Final Week in New York City

Top of the Standard, Top of Life.

Beekmans Beach Bar By Brooklyn Bridge (Alliteration, what up)

Arlington War Cemetery

Crushed my final week in NYC, that might be a tad arrogant to say, but it’s the truth.

Friday night I awoke hungover as all hell / still a tad inebriated, still with some packing to do and check out to complete from my hall. Not my best morning in New Paltz. Finally mustered up the courage to traverse campus, problem being that I had more stuff than bags, and it was a warm day. I ended up riding my skateboard, in my winter boots and coat (easier than trying to pack them) with a tramping pack on my back, carry-on luggage on one arm, snowboard on the other, and the rest of my belongings wrapped Winnie the pooh style in one of my sheets and slung over my shoulder.

I was pleased to meet up with the other internationals and discover; 1) I had increased my street cred for being able to skate whilst simultaneously imitating a camel 2) Many of the others were in worse shape than me. Some of the small ones had fallen over trying to carry all of the luggage, one was still very drunk and in her clothes from the night before, and had neglected to check out (this is about an hour after we were supposed to have left)

Quick taxi ride to the bus station, then I gapped to the nearest pizza shop for some greasy goodness! Om nom nom.

We all caught the bus into NYC together, said a few more slightly teary-eyed goodbyes (No homo) and then Nic, Brige, Elena and myself proceeded to Ben’s house for a much needed nap. That night our promoter friend had arranged a table and bottles for us at a rooftop bar called Hudson terrace, standard Friday night practice at this point.

However, some of the Spaniards fake IDs were a little worse for wear, and some power-tripping gypsy bouncers decided instead of merely rejecting them, to also tear up the IDs. Dicks.

But, the night was far from over, our friend Indi clearly has some mad pull, so got us into greenhouse with free drinks and a table last minute, a feat made more impressive by the sights of the ‘plebs’ line when we got there, it was out the door, around the corner and down the next block. Ducked the rope and waltzed on in. What of it. Good night, good yarns, good send-off for everyone after a good semester!

Saturday was a tad more chilled, to be honest I’m not sure where the day went, I was pretty shattered so I lay on the couch watching NatGeo docos and waiting for the Argentians, Sara and Diana to come to Ben’s where they were staying that night. When they arrived they had just said goodbye to some of their best friends so were a bit down, so Sara, Diana and Paula stayed in and ate their feelings meanwhile Ben, Ampi and Myself headed uptown to meet up with Ben’s friend Payan + our friend Elena for a chilled night.

We arrived at Payan’s apartment (Which was fucking epic) to discover that he had a balcony out the back, kitted out with comfy chairs, mattresses etc, and a projector and movie screen. New York. The view was epic, it was set simply out the back of his place, surrounded by taller buildings looking up to where the stars would be if it wasn’t for the light pollution of times square. Payan says “Andy, can I get you a whisky?” – Why yes, yes you can. Out comes a 12 yr old Macallan, some Doritos and I’m a happy man. We watched the Beatles movie Across the Universe which is awesome, made hilarious by a possibly high guest placing his ciggy between the projector and screen and trying to make Jude smoke his shadow durry. Amusing as hell, but I guess you had to be there.

A casual Sunday in NYC included an international food festival on a closed 9^th ave (I ate my bodyweight in various ethnic cuisines) a cheeky beer or 3 at my favourite waterside bar Beekmans (faux beach on the edge of the east river, right next to the Brooklyn bridge) then a cocktail at the ever wonderful top of the standard hotel (Boom Boom Room) Steak sandwiches ensued then Indi gave us a text asking if we wanted to go to an exclusive Sunday night party at a bar called 1-oak. Ok. Why not. Standard. A few quiet ones at 1-oak then I had to return home with the others to see off Ampi, Paula, Sara and Diana for their 6am flight, trés sad.

Monday was super chilled, said goodbye to Elena which was very sad, just hung out after that, went to the Bar beneath Bens place for a life changing BBQ Bacon Burger, a Beer and to watch the Rangers game.

Tuesday morning I jumped on a bus to DC, to visit and stay with the brother-in-law of a family friend, who just happens to be lead counsel for the world bank. Epic. He had a few good stories to tell, after all, he’s been to over 120 countries, some of them more than 30 or 40 times! I want his job please.

Wednesday morning I went to Arlington War Cemetry, saw the Kennedy gravesite and just absorbed the sheer magnitude and eeriness of the hallowed grounds. Got back from DC around 7:30pm, grabbed a bite and headed up town to meet up with Ben, Payan and friends for a few mojitos and some amazing tequila, before rolling on to meet up with my French friends for Thomas’ birthday! We went to a bar called PDTs which stands for Please Don’t Tell. It’s a secret bar which is in a hot dog shop. You go in, maybe eat a hot dog, maybe not, then there is an old phone booth in the corner, which appears to just be decoration, unless you know the number, then you walk inside, call up, and the back of the booth pops open. Mad. Had a few cocktails there to celebrate thomas’ birthday then rolled on for a slice of pizza and a relatively early night (in bed by 4am)

A well deserved sleep later, I awoke to a glum looking Thursday with a low fog shrouding the tops of most buildings. A good day for a run, so I took a jog across the bridge to Brooklyn, around there a little then back to the island. It took me a while, but I finally realized that all of the annoying people in my way (I run pretty fast) were tourists, and that in fact, I was not just running, I was running on a significant tourist attraction. I must be a local. Went up town to meet some of the remaining New Paltz veterans for a BBQ meal (large rack of ribs justified by the aforementioned jog) Texted our boy Indi because a few aussies were in town so we wanted to show them a good time. Club, Bottles, the rest as they say is history.

Friday (my final day in NYC) involved a bit of admin crap, cleaning, packing etc… Went to Bank of America to sort out some fees that they had mistakenly charged me when they allowed my room-mate to (accidentally) bank one of my cheques with his name on it. Kicked corporate america’s ass to the tune of $75 dollars, what up. Then saw a homeless dude on the street, next to a fruit stand. I thought to myself, I just made (essentially) $75 dollars in half an hour by arguing with a bank manager, this guy can’t even afford to eat and isn’t going to make that much money begging this week. So I brought a bottle of water and a few bananas and gave them to him, he was very appreciative and ripped into them straight away. And with my good karma in tow I left on my way. Went for a skate through central park and down broadway, skitched a yellow taxi. Went out with Ben to Delmonicos, one of the oldest steak restaurants in NYC (they also invented Baked Alaska, chicken a la keane, and eggs benedict) then up town for some cocktails with friends, a nice send off from one of the greatest cities I have ever been to. (although my fakie not being rejected at the rooftop place that we wanted to go to would have been nice)

New York City is simply a wonderland, if you have money, connections, or friends with either of the above, you can have an amazing time in this town! Good food, good drinks, good views, nice people, buzzing atmosphere and something else that isn’t tangiable, but is felt wherever you are in NYC make it an amazing city.

Peace and love as always, Europe blogs coming at you soon.

Xx

Andy

Party and Bullshit: The story of finals week

Alas, my time at the fine institution known as SUNY New Paltz has come to an end. Tear.

The last week at SUNY had a somewhat bizarre vibe to it. Everyone was halfway between studying, mourning the impending goodbyes, and wanting to party with everyone / drink their feelings. I did my first ever reading for the semester during finals week, I'm sure father is proud. Despite being out and about 2 nights before each final (I had the discipline to stay in and study on the actual night before each exam) I somehow came away from the semester with two 85s and a 90 (B's & a B+) - Which should be taken as irrefutable proof that: Fun > Study and Study ≠ Good Grades.

I've learnt a few things about America in the last few months. Here they are: Glorious New York pizza entirely explains the obesity problem. George W. Bush is the proximate cause of all of America's other social and economic shortcomings. The worldy ignorance that pervades this land is probably linked to the fact that in 1990, only 3% of Americans had a passport. American's (who I should say are not all ignorant, let's not be racist) are generally very very very friendly, for all of 3mins. After the initial exchange of pleasantries there really isn't a lot more love coming your way. Unless you really work for it, this might be the reason that 90% of the friends I have made over in the US have been from overseas.

On that note, I've been very lucky to make some amazing friends over here. And many of them have made me realize that I'm actually reasonably pleased with my progress as a human being, I've been called kind-hearted, generous, humble, a good man, a potentially good father? I've received marriage proposals via mothers, possibly without the consent of their daughters. One night in a bar I spied a cute turkish girl, so I smiled at her and winked (Seemed like the appropriate thing to do at the time) Nek minnit, I had a beautiful turkish girl dancing with me. I <3 NY. All of that goes to say that i'm really looking forward to coming back to reality in NZ and being reminded of who I am, and where I'm from... and that I'm not actually a superstar, that was just my accent, which isn't even interesting in New Zealand.

Last night in New Paltz was epic. It started whilst packing, Josh and I combined forces to pack and drink simultaneously, time, after all, was of the essence! We then proceeded down to the locals one last time. One of the Spanish lads was doing a DJ set at Cabaloosa's, so we partook in that for an hour, then we moved along to the ever crowded P & Gs for what I'm reasonably certain was some very sweaty dancing. I then disbanded from the group and eloped to Murphy's to have a few Quick Fucks with the turks (for those who don't know that's a drink.) The turkish boys then had to leave as they had early planes the next day, so I had to stay with my beautiful turkish girls and proceed to drink, tell stories, dance, and generally have a jolly good time. 3 Turks under each wing, I walked back to P & Gs, to join everyone for a final few songs and dances. All of which culminated in Fun's "We Are Young" - a song I hadn't really had much time for prior to that night, but since it was our last song, and being there singing it with all of my new friends made me realize that I was actually leaving some of these wonderful people, for quite a long time, possibly forever! Tear again.

On the way home (5am after many good-byes), Josh, Ben (french not NZ) and I decided it would be appropriate to leave in our path a trail of destruction. Beginning with various road signs, progressing to me "hulking out" and upending a very very very heavy stone bench, ripping plants and small trees from the ground and attempting to caber-toss them over the English girls / onto the roofs of very tall buildings, and culminating in Josh and I finding a crane (that may or may not have been open when we got there) climbing inside, pressing every button imaginable trying to make it start, and eventually climbing on top. (Ask me about this when I get home, there's another little piece to this story that probably shouldn't make its way into cyberspace)

2 Hours sleep later, still severely inebriated, I 'awoke' (using a very liberal interpretation of the word awake) proceeded to pack the last of my things (using a very liberal interpretation of the word 'pack' - most of them ended up wrapped in a bedsheet, slung over my shoulder Winnie the Pooh styles, again, it seemed like the only reasonable solution at the time), checked out of the room, and then skateboarded over to the main quad Obama poster, and snowboard in hand, bag + sheet on my back, which also seemed like a good idea at the time. From there we got lazy, so took a cab to the bus stop (Mainly cause everyone was still either too drunk / hungover to walk all that way (10mins or so)) and took a one way trip from New Paltz to New York City. Many Tears.

A separate post is coming shortly to describe in what I'm hoping will be excruciating detail, my final week in NYC.

Keep it real
xx
Andy

Spring Break + Subsequent Shenanigans

I'm tired. Who knew that lying on a beach in Mexico, next to the Caribbean could be so damn exhausting! 

But then again, Spring Break 2012 did bring about an unprecedented personal partying streak, one that I'm sure my homie Caithlin Jones will be proud of. 

It begins, the week before Spring Break starts proper...

Night 1: Student Night. On an unassuming tuesday night, we headed to the local watering-hole, P & G's for a few refreshing ales. Nek minnit, it's 5am, nobody is entirely sure what has gone on, but the pizza tastes great. 

Night 2: Turkish night. After being coerced into going out again (will power lacking) I find myself, with a few other non-turks, in Murphy's bar, having drink after drink purchased for me, despite my very vocal, if insincere objections. 4:30am rolls around, much dancing, clapping and drinking, turkish style has occurred, a jovial time was had by all. 

Night 3: Tower Hour. Tower hour, as I may have already explained, is where you get 100oz of beer for $6.Don't ask me to convert to L, I can't. Measurement units aside, it's a lethal combination. This time I actually didn't want to go out, so I managed to slink away for an early night... at 3:30am

Night 4: Ben's Bday. Ben Bruno turned 25, which means he has officially stopped growing, which means that I'm taller than him, therefore he now has to bake me a cake. Yum. A few pre-drinks + some beer pong at Ben's apartment, then we headed out to Blind Barber (a speak-easy hidden in the back of a Barber Shop) - Ben had reserved a table, which our very kind, and very hot waitress upgraded to the VIP, no doubt because of the gratuitous use of the Kiwi Charm (read accent) by Yours Truly, and maybe Ben... 

Ben and I spun the most wonderful yarn in Maori. 2 fetching young lasses from Little Rock, Arkansaw didn't know a whole lot about NZ, and asked what language we spoke there. Such foolishness and ignorance meant that Ben and I felt no shame in bullshitting the poor young things. We of course told them Maori was the predominant language of Aotearoa, and only a few people spoke English, we then proceeded, at their request, to showcase a little of our language. The conversation essentially went as follows (apologies for spelling any Maori speakers reading this):

Ben: Kia ora, Tena quoe

Andrew: Ka mate, ka mate

Ben: Ka ora, Whangarei?

Andrew: Ahhh, Wairarapa, Pokarekare Ana, Whakapapa.

Ben: Kakariki kowhai, kereru kopapa.

Andrew: Te tirita o Waitangi, Kawanatanga, Te tiro rangatiratanga. 

Ben: Ka pai

Andrew: Kia ora. 

Naturally, their curiosity was only furthered by the this impressive display of our bi-linguity (*might not be a word) So they asked for an explanation of what was said. Ben proceeded to inform them that we were discussing the politics of Iwi, and whether or not I thought he was going to be made or next chief. Tu meke.

Night 4: Cancun. We (Sam, my aussie roomie and I) arrived at our hotel around 9pm, and were greeted by our 4 Spanish friends and their 6 bottles of Rum. Hilarity ensued. We stayed out in the night clubs till around 6:30am, before meandering (read stumbling) our way home along the beach. This is where we ran into trouble. You see, we had never seen our hotel in daylight before, nor from the beachside, alas, we could not find it. What we could find, was some very comfortable, suspended beds, which looked like too much fun to pass up. So we lay down for a quick nap and a swing (not advisable, it invoked a sense of sea-sickness). 2 hours later, I awoke to find nobody except Felix and I remaining, so after some persuasion (read kicking and yelling) Felix got up, and we headed out in search of our hotel. Funny story, turns out we were about 50m from the hotel, so sleeping on the beach was wholly unnecessary...

Night 5: Our spanish friends negotiated entry, + open bar at a club called congo for $20. Bargain. Two parts of the night will stick in my mind. The first being a 'display' of everything by some Prossi up in a dancing box, twas reasonably disgusting, but made hilarious by the fact that all of our international girls were made to be her back up dancers while she 'shook what her mama gave her'. Felix was charged with recording the events, the end result of this being that we now have a 3 and a half minute of the russian dancer's arse. Lololol. The second was being up in the dancing box (not sure how I got there) when Empire State of Mind came on. I naturally rapped it, like a boss, for the people below me in the club, I think Jay-Z's spirit was controlling me.

Day 6: Culture -Made it out of Cancun (which essentially transforms into the 51st state for spring break) for some culture, to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza which were beautiful, then stopped for an authentic mexican feed on our way home. yum. 

The rest of our time in Cancun (Nights 6,7,8,9,10 and Day 11) is essentially a blur of beers, beach parties, beaches and betches (see what i did there, it looks like I'm saying bitches, but that would be disrespectful, so I didn't do it...) Oasis hotel had some awesome parties with a massive sound system on the beach, and some delicious pink drink that came in a coconut with a face made out of orange slices on the front of it (name escapes me, it was that good) 

We had some interesting experiences in the night clubs of Cancun to say the least... Memorable ones include being invited up into a dancers cage and proceeding to rap the shit out of Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" for my loyal subjects below me, then I was made to leave the dancers cage because they wanted it to be just girls up there for a while. My civil rights felt violated. I was the victim of blatant sexism, and I was about to climb up on my high horse to have a go at the MC when I realized 1) He was a stocky mexican man who possibly had gang tats, and 2) the reason i was getting down was so that our international girls could be the back up dancers for a stripper/hooker who was wearing a very short skirt and nothing else. Naturally we found this amusing, so employed one of the spanish boys to film the whole thing, unfortunately what we got was a 4 minute video of this Russian girl's unique 'booty shaking' ability. Lol. 

By far the best night out in Cancun was our 2nd to last night, we found a tiny little local bar with $7 one litre, Margaritas. Lethal. Add to the mix a 40 year old Mexican dude and his wife (and their two young children who were just chillin') and it made for a night that nobody can remember with people we won't forget! Much tequila was consumed and the mexican man took great delight in telling me that my name in mexican means "the one who comes monthly" - thanks mate.

For our final day in Cancun we booked an all inclusive boat cruise that included alcohol (not that anybody really felt like drinking it), snorkeling, parasailing, swimming with a shark, food, cocaine, island markets and just general chilling and killing on the Caribbean, before anybody asks, yes I did have the themesong of Pirates of the Caribbean stuck in my head all day, but no I didn't run into Cap'n Jack. 

Since then I've been to Boston, which was beautiful, slightly more laid back city than NYC, chilled in a a roof-top bar in NYC overlooking the Hudson river (Which had an aircraft carrier moored right next to, casually sitting on the flight deck was a B2 Stealth Bomber, Space shuttle + Numerous fighter jets: Boyhood dream fulfilled) 

Other than that, just causing the same carnage in the small town of New Paltz as I usually do, it's finals week atm so theoretically i'm doing lots of study, although most of it seems to be aimed at ascertaining exactly where the limits to my awesome partying streaks are (it turns out it's 7 nights)  

1 week from now i'll be packing up and leaving the State University of New York, moving into Manhattan for a week, with a whirlwind visit to Washington DC to meet a lawyer for the World Bank scheduled. After Manhattan I fly out for London and another adventure begins while I travel Europe for 40 or so days with my aussie friend Nicola. We will cause trouble, make memories, and of course, end up with few stories to tell. 

I'm going to miss all my SUNY friends a lot, but rest assured, you haven't been replaced and i'm looking forward to being back in the motherland with y'all soon. 

Gotta testify, come up in the spot looking extra fly, before the day I die, I'm gunna touch the sky...

Peace and love

 Playing "I'm gunna find another you" - and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" by John Mayer at an open mic night

 Boston Blossom with the 'Boston Legal' Building in the Background (how's that alliteration)

 Matching clothes with Chris at the JW Marriot in Cancun

 Beach Party at Oasis Hotel

 Chichen Itza

 Boat Cruise

 Straight Chillin/Napping on the boat

 Wizard Sticks in New Paltz

 Beekmans Bar NYC (They imported some nice sand, kind of like WCC did for O-Bay) and made a beach bar on the edge of the East River

 Max and I at Hudson Terrace Rooftop Bar

Chilling with my stealth bomber, pre 8km walk home with Ben (Drunken logic: the fact that we had an expensive dinner + drinks precludes the use of a $10 cab home)

A few nights out in New York City

Just got back to New Paltz after 4 amazing days in NYC!

I had an exam on Thursday morning for my American Presidency class, which I was minimally prepared for because it had snowed all day on Wednesday, which left me with no choice but to build a jump instead of studying. After my exam (which went surprisingly well given the lack of study) I headed straight for the city (via the dining hall - naturally) and met up with Lauren Oakes (a kiwi girl studying at Penn State for those who don't know her). Thursday night we went to the NY premiere of 'Boy' - it was pretty choice! Had an open bar hosted by Taika Waititi stocked with NZ wine and 42 Below which was nice! Met the esteemed director and he's very nice! Still has his feet planted firmly on the ground which is cool to see given his relative fortune and fame! Post After-Party Lauren, Ben and I headed to Landmarc, which is a very nice steak restaurant in the Lincoln Center (around 1am) for a feed and a cocktail! We then headed to a place on the Lower East Side called the Blind Barber, which is a speak-easy inspired by the prohibition days! You walk in through an ordinary looking Barbershop, and then proceed through a hidden door at the back of the shop which opens up to a secret underground bar! Very cool, very fun! Night 1 concluded at around 4:30am in Ben's apartment, getting up for class on Friday would be a challenge...

Friday morning greeted me with the all to familiar sensation of fatigue, fogginess and faint nausea. I headed up town to the United Nations for class, we had one briefing from the Turkish Mission to the UN in the morning, and then two in the afternoon, one from the Israeli Ambassador, and one from a Non-Governmental Organisation for Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons! I battled like a soldier through the morning class but was right as rain by the time the afternoon classes swung around! Friday night involved take-out Chinese and then a few quiet drinks at a bar called Penny Farthing's on the Lower East Side. In a change of pace we had a post bar snack of deep-fried Oreo's and $1 slices of Pizza. Bad for the body, great for the soul. A relatively early night, ending at 3:30am. Self-restraint exercised, well done me.

Saturday morning we slowly arose and headed to the 9/11 Memorial Waterfalls. It was a very harrowing experience, the sheer number of names engraved to the edge of the waterfalls + the size of the footprint in which the buildings stood was an experience i'll never forget. The one name that I saw that will stick with me is 'Vanessa Lang Langer and her Unborn Child' - very sad.

But on to happier subjects, we had a small shopping spree at Century 21 (a designer label outlet store) which yielded new cologne, a nice dress shirt, and some sunglasses for me - before heading back to Ben's apartment for a much needed nana nap. Ben, Pasky (Ben's American Football playing, Princenton graduate, and general mountain of a man room-mate) and I headed down to a park on the edge of the Hudson River to play some football (american, not the real one). Pasky at 6'5 and tipping the scales at around 250lb (115 kg, give or take) is not an easy man to bring down, it took Ben and I, hanging off Pasky while he continued his charge for 10 yards, to bring him down!!! After our beautiful and ever so slightly bromantic sunset football game, we ventured home to freshen up for a delicious dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant near to the apartment. Bone Marrow is one thing I didn't think I would ever eat, but it was on the menu, so we gave it a go, and it turned out to be delicious! A few more cocktails were had at the Tribeca Grand Hotel after dinner, before our early night (2am at this point) took a turn for the worse as Ben and I opened the Whisky Cabinet in his apartment, two hours later, and almost all of the problems of the world solved, we finally got some sleep!

Sunday morning brunch with Pasky and his family was lovely, if a little too early. We had a lazy sunday playing football in Central Park, napping in the avo before heading here: http://www.woobidoo.org/2011/05/boom-boom-room-nyc-club_08.html - to the Boom Boom Room for a cocktail in the evening before heading to 'Catch' - which was a lovely seafood restaurant for an entire snapper for dinner! Boom Boom Room - as well as having an awesome name - is the nicest place ever invented in which one can acquire delicious cocktails, with sweeping panoramic views of New York City + The New Jersey Skyline silhouetted by a Sunset. And then, there is the bathrooms, which redefine why a toilet is sometimes called a throne. The entirely black marble bathrooms look out over the NY Skyline, with floor to ceiling windows, it all culminates to create an excreting experience like no other. Life Changing.

After dinner, I caught a bus back out to little old New Paltz for a much needed 15 hour sleep!

Keeping it real, missing you all! Hope everyone's first week at Uni is going well!

Peace and Love
AB

 Lauren and I - Walking the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday Night

 Me at Grand Central

 4 Kiwis in NYC w/ Taika Waititi

Cocktails at the Tribeca Grand

Back in the New York Groove

Kia Ora!

I realize it has been a while between blog posts, I make no apologies for this. I've been having too much fun.

I don't even know where to start for this entry, so many shenanigans have gone down since my last entry, but the ol' memory is a little hazy on many of them, so i'll start with last weekend.

On Friday I had my usual class at the United Nations, no big deal. Sam (my aussie room-mate and I) then went out for a few drinks on the Lower East Side (Cuba St of NYC, many a hipster) with some class-mates before meeting up with my friend from NZ Benny Bruno. Ben (in his typical, annoyingly generous fashion) took Sam and I out for a Mexican feast and some terrific tequila, followed by a Martguerita or two, it made for a restrained, composed and dignified night out on the Lower east side. On the way home we stopped off for a Sandwich at Katz' Deli (this is the place where 'Sally' has a fake orgasm in the film 'When Harry Met Sally'. It was pretty much amazing, more meat than you can shake a vegetarian at. I was a happy chappy.

Saturday morning at Benny's apartment greeted us with the increasingly familiar hangover. Ben; being the bright young lad he is, suggested instead of exerting any unnecessary effort, we simply order in a greasy feed to satisfy our cravings, and while we wait, play a few games of Call of Duty. Best hangover cure, ever.

A few hours (and a few more kg's on the belly) later Sam and I ventured uptown to meet up with the rest of the international kids at Times Square. Some went shopping, the more cultured amongst us went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was all deeply rewarding and fascinating. I liked the knights in shining armour, perhaps I was a magpie in a former life?
Anyway, after our afternoon of culture, we caught the subway down to Chinatown for dinner with Ben + the Internationals (I wanted to go down to funkytown, but apparently there isn't a subway line that takes you there). Then followed Saturday night, and oh, what a night.

We hurriedly got readied in our hotel room which was 30secs from Times Square, grabbed a bottle of wine and jumped in the Stretch Hummer that was awaiting us outside. We had an hour in the limo to drink, relax, scream "What's up New York" from the hole in the roof, throw money in the air (ok, so it was only $1. But I felt like a baller, and that's what counts). Our limo then dropped us off at a club called Greenhouse, which is apparently super exclusive. The regular people had to pay $300 for bottle service just to get in the door that night (which, for the uninformed is a cover charge that includes a bottle of Vodka, excessive) - however, we were no ordinary guests, we knew someone, therein lies the benefit of being part of a group that covers almost every continent + more than 10 countries: someone always knows someone. One of the Spanish lads knew a bouncer or owner or someone, either way, we didn't stop to ask questions, we just waltzed inside, and had free bottles of Vodka supplied to our table all night. Not a bad start.

Then, the bartender informs us that Busta Rhymes was going to be stopping by later that night, cool. Don't know if he was actually there, cause I don't know what Busta Rhymes looks like, but it's the thought that maybe he was there that counts. Famous people I did recognize however, included members of an NBA team: the San Antonio Spurs, as well as members of the Superbowl winning NY Giants (saw the superbowl rings, pretty G). But, the moment of the night that surpasses all of the glitz and glam, and the one that will remain etched in my memory for some time to come, was the 'Gs' "making it rain" in the club. No shit. They were literally throwing money around, quite a lot of it, unfortunately I was on the other side of the crowded club so was unable to obtain any, but it was quite the spectacle.

I found some time to do some uni work. An hour to be precise, 20 mins of which was spent playing the guitar. In this time, I wrote a 3 page essay, and was given 90% for it. ha. what a joke. These people should really have higher marking standards, but they don't, and for that I am thankful.

Currently on my way to DC with the other exchange kids to hang out for Presidents Day. Probs gunna hang out with Brobama while i'm there, we are boys, got him on the text.

Contrary to popular belief, i'm not a super skux, the fact that I am the only guy surrounded by girls in many of the photos on facey is a mere reflection of the guy to girl ratio here.  Once again, this exchange business is really tough.

I've learned little bits of Spanish, Italian, Turkish, my French is improving, and according to Mum and Dad my English has improved immeasurably, because (allegedly) I now speak slower and more clearly.

Anyway, that's probably enough of my ramblings for now.

Hope everything is well back in NZ

Hasta luego mis amigos!!!

Life of an Exchange Student.

I have 6 classes a week. I have no classes on Tuesday, One on Wednesday at 3:30pm (which is just as well cause Tuesday is student night here and drinks are super cheap) and my "Class" on friday, involves trips into NYC to the United Nations. Shit is tough. My room-mate is a bit of a d-bag, for want of a better adjective, he is the lightest sleeper ever (he even one ups you Caithlin Jones) the sound of opening my drinkbottle in the middle of the night wakes him. So i'm moving out, just waiting on a room in another a hall to clear out so me and one of the aussies can move into it.
There isn't a lot to do in New Paltz, so people drink. A lot. Tuesday night was student night, so after "pre-match" (the american version of pre-drinking) we hit one of the local bars P & G's. The deal of the night, $2.50 for any kind of spirit + mixer. Uh Oh. And when I say spirit + mixer, it's not the shitty NZ bar tenders version of a pour, whereby they stop pouring before their magic pourer stops it exactly on 30ml, just to jip you out of 5mls worth of alchy, oh no, here they free pour. So essentially depending on how generously you tip, you can end up with a 50-50 of Vodka and Redbull. Recipe for disaster.
This was only made worse by my slightly inebreated self offering up a $5 tip to Jake the Bartender, who in exchange for my genorousity, shouted me, the british girl I was with at the bar and himself a shot of Jager. GC. However, my illustrious night out was cut short (at 4am) by some asshole who spiked my drink. One would assume it was instead intended for the British girl next to me, but apparently the 'frat pledgers' often have to do shit like that to prove themselves to the upperclassmen. Not an ideal way to end the night, was walked home (rather slowly) by two of the other exchangies (chur) and was probably the single scariest experience i've ever had on a night out (even scarier than the time I fought off two fire-breathing, racist dragons with my bare hands, true story).

But, back onto cheerier topics. I will describe for you my day today, and the three that are to follow. Today, my first class began at the leisurely hour of 10:30. I was done by 12 so went and sat in the dining hall for 3 hours will I slowly consumed my lunch. Then I had to return to class from 3-4:30. I then quickly returned to my dorm, chucked some shit in a bag, and jumped on a bus headed for NYC at 5pm, which is where I right to you from now. Upon arriving in the city, I will be greeted by Benny Bruno and Dad, we will have an exquisite and enormous steak somewhere, before heading to the Lincoln Centre for a Jazz Concert. The Lincoln Centre bar sits on the 30th floor, with floor to ceiling windows looking out over central park, it could be worse. Heading back out to uni tomorrow at 830am, but not because I have class, oh no, i'm going snowboarding for the day. Then I have a house party to attend tomorrow night (chore) and then on Saturday, I have to go snowboarding again, because on Saturday night i've been invited (along with another exchangie) to a huge party on the mountain, with legit DJ's and everything. FML. Sunday will either contain more snowboarding, or a rest. Then on Monday, i'll probably have to go to A Day to Remember, who are touring with Rise Against and are playing 20mins away from my Uni. But only because the techie one of the Brits met at the bar on Tuesday night, has offered us free entry and possible backstage passes.

This exchange business is truly dull, I hope you're well NZ.

Peace
x

State University of New York at New Paltz

I've arrived. My uni / college (trying to sound all american and shit) has the acronym SUNY, remember this as I really cbf writing out the full title all the time. It's pretty mint, i'm in a new hall which has its own gym and is pretty fly. I neglected to bring a duvet or pillows so have fashioned a quilt out of NZ flags and a pillow out of scarves and hoodies. Choice. I think I may have tipped my taxi driver 50 bucks by accident, fml. What kind of backward-ass country makes all its notes the same colour then makes you tip people in the dark!!!!! Rawr! Only international students here all week, haven't seen many and i'm the only person in my entire hall so it's pretty quiet! Have 3 aussie friends though which is nice! At least i'll have people to sit with at breakfast tomorrow (they were keen to be fashionably late too and rock up to breakfast 10min before it closes, my kind of people - breakfast is the most over-rated meal, and that's how Andrew sees it.) A meal that is not over-rated however, is dinner. Unbeknown to me, they were not providing a meal tonight, so the 2 tiny slices of pizza I had while I registered was supposed to be it, having not eaten lunch, this causes some problems. Stoked to have the emergency chocolate in my bag, chur to Georgie Brown for putting that in there.

Empire State of Mind

Holy Shit I love this city. That pretty much sums it up, but in case that doesn't satisfy you yearnings for a lengthy blog post, I'll elaborate. We started off from Benny Bruno's flash apartment in Lower Manhattan (it looks out over the new World Trade Centre / Ground Zero, pretty cool) and did a little lower city tour, saw the Wall St Bull, what's left of the occupy protesters (now resembles occupy wellington, Lol,) went down to the touthern tip of the island and saw the Statue of Liberty at sunset, she is a saucy minx. Then we went to Ground Zero which was pretty harrowing, before grabbing a burger and a shake (pre dinner snack) and heading back to the apartment to thaw out.

Then we headed to the lower east side, aka hipster central, the cuba st of NY, to Ben's favourite mexican restaurant, there was an hour wait for a table, but Ben knew a waiter so that got changed to 10mins, ballin'. So we went to the bar next door for a beer and some oysters, it was practically good luck but cooler, it was here that I recorded my first triumphant victory over the ridiculous New York drinking age of 21. 1-0. We then moved back to the mexican restaurant where I scored my second victory over the drinking laws, via mohijto. 2-0. Amazing food, and then there was the company, obviously being with Dad and Ben was lovely, but then these two girls (from michigan originally, now NY) leant over and started talking to us, we were polite and courteous as per usual, then one (very drunk one) said "Sorry if we're interrupting your meal, but this is New York, You're Welcome" - thus confirming my hypothesis of the brash New Yorker.

Aprés dinner, we went for a stroll through Chinatown and Little Italy, to the Brooklyn bridge, which although cold, provided a stunning view of the city skyline. We then returned home for some chats and a quiet whisky, day 1 = success.

Day 2: Tourists

Today we did the whirlwind tour of NYC. We managed to squeeze in Times Square, a bagel breakfast, the Rockefeller viewing platform (360 views of the city from the 70th floor - sick) grand central, 5th avenue, Madison avenue, the Waldorf Astoria (v.flash hotel) Central Park, where we had a nice cold Stella Artois after a long march through the city, in a flash bar that looked out over the frozen lake of central park, very upper east side, very gossip girl, 3-0, We went to the natural history museum (big dinosaur bones) and a few trips on the subway for good measure! The city is amazing, I have no idea where the day went! We just went and went and went, like the Energizer battery, until we flopped down at dinner, had an all you can eat texas bbq (Jonny Anderson would LOVE this place, you pay for your meat by the pound, and salads are actually not available) and just generally had a jolly good time (and a few beers, 4-0).
I could, and probably will ramble on about NYC all day, but i'm pretty much exhausted, and am quite happy to say goodnight! I start *College* read: uni, out in New Paltz tomorrow with a week of orientation, it's about an hour and a half by bus from central manhattan to there! Apprehensive but excited!

Peace y'all.