America, Fuck Yeah!

I haven't blogged as enthusiastically in the last week of my trip as the first two because having to leave has been looming large and ugly, and I didn't really want to think about it. It really saddens me to be headed home tomorrow. I've fallen in love with New York City in the time I've been here. It's an absolutely amazing city, so full of life and energy. Eight and a half million people living on top of each other on a tiny island will do that.

It's not perfect though, and while much of what I've seen here has been through rose-tinted vacation glasses, it's a seedy, dirty, occasionally smelly place as well. People eke out small, sad and desperate lives here, just as they do everywhere. There's a lot of poverty, and desperation, and hopelessness too. I consider it a privilege to have witnessed both sides of the city.

I was reading Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese while soaking up the rays in Central Park on a sunny day some time back and a quotation struck me as being particularly true. It was used to describe Manchester during the industrial revolution, but it sounds true for New York: "From this foul drain the greatest stream of human industry flows out to fertilize the entire world... Here humanity attains its most complete development and its most brutish; here civilization works its miracles, and civilized man is turned back almost into a savage."

There is of course, much excitement, optimism and gritty determination as well, which is what makes New York and New Yorkers so great. I have no real basis for comparison against nationalities other than my own, but New Yorkers are hugely friendly people (certainly more so than South Africans, that much is for sure). I spent my last proper night out at PJ Clarkes with Tom, and within seconds of sitting at the bar we were engaged in conversation by one of the locals. New Yorkers, given the right social situation, are exceptionally friendly and upfront. On numerous occasions while sitting in a restaurant or at a bar I've ended up chatting with one of them. It's a friendly city, for the most part.

Part of me wishes I could stay - I am heartsore at having to leave, make no mistake, but a bigger part of me misses home, misses friends, misses family, misses work.

It's been an amazing, fascinating, mind-expanding, entertaining, enlightening and edifying trip.

I looked back today on everything I've crammed into the past three weeks and felt a dizzying sense of it being all too surreal for words.

It all feels like a dream; sadly, a dream that is now reaching its inevitable conclusion.

Winding down

Sunday evening, chilling at home. Might go for a bit of a walk to take the evening air, but I've got a big day planned tomorrow (Met, Circle Line Ferry, shopping on Broadway) so we'll see.

We spent the 4th of July at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which was really cool. The 4th itself is basically the world's biggest braai. The park was packed with hundreds, if not thousands, of people with their barbecues (it's a big park).

We stopped off at the Whole Food Market (the American version of Woolworths) to grab food before we left. Food here is not cheap. I paid $20 for a smallish tuna steak, and four hamburger patties was around $20 as well. The meat is also not amazing - we braai'ed some aged rump and a t-bone, and while both were nice, from what experience I've had here, we have access to better food at better prices back home. There's a massive drive here to eat local and eat organic, which is good though. I'm sure we'll see it increasingly in South Africa.

Anyway, back to the park. We met up with some of Tom's work mates, including Ivan, another South African (and a Kaaner, so guess who braai'ed). It was nice to chill and braai and drink beer, even if you have to drink beer out of bottles hidden in paper bags, or pour the beer into a plastic cup. America is weird like that - public drinking of any kind is forbidden - you're not allowed to sit outside your apartment with a beer, nor in a public park. As a result, everyone at the park drinking was doing so somewhat surreptitiously. It's a bizarre double-standard - cable TV broadcasts nearly non-stop advertising of alcohol brands, and it's uniquitous, available at every single convenience store.

It really is a land of dichotomies in many many ways.

Carnassie Rockaway

Friday lunchtime. Time for all you can eat sushi.

Wednesday I went to MoMA - it was amazing. Around the last floor I realised that my feet were hurting more than usual. I headed home and made a grim discovery - the skin on the tops of my toes had chaffed off from friction, and were subsequently bleeding. This was fairly miff. I reckon the cause was standing in the rain and getting entirely soaking wet at Explosions, including my feet. The resulting walking with wet, soft feet probably wasn't so great.

I spent Thursday at home taking a break as a result. I went walking around a bit with plasters on my feet, but it was too painful and I called it quits for the day.

This morning we did laundry (three loads for me!) and we're headed out for lunch in a bit. This evening the plan is to do PJ Clarks or maybe just chill - tomorrow is the 4th afterall...