| My flight the next morning really sucked, because I was leaving in the morning and arriving in America the same morning after 12 hours, meaning big time jet lag. Katy's Dad met me at the airport and drove me to Katy's place, about 4 hours away. The drive took us right through the centre of Manhattan (central New York City), along/across some big name streets like 5th Avenue, Madison Avenue, Rockefeller Bvld and the two tunnels (seen the movie Daylight?). Katy just arrived as we did from an internship interview. That night I went to have a throw of frisbee at the Bucknell field house, basically an indoor track-and-field arena. Max temperature during the day was around 0 degrees, so it's very needed.
So 5am Saturday morning Katy and her 3 housemates (who all play on her ultimate team, the Bucknell University Peace Frogs) and I got up and drove to Philadelphia for an ultimate tournament. I could only watch because it was a college tourney and so I couldn't play with the Bucknell men's team, the Mudsharks. It was really cold (about zero again) standing around. The next day everyone was playing their games while it was snowing (what?!), so it was even colder. It got colder still by the time they started the grand final so Katy's team and the other team called it a draw. Then the weather deteriorated for the drive home. The freeways had snow on them, and there were snowplows driving on the freeways too. There was half a foot of snow on the ground back in Lewisburg, so Katy and I had a play and made a snowman. You actually do start with a little ball and roll it around to make it bigger, just like in the cartoons. This morning there is a foot of powder on the ground, and it's snowing lightly. Looks pretty cool. I couldn't make another snowman because the snow is too dry and doesn't pack; it's like flour. People are clearing their driveways with snow shovels and mini snowplow machines, while I'm nice and dry indoors. Next week was Bucknell's spring break, and I did a big road trip 1000 miles south with Katy, the Peace Frogs and Mudsharks to Savannah, Georgia, for the week-long High Tide tourney. Finally some warm weather! That was a great experience, playing ultimate in the sun every day and partying every night. Us guys just missed getting into the semis, but the girls went unbeaten. Unfortunately it rained all Thursday, the day the finals were supposed to be played. There wasn't enough time to play both men's and women's finals the next day on the only couple of fields available, since some of the teams had to start heading home. So in the true spirit of ultimate, the women played and the men did a paper-scissors-rock to see who won. Us guys yelled ourselves hoarse cheering for our sensational women's team, and half time we organised a "land-shark" (naked guy being carried around with a frisbee stuck in his butt) and "porpoise" (naked chick being carried around with a frisbee between her tits). And our women won their final, go Frogs! Set up camp at Katy's parent's place. Didn't take too long to get used to home cooking, central heating and a hot tub! Katy's parents lent me their car and I drove to Bucknell to join in on Katy's surprise 21st birthday party. The party was fun too. I came back the next day in okay weather, but on the way there it was dark and snowing, so a pretty interesting first drive in America. Then I spent a week with Steve, a guy I travelled with in Europe, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and had a blast. Ann Arbor is just out of Detroit, about 200,000 people, with about half of those being uni students. Drank heaps every night, sleeping till ridiculous hours in the afternoon... I got taken for a ride on a motorbike owned by one of the guy's who lives here, a sweet CBR 650. Did about 200km/h on a highway, cool stuff. Last Thursday took the train in to New York City. The train runs right beside the Hudson River all the way, which is pretty nice in parts (it's a huge river, maybe ten times as wide as the Yarra. Big enough for container ships to go on). I got into the city, walked out of Grand Central station onto the street, and was looking up at all the tall buildings, and got told not to try to catch a taxi from where I was standing by the friendly NYPD. What an ass. So then I caught a bus under the Hudson (which separates New York state from New Jersey) through the Lincoln Tunnel to the apartment I was borrowing in New Jersey. Then I went back in, as a tourist because it was after-hours, and had a walk around. I came across Madison Square Garden, the home of the NBA New York Knicks (My team! Katy's Mum is an avid fan and makes sure I don't miss when they play on tv). So I wandered in to check it out, and a game had started, but when I asked if it had been sold out they said there were only $200 tickets left. So I hung around watching the start of the game on some tv's, and a guy that heard me asking about tickets came over and gave me one for free! It was worth like $75, all my American friends are all like "How did you get Knicks tickets?!?". It was a pretty great seat too. At 3/4 time, I went down to the aisle behind the first lot of seats and was taking pictures from there, and when security told me to move, I sat in the nearest free seat, which so close. Then afterward there was a bunch of people with guest passes that got to meet the players, and I sneaked into that I got some autographs.
Most of my daytime in the city was spent interviewing, so I'll skip that, suffice to say that the subway is great, especially when your carry a heavy bag and walking around in a full suit in hot humid weather. There was a baseball field opposite my apartment, so that night I watched, and got bored at, my first game of baseball. The next day was more interviewing, then that night Katy came to hang out for the weekend. We did some sight seeing Saturday, like Staten Island, Greenwich Village, the Statue of Liberty, went into the super-ritzy Regent Hotel, played with kids toys in FAO Schwartz and threw disc in Central Park. Sat night we got dressed up and hit some cocktail lounges. Sunday was a lazy one, and Katy left. Monday I squeezed in a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. Tuesday night, my last night in NYC, I figured was too good to waste on sleeping, and went to a couple of uni bars, met some students I and went bar-hopping with them, then went back to their college. On the way into the student housing, the (somewhat drunken) conversation went something like:
Steve: "Okay Lockie, I live on 9th floor and my student number is 123456. Walk past the security guard and swipe my student card to get in".
Me: "Got it."
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Security guard: "Hey, do you live here?"
Me: "Me? Yeah, sure."
Security guard: "Where are you going?"
Me:"9th floor"
Security guard: "What room?"
Me: "Ummm....123456"
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