Canada at its best!

So today is Saturday the 28th of November.

It has been a busy but enjoyable day.

At 9:45 am I got to get all sentimental about watching a ballet lesson ( and boy do I miss it), then lunch at an asian mall ( hot pots are definately the way to go), then another ballet rehearsal ( the Nutcracker...by this point I was way too close to actually joining the class) and then off to hockey practice. After having frozen up a bit watching 6-year-olds jump around on ice like shrimp - and making me feel very unsporty indeed- it was time for a nice sushi dinner. Then we headed for a performance of 'Disney on Ice' - who knew an ice-skating Tinkerbell would even make 19-year-olds sing along :)

Now I just got out of the sauna and sipping on Jasmin tea I am patiently awaiting my turn for an hours long facial ....hi hi. Life is GOOD!!!

The kind of Friday I could get used to!

Just wanted to add a little post to make a lot of people jealous :)

So it is 11 o'clock at night, which yes- is late but I am sitting in a hot tub under the stars on the Canadian sky, with a glass of white wine and a book- in a bit it will be off to the sauna and then a good nights sleep.....god what a life :P

apparently taking a gap year isn't all about sitting in a grimey hostel starving and lacking in hygiene...haha

What happens after New York

So I left New York Saturday morning and in the depths of Chinatown I put my life into the hands of the employees of the Chinabus.

Only a couple of hours later I was already being welcomed by a new Chinatown, this time in Philadelphia.

The same day Malcolm gave me a lift to Penn Campus where he had arranged for me to have the ultimate freshman experience. Constance took me in with extreme hospitality and through her I got to live in a freshman dorm, got to eat at Hill and attended the heartbreaking Penn vs. Delaware basketball game......( omg it was intense: quakers int he lead all the way till half time and then lost by 3 points).

I also got to attend a typical frat party....oh yes I believe I can call myself partially an American now: met a guy called Carter- check, attended a ridiculously full Sigma Alpha Mu party- check :)

I also got to attend a Harry Potter day, got to see New Moon ( I know but it just had to be done), went to a genetics class with a Junior, drank lots of christmasy Starbucks coffees and read lots and lots....

All in all I think I am ready to be a freshman.

On Tuesday, 24th, we went for Thai dinner with Pavel and Alyssia ( uncle and aunt) and then off to Malcolm's again.

What came next???

My first Thanksgiving.

I do not have to stress what a beautiful holiday it is as it does basically just provide you with a great opportunity to eat ( and be thankful of course....for example for the food you have in front of you).

I also got to see members of my family that live in America that I have never met or have not seen for a long time.

So after pretty much spending a whole day eating and socializing it was time to snap back to reality and do a good amount of travelling on the 27th ie. today, Friday.

So at 8am I flew out of Phili to Houston and then to Seattle and then a shuttle to Vancouver where I arrived at 11pm eastern time ( so at 8pm western time).

Once again though I had very good friends of my family pick me up and so far it has only been pleasant....to be fed, looked after and generally just be in company of good friends of yours is dangerously comfortable territory and I should really not get used to it.

Who is going to be providing me with breakfasts and dinners in the middle of the Amazon huh??? Exactly.

Anyway for now I have only heard snippets of my plan for the next 5 days in Vancouver but they sound inviting and so I cannot wait to write all about my new adventures, this time on the West coast.

PS: I was still not able to work out how to put pictures up so sorry :( actually in my defence I did find out ( well Constance did) but it didn't work so I don't know......

Just a little update

I just want to appologize for the chaos in my posts- I am getting the hang of it now but it just took me a while. Sorry :)

Also pictures will hopefully be up soon to accompany this adventure.

The Eastcoast

So I had seen Boston and all it entails so it was time to move on down towards New York.

I stopped at Brown on the way, which seeing that I got a nice afternoon with Katie ( a Paulina) was really nice. I did however have to treck up this MASSIVE hill with my super big bag which was less amusing.
The same day I then took a bus to New Haven, where the twins were already awaiting me. Yale was great ( and its not exactly everyday that one gets to dine at Yale or hang out in the super old and beautiful dorms). On Wednesday, the 18th, I even went to a lecture, which was part of a class called 'LIFE'. Trust me- it was interesting!!
But I couldn't stay any longer so I once again grabbed my bags and said goodbye to head towards New York!

The BIG APPLE!!!

Its the 18th and I finally arrive in New York!!

When I arrived at Grand Central Station I was in awe of how happy I was to be here!

A few stops later I was already getting out at Morgan Ave.- where my beautiful hostel was waiting for me! 'The New York Loft Hostel'- I definately recommend it :)

Although the area looked kind of dodgy in the dark the hostel itself is great, clean, modern with all the facilities needed.

The first nigth was nice and calm ( but trust me that was all about to change very soon!!). On Thursday I did a nice thorough visit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and thus fullfilled my expectations as an Art historian I think. Some new exhibitions included 'The Art of the samurai' and 'American Stories'....
I then decided to walk through Manhattan so from 80th Lafayette I walked all the way down to 14th. It was beautiful and as I arrived at Times Square, the darkness had already swallowed the day so the opportunitites for amazing pictures of all the lights were endless.
As I got home I met up with my newly found friends: the dancer, the artiest and the poet/writer.
The dancer was laready leaving but the artist, the poet and I, we all went to Brooklyn to attend a presentation by Major. We received an invitation to this event completely by chance and boy am I glad we did. It turns out that Waldemar Fydrych aka. Major (a polish man in his late 40s who was staying at our hostel) was the founder of a movement in Poland back in the 1980s. Its called the Orange Alternative and is based on the conceptof 'social surrealism'. There have been numerous events they organised, some even reached over 10 000 participants. The Orange alternative uses gnomes/dwarfs to represent them. Major even ran for the post of governor of Warsow in 2006. So it so happened that a buch of us, all having met completely randomly, were sitting in this little studio with orange hats on, an orange clay dwarf in hand and were plotting an event for the coming up Saturday on Times Square. I couldn't attend this unfortunately, as my bus for Philadelphia left at noon on Saturday but I hope I get to stay in touch as the concept intrigued me a lot.
So what are the chances of this happening? Talk about social surrealism....

The artist, the poet and I + our three dwarfs then just roamed the streets of Brooklyn for the night :) but no worries we all go into our beds at the hostel all safe and sound.

The next day the weather was beautiful so I spent about 4 hours in Central Park- walking and taking photos....
That evening I then headed to Chinatown got myself some yummy pork and duck on rice and went to eat in under the Brooklyn Bridge- definately a view worth remembering.
So that was my last day.
The next morning I managed to get up in time for breakfast for the first time in three days and packed my stuff.
I was planning on taking the dwarf with me around the world but I decided against it....so I left it him on Vernon Street- his story will continue in someone else's arms!

The Beginning!

So this is it...everyone has been listening to me desperately trying to organize this trip and now it is finally happening!
I am now in the US.
My first flight was on the 9th in the morning from London to Boston.
The weather was beautiful and I had friends pick me up at the airport- life could not have been more perfect!!
In the meantime I have changed my opinion on this matter a bit..
I have had a series of unfortunate events amongst which one could find:
breaking down in the middle of the highway ( and yes i was driving on the right side of the road...its not that scary)! that was very fun, as I not only had no signal and no way of contacting anyone, but i also couldn't get the car key out as it was some super futuristic concept!
So how did it end?? well i had to pay $80 to get towed about 2 miles to the nearest petrol station :)
so much for trying to save money..
I did however make it all the way to Middlebury and it was worth it!!
I visited an old friend and checked out the college.
I have also seen Harvard and Dartmouth and BU and I must say seeing old friends and lovely new campuses was one of the highlights so far!
I fell in love with Middlebury because the nature was incredible and the sense of achievement that I felt when I reached it after a 6 hour drive was purely incredible!!
If I don't get into UPenn we all know where I will be applying :)
Otherwise I have had some very unhealthy food ( and we all know how I feel about that), met some very friendly Americans and am now heading towards Brown, Yale and then the BIG apple- NEW YORK!!!

So far so good so let's see what happens next!? :P