Welcome to New York

I’m in seat 34A casually eating ice cream while moving 609mph. It’s 5:30am in Oslo, Norway (my final destination); 11:30pm in Newark (my origin destination); 1:00am in St. John’s (my original origin destination). My body has officially lost track of time. So begins the story of my Wild Whirlwind European Fall.  Considering I’m 35,002ft in the air and apparently fixated on numbers right now, what better a time than this than to regale you, first time readers of kc’s blog, with the tale of my journey thus far.

At 6am this morning, my first thought was absolutely not about how brutal my 28-hour travel day was going to be. It wasn’t even a lament that though her fluffy butt enjoyed my suitcase, Miss Petunia was indeed not going to be jet setting with her crazy cat-mom (Meow!). 

Instead, my first thought was about this blog post. Several days (weeks?) ago when I had suggested to Ryan that I co-write on his fabulous blog during our Wild Whirwind European Fall, I suppose I didn’t quite take the time to consider just how much pressure I’d feel to a) be funny but b) to tell this story from my point-of-view while making you all feel as though you’re here with me. Considering Ryan’s blogs—one from each Harlow, New Zealand, and Ireland—have been bound into lovely books and followed enthusiastically by many of you, this is a tough gig. This isn’t a collection of my rambling thoughts in a much-too-pretty leather journal, my usual travel go-to. It’s a collection of my rambling thoughts on the Internet. ‘Cause it’s 2015 and typing is easier than handwriting. So who’s up for this challenge? I am. Sorta.

Though I suspect Ryan will take the lead on our blog posts with snide remarks inserted by yours truly, my nine hours in Newark/New York today would be put to shame if not recounted.

When I booked this flight, my priority was to find something affordable that wouldn’t force me to rip a hole in the lining of my jacket to stuff with things that tipped my carry-on luggage above the acceptable weight (a tried and true trick while travelling in Harlow). Thus I considered a flight with a nine hour stopover in Newark, followed by an overnight flight to Oslo, followed by a six hour stopover, followed by one exhausted graduate student arriving in Amsterdam many, many hours since feeding her cat for the last time in four months on August 17^th. No problem, I thought—it’ll suck, but I’m from the Northern Peninsula. Patient travel is what we do best.

Thankfully, before booking I was aware that my good friend John LaDuke, a fellow Graduate student in Memorial University’s Department of Folklore, lives in New York. Upstate New York, to be precise, but to someone not from there that’s like saying he’s not from St. John’s, he’s from Paradise. Which also turned out to be wrong because it’s more like he’s not from St. John’s, he’s from Grand Falls. Yep, this fella drove five hours to pick me up from the airport today and show me a piece of a city I’ve longed to experience for a long time. You rock, John (or as us insider MUN grad student folklorists would say, Rockamara!). 

John and I met up around 11:30am, realizing it had been eight months since we last saw one another. That’s the funny thing about Graduate School, FYI: you make these really great friends only to have them leave! Nonetheless, it was as though no time had passed as the two of us stepped out into the hot, humid Newark morning. John joked that we had now better get out of Newark ASAP, and I was fine with that. Zipping along traffic like a pro, I wondered whether I would survive the heat and also how the very polite, very kind John was able to manage the drive so effortlessly. 

Once we left New Jersey and began our approach into the city, the view was beautiful. Now I know why the city skyline is on literally everything; it’s very captivating! In the distance, John pointed out the new World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. As my time was limited, we settled on spending our afternoon at the Met and Central Park.

On the steps of the Met: #iwokeuplikethis

The Metropolitan Museum of Art  is located along Manhattan’s Museum Mile and is the largest art museum in the United States. Impressive architecture and collections aside, I was thrilled to spend time in such a swanky place (Met Gala 2015, anyone?). Of course, my first instinct was to drag John to the Anna Wintour Costume Center and Costume Institute. The impressive collection of more than 35,000 costumes put to shame any rumpled garment in my precious suitcase at Newark airport. The Costume Institute hosts two displays per year, the current one being “China: Through the Looking Glass.” Looping through some very cool displays, I quickly realized we’d need a decade at the Met rather than a couple of hours. So, we did what any tourist pressed for time would do: squeezed in as many of the galleries as we could while doing justice to none of them.

Scatter Picasso

When our art fancies were exhausted (after a while, every piece of pottery looks the same), we paused for a spell in the balcony overlooking the Great Hall. Handing John my camera, I filmed the first instalment of A Silly Girl Singing A Silly NL Song in a Really Cool Place(click here!):

Let me explain. Back in 2011, Ryan and I spent an interesting weekend away from Harlow visiting Paris (referenced in his first blog post here). Highlights included a memorable day-trip to Beaumont Hamel, a bizarre but fun day at Disneyland Paris, and, of course, a trip to the Eiffel Tower. We spent way too much money and way too long in the bitter cold, only to arrive at the top along with the dreary fog. What else is a gal to do? I handed Ryan my camera and sang the chorus of Buddy Wasisname’s “Salt Beef Junkie” as though no other tourist looked on at us in horror. So began my tradition of belting out a verse/chorus from a silly NL song I enjoy whenever I travel. Call it a quirk from a quirky girl or the ultimate shout out to the one place that will always have my heart, I’ve now dazzled (read: baffled) crowds in Paris; the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland; Jasper, Alberta; Sudbury; Toronto; Chicago; and now New York. Typically I post these silly videos to Facebook so my family can remain confirmed that I’m nuts and my friends can remember what I look like without my sending them texts coded in emoji.

Silly as ever

Back to New York. John and I strolled into Central Park while popsicles melted over our hands and a sunshower granted us a little extra sitting time at Belvedere Castle. We headed back to the airport a little tired but grateful to have had such a great day. John, I owe you one when you come back to NL!!!!!

It’s now Thursday—oops! I’ve successfully arrived at Uilenstede in Amstelveen and am slowly catching up on sleep. Stay tuned!

xo

kc