Apartment kafuffle

After an early morning wake up and a 4.5 hour bus ride we made it to NEW YORK CITY! So happy to get there we got in a taxi straight away to 59^th and Lexington, to our two bedroom apartment. We had contacted the company earlier to let them know when we would arrive, however they weren’t there to meet us. 15 min later we got a call and from Sarah’s face I could see that something was not right. Apparently upon going to the apartment to clean it after the last guest, the company discovered that it had been trashed so badly that we would not be able to stay in it. Devastated because I had spent so much time organizing it and not sure where we would go, I was not impressed by how the situation was being handled. Hugh (the guy organizing the apartment) told us to go to 48^th between 10^th/11^th and we could stay there.  Having never seen the pace I demanded to get the info before getting in another taxi across town. I was fuming inside but knew getting upset would not achieve anything, so we got an email about the place and got in a taxi to go see it. We met Alberto (the guy who takes you to your apartment) and he showed me up to the apartment. It was really nice, but upon saying we would take it he was like you can only stay here for two weeks then you will have to change places. With no definite answers and all this wishy washy info I refused to be somewhere if we couldn’t be there the entire time. So Alberto took me to 46^th between 9^th/10^th apartment 5A while Sarah waited on 48^th with the bags, there was no point continuing to lug everything around again.

When we got to 5A I seriously could not believe how disgusting and dirty the place was. Apparently the people before us had only been in there one night and had left so much crap in there, and due to them not scheduling someone in there that night the cleaners hadn’t been. Regardless of this fact the apartment was huge and in a great location so I said if they could clean it we would stay there. After about an hour of Alberto on the phone trying to get the cleaners to come, it was decided that the earliest they could get there was early the next morning. So we were kind of back to square one as we had no where to stay night 1.

By this stage Sarah had got in a taxi and brought the bags and was sitting on our steps looking like a homeless person J.  Alberto had the idea that we could stay in 3A instead of 5A, but for some reason his keys were not working. So he called someone to come and unlock it for us. We weren’t really sure if that would be where we would be staying the whole time but Alberto was continuously on the phone with everyone trying to work it out while we sat homeless on the stoop.  Then we all waited on the stoop for another 2hours while his friend was coming only to find out that he hadn’t even left! Alberto was nice enough and we were trying to hold it together and laugh because we had no idea what was going to happen. Alberto got tired of waiting on the stairs so he wanted us to take all our luggage to the 5^th floor and then later when the keys came we could move it down to the 3^rd floor which we had found out would only be for the night. Five flights of stairs and all our luggage was not fun!

After an hour at Starbucks around the corner, Alberto finally got the phone call that his friend was there with the keys, but upon finding him on the 3^rd floor we worked out that the door was locked from the inside and even with crow bars they couldn’t open it. Sarah and I were in fits of giggles at the situation- you couldn’t have made it up if you tried. Then with my great suggestion, Alberto went up to 5A climbed out the window to the fire escape and climbed down through the window of 3A and opened the door.

Finally we had a place to stay for the night! Very excited by this fact but extremely annoyed about wasting our entire day trying to work this out, we had an early night. It wasn’t until nearly 3pm the next day that we were able to get into a real apartment (5A), so again we had wasted our day because we couldn’t do anything but wait. Not happy at all with the company but the apartment is exactly what we needed! Plus from our balcony (fire escape) and our rooftop (fire escape) we can see the NYC skyline including both ends of time square and the Hudson river the other side!

 

Final day of road trip

So on our final day of the road trip we drove from Province RI back to Boston, with a few stops of the way of course.

We stopped at Kohls and another party store, before getting the urge to go to yard sales to see if we could relive last weeks awesome estate sale. Unfortunately it wasn't to be, even though we tried three different ones around Newton.

So we made our way to Pam's where I it looked like we were moving in with the amount of stuff we had somehow managed to fit in our little Yaris. We didn't get to stay long as we had to get the car back and we wanted to make a stop in Harvard. So we drove and got Pinnochio's OMG how I missed that pizza! Then we had to get yoghurtland before we met up with Mai near Kirkland. After a quick catchup we drove to the Stadium and watched a bit of a baseball game before seeing the actual stadium. It was such a perfect day to see it! So beautiful... makes my own uni's stadium look so sad :(

It was then time to drive to the airport to give back Glen Coco :( It was sad to say goodbye.

Back in Harvard Square to met Pam we decided to cook a semi-Australian dinner for Pam. So we went shopping with her and made Pesto Pasta, Pumpkin/pear salad and Pavlova. It was such a success and we spent the night discussing everything from tv to politics to the federal budget and education.

Such a great night!

 

 

They may be the enemy- but they are beautiful!

First stop today was Yale. Now I know I should hate the enemy but it becomes a bit difficult when the campus is so unbelievably beautiful. Its gothic style buildings are breathtaking and to it looked even better as it was freshman move in day so there were flags and decorations everywhere. Sarah and I pretended to be freshman and walked around the dorms, got our freshman t-shirts and looked at the groups we could join. I wish we could have spent more time there but we parked a car in an 1hr only spot L but I will be back as professor one day so its just a see you later!

We then decided to drive past Province and go to the Wrentham Premium Outlets which were fairly good but pretty much the same prices as the normal stores.

While the shops may not have been the best our Hilton hotel was really cool. It was just down the road from Brown University and had huge ballrooms that were fun to sneak into.

On our way to dinner we found a Partycity store which was so much fun and so so cheap. I want to organize a party just so I can buy decorations! We decided that it would be funny to buy a happy birthday crown and wear it to see how much stuff we could get for free. Sarah wore it to dinner at TGIF and while they didnt public humiliate her by singing every was extremely nice to her.

 

 

 

 

Rain rain go away

We spent the morning at Liberty Hall doing a tour of the beginnings of the USA. We saw the room where the founding fathers signed the constitution and learnt some of the history of the birthplace of the nation.

Then..

Torrential rain! I mean torrential rain that nearly caused us to be flooded in and stuck! It was only lightly raining when left Philly, however as we were on back roads through beautiful countryside it started to pour. At one stage we had a raging river next to us and a hill on the other side, so we had rushing water coming down meeting the rising water of the river and we were trying to go through it! It was tough drive, however we made it out alive.

Then we decided to get on back on the main roads but with the internet cutting in and out and not great signposts we kept getting lost or going too far when we were supposed to turn.  So far along the trip we had been doing pretty well with directions, but somehow today was not the day and we got lost so many times.

By the time we got to New Haven (our hotel was on the beach) we were very over it and over each other that we just watched some tv and went to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Road trip to the birthplace of the nation

Today was a day of stops.

First stop was Australian embassy to vote. It was the biggest let down of our entire trip. They have all this security but didn’t even scan or look at passport and it was just a building, nothing making it look “Australian”. I think we were both expecting an embassy like the one in the Simpsons J Plus the guy there said we couldn’t even vote because the day of the election hadn’t been called, when in fact it was called two weeks earlier… argh so annoying.

Our second stop was Baltimore which we solely drove through so that I could stop and sing ‘Good morning Baltimore’! We couldn’t really find anywhere right in the city to stop and we had just driven through the ghetto part so we literally pulled into a dock for 5min sang and got back in the car.

Our third stop was the town of Lancaster which is known for its Amish heritage, however as we had driven through traditional Amish land previously, Lancaster looked commercially and was a bit of a letdown.

Our fourth stop was Kohl’s where we had free vouchers that we needed to use, so we did a quick shop before having dinner at Red Robin’s. This was a favourite of mine when I came to the states for Cheerleading Worlds as we went there a few times for dinner. It has the best freckled lemonade you will ever try and bottomless fries! So yum.

Our fifth and final stop was our hotel in Philadelphia which was really nice. We managed to have a fairly early night after planning the rest of our trip.

 

 

The Capital

Our drive to Washington was pretty uneventful- we just wanted to get there and it was horrible weather L Although we did pull off and go to the Flight 53 memorial site from 9/11 which has just been opened. I don’t know if it was the cold wind or the effect of spirits in the air but there was something very eerie about in the air. We also decided to drive through Georgetown which is one of the cutest towns with Cobble Street even if they are really steep and when driving down it feels like you are on a rollercoaster! We stopped in at DC cupcakes and even though I had them in Boston, there is nothing like having to wait ½ and hour in a line to eat cupcakes- they taste so much better and they seriously are the best cupcakes ever.

We had a few days in Washington which was great because there is just so much to see and do even if ive been there before.

We both went to the Air Space Museum which is one of my favourite- im just a big kid at heart and love hands on stuff! I also went to the Natural History again just because I love night at the museum 2 and it’s a pretty cool museum with dinosaurs, orangutans and big whales. I met back up with Sarah and we decided to go to the Kennedy Performing Arts Centre as each night they have a free show. So had some fro-yo (I’m an addict!) and walked to the KPAC. We ended up seeing a contemporary dance group that told the story of the burqa. It was very interesting and they had some really cool motifs and elements of design which I would love to adapt.

On our second day in Washington we got up early to go to the Holocaust Musuem which is without a doubt the best museum I have ever been to. Now I’ve been to numerous Holocaust museums around the world and even been to a few concentration camps, and I was really taken aback by the assembly of the museum. The history and stories of the deceased were beautifully honoured and the information was provided in a informative and easy to understand way. I think the most heart-wrenching element was the photo card you receive as you walk in that tells the story of an individual. It was eerie that my photo card of a person who was a drama student and Sarah’s was a fashion student- how ironic.

After shedding a few tears, we walked along the Washington Mall Memorial Pool up to the Lincoln Memorial, before detouring and going up to the Shakespeare Theatre. We had read somewhere they do a week of free shows and so we were hoping to get tickets. We were there really early so we went to lunch at a sports bar called Turtle. I find it really strange that at lots of restaurants they will have promotions if you sign up to their emails and they aren’t just like you may win this or that but are you can get $20 off or  free dessert or appetizer. So everywhere we seem to eat its not only cheap but we get free stuff! Anyway after a lunch we waited in line for the free tickets. In this line was another fellow Australia who proved the whole 6 degrees of separation can in fact be 1 degree as we both went to Bathurst University at the same time and lived in the same dorm and knew the same people! Crazy!

We were fortunate to get tickets to Much Ado About Nothing and had a couple of hours to kill before the show so found another frozen yoghurt place and people watched. Funniest comments on our behalf including the term ‘overgrown leprechaun’ (a man with a red hair and beard), which then formed “overgrown hobbit’ (any man who didn’t have ginger hair but did have scruffy hair and a beard). The terms are going to be the next big thing!

The show itself was incredible and absolutely hilarious. I was not expecting to laugh so much and the take on the classic tale in which the director set it in a Caribbean house courtyard with only one set, it was clever and worked well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witches, Berries and Abby lee

I could not have planned today even if I tried. I thought some of the other stuff we have done has been random but nothing compares to today.

Firstly we were driving along and saw all these cars pulled over to the side of the road, so we pulled in to see what was going on. It ended up being an estate sale at a place that looked like it was from a Halloween movie. Vines were covering the house, the garden was so over grown and then when we went inside that’s when things got really scary. The place looked so run down with the wall paper peeling, cobwebs on the lamps and squeaky floor boards. As we went around we started hearing stories about the lady who used to live there. Her name was Elizabeth (from the town of Eden) and she was a practicing witch, which was shown through her choice of books and furniture- creepy lights with hands coming out of the wall and gothic looking sculptures. I ended up buying a charm bracelet and real pearl necklace as I wanted something to have from this place, although im not sure if I will wear them- they may be cursed! Before leaving we also learnt that she was a very old lady with no family and had been dead about 6 weeks before someone found her being eaten by her animals!!!

After our spooky encounter we continued to drive on before doing a quick U’ey when we sure ‘blueberry pickers welcome’ on the side of the road. We just laughed at ourselves picking raspberries and blueberries and how random our day had been so far!

It only got more random as we suddenly were driving through traditional Amish land.  We couldn’t help but pull over and stop at a horse and cart that was selling home cooked bakery items, where we were also invited to the towns annual picnic. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to stop until the picnic but we did manage to go to the Amish candy store and got the best (and probably only) goats milk fudge I have ever had. My ignorance in the Amish culture only makes it more interesting to me and it astounds me how they live in the 21^st century world but use none of its technology.

We arrived in Pittsburg (our destination) in late afternoon and went straight to the Abby Lee Dance Company. Initially I was a bit shy and just wanted to get a picture out the front with the sign, but Sarah convinced me to go inside as the shop was open. Once inside we met some lovely mothers of students in the youth performance troupe who gave all the ins and outs of the studio as well as a studio tour. Students were in the middle of a summer boot camp class, so I got to watch Maddi, Nia, Payton as well as other students from the show practicing. Unfortunately Miss Abby was not there but I did get to leave her a message on her board and we gave a pack of tim tams to the ladies for being so kind. Later in the night that somehow found me on facebook/instagram and posted photos of them eating them J It was such a cool experience being there.

Our hotel was really nice right next to a huge giraffe and elephant (putt putt golf) and down the road from outlets. We didn’t get time to shop but we had a nice dinner at Mad mex before settling in for an early night.

What another incredible day!