New York

My bus ride from Philadelphia to New York city took me through New Jersey. The state motto is "The Garden State" which on the evidence of what I saw, is very hard to believe. It made Muroran look pretty. And bearing in mind that the ride from Newark airport is all that most visitors will probably see of the state, it's understandable that Jersey is not on the top of peoples list of places to visit. Also being right beside NYC can't help either. Despite this I think that Jersey gets the last laugh, after all of one the most visited attractions in New York, the Statue of Liberty, is not actually in NYC but in New Jersey. And you have all of those New Yorkers living in high priced condos, when the best views,i.e. those of Manhattan, can only be had from the Jersey shore. It's a paradox, but is it worth it to live in New jersey if you can afford to live in Manhattan? I don't know. I probably will never have to make that choice.
The bus dropped me off in Chinatown and I went straight to the library. I managed to work out where I needed to go to get to Ian's house.Then he texted me and offered to pick me up at the train station nearest to his office,all I had to do was get there. I got on the wrong train on my first try at riding the New York subway, not great. I put it down to the lack of station lists on the platforms and since I didn't know which direction I wanted to go in, just the station, that was a problem. I made it to Penn station and onto the train to New Jersey. I tried to use the wrong ticket to get out of the station, it had all gone to hell. I had lost my composure, you'd think that this kind of thing wouldn't faze me anymore, but it still does. I guess that probably means that it always will in the right circumstances. Not something I want to think about,you're supposed to live and learn. Ian picked me up outside the station and as I sat back in the car I breathed a sigh of relief. Someone else was in charge of my transportation, I could relax. My first impression of New York wasn't a good one. It reminded me of my first impression of L.A., I had been there just a day and I wanted to leave. Considering I like to be comfortable I do a lot of stuff that takes me out of my comfort zone. Maybe I am more adventurous than I give myself credit for.
Ian had come along with Michael,Betsy and I when we had taken a road trip around the south of Hokkaido last year. All of four of us had to run out of the tent in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. If that wasn't bad enough we were in the middle of a storm and we just missed getting hit by a huge branch. When Ian heard that I was going to be in the U.S. he offered me a place to stay when I got to New York. So here I was,at his house in Rockland County, New York state. According to his mother,Norma, Rockland County is always portrayed as a cabin in the woods in "Law and Order"t.v. programme. I need to see one of those episodes because it is not like that at all. We went out to dinner in a town in mid-state New York, Cold Spring, with two of Ian's friends,Craig and Cassie. We then drove around with Craig showing us a "haunted" house and a freaky head statue of George Washington. It literally was just his head, it wasn't a bust. Strange.And I even got some train spotting in, Scott would be proud of me.
I woke up to a snow storm on New Years eve and was worried that it might put a spoke in our plans. It didn't, the snow stopped and Ian,Jose, another friend of his and I drove up to Portland,Connecticut for a New Years Eve party that evening. The party was held at an old college friend's of Ian's house. The house was a video games players dream, the sitting room had a huge t.v. and a range of game consoles. A range of "Wii" guitars for guitar hero were stored in the basement and in another room was a "Wii" DJ game. I am not a huge games fan, so didn't play guitar hero, but did play a quiz game when it was offered. I sucked and it had nothing to do with the boxed wine I was drinking!Midnight came around and we watched the ball drop and I wasn't struggling to stay awake for a change. In view of my track record it was a very successful New Years Eve. I don't have a New Years resolution,although I am a little depressed at the thought of the year ahead. In one way I already know that 2010 won't be as great as 2009. I spent nine months of 2009 travelling, I will only travel for three months of 2010 and then I have to get a job. That's presuming of course that I can get a job. I could spend the entire year unemployed and in poverty, never to travel again! O.K. so I am being a little dramatic now but who knows. It's possible. That's the beauty of life, anything is possible. Darren has already agreed that can stay with him when I get back, so i won't be completely homeless when I get back to the U.K.
I woke on New Years day before the rest of the other guests, but as is the norm for me I had a book with me so i spent the time reading. When we all awoke and got our stuff we headed to a local Denny's for brunch. It was just what everyone needed. Ian and I went into New York City, we met up with Michael and his friend Dana. It was great to catch up with Michael especially as now we're in the same country again. I had missed him by a few days when I was in San Francisco and felt an urgency to take this opportunity to see him before I return home. I am a little worried about when I will see some of my American and Canadian friends again after this trip. I know that people have trouble seeing each other when they are on different U.S. coasts let alone in different continents. I have no idea when I will be able to visit east coast American again. I am tentatively planning a visit to the south west in 2011 so I think I've got my planning groove back!
We went to a noodle shop for dinner, I suffered from plate envy, Dana ordered a great looking dish of noodle and duck meat. Mine was fine but why does that happen so frequently, where I want what someone else has ordered? We finished up with a beer in an Irish bar, no disrespect to Dana but all we were missing was Betsy to make this a complete reunion. I miss being in close contact with my friends from Japan. It's different with my English friends as I haven't lived in England for such a long time. I am used to seeing these people on a fairly regular basis. I just don't know what's going to happen when I return to England. I am not suggesting that we will never see each other again but it's not going to be the same once I stop travelling. I guess my real concern is having to settle somewhere and not knowing where that is going to be. My problem is that I look too far ahead and envisage problems that may never occur and then I worry about those possibilities. It's wasted time and energy. Also seeing two friends who have returned from Japan and now are settling into their post japan lives brings it home that the end of my trip is in sight. Maybe I could just travel for the rest of my life. I wish!!
The second day of January 2010 started slowly for me, which is exactly as it should be. there was nothing I had to get up for, nowhere I had to go.We lazed around the house, I spent some time on the computer uploading photos onto my hard drive. I always get a bit jittery if I have too many photos on my camera memory card. I worry that I will delete or lose them somehow. I did that after my first trip to Nagasaki and when I realised what I had done, I cried. Never again. Ian and I went to Sleepy Hollow in the afternoon. I had seen a road sign for the village on our drive to Connecticut and of course I wanted to go. I knew that the village in the movie was in New York state but hadn't realised that it was a real place and still existed today. The modern village is nothing like the village in the movie, it's a suburb now rather than an isolated settlement. There is an old church and graveyard there which is really atmospheric. We took our photo by the Sleep Hollow sign and grabbed a pizza at the headless diner. We spent the evening playing board games with Ians parents, Norma and Paul and were royally beaten at all three games we played. I think Norma should go on Jeopardy. Then foolishly I went with Ian to a local deli which is owned by one of his friends, Dave. The wine wasn't the problem, it was the moonshine that Dave gave me to drink. However I was smart enough to only drink one glass of it, but when I fell into bed later that night I was definitely feeling it.