GITAR GITAR GITAR GITAR Come to my boudoir

Last last saturday took the train to jersey. which was much better than the coach. especially since that day i bought my new favourite magazine RUSSIA! it's a new york publication but it's all about russia. russian food, russian art, russian literature, russian nightlife, russian space travel, russian everything!!







sunday allie drove me back to new york. went to soho. maroon 5 were in the area playing a free show at the apple store. but we couldn't stay to watch. there were heaps of people screaming. but people are always going crazy in soho. the other day there was this massive queue going around the block just to buy this toy.

tuesday was the second ed2010 meeting. liz who goes to pace was talking to us. she's only 19 and she freelances for the washington post and usa today and she has a book coming out. it's so incredible. and all she did was email this writer she liked and asked her out for coffee. and then that writer introduced liz to her agent and they were like ok let's write this book.

tuesday night aka my birthday eve. just went over to steph's. her guy friends from sydney were back for one night and staying with her and we were meant to go out but they were buggered from having just come back from Cuba. so we just sat around her apartment and helped james finish off all the budweisers. i realized you can add "in new york" to the end of anything lame you're doing and it's suddenly cool. like we were drinking budweisers in stephs apartment in new york. anyways so i'm keeping my birthday quiet cause the thing depressed the shit out of me. but then it came out and james was so sweet. he opened up a bottle of white and gave a speech. it was a great speech as well. i was really touched. and then steph said a few words. it was all very nice. but i was feeling too drunk so i went home.

despite being totally miserable about my birthday it wasn't too bad. as i was getting ready to go out my RA vicky and raven and her friend came around with cupcakes!!

Dancin’ on the legs of a newborn pony

valentines day. depressed all day. cheered up at night with a good meal with steph. we had pizza and red wine. went back to her place. had a whole bottle of white. it was really REALLY good. gift from the greek shipping heir upstairs. jp and pili came around. drank some more. then we went out to this club in the east village.



it was pretty dead thurdays night there. no one at the door so we just walked in. the bartender remembered jp and pili from last week but wanted steph and my id. so we couldn't stay. but he was really nice about it. gave us some free tequila shots for the road and told us to go to another place around the corner that would be more lenient.



this other place was empty. but soon after us other people came in. but it didn't matter cause the bartender dave was THE nicest person. he made really yummy mojitos and gave us free apple-tini shots. much to the delight of pili who's a scrubs fanatic. AND he let us smoke! the bar was really cute with a couple of connect four games set up. we got really drunk and starting dancing on the bar stools and counter. don't know how i didn't fall and break my neck. but then suddenly it was 4 and we had to leave.




me with straight hair.

I asked your name You asked the time

saturday night. went with allz to the knitting factory. which is this dingy place where local bands play. it's four levels and there's several acts on each one. the bouncer at the door was like "if you're drinking tonight show id" so i showed my id and i don't think he really looked at it cause he just gave me an ok to drink wristband. so made the most of it and had several shots of grey goose.

the band we went to see weren't that great. they were like heavy, thrash metal. so we wandered upstairs to another stage and some jazzy band were playing that were kinda cool.
we came back down and had last call at the bar. then the djs, or rather, some kids with ipods were playing songs. velvet underground came on for a bit can't remember what song but it was quickly taken off. so i went over and said what the hell. asked if they could play any bands from australia. he said no cause all the kids wear fluoro. and i'm like you're right and did what the wombats say to do and asked for joy division. temptation was played instead. got talking to some band who were on earlier but we missed them cause we arrived late. then we were outside. helping to load the band's van. and i was trying to explain to someone that we weren't groupies when the lead singer came and hugged us. it was a really cool place. but it kinda made me sad. because it would've been the kinda place i would be at in sydney. just a bit too close to home.

i joined a club at college. it's basically for wannabe editors. it's really cool you get all these contacts for internships and get to meet editors at soirees and they come talk to us.

got my free disposable camera photos back.
that's my roommate jess and some kid.

some people from pace.
some people watching the game.

chinatown

on chinese new years day

no fireworks. just lots of paper

some of the poppers had fortunes in them and people went nuts trying to catch them.

allie got one

Take a taxi to the darker side of town,that's where we'll be

saturday night steph had some people over at her new place. jp and pili came and brought a bunch of americans who mostly kept to themselves. steph had two guys from sydney over who were reallly sweet. i had eaten hardly anything that day and a whole bottle of red wasn't the best combination.



sunday morning went with my roommate to her house which is past the bronx. i was pretty much her shadow. went to church with her and followed her around with whatever errands she had. church was slightly alarming. people would go up to the front to get "fixed" and come back crying. finally got to her house. she had heaps of family and friends over to watch the superbowl. it was all a bit overwhelming for me. right before the game we picked up some of her pace friends which i had met so that was slightly better. after the game waited around for ages but eventually her mum dropped us all home.

tuesday was the giants ticket tape parade. it started right outside my uni. but i had class. there was so much paper and toilet paper everywhere. people would just chuck it out their windows.



wednesday night went to soho for dinner with steph. but we ate too early. and just wandered around totally lost. waiting for 11pm when this club opens. we were going cause steph knew this person who was hosting a night there. got there and didn't know how i was going to get in. steph said just pretend you've forgotten your id. so i'm talking with the bouncer and saying i was 21 but it wasn't going anywhere so i was like "honestly i'm 21 in 20 days" and he looked at my id and said you're right and let me in. it was really nice of him to do that.



the club was downstairs in a cellar with shelves lined with books.but there was no one inside. EVERYONE goes out really late in NY. james the promoter didn't show up until just before 12 and everyone started slowly arriving after that. james is from melbourne and he was super friendly and introducing us to everyone. we were at his table with bottles of vodka and mixers that we could help ourselves to. plus he kept filling my glass with sauvignon blanc. so got pretty drunk. the dj was from sydney and the music he played was TOTALLY Sydney.

but it was pretty dead and james left and other people too. so we decided to go jump in a cab to pink elephant to meet this other aussie dude. when we got there i was drunk and overconfident from before so i just showed my id straight away. the bouncer looked at it and was just taking a picture of it when he thought something was wrong, gave it to another guy and that guy was like she's not 21 she's not allowed in. but it was ok because we both had to wake up early the next day. i felt bad but steph was like it was pretty good that we were taken to the door straight away. cause the bouncers are really selective in NY. like at the first place. there were two decent looking guys behind us but they weren't let in even though the place was completely empty. and at pink elephant there were people waiting that were being ignored.

thursday allie came into the city. we went to chinatown. there was a parade for new years and everyone was going nuts. we ate yum cha then went shopping in soho.



at night met up with her dad, brother and granddad. ate at this really nice brazillian restauant. there were no menus, waiters just kept coming around asking if you'd like some of what they had, mostly meat. one came around and made really strong caipirinhas.

Just like heaven, if it didn't look like hell

saturday went to princeton, new jersey to visit allie at work. it was only when i saw that i would be taking a coach and that people had luggage that i realized i was going INTERSTATE. it took an hour and a half but felt like much much longer cause we were passing through no mans land. somewhere during the trip we pulled up at a white castle and had to change coaches. anyways got to allie's coffee shop and had a double "milky shot" that's what they call macchiatos. and allz had hyped this coffee up so much but it was really, really good. like travel an hour and a half for it good. then we went to some cafe for dinner. and i had shish kebabs that came in this elaborate contraption. then we went back to small world coffee to see some band but left pretty soon afterwards. back to her house. which is huge. i think I've got mild agoraphobia because it freaked me out. I'm so used to my shoebox now.

sunday went to walmart. it would be so easy to be romantic in the us. there's aisles and aisles of heart shaped candies and stuff. then we went to the mall. then back to princeton for more coffee. and i took a train back. i was kinda homesick for new york and as soon as i got off i was really really glad. so the trip was good it made my new home feel like home.

wednesday was my first assessment. i had to do a short speech. and of course i choose to speak about climate change because that's such an easy, brief subject. but it must have been ok i got a b+.

thursday i went to get painting supplies. in this area where everyone kept coming at me with stuff they wanted to sell. and i made the mistake of pulling out a piece of paper and someone shouted at me if i needed directions. and i'm like no i'm fine. but they grab my paper and grab my arm and escort me two blocks to my destination. at night painting we did ink blots where you fold the paper with paint inside. and i don't know how but i totally sucked at that. whereas there was this person who got really pretty, intricate results. i've been recording my dreams for painting and man i am having the most far out dreams.

everyone keeps talking to me on the street. i dunno if it's because i let them cause i have nothing else to do. i was hit on by some dude in a wheelchair. and someone sang a song about me it was called the girl with the tight, tight jeans. anyways i helped some guy with directions and they offered me free membership at their new gymnasium. but i would never need to take them up on the offer because today we had our 4th fire drill. i have to walk down 15 flights of stairs. it's so annoying cause you feel like you're being thrown out of your house. but i guess it's good you get to see people in your building.

tonight i went out with steph from uts and jp and pili from chile. we went to soho for dinner. it's kinda annoying new york is so big it's hard to just stumble upon something, if you're in the wrong spot. i think we headed west when we should have went east. it was good to go out for dinner but after a while i just wanted to get out of there. it's such a strain being with new people. or maybe we just don't click. maybe all we have in common is that we know no one. but it was nice.


the view from allie's room.


the view from my room.