1. Took a shuttle from the airport to my hostel, and, in the manner of an excited seven year old, insisted on sitting up front with the driver so that I could see everything, which ended up being a bad idea because it turns out New York traffic is TERRIFYING and I should have sat in the backseat with my eyes closed. I was also the last person to get dropped off, and as soon as I was alone with him, the driver, who had not spoken a word up to this point, began talking my ear off about how terrible New York traffic is.
2. Stayed in a hostel room that I shared with a bunch of German students who seemed to be constantly wearing only underwear.
3. Bought a Coney Island Mermaid t-shirt at the Holiday Market in Union Square.
4. Ate breakfast at a chocolate restaurant where the breakfast special consisted of a toasted bagel with hazelnut praline and a melted chocolate bar on it.
5. Wandered around the East Village and Soho for hours and hours and took pictures of everything.
6. Visited the New School which was pretty good and pretty interesting, and I’m going to have to do some thinking about things.
7. Saw Grey Gardens! The most amazing musical ever, based on the most sublimely bizarre documentary ever, which you should probably go and rent right now because it’s something else. Also, how much do we love student rush tickets? We love them so, so much, because they mean seats five rows from the front for almost no money.
8. Called my parents from Times Square, which probably succeeded in completely terrifying them.
9. Walked from my hostel to Central Park, which took three hours, but included stops at the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, Rockefeller Centre (to see the Christmas tree!), Radio City Music Hall and Tiffany’s.
10. Complained about the fact that there was no snow on the Christmas tree because it was, in fact, pouring rain.
11. Wandered around Central Park in the rain and cried a little bit at Bethesda fountain because, well, because I seem to be crying about everything for no reason these days.
12. Went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was a) fabulous b) huge c) kind of confusingly laid out. Learned that Rodin’s Burghers of Calais is not, in fact, approximately 10 inches tall and a nice size for displaying on a mantlepiece (which is the size it has always been in my head), but rather is larger than life size. And there was a marvelous exhibit of Neue Sachlichkeit art from the Weimar republic that was super duper awesome. They had the Otto Dix painting from the AGO on loan, which was kind of surreal, because it’s one of my favourites at the AGO and it was weird to see it in New York all of a sudden.
13. Wandered around for an hour trying to find a place for dinner before ending up at a deli where I had matzo ball soup, cherry cheesecake and an egg cream.
14. Went to Lincoln Centre, tried to get a ticket for that night’s performance of La Boheme at the Met, was told there was standing room only, so instead went home and to bed.
15. Got up early and miraculously found a city bus that was going exactly where I was wanting to go (Battery Park) which very convieniently went through Chinatown, so I got to see that part of the city without having to walk for hours to get there.
16. Saw the Statue of Liberty from very, very far away, through the fog. My mother tells me that the resulting picture is very disappointing and that I should have taken the ferry accross to see it close up. Yeah, whatever.
17. Visited the World Trade Centre site, which was mostly just strange. It’s basically a large construction site, but the atmosphere is very weird. People are either stopping to look and think or are rushing past on their way to work as though there is nothing there. There was a remarkable lack of stars and stripes and “Go USA!” stuff around the area, too, which was interesting, although they are building something there that is apparently going to be called the Freedom Tower. Lovely.
18. Took the subway back to midtown and didn’t even get lost! Hurrah!
19. Bought some new stockings at Bloomingdale’s. Red stockings! For when I’m feeling scandalous.
20. Visted MOMA. Oh, MOMA, what a marvelous place. I learned that Les Demoiselles D’Avignon is much, much bigger than it seems in art history textbooks, and that The Persistance of Memory is much, much tinier than you would think. My favourites were the Dadaists, because my favourites are always the Dadaists, and there was some pretty funny Young British Artists stuff, too, because the YBAs are always pretty funny. (Oh, Damien.) But most importantly of all, I got to see my favourite artwork ever. I heart Meret Oppenheim.
21. Tried, in vain, to go on a tour of Radio City Music Hall, but was deterred by the ravenous hordes of people waiting to get in to see the Christmas Spectacular. I probably should have tried to see the Christmas Spectacular, too, but, you know ravenous hordes.
22. Instead, got a rush ticket (For twenty bucks! Yesssss!) to see Don Carlo at the Met. I had forgotten that Don Carlo is not performed very often because Don Carlo is approximately four and a half hours long. But it was four and a half hours of the most fabulous thing I have ever seen or heard. I’ve realized that I enjoy opera much more when it does not star certain people that I am not a fan of from a certain faculty of music where I am an embittered student, or when there are no other singers from a certain faculty of music in the audience to make me feel like an idiot for not listening or hearing opera in the same way that they do. I’ve realized that I’ll be pretty happy when I’m not in this certain faculty of music anymore, because it means that I’ll probably stop hating music and maybe actually want to sing again, instead of hating everything about singing.
23. Wandered down the centre aisle at the Met during intermission so that I could turn around and stare up at the (amazing, fabulous) chandelier like a small-town girl from Portelginland.
24. Explored every hilarious nook and cranny that I could at the Met, because every nook and cranny is, in fact, hilarious. For instance, everything is covered in red velvet for no reason, including the hand rails on the staircases, which can’t be particularly sanitary, but at the same time, is ridiculously decadent and fabulous. Also, there are funny old costumes on display all over the place, and, instead of drinking fountain, there are marble counters with fancy sinks in them and cups so that you can drink water in style. And there are bathroom attendants because, apparently, rich people can’t pee without help, and the toilets are very old and classy as far as toilets go, and you flush them by stepping on a lever on the floor. Seriously, it was the most fantastically ridiculous place I have ever been. Also, I was wearing jeans and my John Cleese t-shirt, so I probably looked pretty fantastic next to all that red velvet.
25. Got up early the morning I left so I could go out for one more chocolate bar on a bagel and spicy Mexican hot chocolate.
New York is ridiculous and delicious.
Jealous!
(And impressed!)
I hope you decide to go to the New School for the completely selfish reason that I want to visit you in the city often.