mike's umbrella

What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?-it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.

- On The Road, Jack Kerouac

Boy, oh boy, Boston was hot. What a great city though.....kind of like Kingston really- but with more universities and less prisons. We ended up staying with Courtney's friend's boyfriend. We were very comfortable in our own room with barlow-esque airconditioning levels, which was pretty sweet after sweating it out sleeping on the couch in Manhattan. I started our first day there meeting up with an old friend of mine from Australia and his lovely wife. We haven't seen eachother since I was there- 8 years ago, so it was pretty cool to catch up. We spent the day doing a bit of sight-seeing...going through the Boston Commons, the Public Library and out to see Harvard. James was an awesome tour guide somehow, pointing out little tidbits like he'd been living there all his life. Great day but HOT, HOT, HOT.

The next day we went to the beach, which I was expecting to be kind of crappy, but was actually really nice. We went north to Gloucester- only 45 minutes out of the city and the sand was white and the water was clear and cold. Not really that cultural but oh-so-nice to cool down and relax- I finished reading On The Road.

We've done a few more things since being back in New York, most notably visiting the Guggenheim and Harlem. Courtney and I went to the Gug together and then she met up with her mom to do some card shopping so I decided to check out Harlem. I'm not sure if I went through the "good part" or the "bad part", but it was something to experience none the less. New York really is amazing that way- so much money and so much poverty. And the racial divide is pretty striking. Once I got on the train to Harlem I didn't see any more white people till I got back to Central Park.

Courtney flew out this morning and I head back tonight. I'm kind of ready to be in beautiful BC again I think, although probably not as much as Katelyn, who has been in Africa for the past 3 months and returns in a week or so. I'll post photos tomorrow.


...and by tomorrow I meant at least a couple weeks later. This is some famous little ducks in the Boston Commons. From front to back: James, Sheena (his wife), Leisha, Courtney.

perfect delivery? really?

Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten, from the Battery to the top of Manhattan. Black. White. New York. We make it happen!

-Beastie Boys, To the 5 Bouroughs

I made it back to Vancouver fine on my bike. 13 hour trip from Fraser Lake to Burnaby with relatively few breaks considering you have to fuel up every 180km. Managed to arrive in time for my GI system to erupt with some sort of viral discontent, no doubt acquired from one of my preceptors children, mostly likely during one of our frequent 3 one 1 wrestling matches. It was thankfully shortlived and, with lots of help from Courtney, I managed to get my stuff and get organized to fly to New York, New York.

Courtney and I are flying seperately because I was sort of a last minute addition to the trip. She left 5 hours ahead of me on an Air Canada flight and arrived 5 minutes after me, without our luggage (she was carrying both of ours). I'm not sure exactly why, but they filled the plane with too much fuel, so they had to take everyone's luggage off in Calgary to compensate for the added weight. Anyhow, it's been pretty hot and sticky in new york and that was 48 hrs ago and we just got it. Needless to say we (and the people who have to hang out with us) were happy to finally hear from the delivery man.

So far our trip has been really awesome. We are here visiting Courtney's mom and little sister Alex, who just graduated from highschool and is in New York working as a model. They are renting a little apartment in Chelsea which they have been so gracious to share with us.

I'm a fan of point form:

Day 1

Central park stroll (it's massive-apparently the real estate is worth 529 billion)
Museum of Natural History (cool dinos)
Times Square at night (apparently it's the law that they have to have lights on the outside of the buildings)
Transformers (the movie- surprisingly funny in parts)

Day 2

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Weapons and armor by far the coolest part)
City boat cruise (Statue of liberty, etc- refillable fountain pop for only $6)
RENT! (the musical. i haven't seen many shows before but i really loved it. lots of fun.)

We bought a book that has tickets to lots of attractions which has made things more affordable for us...assuming of course we would have done all these things in the first place. At any rate, it's been busy and a bit unhygenic thus far, but an awesome trip. One more day here and then up to Boston for the weekend to visit one of Courtney's good friend's from SFU and one of my good friends from Australia (who happened to marry a girl from Boston).

Hope that wasn't too many details for all y'all. I didn't bring my camera cord, so photos will be up when I get back to home sweet smelling home (the scent of new york is some combination of mold, sweat and garbage).