New York! (Silly photos coming soon!)
Flying to NY was a very new experience for me; not only had I never been in a plane before, but I'd never been to America before either. I was very nervous about flying at first... not because of the 9-11 tragedy but of plummeting out of the sky at 30,000 feet. Even though statistically one is safer in a plane than in one's own house, it's only disastrous flights that make the headlines; you never see ones saying '5,000 flights took place today and nowt bad happened'. And despite all I knew about aerodynamics and flight technology, I was still thinking 'it's a bloody 30-ton lump of metal! How does it stay up?'.
Nothing to worry about, though; I enjoyed both flights. I didn't like the airport though. My first mishap was getting held up at customs at Heathrow. I had a couple of metal chip forks in my hand luggage that I'd forgotten about, and they set the machine off! I'd also weaved lots of copper wires (from a Dual Shock cable) into my rucksack as decoration, and the security lady was a bit sceptical about those as well; she told me I'd be better off unpicking them all and disposing of them to prevent another hassle at the next customs check. They did tell me I could take the chip forks with me; they were very small and I'm only 15, so it's unlikely I could hijack a plane with them, but I told them they could confiscate them anyway; I didn't want another hassle. Everybody had a right laugh about that one; one of the teachers was saying 'only you would have chip forks in your bag, Anna!'.
I was told by some of my seasoned-flying friends that the landing was the best part, but I actually found the take-off the most exciting. We whizzed along and the plane was rumbling with anticipation. You can really feel the moment when the front and then the back wheels leave the ground, and there's nowt below you but air. I had a window seat, which was nice; ace views.
Unsurprisingly, we were travelling economy class. They've renamed it 'World Traveller' now though; 'economy class' sounds cheap. First class is 'World Traveller Plus' and Business class is 'Club World'. We also had a pretty good selection of in-flight entertainment; I watched a volcano programme, a shark programme and Trigger Happy TV.
We got served brunch; there was a choice of braised beef or mixed grill. I chose mixed grill and it was absolutely disgusting. Cheap, synthetic sausages and flobby bacon with processed scrambled egg, all swimming in grease! I just ate the cakie things and the Coke and made a mental note to ask for a vegetarian option next time.
Speaking of food, it wasn't until I went to America that I realised how healthy my normal diet actually is. I'm by no means a health freak; I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. But I do normally eat lots of fruit, vegetables, bread, milk, cereals and white meats. In NY plain, unadulterated, bland cereal was just not an option; we all had revoltingly unhealthy (although yummy) breakfasts... my first brekkie was what the Americans think is French toast, i.e. bread doorstops fried in butter and then smothered in syrup and icing sugar. Exceedingly tasty, but it certainly didn't do any part of my body other than my taste receptors any good. And I always thought French toast was that crispy powdery stuff in brown and white stripy boxes in Sainsbury's.
We also had breakfast at the IHOP on Wednesday... also known as the International House Of Pancakes. The Americans have a different idea from the British as to what pancakes are; in England pancakes are thin crepey things... what they call pancakes we'd call Scotch Pancakes, but they're bigger. There were pitchers of syrup in various berry flavours on all the tables at the IHOP... I thought the boysenberry stuff was the best. Must see if I can find some in Sainsbury's.
On our first day we visited FAO Scwharz, where I played on an XBox! They aren't actually as big as everyone makes them out to be; I was expecting something as big as a VCR but it's not much bigger than a PS2. The controller is fukking massive though; it was a job to actually get my hands round it! Apparently they're going to make smaller controllers for the Europeans and Japanese; I certainly hope so. And the action buttons are quite painful to press; they're highly domed and I'm used to the comparitively light touch needed for the Dual Shock 2's buttons. The location of the trigger buttons felt weird as well. Just something to get used to though.
I was playing a snowboarding game of some sort; I didn't know the title. I wasn't too bowled over by the graphics; SSX Tricky is coming on all the uberconsoles and it looks much better than this game did. It was all trees and snow too; no twinkly power-ups or nowt. Some people crowded round to watch me play, but they dispersed in seconds; I was embarrassingly crap at it! Not only had I never used an XBox before but there was no list of controls or anything. There was a GameCube there too with a Star Wars game on it. Nice graphics, but nothing I hadn't seen before.
The XBox is still obscenely big by console standards, and it has obscenely big merchandise as well; there were some huge backpacks with the XBox logo on them in FAO Schwarz. I bought one; $50, but worth it in my opinion; it's very good quality; sturdy with loads of hidden pockets and it held all my hand luggage on the return trip much better than my free EF Tours bag did on the way in.
Our next stop was Nike Town. It was all very flash, but I wasn't very interested; I buy clothes only when I need them... unlike most of my peers I find clothes shopping as dull as hell. I also thought that Nike Town was more of a big advert than anything else; the staff were more sales-pushers than trained fitters.
We also visited the Rockefeller Centre and watched the peeps ice-skating, then had a look in the shops; where I bought a gaming mag. It was a good read, but I don't think it was as good as British ones, and it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. The Americans also apparently don't have separate official mags for the PSX and PS2.
Times Square was our next venue; Toys R Us and Virgin Megastores were what we mostly visited. In VM I managed to get Come With Us by the Chemical Brothers for the equivalent of £10! Bargain! I also got hold of the musical score of The Matrix. Didn't find any of those Fluke 12"s I was after though.
In Toys R Us there were some XBoxes and PS2s playing games; I just watched this time; I didn't want to make an arse of myself again by being crap. The PS2s were all playing Jak & Daxter, but they were all switched off and behind glass! Which was a real shame, because I could've wowed the crowds with my J&D skills.
We had chook for supper, then went up the Empire State Building. The view's well nice in the dark when everything's lit up; I took squillions of pics. It's hellish cold though. And I'll never understand why people go all the way up there then put money in telescopes to look at things on the ground.
On Tuesday we walked through Central Park then visited the Guggenheim Museum. I quite liked the modern art they had there, but I and most of the rest of us were chiefly interested in climbing up and down the spiral. I also had my first pretzel (a proper big doughy one; not the little crunchy ones in packets). They're well nice.
After visiting the outskirts of Ground Zero, we had a tour guide show us around in our coach. She was a native New Yorker, and I found her quite patronising at first; she talked down to us because we were all only 15 or 16. She mellowed out though and we all ended up liking her; she was very friendly and she wasn't above taking the piss out of herself. She also told us where all the best shops were, and gave us tips for coping in Chinatown (always haggle, and remember that all brand names are fake). She told us to visit a shop called Yellow Rat Bastard; 'it's pricey but it's worth buying something just to ge the bag' she said. I bought myself a khaki T-shirt that says 'Yellow Rat Bastard' in yellow letters in English and Chinese. Despite having a lot of smutty and rude stuff; they're a very good shop; the clothes are all good quality and there's a wide range of styles that teenagers like.
In the evening we saw a basketball match between the New Jersey Nets and the Golden State Warriors. It was quite interesting because I've never seen the sport before, but it wasn't mindblowing; I'm not a sporty person.
It's a surprisingly static sport as well; I thought they'd be running around all the time but they stopped and stood still quite a lot. And they took time out a lot and whenever they bloody felt like it too. And the commentary and silly music and sound effects were played live; I thought they only dubbed those in for TV. And there were the obligatory cheerleaders, and mini-games in between periods.
It wasn't a very dramatic match either; the Nets scored first and stayed in the lead all the way through; it was never neck-and-neck.
On Wednesday we visited Ellis and Liberty Islands. In the Ellis island gift shop they do custom-engraved keyrings... I got mine engraved with 'Firestarter'! The Statue of Liberty was closed to the public but the island was open. The Liberty Island gift shop is incredibly grockly.
In the evening we spilt into small groups to see various flims and Broadway shows. I wanted to see the musical version of The Lion King but it was all booked out for weeks on end. I then put my name down for Collateral Damage (an Arnie film not yet out in the UK), but one of the teachers persuaded me to see A Beautiful Mind instead. It's a film about Russel Crowe with schizophrenia. It's quite soppy; he sees things that aren't there all his life and then he gets better with the help of the love of a woman, yuk, gag.
The Americans apparently have a very different sense of humour from the British; A Beautiful mind was an unfunny film... not dark or macabre or anything... just no humour... but the audience were laughing out loud at seemingly random points in the film, and I couldn't see any joke there at all.
Thursday was totally shopping until we had to catch our plane... the Macy's area. I also saw SoBe on sale. I didn't bother to buy any, but I thought the packaging looked nice; I liked the lizards.
Flight back was okay; I got enough sleep to be back on GMT.
I had a great time, but I really don't think four days was enough to really appreciate NY; I don't feel as though I've soaked up enough culture.
I was impressed by how little litter there was; it made me realise what a septic little isle Britain actually is. Literally a tonne of litter is dropped in London alone every second.
And even though America is an English-speaking country and I know minimal French, I actually felt more at ease in Chamonix and Geneva than I did in New York. NY seems a lot bigger and intimidating, and there are always people shouting and car horns sounding. There are lots of big brash neon signs and advertisements, and the city is known for its muggers. Geneva's a lot more tasteful, beautiful and subdued.
I'd love to go again; but in a smaller group. It'd be nice to go when the Statue is open to the public again, and I'd like to go up the Empire State in the daytime, and visit the Chrysler Building and the Bronx Zoo.
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Hand me my flamethrower... it's the one that says 'Bad Motherfucker'.
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sounds like you had a cool time
Glad you had a nice time.
