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
Funny thing is most of my roommates were mostly “politically conservative” and they have a good image of GWB. They think Obama is too weak. Good tip on the passport thing, although I bet most of the passport holders were naturalized citizens.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the paragraph about the last night in NP, and I'll have that song stuck in my head for a long time.
Good blog, dude. I did not know you could write this well. We could have had deep conversations on American politics and society instead of pineapples and meat pies. jeje
Have fun in Europe!
vaya con dios! (this is just to wish you a good trip, it is not a religious statement btw)
Haha thanks bro! I think I actually said to someone in the weeks before we left that the thing people might not have known about me from NP is that I am capable of having a serious conversation! hahaha Talking about pineapples was funny though, they're a strange shape.
ReplyDeletePeace
See you soon, get selling those pineapples to pay for your fare to NZ!