Hello from the states, my dear friends!
I am writing you from a computer in the lobby of the NYU dorm, where mon ami Jason is kind enough to put me up for a few nights. After the long ride to the airport, the long wait at the airport, and the long, long, long airplane ride with a long wait on the runway afterwards, and a long wait for the luggage to show (where, in a Aeroflot miracle, both of my checked bags arrived!), I am really glad I decided to break up the journey home with a quick sojourn in NYC.
Small things that made me very happy last night:
The salad I had for dinner
The ice in my drink
People speaking English without looking bitter about it
The "You're welcome" I got from a cashier when I said "Thank you"
Outlets everywhere that I can use!
Free internet
Brushing my teeth with water from the tap
A shower with pleasant water temperatures
Signs I can read swiftly, rather than sounding out the words
and so on. I'm liking America right now.
Since Jason is in the midst of a terribly busy week, I had the day to myself to enjoy. I slept in until 9:00am (and, I'm glad to report, I'm feeling very little jetlag. Staying awake for 26 hours yesterday was hard, but I'm just about adjusted thanks to it.), took a luxuriously long time to get ready (did my hair and makeup and everything!), then headed out.
I went to Murray's Cheese Shop first to pick up some lunch (a very salty Italian ham and cheese sandwich and some tasty jalapeno coleslaw) and took the subway uptown to Lincoln Center. I ate my sandwich on a bench in the park there, then went into the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts to do some script browsing. What a great library! What cool resources they have that do me very little good as an out-of-towner.
After that, I took myself to a movie and saw Stardust, which I enjoyed quite a bit in a silly, romantic-fantasy kind of way. But then again, I tend to like any movie that has David Kelly in it, as Rose and I discussed the other day in our room.
Back on the subway, then, and down to Times Square and the excellent Drama Book Shop. I still need to pick the fall Advance Drama play, so my main goal for the day was to pick up some good possibilities while I was around scripts I could paruse in person, instead of relying on the blurbs offered through online ordering. I got some good possibilities, as well as some sheet music for my brother.
I settled in a Starbucks next with a double chocolate chip frappachino and did some editing for Jason. (He's working on a writing sample for his clerkship applications, and asked if I would help him pick one out and offer suggestions.) Jason called while I was there, so I met him at his office in the New York Times Building. He gave me a quick tour, including the best view I've ever seen of the city, and we headed back for the dorm together.
And that brings me to now. Jason's downstairs being all studious, and I'm about to go back up to the room to repack my bags for tomorrow. We're planning on going out to a nice dinner tonight (thanks, Dad!), and maybe a movie, depending on what time it gets to be. Then tomorrow it's back to the airport and back to Colorado.
By the way, if I had had access to the internet yesterday during my whole Moscow airport debacle, you would have seen a post with a much-less pleasant mood than this. Rather than go into the whole sordid details now, I'll just say that there are five (FIVE!) different security points to go through, one of which I had to do twice, and there are rules there which are not posted or explained anywhere, but rather are just apparently part of the Russian consciousness. I'm going to avoid flying Aeroflot in the future as much as possible, and I hope I can totally avoid the Moscow airport. Still, it was nice to have a strong emotional break with Russia - I was glad to go once the plane took off.
Over the course of the transcontinental flight, I came up with a few topics for future posts. These include -
Amanda's Toilet Rubric
Statements I Made in Russian, Translated Into English
Finding My Inner Russian
and
White Gloves and Waterbottles: What to Expect at a Moscow Airport.
Enticing, n'est-ce pas?
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