New York to Boston in a week (part 1) by Tessa

Oh dear- sorry everyone- a whole week has sped by and no word from me. How tragic. How you must all be fretting, how you must be waiting in front of your computers hour after hour… ha yes well. Perhaps not. Ahem.

Sunday 24th-

I went to mass at 9:30 in the Church of the Holy Name round the corner from the Kopits. A lovely Franciscan parish, and a service with a children’s choir. Surprisingly the music was far from offensive! I then went back to the flat, supposedly to go back to sleep for an hour (being exausted), but in reality to spend an hour playing with my new phone :D Er.. I mean Mum’s new phone. Mum’s. Eh-ha. (Mum, I’m sure we can come to an arrangment when I get back… ;)) I met t’others at The Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design, picking up lunch from Lenny’s Bagels on the way (cinnemon and raisen bagel with chicken and mayo inside- yum!), but we decided it wasn’t relevant enough and so wondered down to the Met. Dundun DUN the MET! It is pretty great there. I spent a rather disproportionate amount of time chosing some jewellery to buy (got some very pretty earrings) in the shop, and then we headed up to the ….the… whathisface exhibition… ah sheesh you know that artist guy… James can tell you. I got distracted along the way because I stopped to sketch and inform ignorant passers by about the Joan of Arc painting (what? I couldn’t help myself! They didn’t know the story very well!). I also wondered off and saw some statues and stuff. We had to part in the late afternoon, and I said goodbye to Ruby :( I went back to the Kopits to get my bag and catch a taxi back to Grand Central Station (which by the way is the nicest train station in the world- did I already say that? Anyway.), and get the Train out to Ossining. As we trundled up the Hudson River the sun was setting in the most amazing purples and oranges! In Ossining I was staying with the Ellsbergs, borrowing Nicholas’ room (as he is at Columbia) and being looked after by Peggy and Robert, Christina and Catherine and the gorgeous/crazy poodles Mischa and Toby.

Monday 25th-

James and I decided to take the day off, because we were beat, so I slept in and read Calvin and Hobbs comics from Nick’s collection. Then I had a late breakfast. Robert came by early afternoon and took me to Starbucks, which was perfect considering it was a Monday afternoon, and being a creature of habit in this department ;) I spent the rest of the afternoon going throught the guidebook and then when the girls got home, Christina, Robert and I took the dogs to the dog-park to let off steam. It was rather chilly though.

Tuesday 26th-

Peggy dropped me at the train in the morning and I went to meet James at the NY Public Library. We spent some time wandering around there, and then got some lunch somewhere nearby before catching a bus with the vague idea of going to Liberty Island because it was a beautiful day (yep- the weather has been all over the place!). But we got off to go to an STA Travel shop to book our internal US flights, and that took a while, and then we realised we were in Greenwich Village so we wandered around there a bit. We headed towards the river, and then James pointed out we were near this photography exhibition he had heard about so we went to take a look. It is called ‘Ashes and Snow’, and is a series of photos suspended inside a temporary hall created form cargo crates, with a video at the far end. The images were beautiful- with people and wild animals like cheetahs, elephants, whales, hawks… they were increadibly serene and stricking. I’m finding it hard to describe the exhibition, and none of this conveys it properly. One image showed a boy reading to a kneeling elephant, another woman dancing with a hawk in what looked like an egyptian temple. I don’t know if there is a website. Maybe That Helpful Boy knows. [helpful boy link] Back in Ossining the Ellsbergs showed me School of Rock, which I thoroughily enjoyed!

Oh man I’m so tired, I have to go to bed. I will have to catch up the rest later…

It’s May Day! Just noticed. Ha. Cool. I miss Oxford. Not that I ever went to the May Day celebrations.

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