the story so far, including just a few highlights.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over seven months since the last time my feet were planted firmly on Australian soil. For the last six of those seven months I’ve been a resident of New York City, definitely something I never thought would happen. Spending this time in America was something I always dreamed about but not something I completely expected to happen.

The 22nd June 2009 seems like only yesterday but when I actually take the time to think about it, the 22nd June 2009 may as well be a lifetime ago. So much has occurred in the 218 days that have passed since then. Not only did I experience the longest day of my life, – 22nd June was the never-ending Monday if there ever was one; instead of a summer solstice on December 21st everything was reversed and I got to live the shortest day of the year twice because of being in the Southern Hemisphere for their winter solstice as well.

Apart from living in New York, I’ve been to Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Francisco, San Diego, Mexico, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Denver; as well as driving through Connecticut and New Jersey. Let’s not forget the curious adventures in Doylestown, PA as well! In the small amount of time I’ve been here I’ve been to more places than some Americans go to in their entire lifetimes! In every state and in every city there were adventures experienced and memories made.

If best laid plans always came to fruition then I would not be living in New York right now. Instead, I would be on the other side of the country in San Francisco. As soon as I arrived there I fell in love with it, it was so familiar yet so different. The majestic Golden Gate Bridge rising out of the mist and glowing orange in the sunlight, the searing heat from the wharf parking lot where Warped Tour was held, the dollhouse-like terraces lining the hilly streets, – there was nothing I could find to dislike about San Francisco, – not even the dirty street punks that lined Haight Street begging for my spare change every time I walked past them.

Fate intervened though and at the end of July I found myself packing my bag in Boston for New York. If I fell in love with San Francisco, I fell in lust with New York City. It captivated me before I even set foot in it. As the train pulled into Penn Station I already recognized names of places I’d only heard of on TV and the movies, – Union Square, 34th Street, Times Square, the list just goes on and on. Summer in the city can be cruel, it was so humid that it was almost impossible to get dry after a shower and you could forget about trying to straighten your hair! The humidity was relieved by afternoon rain and thunder storms that cooled the air for the kind of warm summer nights where you don’t need a jacket and it’s impossible to imagine it ever being colder than 65F.

I could ramble on and on about everything I’ve seen and done here in America but that would could occupy an entire book. Some of my highlights that I can think of off the top of my head are below:

Seeing the Hollywood sign up close and personal; the Hollywood Hills in the early hours of the morning and the surprise appearance of a deer; going to a show at the Viper Room.

I’ve sunbathed in San Diego and swum in the Pacific Ocean; I tried to snorkel but ended up with a nose full of salt water instead. I met more foreigners than Americans in Pacific Beach and realized just how bad the Australian accent sounds thanks to the other backpackers at the Banana Boat Hostel.

I went to Mexico. We drank margaritas for lunch and watched in horror as the Mexican barman went around our group with a whistle, a bottle of tequila and a towel. There was no tequila left by the time he’d gone through everyone. I almost didn’t get back over the border from Mexico, the only reason I’m on the right side of the US-Mexican border today is due to some quick thinking from the group leader from our hostel.

A $90 cab ride from Sacramento to Marysville. Yes, $90. Thank God for backstage passes to Mayhem fest, margaritas the size of my head, 100F temperatures in the shade (and air-con tour buses to match!), new friends, Slayer, boca burgers that got cooked for me and a free ride back to the hotel. Pretty much the best $90 cab ride ever. And this Sacramento experience led to me returning there in December to continue the party times.

Staying in the house that Andy Hurley from Fall Out Boy lives in. Seeing raccoons (that may or may not have been infected with rabies) at 2 in the morning. Learning that there’s more to Milwaukee than just beer, beer, beer and more beer.

Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Visiting New York City, Paris and a tropical volcanic island all in one night and never leaving The Strip. VIP clubs with neon blue drinks, fake shots, winning 15 cents on a poker machine, flamingoes wherever I turned, walking through the desert to Wholefoods, $2 margaritas at five in the morning.

Hearing Billy Joel & Elton John serenade the crowd at Wrigley Stadium in Chicago as we rushed past to go see Four Year Strong/Set Your Goals; seeing Aleks & Matt in Chicago for total Soundwave reunions on the other side of the world.

The dodgey $12/night hostel in downtown Brooklyn that marked the start of the New York adventure/obsession. No power on the top floor, leaking air-con, broken showers but that didn’t stop Mayan and I from bonding over Mischa Barton having a breakdown. Crazy French people with champagne and expensive private booths at hole-in-the-wall clubs.

Seeing Blink 182 at Jones Beach; dragging Mayan to Angels & Kings the night after just so I could see Pete, Brendan, Mark and Vinnie all in the same room; overly-friendly and overly-generous bartenders; my friends putting up with me making them go see all of Vinnie’s shows in the Manhattan/Brooklyn area.

Seeing the Empire State, the Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Picnicking in Central Park and watching squirrels run in and out of the tree roots, – if I could keep one as a pet I would. I’ve window-shopped Fifth Avenue, – Tiffany & Co., Bendels, Saks, Barneys, as well as hundreds of designer stores up and down the avenue. I visited the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center and spent a few minutes watching the ice-skaters glide around the shadow of the main building.

I’ve paid my respects at Ground Zero and cried in the September 11th Memorial Museum.

I’ve seen Kahlo to Warhole at MOMA; gazed upon the French Impressionists at the Met; stared in wondrous awe at Van Gough and Dali; walked through an Egyptian temple older than Jesus; had a face-off with a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull; and touched a meteor that came from a place in outer space where stars are made.

I know now that a half empty subway carriage isn’t something to be thankful for, – usually the vacant seats surround a person that smells worse than anything you could imagine. I’ve conquered the subway map and know the uptown F train never comes when you need it to and the Brooklyn bound M train always leaves the Myrtle Wykoff station a minute before the connecting J train arrives; chance meetings on the subway with people you haven’t seen in awhile.

I’ve come to call Brooklyn my home; drinking Turkey’s Nest giant-sized margaritas in McCarren Park in the summertime, posing for photos with oversized Christmas trees in the wintertime. The weekend ritual of Turkey’s Nest, Union Pool and Legion; not leaving Legion until the dj’s have played Jay-Z and Alicia Keys ode to New York at least twice; photobooth photos and the Mexican taco truck in the backyard of Union Pool; my fast food saviour and  an all-round yummy meal of vegan pizza at Vinnies. Haunting Buffalo Exchange and Beacons Closet and filling my wardrobe full of wonderful, crazy, beautiful vintage finds. Wandering up and down Bedford Ave on the weekend seeing what the sidewalk vendors have on offer; $2 roadside pretzels becoming a main source of my nutrition, especially when coupled with a can of $1 Dr. Pepper.

Living through my first White Christmas and temperatures that stay in the minus range for days on end; waking up to watch snow fall outside my window; walking through snow drifts up to my knees just to get home; the simultaneous crunch and silence of the snow as it piles up.

Being a tour guide for the seemingly endless parade of Australians visiting; getting to show everyone my favourite places in my adopted city and starting trends with vodka-sours; Tash and I getting our photo on a fifteen story billboard in Times Square.

Most importantly, meeting people that will be friends for life. Without them I know my experience would not be half as amazing as it is.

New York is known as the city that never sleeps. I’ve certainly had my share of sleepless nights here so far and am looking forward to the many more to come in the next six months. There is an indescribable quality to this city that I don’t think I could ever describe to someone who hasn’t spent time here. Every morning as my train goes over the Williamsburg Bridge, crossing over from Brooklyn to Manhattan, I make a point to always look up from whatever book I’m reading to look out over the city skyline. Everyday the sight of the sprawling city and towering buildings makes me want to pinch myself just to make sure it’s all real. Yes, I’m really in New York.

my favourite new york building, the chrysler, as viewed from the empire state building.

all we demanded was our right to twinkle.

Tonight I saw New York as I had never seen it before. Unlike the two previous times when I arrived in the New York; once by train and the other by bus; this time I left by air and was able to see the city in all its glory at night.

My plane took off from La Guardia airport at about 6.30 in the evening. Due to the winter season it was already full darkness outside. I had hoped to get a window seat and I did, I also hoped that we would fly out over the city but because I was unsure of the route the plane would take on its way to Sacramento (via Minneapolis St Paul) I didn’t hold my breath. After take off it took me a few seconds to discern exactly which way we were headed and then to take in all the lights that I was seeing. The plane flew horizontal to the Bronx and my seat offered a prime view of the island of Manhattan, all the way from the top right down to the bottom. What amazed me the most was the way the numbered avenues run in perfectly straight lines all the way up the city. As we flew directly over each one and our plane aligned with them it was as if each one had become a red hued corridor stretching for the 10 or 11 miles of the island (apparently every 20 city blocks equals a mile). It was truly an amazing sight. In the distance I could make out all the usual suspects, – the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, even the steady pulse of the blinding lights at Times Square.

Now after our plane has been in the air for less than 15 minutes, the lights of the city are just a distant glow on the horizon. Below me now only darkness stretches out, punctuated by the lights of a small town every few minutes. Maybe we’re over New Jersey now, maybe its Pennsylvania, my knowledge of the geography of the East Coast states is not as good as it should be. The distance between me and my home of the last six months is steadily growing as the plane moves forward but even though I followed the in-flight rules and did not take out any electronic devices during take off (namely, my digital camera), the sight I saw tonight will stay fresh in my mind for years to come.

flying lights that my camera cannot do justice to.

Passing out over the countryside, the one thing that I desire right now is to see the stars. It’s been more than five months since I have seen a star-lit sky. It is not something I even fathomed missing when I arrived, there were too many other things that spring to my mind first, – friends, family, personal items left on the other side of the world, but it has been something I have found myself longing for. Maybe it’s because unlike seeing family and friends who are separated from me by thousands of miles of land and oceans, I know that seeing the stars is within my grasp. Already, as the plane pulled higher and higher into the sky I spotted a star rising above the horizon. In just a few hours I will be able to look up and see a sky full of them.

I have a memory of standing in a paddock at my Aunt’s property in the Hunter Valley a few weeks before I left Australia and looking up at a clear night sky scattered with too many stars to even count, – a sky so full that sometimes you had to look slightly away from a patch of stars just so it didn’t seem like one big blob of lights. The sky is different here in America, when I look up at it it doesn’t feel like its open and stretches forever, here the sky is capped between the skyscrapers and at night there is the illusion that you live within a dome, the city at the center of it, continually giving off a dull orange glow, like a warning that beyond the glow where darkness finally penetrates is a place you don’t want to go.

For me the darkness beyond the city glow is not unwelcome; it represents freedom and adventure and a chance to cast off and forget, even just for a weekend, the last five months and the love/hate relationship that I have had with the living and breathing entity that is New York city. Looking out of my cabin window now, all I see is blackness.

I welcome the darkness of tonight and the unknown of what this trip will bring.

the never-ending monday.

As I’m typing this I’m sitting on the Disneyland Resorts Express Shuttle to Anaheim. We’re doing the rounds of the LAX arrival gates but everything is off to a smooth start.

The flight was pretty good, I didn’t sleep much, once I’m awake I’m awake until night time so hopefully I can stay awake now (its 7.30 am in Los Angeles) until tonight. That would mean that in 36 hours I’ve gotten about 2 hours sleep!! Oh well I can sleep when I’m dead! The food was really good and even though the seats don’t go down into completely horizontal beds it was almost just as good.

It’s bright and sunny here and it already feels like its over twenty degrees, – I’m going to have no trouble adjusting I could live in this weather all-year-round! The accents are awesome too, each time I hear someone speak I smile!

I didn’t have much trouble getting through immigration either; I was one of the first people off so I went straight to the front of the line although the immigration officer said I was meant to already have a job lined up but I just politely pointed out that the paperwork said that if I didn’t have a prearranged job I just had to show I had the funds to support myself until I found a job. I offered to show him my bank statements but it was all good. Maybe he saw my bloodshot eyes (from the flight of course!) and thought I’d be a prime candidate for cracking under pressure.

Anyways I’m going to sit back and enjoy the scenery, aka the freeways of Los Angeles, for the rest of the drive down to Anaheim.

hi, LA!