New York

Yesterday I ate as much of New York as I could in an afternoon. Nancy and I caught a train from Providence at 6:55, and, after a bit of a delay while we waited at a bridge somewhere in Connecticut, we arrived close to midday at Penn Station, under Times Square. Because we had limited time, we opted for a hop on/hop off bus deal, and we had a fantastic day.

We... went to the top of the Empire State building, which was a hoot. We walked along Wall St, and admired the bull. We spent a while at Ground Zero, which is just eery. There is a huge cavity in the ground, with construction/demolition vehicles and workers everywhere. It looks like a giant tooth was pulled out. It's a gaping wreck.

We visited St Paul's church, where a lot of emergency care happened after 911, and rescue workers used it for a base. There were amazing stories, like how the rescuers would hang their boots on the spires of the fence when they changed into their uniforms. At the end of the shift, whosever boots were still there, had not come back. We saw the cots the rescuers rested on, and some of the tributes sent. There were lots of photos, including one of the little cemetery behind the church, which backs onto the WTC block. It was absolutely covered in debris after the attack. It was very moving. St Pauls is also where George Washington was sworn in, and his pew is there to look at. Other historical events happened there, too.

We drove through Chinatown, and Little Italy, and by Central Park. We saw the Rockefeller Centre, with the outdoor ice skating rink. We passed the Waldorf Astoria, and walked along Broadway and Times Square. We drove and walked along 5th Avenue, and saw the original Macy's building. We had lunch in a deli - fun. We saw the Statue of Liberty, the United Nations, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. We tried to cram in as much as we could!

It was really worth it. I would love to stay there - there is so much to see! Our train was delayed by two and a half hours, so we got home VERY late, but it was really worth it. We're thinking about squeezing in a trip to Boston on Thursday - it's only an hour away.

The conference was interesting today - we're going out to dinner in an hour.

No photos - I didn't bring the cable because I thought I was just pop the card in my laptop, but it's the wrong kind!

I'm in the USA

From this afternoon:

I am sitting in the Detroit Michigan airport. So far, it looks a lot like Brisbane. I was hoping it was be more specifically American. All I know about Detroit is from Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, and that makes me nervous. The people at the airport seem fairly harmless. Plus I remember from somewhere that some cars come from Detroit.

It’s still Sunday. It has been for about a week, now. We flew from Hong Kong to Narita Airport, Tokyo, at 8:20 on Sunday morning. That took four hours. Then we flew to Detroit, OVER THE NORTH POLE. No sign of Santa. The flight was very crowded, and I’m sure North West have done a lot of testing to determine the absolute minimum amount of space in which you can keep a human alive. I’m sure parrots have been smuggled in more generous conditions. Since I can sleep absolutely anywhere, any time, that was my main entertainment. There were no individual entertainment screens, which was a real bummer, because the big screen was miles away, and there were no little drop-down screens, and I couldn’t see through the man’s head in front of me, and they showed the same two movies on both legs of the trip! I didn’t bring a book, because I’d decided to veg and watch movies.

Enough whinging about the trip. We’re here in the USA. Going through customs is always a bit nerve-wracking, but I feel nervous and guilty whenever I walk past the lady who checks your bags at Kmart. We went through the new machines – the full body scanner, or something like that, which LOOKS THROUGH YOUR CLOTHES!!!! You don't want to see THAT video on the internet.... I thought about putting my hands over my face. As usual, I set off the bipper when I went through the metal detector. This time, though, when I took off my bangles, it didn’t bip the second time. The customs people were very polite. Security is a very serious business here.

We went and ate at a sort of Tex Mex chili-burger place called Chilis, which was a bit like a downscale Cactus Jack’s.

The big excitement is that tomorrow, we have the whole day free, and Nancy (a teacher from school) and I are investigating going down to New York for the day. It’s a three hour trip by road, but I think it’s worth it. I also found out that Boston is only one hour away by road, so that’s also an option. I hope we get to go to New York.

Later..

I'm in the hotel. Nancy and I are donig the train tomorrow, and will probably get on the hop on/hop off bus to zip around and visit some of the big spots. With only eight hours, I think that's our best bet!!!! It's not as cold as I expected, thank goodness. Off to bed now:)