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| Meeting the pilot while we waited for our bags to be found. |
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| Broadway on the first night. Sorry for the poor image: I was jet lagged. |
NB: This was meant to have been posted while we were in New York, but due to internet problems, that was scrapped and instead I had planned to post this when we got back. But then things got in the way. Still, better late than never, eh?
New
York. The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, The City So Nice, They Even
Named It Twice. Yes, there are many nicknames for New York, and after a while
of pondering how to open this post, I came up with that. It gives a real
impression of the city: a vast concrete and skyscraper dominated city in
America. A group of forty media and film students, plus four teachers (Will
Cossey, Katie Wild, Ali Pym and Kiri Thomson) went from 6th February
- 11th February.
This blog post was intended
to be written whilst we were in New York, but our Hostel's internet decided to
disagree with that motion; refusing to connect our smart phones and tablets to
its wireless network throughout. So instead of doing that, I bought a notepad
and pen, and wrote down each day's events as it happened with the intention of
writing it all up on a computer when I got home. So, without further ado, lets re-wind to Monday morning...
We were told to report to
Exeter College's CCI building for 6am, for a 6.30am getaway. Some people,
myself included decided to get there just a little bit earlier; from talking to
everyone, the earliest someone got there was half five! But that was to be
excused because A) people didn't want to miss the bus and B) there had been a
snowfall the previous night. After a lot of waiting around in the cold, the bus
finally arrived and we all loaded onto it. Thankfully, nobody had decided to
forget their passport or bring their uncle's by mistake, so we were on our way
to London's Heathrow airport. Assuming the snow – it had snowed a bit more in
the South-East, than Devon – didn’t affect our flight...
It didn’t, although
something did affect our flight: due to the before mentioned snow, our
bags managed to get lost, delaying our flight by around 45 minutes, which was
slightly annoying for all concerned, but as with everything, every cloud has a
silver lining. In this case, the pilot invited ‘kids’ to come up to the flight
deck and see the cabin. My face lit up, Katie, who happened to be sat near me,
said ‘go on Dan, you know you want to, you big kid!’ so I went up, marvelled at
the complexity of the flight deck, had a photo with the pilot who let me in his
seat, and went back down to my seat to settle in for the long, eight hour
flight.
The next eight hours passed
in a blur of music, films and the gentle roar of the 747’s engines. Oh, and
getting to know the group a bit more. After what seemed like forever, we
approached JKF’s runway, and saw New York for the first time, all lit up, as it
we descended towards tarmac.
Once through customs (I was
the first of our group through, which isn’t advisable if you don’t want to be
quizzed. More annoyingly, I forgot that Americans' refer to ‘college’ as
University.), we spilled into a coach, which, like everything else in New York,
was huge, and made our way to our hostel. I had no idea where to look as there
were all of these fantastic sights to take in, and we hadn’t even got to our
hostel yet!
The hostel itself was
located on 47th Street, right in the 'center' of Manhattan, and just
a few blocks from the sprawling Grand Central Station – the hub for the Subway
system – and a fifteen minute walk from Broadway. After checking into the
hostel, and dumping our bags in our rooms, we took a walk around the area, and
walked to Grand Central, via the Chrysler Building. We were then given an hour
and half 'free time' to go and grab some dinner (although our body clocks
suggested we should be sleeping) and explore the area a little, before meeting
back up at Grand Central for 11.30pm. We all split up, and went out own
separate ways, in groups; ours electing to go straight on so we didn't get
lost. After about two minutes of walking, we came across a McDonalds, which,
turned out to be a very common sight, up there with Starbucks on every street.
The McDonalds was very
bright and very busy – even at what felt like Silly O'Clock – and also very
confusing, as I asked for 'chips' and got a blank look – the first of many –
before remembering, that in America, 'chips' are crisps, and chips are 'fries'.
After that, I asked for a Fanta and got handed a cup with nothing in it.
Slightly confused, I followed the rest of the group upstairs, sans drink in
cup. I then asked someone, as I was quite thirsty, and they told me to use the
machine downstairs, which I did.
No longer hungry, we headed
outside, and saw some lights in the distance. One of our group suggested we
head towards them, since we had half an hour or so before we were due back at
Grand Central. It turned out that we had in fact stumbled across Broadway and
Times Square. Despite the fact that we visited these two great landmarks of New
York many times during the week, that first time holds the most memories for
me; the fact that we didn't really know where we were going, the views and the
fact we'd been given free cans of coca-cola in the street...
Photos of Broadway at night
and gasping at the sheer hugeness of the place over and done with, we found our
way back to Grand Central for our rendezvous with everyone else. Turns out they
did much the same thing as us: go into the nearest fast food place, get food,
walk out and see some bright lights, so walk towards them. Soon enough though,
we were back at the hostel, all shattered and ready to get some rest. I felt
like a zombie and really wanted some sleep at this point, but my card to get me
into my room had other ideas.
For reasons that still
baffle me, the card point blank let me in my room. Rather
embarrassingly, I happened to be holding my toothbrush and toothpaste, and
didn't have any shoes on. Cue a long walk to reception from the 9th
floor to grumble and ask them to make the gremlin go away and let me into my
room. Five minutes into my grumbling session with the frankly useless hotel
staff, Will came around the corner to ask why I wasn't asleep. I quickly
explained the situation, he repeated what I had said about the key, and I got a
new room, and more importantly, a new key. Quite why they couldn't have done
that in the first place is beyond me.
>> Find out what we got up to on our second day (Tuesday), soon!
