Welcome to the Jersey Shore

I left you properly in San Francisco. I shall start my story at JFK Airport, where I took the Airtrain to the subway. This was my first time ever riding the New York Subway and let me tell you, it's an experience. I think it goes through Queens and Brooklyn before arriving in Manhattan. The people who ride the subway are far more diverse than I ever gave it credit for. It is a great place for people watching - everyone is there from the homeless guy, to the gang member to the dance students to the city bankers. The variety of people is incredible and I found my hour long trip went relatively quickly.
Sean met me at Columbus Circle and we walked to his dads office, Luckasiewicz Design. His company does graphic design for a few notable companies, so it was cool to see some of the work in progress. After quick introductions and dropping off my bags, the three of us went out to a local sports bar for drinks and a few potato skins, while watching the hockey and the baseball. It was fun but soon Sean and I were in his car battling traffic to get out the city. On one stretch of the road there were 3 stalled out cars and a taxi crash! We eventually got back to Sean's house about 1am and went straight to bed!
The next morning I met Seans mum, who is a lovely, lovely woman. We mooched round the house, catching up and trying to teach me the rules of baseball - which are very similar to rounders. It was a good job we stayed around the house that day aas the area was put under sever thunderstorm, flash-flooding and tornado alerts. The tornado was predicted to hit us directly so we scurried around the house barricading windows, bailing out the basement and setting up camp down there. We were over-cautious as it turns out the tornado thankfully passed us by, but hey it was still exciting!
After being cooped up inside all day, Sean decides to show me the crazily huge mall near his house and also Congers Lake. We had a nice walk around before calling it a day there and heading to Piermount. We walked a mile out into the Hudson River, with some great views of the city. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but it was an enjoyable bare-footed walk. Some guy shouts and Sean as we get back to his car telling him about all these "new-founded health benefits" of not wearing shoes. We climbed into the car and doubled-over with laughter - it was the guy's wife saying "shut up, he's not even barefoot". Yes, an argument about whether some stranger is wearing shoes or not - typical!
The following day was to be my introduction to East Coast Jersey Shore surfing. I wanted to go in, but the water was FAR too cold to in wetsuitless, so I resigned to topping up my tan on the beach and being official photographer. Sean and I were accompanied on this jaunt by his cousin Eric. They surfed for a good 3 hours, Sean ecstatic because he got his first barrell ride. We drove to Wawas for lunch - a jersey phenomenon. I'd been told constantly about wawas chocolate milk when i was in oz, so of course i had to try it. We drove to another beach where we ate our hogies (subs to the normal person) on some great sun-catching rocks. There were people fishing and catching striped bass so Sean was eager to fish. However, the call of good surf was too strong so it was back to the surf for a 2 hour session.
A full day at the beach, so we headed back to Rockland where I met Sean's mum's boyfriend, Danny. We got on really well, he'd worked in Cambridge a few times and found my accentl "delightful". On saturday we woke up clueless as to what to do, but we eventually decided on heading back to the rocky beach and do some surf fishing. This was my very first attempt at fishing - it's not something that ever appealed to me, but hey, I'll give anything a go once. As it turns out, I caught nothing but a red nose. I did thoroughly enjoy myself tho.
On our way back, I got introduced to another Jersey phenomenon called Ritas Italian Ices. All I can say is that is what heaven tastes like. I may have also killed a pound of beef jerkey to myself, thus solidifying my infemininity. I had to - it tastes sooooo good!
Sunday was my introduction to the lake house. A picturesque log cabin situated right on a highland lake where, in winter, ski resorts are a 15 minute drive away. It was breathtakingly beautiful and was how I pictured Canadian lakes would look in summer. We spent the day fishing - I caught my very first fish (a sunny) and so far my only fish - kayaking, and exploring. We took the kayaks out and paddled to Blueberry island where there was a mamma bear with 2 cubs. The 2 cubs were climbing high in the tree with mum just relaxing at the bottom. It was spectacular and most definately made the day.
That evening we were sat watching the Mets baseball game (it went on for 4 and a half hours). I was finally understanding some of the rules and definately enjoyying it. The game was paused for the announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. I don't want to turn this blog policical but it was pretty incredible to see the Americans react to the news, especially in New York. I was amazed at the amount of political propoganda coming out of the American news channels - I had to resort to the good ol' BBC. The facebook war after that happened was incredible - the amount of abuse, and arguments that arose over status' and comments. I was fascinated! While I'm on the topic - Obama's speech at the Correspondants dinner was Brilliant!!!
By this point, I was hooked on baseball so Sean took me down to the batting cages to learn how to hit a baseball properly. I felt very American, and thanked school for teaching me basic coordingation - the slowest cage pitches balls unrelentlessly to you at a speed of 45mph! I enjoyed it a lot, but then saw a lax practice about to start. I had to watch - I was mesmereised and just wanted my stick to go and join in. So fired up from the batting cages, Sean taught me to catch with a glove -easy except for the fact that you catch with your left hand.
Tuesday afternoon we drove to Flushing (in Queens), parked under a highway and went to Citifield. This is the New York Mets home ground and they were playing the San Francisco Giants. I was kitted out in my Mets shirt and hat for batting practice. THe atmosphere was electric - made eevn more so when Sean caught a ball hit by Posey. His night was made! We had great seats and stayed for the whole game, even though it went to extra innings and was decidedly cold outside. It was such a fun night - I loved it! Definately hooked to baseball now, and of course I'm a Mets fan.
We were shattered the following day, it had been pretty full on. Sean wanted me to meet his good friend Danielle, so we met up with her for pancakes (chocolate and peanut butter - YUM). We got on well, teamed up against sean and gave me a good dose of girl talk which I was in dire need of!
It seemed like I'd met almost everyone Sean could possibly introduce me to (dad, mum, mums boyfriend, sister, best friend, cousin, aunt and uncle, sisters friends, old school friends etc etc) but Thursday brought about meeting his grandparents. His grandpa had a stroke but seemed like a nice guy - and he's a mets fan!! His grandma had cooked us a delicious meal and we had some good conversations - most definately indulging the geeky side to us all. String theory, chaos theroy, quantum and englanglement were all touched upon.
My fingers now hurt from typing this much so it's time to say farwell for now. There's a few more posts up my sleeve...so don't stop reading just yet!
Peace and love xx

New York

So, I'm in New York - a proper post will get put up at some point when I have the time and energy to write about everything I've been up to - which is a lot!!
It's been so nice being in a home again, seeing Sean, meeting his family and doing lots of crazy stuff. At the end of each day it's like, right sleep, can't function been too busy!!
A little snapshot of my time includes tornadoes, fishing, surfing, kayaking, seeing bears, going swimming at a middle school, watching a marathon Mets v Phillies Baseball game (it went on for 4hr30) and of course the breaking news about Osama bin Laden.
America is going crazy over here, with so many patriotic facebook statuses, conspiracy theories and 24/7 news coverage. You can practically hear them over at ground zero (well not really I'm a good 20 min drive out of the city but you get what I mean). It's been a crazy experience to be part of all this from the American side.
Well, lunch has just arrived so I best get off and go do something a little more constructive
peace and love xx