Yesterday I saw a Turkey Vulture (Buzzard)

I'm just glad I wasn't crawling through the desert.

All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey.

Right now I feel like I am walking in two worlds, but not really living in either.

Usually when you go on a holiday, especially an extended holiday like this, it's a bit of a shock to go back home and to your day-to-day routine, such as housework and a job. I'm still on holiday, in that I'm not in New Zealand, but I'm also having to work again for my job back home (albeit remotely) as I have yet been unable to find a decent job here in the city. This has left me feeling somewhat in the middle of both going home and being away, and is a little strange.

I came to the US hoping to find a job in the city, but so far that has proved as difficult as I had expected. I've applied for a couple of jobs here - but the problem I'm having is that I don't just want any job; I will absolutely not work in a bar or diner just to hope for tips. I think if I were to do that I would totally feel like I was patronising those who had little choice but to work those jobs. Besides, I doubt anybody would hire me anyway given that I'm a short-term stay.

I'm also trying to balance looking for work with sightseeing and actually working for my job back home. I'm trying to work enough so that I can afford to live, see, and travel the States, but I'm finding it difficult to strike the right balance between working for my job back home, and going into the city or exploring. As a result of this (and also as a result of not being paid for the past month) my adventures have substantially diminished.

On top of all this, the weather has taken a sudden turn for the colder here - it's now Autumn (still refusing to say 'Fall'), and I find myself having to wear several tee shirts and my jacket while sitting in the house, having only packed summer clothing. I of course came prepared to buy a winter wardrobe while I was here, and I intend to do this as soon as I get paid.

Only that date keeps getting pushed back a little each week... my goal is to not freeze to death before that happens, and so I've taken a series of novel steps to keep warm. Many cups of tea, resting my hands on my laptop battery, and even doing dishes - all of which only to keep my hands warm! I wouldn't be surprised to see snow in the coming weeks. I just hope I have something other than a softshell from Kathmandu to keep me warm while I'm making Steve-Angels in the snow.

So I find myself sitting in front of my laptop, living outside New York City, and working for New Zealand. I'm not disliking my trip, but the mood and method has changed - I now need to figure out what that is.

I think something's not quite right here.

The Wonderful Wicked of Oz

I saw Wicked last night.

And it was.

DC - what a Marvel!

Washington DC reminds me a little bit of Canberra.

Canberra is very well planned, very pretty and nicely laid out. Canberra is also rather dull. Now some might see that as an insult, and perhaps rightly so. I will admit to thinking of DC as overly organised and dull, at least at first.

Yes, it's very awe-inspiring standing on top of the steps of the ever-impressive Capitol Building and staring down the Mall at the Washington Monument, and yes the area around the various war memorials (and the Lincoln Memorial) are all very moving and inspiring, and yes I'm probably just jaded from having seen many impressive parliamentary buildings and various war memorials from across Europe.

I know, I know. The photos above paint a rather awesome picture of the place. But I couldn't help but feel just a little bit underwhelmed by it all. I will admit to feeling a little cranky at the time due to it being a rather hot day (and being completely over dressed), and that that could have influenced my opinion of the place.

But then last night I went out to DuPont Circle (close to Georgetown), and my opinion changed completely. Here was a part of the city that had a little soul, a little character, a little attitude.

Suddenly everything seemed totally different; now today when I walked around The Mall and Capitol Buildings, things seemed to have another dimension to them - they now appeared to be more than just classic monuments and lumps of stone and clay; now they were architectural marvels, which seemed to capture the spirit of the city that I had now seen. Washington DC has enough to it to convince me that it's a nice place to be.

So yeah - I like it here.

Megabus - a Mega Bus.

I took a bus from NYC to DC for eight dollars. I can't even get a taxi to town back in Wellington for eight dollars.

I booked my trip online using the Megabus website, all very easy. It's amazing how far they will take you for so little; you could get a ticket to Boston for as little as $1 if you booked early enough. The Megabus is a big double decker, with free wifi and a power outlet for those of us who can't stand travelling on the bus. I watched Juno.

I arrived in DC early Wednesday evening after a four hour bus ride which took me through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware (I've now been to one tenth of the US on this trip...!) before getting off the bus and walking towards the capitol buildings and my hotel. Well, I got all the way to The Mall (the long stretch of grass and parkland that lies between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument) before realising I had left behind the air mattress I was supposed to bring to sleep on.

So I walked back to where the bus had dropped my off, stressed out and swearing at my own stupidity only to find the bus loading up and about to leave. I ran up to the bus flailing my arms up and down with my backpack bouncing all over the place as I tried to flag the driver to pull over. He stopped, opened the door, and looked at me.

"You're either late or you forgot an air bed"

"Air bed"

"hunh"

At which point he stood up, reached above his head, and tossed my air bed at me. I swear I heard a chorus of angels as he sat back down and drove away.

Thank you, Megabus.

I want to be a part of it...

It’s Autumn here at the moment (I will never call it ‘Fall’), and it’s like something out of a movie. It’s quite a new thing for me to actually experience a change in the seasons other than a sudden shift in the temperature from tee-shirt to jersey. But New York is something else – far from being the concrete jungle I expected, I find that New York City is all but lined with trees, which makes the change to Autumn so pretty (and the autumnal colours that follow).

I’m currently staying in the suburb of Irvington, which is about an hour out of Grand Central Station by train. I’m staying with Ashley (my ex girlfriend now very good friend), and her family until I can get myself sorted out with a job and a place to live.

So with that in mind, I’ve decided to set myself some goals for my time here in NYC:

Find the perfect pizza. This can be broken down into two categories… Thin crust: pepperoni. Deep Dish: Pepperoni. I like pepperoni.

Be a tourist. Sure, I’ve been to Central Park and Times Square, but I have yet to see the Statue of Libery, climb the Empire State Building, or try to explain to a crazy person that they don’t have bugs crawling all over them,

Get a job. I don’t mean just working at a bar or a café or diner; I mean finding something that will get me into a social network of some kind, and maybe make some new friends.

Get an apartment. I like where I’m staying. Where I’m staying is amazing. It’s where Bajilionaires live. I have my own room, I’m close to the woods, 20 minutes away from the Sleep Hollow. But it’s not NY. I guess I want to really experience life in NYC; living in a shitty apartment eating out of 3 day old Chinese takeaway boxes and slamming on the wall at 3am telling the neighbours to shut the hell up.

It’s a nice dream.

Angels of New Dork

I still love this city.

Before I arrived in New York I expected it to be all concrete and grey and busy and smoggy and full of street vendors and taxi drivers and crying babies and fat Americans and homeless people and muggers and Broadway dancers. I haven’t seen any homeless people (though I have still only stayed in either the city or the suburbs), and the poor people I have seen have all been industriously emptying rubbish bins for cans and bottles to recycle (which is why I no longer recycle them myself. It’s good for the planet and helps out those less fortunate than I!).

I took a walk to Central Park yesterday and was completely surprised by how big it was. I was expecting it to be no bigger than a small public park, not unlike Frank Kitts back in Wellington. Instead it takes up a large portion of my map of the city, and is filled with trees, wild (rabid?) animals, lakes, reservoirs, fountains, buskers, kids waggins school, and pretty pretty pretty trees.

I entered the park through the South Gate, and passed a whole slew of horse drawn carriages ready to take people on a tour of the greenery for around $35 for half an hour. I thought about it, I did. But in the end I decided to explore on my own for a bit, and maybe save the horse drawn cart for another time. I imagine it would be quite a lovely thing to do at night, but I am very naïve.

Wandering the park for a while, I found the angel fountain (from the TV series “Angels of New York”), where I sat down and listened to some buskers for a while, and also did some work on my laptop. It was all very lovely, until a bunch of teenage boys (who I lovingly referred to as ‘the Jewness Brothers”) came and started showing off to a bunch of equally pubescent young ladies what fine young menches they were. It was as hilarious as it was awkward, and I was doing well not to burst into laughter until one of them chose his method of impressment as his ‘awesome ability to tie a Windsor knot’.

The girls left, laughing.

So did I.