Sean's trip to New York, Vol. 1, Part 1 -- Thursday, March 17
I'm sure you all are wondering how my trip to New York went. So I've concocted several installments to dispense to you over the week. Here's the first!
Thursday morning, 4:00am CST. I wake up feeling very groggy, especially considering I hadn't gone to bed until 1:00am. Liz had apparently stayed up all night preparing for the trip. Sometimes I don't know how she does it! I finished packing my stuff and we left the apartment by 5:00am for the airport for our 7:30am flight to New York. Things from then on went pretty smoothly with the exception of some overpriced crappy coffee in the airport. At least the blueberry muffin was good. I slept most of the way to New York.
We arrive at LaGuardia on time and find our way to the baggage claim. There was a huge group of young kids there at the baggage claim too. They were collecting musical instruments off the belt and one of them had a PMA sweatshirt. Must have been some band on tour. Anyway, that's all the boring stuff. Here's where the excitement begins!
After dodging/ignoring people who tried to solicit getting us a cab, we make it through the line to the taxi dispatcher. Didn't take but a few minutes to get us a taxi and we loaded our bags into the trunk and jumped in the back, after handing the driver directions to our destination. At this time I called Jeremy (the friend we stayed with over the weekend) and let him know we were in town and in the cab. By the time I finished, the cabbie had already pulled over to one side of the main drive to check out the directions. He said he was trying to find another, shorter way to our destination. We must have waited 15 minutes there in the airport drive while he tried to figure it out. I called Jeremy back and handed the phone to the driver so he could get directions. After finally leaving the airport, the driver wove through Brooklyn and circled around, taking nearly an hour more than we expected! The driver said that we're probably the only yellow cab in Brooklyn and he only comes to this part about once a year! We finally found the apartment and Jeremy met us downstairs.
Yeah, so... Jeremy lives in "the ghetto". He admitted it to me earlier on the phone, but I had no idea! The streets were very dirty, the buildings run down. Jeremy said that the area was called "New Williamsburg" and that a lot of the area was being forcefully renovated so that the "Williamsburg" area of Brooklyn, where a lot of artists live (expensively), could expand. Still, it was a scary looking neighboorhood. Jeremy took us down a couple of blocks to a nearby latino restaurant (of which there must have been twenty), and we got "Cubano" sandwiches for lunch. While we were waiting for our order Jeremy went to the grocery store and got chips and soda to have with our sandwiches.
When we returned to Jeremy's place with our lunch, Jeremy turned on his newest toy, a widescreen LCD projector. He uses this instead of a television. He popped in a DVD of his favorite anime, "Last Exile", and we glanced at it occasionally while munching on our sandwiches and talking.
At this point I was exhausted so I laid down for a nap (about 2pm EST).
Thursday morning, 4:00am CST. I wake up feeling very groggy, especially considering I hadn't gone to bed until 1:00am. Liz had apparently stayed up all night preparing for the trip. Sometimes I don't know how she does it! I finished packing my stuff and we left the apartment by 5:00am for the airport for our 7:30am flight to New York. Things from then on went pretty smoothly with the exception of some overpriced crappy coffee in the airport. At least the blueberry muffin was good. I slept most of the way to New York.
We arrive at LaGuardia on time and find our way to the baggage claim. There was a huge group of young kids there at the baggage claim too. They were collecting musical instruments off the belt and one of them had a PMA sweatshirt. Must have been some band on tour. Anyway, that's all the boring stuff. Here's where the excitement begins!
After dodging/ignoring people who tried to solicit getting us a cab, we make it through the line to the taxi dispatcher. Didn't take but a few minutes to get us a taxi and we loaded our bags into the trunk and jumped in the back, after handing the driver directions to our destination. At this time I called Jeremy (the friend we stayed with over the weekend) and let him know we were in town and in the cab. By the time I finished, the cabbie had already pulled over to one side of the main drive to check out the directions. He said he was trying to find another, shorter way to our destination. We must have waited 15 minutes there in the airport drive while he tried to figure it out. I called Jeremy back and handed the phone to the driver so he could get directions. After finally leaving the airport, the driver wove through Brooklyn and circled around, taking nearly an hour more than we expected! The driver said that we're probably the only yellow cab in Brooklyn and he only comes to this part about once a year! We finally found the apartment and Jeremy met us downstairs.
Yeah, so... Jeremy lives in "the ghetto". He admitted it to me earlier on the phone, but I had no idea! The streets were very dirty, the buildings run down. Jeremy said that the area was called "New Williamsburg" and that a lot of the area was being forcefully renovated so that the "Williamsburg" area of Brooklyn, where a lot of artists live (expensively), could expand. Still, it was a scary looking neighboorhood. Jeremy took us down a couple of blocks to a nearby latino restaurant (of which there must have been twenty), and we got "Cubano" sandwiches for lunch. While we were waiting for our order Jeremy went to the grocery store and got chips and soda to have with our sandwiches.
When we returned to Jeremy's place with our lunch, Jeremy turned on his newest toy, a widescreen LCD projector. He uses this instead of a television. He popped in a DVD of his favorite anime, "Last Exile", and we glanced at it occasionally while munching on our sandwiches and talking.
At this point I was exhausted so I laid down for a nap (about 2pm EST).
posted by Seanicus at
3/22/2005 11:00:00 AM
