New York City (population: about 8,008,000)
Fast paced and distracting, New York certainly has it all. After being in non-English speaking countries for over a year, suddenly I could understand every sign, every word, everyone. I was amazed at people’s willingness to talk about absolutely anything personal on the street as loudly and proudly and possible, despite being surrounded by strangers. All this plus neon advertising and sculpture was extremely distracting. Plenty of world class icons to speak of here, including the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty and Central Park. This is the city, where even its residents are proud enough to wear the “I love NY” T shirt.
I met a lovely girl from Sydney on the bus back to the airport who spent my first day with me. We marvelled at Times Square, and scored half-priced tickets to ‘The Colour Purple’; originally a book, then Steven Spielberg film and now on Broadway starring American idol Fantasia. The show combined African music, jazz, swing and gospel to express the hardships and triumphs of an African American woman and her family growing up in the South.
Times Square was a confusion of flashing lights, huge lettering, and bustling
tourists. No one will be ignored here. You might be walking down the street, minding your own business, when suddenly someone with a Bronx accent might yell “GOD IS ALL AROUND YOU, WATCHING YOU!!!” on a loud speaker from the sidewalk making the wake up coffee you were about to sit down for pointless.
My 6 hour bus ride to DC was a pleasant break from the masses of tourists, pedestrians and traffic. Despite the boring greyness of government monuments, the fountains and lush greenery make great distractions from the weight of my 20 kg backpack. Everything seemed so easy now that everything was in English.
After meeting my some family friends, John, Lindsay and ….Graham at the airport, we drove through the farmlands of Virginia to attend American style jazz. The Goose Creek Jazz Party Festival.
Back in New York…
Went to dinner in Little Italy to reminisce with my lovely friend from my Seville Flamenco course, Andrew.
Brooklyn Bridge was the world’s first and longest suspension bridge spanning 1596 ft
I paid my respects to the World Trade Centre September 12 after the memorial. Despite the inevitable sad eerie feeling I got
looking at ground zero and all the flowers left by friends and family of the victims, there was also a sense of hope. Projecting the new motto ‘Think back and look forward”, the Memorial will commemorate those who risks their lives to save others, recognises the thousands that survived and reflects upon the unity and compassion shown in the aftermath. The site is now busy with workers for the future 1776 ft Freedom Towers to be completed by 2015 and making its mark as the world’s tallest building.
Iconic as ever, the statue of liberty stands with all its pride. My pockets were still light from the expensive accommodation costs for my first few days, so I opted for the free Stratton ferry option to get a free up-close shout of New York’s leading lady.
Sandusky and Attica, Ohio
I was very excited flying to Cleveland since my Aunt Mary and Uncle Ed were there to welcome me at the airport (especially since my bag was getting so heavy that it was ripping at the seams and straining my bag). I was more than happy to just relax and re-energise for a week with some good
family hospitality. Ed is currently researching Universities for my cuz to attend next year and supermom Mary works at the revamped Sandusky hospital. My two younger (and once short) cousins were now both taller than me and well into there teens; therefore, there was a lot of information to catch up on. Intelligent Ed was starting his final year of school and seems looking to major in Physics and Maths. It was really nice to share some space with my, now taller, cuz as he finds his voice and develops his genius. Whatever his chooses to do, I can imagine it will be something fabulous, like the next Google Guy or the like.
Energetic Eric spent his summer vacation in gym class and, equips with his new exercise machines in the basement, and his trusty clarinet he’s ready to start another school year. Yet some things haven’t changed….Since as long as I can remember, Eric’s always had a good sense of humour setting up traps for unsuspecting guests like fake spiders on the stairs, eye balls in beverages, curious presents at my place at the dinner table which snakes leap out of unsuspectingly, random newspaper falling on your head
as you enter the room and then there’s of course a bloody ghost mask waiting for you as you stubble sleepy eyed to the bathroom in the morning. Never a dull moment at the Werner residence.
We visited Cedar Point (famous for the highest and biggest selection of Rollercoaster’s) for the Halloween lead-up celebrations. We had our share of haunted houses, like the Lair of the Vampire, where gothic creatures of the night welcome you to the world of the undead and the Pharaoh’s Secret, in which you enter a tomb of ancient souls and try and escape their capture. Between adrenaline rushing rollercoaster rides like the Iron Dragon, Magnum and the Corkscrew we were freaked out by multiple freight zones. Let me explain; a freight zone is a haunted outdoor walk through with dim lighting and obscuring mist leaving you vulnerable to experiencing weird murderous silhouettes of ghouls staring at you, Lord of the Rings-like monsters suddenly appearing beside you and blooded goblins following you. While Mary and I clung to each other screaming and bumping our heads at every turn (and attracting all the monsters, of course) Ed and Eric strutted through relatively unperturbed by the scary
freaks lurking around the corners.
Janet, Charles and the boys visited us for a quick catch up. The boys were interested in keeping an active lifestyle joining the air force or military after school. Meanwhile, Janet and Charles are looking after a menagerie of pets at home, including approximately 10 cats, 2 peacocks, a few guinea pigs and a rabbit. Quite a challenge I expect.
On the weekend, we ventured into the farmlands to visit Grandpa and Irene. I was so pleased to see them looking so fit and healthy. Despite the strange weather this season for growing crops, they served huge, delicious tomatoes the size of grapefruits and Irene said she was able to bottle 66 jars of grape jam. Everyone reminisced about my mum being the naughty, active one, who at 3 led a mission into the kitchen to grab and spread all flour everywhere as Mary watched innocently. Apparently she also had multiple disposal methods for the vegetable and salted pork she didn’t like, such as hiding it in the attic, squashing it under her shoes and the old feeding it to the dog. During her school years, she would race Mary home from the
bus stop through the cornfield where she got inevitably stuck in mud, lost her shoes and arrived smothered. As a grounded teen, she cleverly told her “mom” she was “just going on a bike ride” while she meet girlfriends or boyfriends at the road.
Then we visited my cuz Anne, who gave birth to a cute little baby girl just weeks before. Good to see all was well with the new mummy who was currently learning the latest in hair colour and design while she skilfully learns how to juggle social life with motherhood. Kirsten Anne seems like a happy and relaxed babe with blue eyes. We then made a stop at my great Aunt Virginia’s place that’s going strong into her 90’s. Still bright as ever, Virginia sure knows how to tell stories that will shock and captivate her audience. Her strong mindedness always seems to get her into trouble as she rejects unnecessary drugs from her doctors and continues to maintain her house independently.
St Louis and Murphysboro, Ohio
I was greeted by my one and only older and newly married cuz Stephanie (who works at the local animal hospital) at St Louis airport. Absolute sweetly
and filled with spirit, she drove me back to the beloved quiet and friendly Southern Illinois town, Murphysboro. Unfortunately, we were both so distracted, that the drive home quickly turned into a countryside tour as we temporarily got lost on one of the multiple highways coming out of St Louis. But we got home eventually and I meet her bright and active hubby, Josh.
Murphysboro hosted the biggest barbeque pig cook out I’ve ever seen! Steph and I were lucky enough to witness country bumpkin style, bush whacking street dancing. Just imagine chicken-like movements with the upper body and aggressive marching stomps with the feet plus plenty of drunken head rotation. There were teams gathered from towns all over the US, guarding their secret cooking method and sauce recipe for the 24 hour cooking process before the judges tasted the finished product the following day. Merry and full of spirits, there was plenty of opportunity to hear the heavy southern accents talking in playful, metaphorical sayings like: “she was batting her aiyes like a froooog in dust stooorm.” We scored free ribs smothered in American BBQ sauce from a friendly stranger and dined with last year’s winner.
We
rendevezed with Jason (my courageous cuz relaxing after a trip to Iraq) at the St Louis zoo. We worked our way from the chimpanzees and gorillas with the weird butts to lanky exotic birds, day dreaming giraffes (with an ostrich in the ‘ready to attack’ position), gazelles with wavy horns, smelly wart hogs, gross insects, heavy weighted hippo and a nervous pacing elephant. For dinner I experienced the sensual explosion of traditional American cuisine. I tasted extra cheesy pizza while listening to Spice Girls with the smell of pure meatiness in the air.
Back in Murphysboro, we toured the sweet, fruity vineyards of many different political outlooks, flavours, poetic ability, character and selling expertise from the vineyard workers. I really enjoyed just hanging around the house doing simple things, like reading, and catching up with emails. We went out for ribs with sauce (as the sauce is the main ingredient to a lot of meals here), bowling and boozing at the local pub. I met some interesting local characters that’s for sure. I tried to make sushi and okanomiyaki for my relos but the sushi turned out bad because I couldn’t find the right rice at some grocery store
like Wal-Mart. It was awesome to catch up with my all-grown-up cousins that I hardly ever see. Fingers crossed they will come to Australia one day!
Atlanta
My last and final trip was to Atlanta, Georgia to attend “Big Seminar X”. This is an internet marketing seminar where cards were flying everywhere and ideas were thrown across the room. Certainly the accents down there changed dramatically and the people were lovely. But home time was just a few days away and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. After filling all my pockets with cards over the three days I was bombarded with ideas. I certainly made an impression being the only Australian at the conference. But being foreign and special with a funny accent had been my thing for the last year and a half. As a traveller you are given so much exotic attention and had so many wide and varied experiences that you can never fully explain to anybody back home. I already knew this was the challenge before I undertook this journey. Challenges that have granted me more perspective and gratitude for my home.
The unnerving question is… how long can I wait til my
next adventure?
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