orz
Afterwards we ate at a ramen place right next to where we finished (6th Ave/54th street?) Around $8-$9 for a bowl of ramen, which is slightly more expensive than it is here after conversion. The chashu was really chewy and salty though ==; It tasted rather like Chinese chasiu, which I'm not sure is supposed to happen. They charged us 20% gratuity, which was a bit...I didn't think your service was worth 20% =_=++ Starbucks was also having a promotional ice coffee for $2, but I regretted adding the hazelnut syrup. And the coffee was so tasteless and watery =___=;;; We then dropped by the newspaper headquarters...it was so BIG ♥ A bit...old-looking, but so BIG ♥ and everyone had their own cubicles and stuff! And it looked really lived in, which is my idea of a good office XDDD
7th June
Fahui =) Saw Gary and Cherry (who gave me her laptop which weighs a TON to lug back =___=;;;). Ended up not hearing much experience sharing because of a 2 hour video in the morning about DPA and then 2.5 hours lecture in the afternoon.
We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and it was really nice, surprisingly. It was the first time I thought fried noodles tasted nice, any how.
8th June
In the afternoon we went shopping in Manhattan...finally. Ended up spending nearly 2 hours in Barnes & Nobles looking at graphics design books. Bought two Pratchett books, although I don't think they're much cheaper than getting them here after tax =__=;;; Also bought a very warm cloak, which is pretty bizarre since everywhere else is selling summer clothes. Had expensive l/inner in pretentious cafe opposite Grand Central that actually made crap coffee. I don't know what they did with their French onion soup but the taste made me really sick, so I ended up eating just the cheese off the top. The salad was blah, as all salads tend to be for me. The braised boneless ribs was really nice though nowhere near filling =__=;;; Got asked by a guy at a pretzel stand where I was from LOL I bet it was the way I stood there for one whole minute confusedly trying to count coins. Not my fault that their pences are about the same size as their dimes, and their quarters are about the same size as their dollar coins...and all their notes look the same =__=;;;;;
9th June
Made our way back and bought lots of random-but-pretty junk in New York and LA airport. Apparently United Airlines has practically its own dedicated terminal in LA, which is good on one hand because it means we don't have to go through security checks again if we go from domestic to international, but on the other hand there's only about 5 shops and apparently all the fun happens in the big, proper international terminal, which if we wanted to go to we'd have to go through security checks for. Tsk. UA's really skimping on their food as well. I swear they're cutting down their portions =/
11th June
Arrived this morning and was greeted by people standing importantly with their arms crossed but looking bored. They've blocked off the entry to the customs so that arrivals had to enter through a narrow stream and they were using infrared cameras on everyone and the computer mapped out each entrant's temperatures LOL. I don't think anyone on our plane was caught out with a fever, but still ^__~ I think 'flu is the most contagious when you are symptomatic?
There were two AQIS dogs today...a beagle and a labrador. The beagle was so hyperactive and pouncing on everyone's bags LOL. A family friend had apples in her bags which she had eaten but the dog still managed to smell XDDDD
So...I am finally home. And freezing.
It was one of those trips where everything seemed to really suck at the time but it all amounted to being much better than expected, so in all, it was great =D
4th June
We set off to the airport at 11-ish for a nearly-2-ish plane, and were informed as we stood in line that the plane was delayed. Apparently because of the thick fog over Sydney, all planes were prevented from landing for 2 hours after the morning curfew, so the airport admin was an absolute mess. Our LA plane was pushed back for 2 hours, which meant that we would miss our connecting flight to NY (I've had crap experiences with LAX customs and it takes like 2 hours to get out). Because everyone had to be rebooked, all the later flights were booked out and the counter chick told us that the earliest flight available was on the 5th. I asked her about accommodation and she shrugged at me and pulled a face like "Well, just deal with it." She later went and asked her supervisor who rebooked us for San Francisco because it had space on the connecting service to NYC. WHICH WE ENDED UP MISSING. Apparently people who were originally booked for that connecting service were all moved because their service people knew that they'd miss it =___= Bloody useless, that chick was. By the time we got to SFO our connecting flight was already gone, and after spending an hour in the rebooking counter we were offered a choice of either staying overnight and getting the earliest plane out the next day, or getting the last service that goes to NYC via Washington D.C., which would mean we'd get there the next morning, without sleep =___=;; We opted for the next day flight, cancelled our booking for our hotel, and the airline booked us in for a night's free accommodation. It turned out to be really awesome because we had free shuttle service from the terminal to the door and back, a $15 meal voucher each which turned out to be waaaay more than enough (the food was so wonderfully cheap and filling...although not quite gastronomically delightful), free wireless internet, and a decent room that gave a good night's sleep. The hotel itself was a bit like that dingy inn out of Hana Yori Dango Final movie, all the walkways were open and the room fronted by a giant window that offered no sense of security. Still, it was better than trying to stay awake in D.C. airport.
5th June
Everything went smoothly until we got off the plane - which was precisely on time - to a clouded sky spitting miserable rain down on the city and a temperature of 17 degrees - colder than Sydney was the day we left. WHAT IS WRONG WITH NEW YORK. Last time I went in April and it was MINUS 2 DEGREES AND SNOWING. Okay, so it was the first time I saw snow and I was really happy but SERIOUSLY ACT YOUR SEASON!!! We had a meeting at 6:45pm and we were out of the airport at 4:30pm. The meeting place was outside NYC and was serviced by a regional metro line which we've never used before, so we didn't want to risk navigating the unfamiliar public transport and be late, so we caught a taxi. We were told beforehand that it would be around $200 so we were mentally prepared for the cost, but OMG. It took us THIRTY MINUTES to get out of the bloody airport. I COULD PROBABLY WALK FASTER THAN THAT. It took us more than two hours to get out of New York city and then about 20 minutes to get to Tarrytown...so we were about 5 minutes late in spite of all my mum's fretting XDDD The meeting turned out to be really informal and I slept through half of it because I hadn't had food since 5am (LA time) that morning LOL. The poor taxi driver was really annoyed at the traffic and sighing and shaking his head, so we felt sorry for him and gave him a big fat tip that made the total up to $150.
I don't know if it was the radio station that the driver was listening to or if it's Americans in general, but they really love their politics =___= They spent 2 hours discussing everything from the economic crisis and employment rates to Obama's groundbreaking speech in Egypt to Lebanon's (at the time) pending election.
6th June
Our hotel was in Westchester, which is a lovely county north of New York City and east of Hudson River. Metro North follows the Hudson River down and it's a beautiful view of the river (though a bit...murky green) and lush green bushes (unlike Australia's half-baked eucalypts). There's a lot of resorts in the area, unsurprisingly. It's the sort of place you'd want to live in and then work in NYC, since it's only a 40-50 minute train ride to Grand Central station. For anyone who's watched the first episode of Gossip Girl, the interior of Grand Central is beautiful and golden and the very colour of New York opulence. Once you walk out of the station interior into the tracks.............it's another story. The platforms are narrow, smelly and dark, everything is despondently grey and old.
It was the parade on this day. I saw Steve and Jack and Paul and David Liang and Helena and others LOL. I was with the international TGYT until I got kicked to the New York band =( They only played the first 3 songs and FLK. FLK!!! Which I didn't know! But which I now do LOL. Fortunately it wasn't a hard song and by about the 5th time I knew how to play it but =___=;;;;; Their band made so many little changes, like adding trills and notes and stuff =__=;;;;;;; The parade had 5000 people supposedly. We were the first to start and we had to wait about 2.5 hours for the second (international) TGYT to arrive (they were almost the last bloc). There were about 10 lines of flutes and clarinets each =0=;;;;;; It only sounds good from a distance, I think, because once they start walking past you only hear one part at a time Orz
Afterwards we ate at a ramen place right next to where we finished (6th Ave/54th street?) Around $8-$9 for a bowl of ramen, which is slightly more expensive than it is here after conversion. The chashu was really chewy and salty though ==; It tasted rather like Chinese chasiu, which I'm not sure is supposed to happen. They charged us 20% gratuity, which was a bit...I didn't think your service was worth 20% =_=++ Starbucks was also having a promotional ice coffee for $2, but I regretted adding the hazelnut syrup. And the coffee was so tasteless and watery =___=;;; We then dropped by the newspaper headquarters...it was so BIG ♥ A bit...old-looking, but so BIG ♥ and everyone had their own cubicles and stuff! And it looked really lived in, which is my idea of a good office XDDD
7th June
Fahui =) Saw Gary and Cherry (who gave me her laptop which weighs a TON to lug back =___=;;;). Ended up not hearing much experience sharing because of a 2 hour video in the morning about DPA and then 2.5 hours lecture in the afternoon.
We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and it was really nice, surprisingly. It was the first time I thought fried noodles tasted nice, any how.
8th June
In the afternoon we went shopping in Manhattan...finally. Ended up spending nearly 2 hours in Barnes & Nobles looking at graphics design books. Bought two Pratchett books, although I don't think they're much cheaper than getting them here after tax =__=;;; Also bought a very warm cloak, which is pretty bizarre since everywhere else is selling summer clothes. Had expensive l/inner in pretentious cafe opposite Grand Central that actually made crap coffee. I don't know what they did with their French onion soup but the taste made me really sick, so I ended up eating just the cheese off the top. The salad was blah, as all salads tend to be for me. The braised boneless ribs was really nice though nowhere near filling =__=;;; Got asked by a guy at a pretzel stand where I was from LOL I bet it was the way I stood there for one whole minute confusedly trying to count coins. Not my fault that their pences are about the same size as their dimes, and their quarters are about the same size as their dollar coins...and all their notes look the same =__=;;;;;
9th June
Made our way back and bought lots of random-but-pretty junk in New York and LA airport. Apparently United Airlines has practically its own dedicated terminal in LA, which is good on one hand because it means we don't have to go through security checks again if we go from domestic to international, but on the other hand there's only about 5 shops and apparently all the fun happens in the big, proper international terminal, which if we wanted to go to we'd have to go through security checks for. Tsk. UA's really skimping on their food as well. I swear they're cutting down their portions =/
11th June
Arrived this morning and was greeted by people standing importantly with their arms crossed but looking bored. They've blocked off the entry to the customs so that arrivals had to enter through a narrow stream and they were using infrared cameras on everyone and the computer mapped out each entrant's temperatures LOL. I don't think anyone on our plane was caught out with a fever, but still ^__~ I think 'flu is the most contagious when you are symptomatic?
There were two AQIS dogs today...a beagle and a labrador. The beagle was so hyperactive and pouncing on everyone's bags LOL. A family friend had apples in her bags which she had eaten but the dog still managed to smell XDDDD
So...I am finally home. And freezing.
