November 2005
Hey one and all,
Christmas is just around the corner and NYC is starting to get ready. Shops are being decorated and so are the streets. It seems really strange to me that Christmas is just a month away - I know that it is almost December but in my thinking it shouldn’t be Christmas because it’s getting colder, not warmer! On the other hand I didn’t think it should’ve been summer in June or July (even though it was warm) because it was the wrong month. I am looking forward to having a white Christmas though, but am not entirely sure what I’m doing yet.
For my weekend off in October I went up to Providence, Rhode Island to stay with one of my best friends from high school. Sarah has a running scholarship to Providence College and has been here for a couple of months. We had a great weekend once I got there. I left Hewlett on the 7:00am train and what usually takes 40 minutes to get into the city took me 3 hours! - There was a death on our train track. I missed the bus I was gonna take and had to take a later bus. I eventually got to Providence at about 3:30pm and Sarah met me there and took me to PC (Providence College). We hung out at PC during the afternoon and Sarah showed me round the Campus, then we went into Providence for dinner and a movie. Sunday we had breakfast at the college cafeteria and then did some backing; we made ‘Russian Rounds’ but renamed them ‘Kiwi rounds.’ We went out for lunch at a nice restaurant called ‘Fire’n’Ice. You choose the pasta, vegetables, and meat that you want, then watch as the chef stir-fry’s it in front of you. It was really nice. I left Providence Sunday evening and stayed the night in NYC at a youth hostel as I’d taken the Monday as a vacation day and was going on a day’s tour of Pennsylvania.
The tour left NYC at 7:00am, there was an older couple from California, a young family from London, a couple from Israel and me on the tour. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Philadelphia (the capitol of PA). We saw the Liberty Bell and took a tour of the City Hall; it was really cool. I learnt more of the US History and I understood a whole lot more since I’m taking a course on US History. From Philadelphia we went to Lancaster County where the Amish people live. We didn’t get to go onto any of the farms but we saw a lot of them - I saw my first paddock of cows in 8 months! We also went to a market which was quite interesting - some of the stores were lit by gas lanterns and I saw a number of horse and buggies. From Lancaster County we headed over to Hershey - home of the Hershey Chocolate Factory, the whole town smells of chocolate. We got back to NYC at about 8:00pm and I had a normal train ride home. It had poured all day in NY but we had no rain at all until we got back to NY.
Halloween was at the end of October. I didn’t really know what to expect and was a bit apprehensive about it. It turned out to be okay. Halloween in the US is more a ‘Fall Celebration’ than celebrating evil. There’s pumpkin carving and apple picking etc. We did dress up for Trickle Treating. Emily was a Cowgirl, Ali was Belle (Beauty and the Beast), and Bradley was a Power Ranger. I was a rugby player - I wanted to confuse the Americans but I was surprised when a couple actually guessed correctly. I was only missing a rugby ball, I had everything else including the boots! The kids got sooooo much candy - a shopping bag each easily.
Over the past few weekends I’ve done a few more touristy things in NYC. The weekend after going to PA I went to the NY Aquarium. It was pretty cool, we saw a Sea-Lion demonstration, the creature I liked the most was the jelly fish though. The had a lot of different species and some looked so cool. I also got to watch part of the NY Marathon. There were a group of 5 kiwi’s watching it and we were 400m from the finish line. We saw 6 or 7 kiwi runners and cheered VERY loudly when we saw them. One guy even acknowledged us - it was the highlight of out day. We also went to the US Intrepid which is a retired Navy ship and is the base for the Navy, Air, and Space museum. We spent a couple of hours there and it was very interesting. The flight deck still has the runway markings on it and the ship is full of different kinds of military aircraft. They’ve also got a concord there that you can walk through, the cockpit has A LOT of buttons.
Last Sunday we went to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular staring the Rockettes. It’s a show that millions see each year and through, acting, singing and dancing tell a lot of different aspects to Christmas. I really liked the nativity scene - they did it really well and it included 3 live camels, 6 live sheep, 2 donkey’s and a horse! It was really, really, really amazing.
This weekend I’m going to Long Island University to do a weekend course of the Changing American Family. Then next weekend is Thanksgiving. We’re having our Thanksgiving dinner at Suzie’s parents place in CT, and then going up to Vermont for the long weekend. Sarah (high school friend) is coming with us so that should be really fun!
Well I better go, enjoy the warm weather and think of me in the cold!
Love and Hugs
Anna
Ps. Don’t have time to add photo’s now, so check back next week.
Christmas is just around the corner and NYC is starting to get ready. Shops are being decorated and so are the streets. It seems really strange to me that Christmas is just a month away - I know that it is almost December but in my thinking it shouldn’t be Christmas because it’s getting colder, not warmer! On the other hand I didn’t think it should’ve been summer in June or July (even though it was warm) because it was the wrong month. I am looking forward to having a white Christmas though, but am not entirely sure what I’m doing yet.
For my weekend off in October I went up to Providence, Rhode Island to stay with one of my best friends from high school. Sarah has a running scholarship to Providence College and has been here for a couple of months. We had a great weekend once I got there. I left Hewlett on the 7:00am train and what usually takes 40 minutes to get into the city took me 3 hours! - There was a death on our train track. I missed the bus I was gonna take and had to take a later bus. I eventually got to Providence at about 3:30pm and Sarah met me there and took me to PC (Providence College). We hung out at PC during the afternoon and Sarah showed me round the Campus, then we went into Providence for dinner and a movie. Sunday we had breakfast at the college cafeteria and then did some backing; we made ‘Russian Rounds’ but renamed them ‘Kiwi rounds.’ We went out for lunch at a nice restaurant called ‘Fire’n’Ice. You choose the pasta, vegetables, and meat that you want, then watch as the chef stir-fry’s it in front of you. It was really nice. I left Providence Sunday evening and stayed the night in NYC at a youth hostel as I’d taken the Monday as a vacation day and was going on a day’s tour of Pennsylvania.
The tour left NYC at 7:00am, there was an older couple from California, a young family from London, a couple from Israel and me on the tour. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Philadelphia (the capitol of PA). We saw the Liberty Bell and took a tour of the City Hall; it was really cool. I learnt more of the US History and I understood a whole lot more since I’m taking a course on US History. From Philadelphia we went to Lancaster County where the Amish people live. We didn’t get to go onto any of the farms but we saw a lot of them - I saw my first paddock of cows in 8 months! We also went to a market which was quite interesting - some of the stores were lit by gas lanterns and I saw a number of horse and buggies. From Lancaster County we headed over to Hershey - home of the Hershey Chocolate Factory, the whole town smells of chocolate. We got back to NYC at about 8:00pm and I had a normal train ride home. It had poured all day in NY but we had no rain at all until we got back to NY.
Halloween was at the end of October. I didn’t really know what to expect and was a bit apprehensive about it. It turned out to be okay. Halloween in the US is more a ‘Fall Celebration’ than celebrating evil. There’s pumpkin carving and apple picking etc. We did dress up for Trickle Treating. Emily was a Cowgirl, Ali was Belle (Beauty and the Beast), and Bradley was a Power Ranger. I was a rugby player - I wanted to confuse the Americans but I was surprised when a couple actually guessed correctly. I was only missing a rugby ball, I had everything else including the boots! The kids got sooooo much candy - a shopping bag each easily.
Over the past few weekends I’ve done a few more touristy things in NYC. The weekend after going to PA I went to the NY Aquarium. It was pretty cool, we saw a Sea-Lion demonstration, the creature I liked the most was the jelly fish though. The had a lot of different species and some looked so cool. I also got to watch part of the NY Marathon. There were a group of 5 kiwi’s watching it and we were 400m from the finish line. We saw 6 or 7 kiwi runners and cheered VERY loudly when we saw them. One guy even acknowledged us - it was the highlight of out day. We also went to the US Intrepid which is a retired Navy ship and is the base for the Navy, Air, and Space museum. We spent a couple of hours there and it was very interesting. The flight deck still has the runway markings on it and the ship is full of different kinds of military aircraft. They’ve also got a concord there that you can walk through, the cockpit has A LOT of buttons.
Last Sunday we went to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular staring the Rockettes. It’s a show that millions see each year and through, acting, singing and dancing tell a lot of different aspects to Christmas. I really liked the nativity scene - they did it really well and it included 3 live camels, 6 live sheep, 2 donkey’s and a horse! It was really, really, really amazing.
This weekend I’m going to Long Island University to do a weekend course of the Changing American Family. Then next weekend is Thanksgiving. We’re having our Thanksgiving dinner at Suzie’s parents place in CT, and then going up to Vermont for the long weekend. Sarah (high school friend) is coming with us so that should be really fun!
Well I better go, enjoy the warm weather and think of me in the cold!
Love and Hugs
Anna
Ps. Don’t have time to add photo’s now, so check back next week.
posted by AnnaJ @ Friday, November 18, 2005
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