Wooosh!!!!
Sorry for the lack of updates. So much has happened this past week, it's hard to believe that what happened even happened at all. I finally got internet at home, so hopefully the updates will come more frequently. I finally got a place to live, and it's set up. It's pretty amazing i even found a place after the crazy blackout of 2003. They said this was the biggest blackout in US history. I find that hard to believe, but whatever. I'm not reporting the news. So just being in the city that never sleeps and having the lights go out was a little surreal. It was like something out of some weird thriller movie. Except it wasn't a movie. It was real. Very real. And very crazy. It was really weird seeing the entire city pour out onto the streets. Think of the running of the bulls in spain, but remove the bulls. There was literally people everywhere. Traffic couldn't move cuz there was literally a sea of people walking everywhere. It was the craziest thing I've seen in a long time. And listening to some people talk, you would have guessed the world was ending and the sky was falling. People were huddled around radios, listening, straining to hear any little bit of information about what was going on. People were immediately thinking about terrorism. Well, i guess it comes naturally for everyone. Luckily, it wasn't, but it sure as heck probably gave the terrorist some good ideas of how to cripple the most people in the fast,easiest, most efficient way possible. The city literally came to a halt. And the power couldn't have gone out on a better day. It was so stinkin hot and humid, and of course, and fate would have it, no wind.
But besides all that, it was really fun and exciting. Not that many people can say that "i was in the city that never sleeps when it finally did sleep". It was really eerie since all the lights were out, and you could see so many stars and the moon was really bright. Was truly bizzare. But anyways, it was definitely an experience. We really do take too much for granted. And you never really quite grasp how dependent we are on that little 3-holed piece of plastic in the wall until it doesn't work. I mean, think about it. If you have a cordless phone, you're outta luck. You need a fan? Start folding that piece of paper. TV? Sorry. And you wouldn't believe how many cell phones i saw that day. I think that if you took about 3-4 city blocks, you could have collected enough cell phones to outfit half the state of Tennessee. Of couse, they probably don't know what cell phones are, let alone electricity... but that's a whole different fish that i'm not going to touch. ;-)
It's been a wild few weeks finding an apt and everything. This was my first time going through the whole apartment hunting from start to finish on my own. Before, my roommate did a lot of the hunting, and I ended up closing the deal and taking care of the details. I had no idea how hard it was to find a place with nothing to go on. Luckily, I had some help from a broker (apt hunting people). I did so much walking the few days i was looking for an apartment. I think i walked more those few days than i have in the past few months. And since the power went out while i was hunting for an apt, it made it that much worse. I got stuck up in the 90's, and i was staying somewhere in the 50's. It was a loooooonnnnngggg walk. But either way, i'm just glad i found a place. It's a nice, cozy duplex in a brownstone. For those of you who don't know what that means, that's okay. I had no idea until i saw it in person. For those of you who are Cosby show fans, the buildings and the street they would show in the cutscenes, those building are brownstones. They have a small stairway up to the main door, and aren't very tall. Maybe only 3-5 stories high. It's not a typical high-rise/high-density apt complex. Probably no more than 10 apt in all. I live in a duplex, which means I have the first floor apt, and with that comes the basement. So my apt is a 2 floor apt. Living area upstairs along with the kitchen and full bathroom, and downstairs is meant for the bedroom, which has a walk-in closet (small one at that) and a half-bathroom. It's definitely cozy and far exceeds my expectations.
Moving in was quite a fiasco. Furnishing an apartment from scratch is not something i would want to do it again. So me and Janet went to Ikea with a rented van and bought a ton of stuff. New York is a place of extremes. It's either all out, or none at all. Take Ikea. It's really cheap, really functional, basically a college students dream. But of course, like all good things, it doesn't exist anywhere near New York. The closest one is in New Jersey. Sure, it's only 20 mins away, but it's in a different state. Anyways, i got out of Ikea around 10:30. Couldn't believe it took so stinkin' long to get my stuff. Even the workers there were starting to get pissy since they were working so late. But they said it's been like this ever since the new catalogue came out. One guy said that when the new catalogue comes out, it's like the whole world decides to come to Ikea. Nuts i tell you. And to make the evening that much better? Driving back to Manhattan took another hr and half. Some genius planner thought it was a good idea to do construction in the tunnel. Too bad there's only 2 tunnels and 1 bridge going to New York from New Jersey. The amount of traffic i saw makes the Bay Bridge maze look like childs play. You haven't seen gridlock until you've been in stuck in New York/Jersey traffic.
Man i miss my car....
Besides that though, it's been a really wild and weird 3 weeks so far here in New York. Derek is finally here, and things are starting to settle down. The weather has a mind of it's own (so much for seasonal stability). But all in all, it's been an experience money can't buy. Unless, of course, you decide to move here. Oh ya, that's the other thing. Why is everything in Manhattan so stinkin' expensive? Even going grocery shopping costs a grip. What's up with that? I buy milk, eggs, a TINY packet of chicken, a few cans of soup, and some other miscellaneous things, and the total comes out to over 40 bucks!!! I swear... it's probably cheaper to eat at McDonalds every meal than it is to stay home and make food. And you see the prices of produce. 3 bucks a pound for apples/peaches/oranges/things like that. A watermelon? Only if you're rich... 20 bucks. This is probably the worst city to live in if you're a student. Everything costs so stinkin' much. Blah... what can you do though? blech
All in all, this is something that I don't regret. It's been very eye-opening as well as exciting. The only thing left to do is to go back to school. Eeep. And today is the first day of classes. Ack. School should be really interesting. At least most of us want to be here, as opposed to undergrad, where we're kinda forced to be there. I guess i'll find out just how hardcore grad school really is. Let's see if all the horror stories of being "buried alive in work" is really true.
That's all for now... time to go to school.
More will come later (hopefully)
