Hey there Delilah what's it like in New York City...

Our first (and last) Spring Break is all over! Whoever invented that was a genius, everyone's exams and most papers due before the break and then a week of fun. Everyone goes somewhere and does something, even if it's just going home. All of the on-campus residences actually close, so people have to leave, and lots of the shops shut down too. The town really is a student driven place! 


So, we started off in Orlando, Florida. Both of us desperately wanted to check out Harry Potter World, in Universal Studios, so we decided that factoring it into our break would be cheaper than going down to FL. on a weekend trip...  And it was well worth the extra spending!

We flew in our Carolina gear, and watched the Duke game in our hotel room, cheering so loudly as we won by a huge margin. GO HEELS!!! (despite their poor poor performance last night.... wont mention that.)

The Sunday was spent in Universal. Such good fun, we just spent the day being complete children and going on all the rides, getting soaked on the rapids, enjoying the sunshine, drinking butterbeer... I'm not ashamed to admit i'm a huge j.k.rowling fan so it was all just a bit too exciting..
:D
Then Monday we flew to Manhattan. 
We stayed in an amazing hostel, with evening events like comedy shows and free tours in the days, along with a huge kitchen, dining areas, sofas, computer room, and tv screen. And really helpful staff too. I didn't really know Kara hugely before we left, but we luckily have similar interests and enjoy doing similar things so it worked well. She's really easy going and kind and enjoys meeting people and making friends, so we had a lot of laughs...!


We went for a long stroll around Central Park the first day, seeing all the statues and fountains etc in there. I'd just studied Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and actually seen a performance the week before leaving, and one of the central places/monuments that feature in the play is the angel Bethesda statue in central park. Its always cool to see places you've read about, I can never really think of things as real until I see them, they rely too much on my mind's portrayal... Then we headed down to pen station and did some shopping. Lots of shopping! 


Wednesday we went to Times Square, and then across to Staten Island on the *free* ferry, there's not much over there but you get views of the statue of liberty and Manhattan etc. on the way across. Then we wandered around the harbour, and went to the skyscraper museum and museum of american Indians. One thing that really struck us was the lack of substance to the Native American exhibitions. There was very little to see at all, considering how much art and memorabilia there must be in the U.S., despite the fact tribes still exist. The museum also took an incredibly romanticised perspective of native american life. It failed to acknowledge any of the damage caused by Americans to the Native American tribes, the imposition of western ideas, the transmittal of lethal western disease, the destruction of their whole culture... The whole place was weirdly in denial of it all. There was a whole section just devoted to the horse, and its spiritual value to tribes, its history, and the development of their use in labour, etc. Interesting, yes, but slightly random? yes also.


We watched the comedy act one night when we were back earlier, which was cool. Nice to have be able to go back and not feel like we were wasting the evening staying in. It gets tricky when your under 21 in the city, they're tough on id. But there's so much to do -- the shops stay open till midnight!

Thursday I went to visit some friends in Long Island and Kara went around the UN building. It's actually my Granny's best Greek friend, who came over to the U.S after the war whereas my Granny came to the U.K. She and her husband are older now but so lovely, and seemed so pleased to see me :) They also have cats. amazing. I took the Long Island Railroad over which took about an hour.15. Was nice to spend some time in an actual family house! And speak to someone who can talk to me about people I know at home... 


When I got back we just hung out in Times Square for the evening, went to M&M world, and inquired about some shows and generally stared up at all the bright lights... The two of us just stood there in Times Square, in silence in the middle of it all for a long while... 
Friday we did some more shopping, went to the photography museum, had a tour of the national library - so cool, they have the original winnie the pooh! he's tiny -, went to the Rockefeller centre, and Lego world.. We also queued up at 9.30 on Friday morning to get Broadway tickets - $26 for Memphis! A definite highlight of the week. And got asked out for drinks by a police officer by the theatre hehe. We had such fun, ended up in the front row, which had "limited views" but we didn't really care, even a short-y like me could still see!
  
The views on the plane home were incredible, too. We got close ups of the empire state building and the Chrysler building etc., and full on views of Manhattan as we flew around it! Amazing.


It was so nice to get away for a bit, I love Chapel Hill a lot but the size of the area which is easily accessible (Campus-Chapel Hill-sort of Raleigh) is so small, and things can get a bit intense and claustrophobic. Its then that I miss London! But NYC definitely gave me my injection of city life again.... 


Brillianttt break, in wonderful company xx  

Chilly Washington

A very late update! The snow of DC seems far away now but we had such a wonderful weekend.

And comical from the off.

 We left on the Friday evening, a hair-raising journey by one of the girls’ mentors as we got a bit lost and nearly missed the coach! I was let out late from class so also got back later than expected, & I have never laughed and been so scared in a car. At one point crossing into a gas station she shouted to the incoming vehicle: ‘please don’t hit me’ whilst veering across the lane and stopping to run and ask directions from a lady who couldn’t speak English and didn’t know her right from left. Then the car wouldn’t start as she’d stopped it funnily so we ended up pushing it. [note: everyone here has HUGE cars, even students!] We made it somehow, though.

We got to DC and went out to China town, and the whole place was covered in snow and very chilly! Such a contrast to Chapel Hill. The taxi man who drove us to the hotel managed to fit all of us in his taxi. Somehow. I jokingly suggested I sit in the boot and so he just went, 'ok', and started patting down the bags for me! So all 7 of us piled into the one car... My mentor, Imani, came with us too which was amazing as she lives in Maryland and spends her holidays wandering round the museums on the Mall, so she’s an expert! We could have paid for her guidance. . .

Saturday we were at the Smithsonian castle for 8.30 (suprising, I know). There’s a model of the whole mall in there so we chose the things we were going to do, and mapped our day out a bit. Then Imani took us round lots of the sights: WW2 memorial, Korean & Vietnam War memorials, the Jefferson, Lincoln Memorial – v. grand, and the reflecting pool was frozen! And then of course, the Whitehouse. – Pictures with Obama came later on, too ;) We did the American history museum, the natural history, (not as good as London, wasn’t as cool or realistic. I felt like there were just plastic things all over the place), but the history museum was awesome. Got to see the original star spangled banner, Dorothy’s shoes from the Wizard of Oz film, and the original Muppets! So many interesting things in there.. and went through a couple of the art museums. We packed in a lot, before heading out for dinner.

Sunday we split up a bit, people had different interests but a couple of us went and walked along embassy row, which was really intriguing. Some of the embassy’s are SO grand looking and some are tiny. Tested our flag knowledge too… I found the Greek one and took a photo for my Granny :) We walked to Georgetown after which is a really pretty old place, with nice shops. They have a famous cupcake shop too. It has its own TV show! [only in the US…] I also met up with the friends for lunch! They took me out to a restaurant on the harbor, and we had a seafood buffet. Perfection in a bucket.  And I tried my first Oyster! Ooh er. Was so good to catch up with them, and I may go back and stay with them on my travels after uni… we’ll see. They gave us all a lift after too which was really kind.  We went to a place called Mongolian grill, in Bethesda. An experience in its self. You choose yourself a bowl of stir fry vegetables and meat  sauces toppings etc, then give your bowl to the cooks and they cook it for you in front of you! Was pretty good fun. And the guy gave us a free chocolate brownie/ice cream thing to share after – ohh the perks of being international!

An interesting journey home too… We got back to Durham at 3am to find that the uni taxi company wouldn’t pick us up. Great. It was FREEzing and at that point all you want to do is go to bed… The one taxi cab there couldn’t fit us all in his car [they’re not like the DC drivers here… ;) ] And he was just having an argument with his boss on the phone, when I saw blue and red flashing lights.. So Jane and I ran over and asked the lovely police men if they could give us the number of a taxi firm, and the guy just went “ haap in…”. So we all got a lift home from the 'cops'! The guy got on his speaker phone saying “We’re just assisting some stranded citizens back to their homes…” What an adventure.

So a vunderbar weekend.

It felt so good to be back in the city too. And to the Londoner's out there, DC even has its own Cockfosters:  Foggy Bottom.

Oh metro designers…  

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