Chaos and Adventure!

Sorry for the long delay folks, it's a crazy city!

CHAOS:

Let's start out on Tuesday. I left for the Moline airport around 3am on Tuesday. Ely was kind enough to give me a ride and Derek seemed very eager to tag along, too eager. We got to the airport with time to spare, which was nice because I started to feel really anxious by then. They calm me down though. Despite some turbulence, the flights went very smoothly and I got to La Guardia 30mins early. Of course, I had to have trouble reserving a shuttle and ended stuck at the airport for 3hrs. The drive itself must have taken at least an hour and a half because I got to where I was meant to go after 4pm. This is the part where I say everything went according to plan, but nope.

The night before, Monday night, I got an email from my sister's friend Nina (the one that helped me reserve a room in Queens). She said that the people I was going to stay with expected me two days ago and since I wasn't there, they gave the room to someone else. The family spoke Spanish and almost no English, so this was how the confusion ended up. I was panicking till Tuesday morning, and halfway through the flights. Nina was nice enough to let me stay at her place until I could find another room. It's been two days and I'm still here. She offered to house me for the remaining time, but there is a possibility of a room somewhere else, so I am still planning for that. In the mean time, I'm having a blast!

ADVENTURE:

On Tuesday, I was able to make a quick visit to an art gallery with a show I had wanted to see. After that, Nina and her brother and I went out for some delicious Dim Sum. It's great to live in Chinatown. After 36hrs of no sleep, which might have caused my migraine on the plane, I crashed early.

On Wednesday, I attempted to use the New York subway. It didn't start out so great, but I learned enough to get me through the day. I met a friend on 57th and 7th, at the edge of Central Park. We saw a couple of shows and then went for lunch. Afterward, he left for class and I went to MET. It was huge, really huge. I focused on the paintings, but it was hard not to be distracted by everything else. I was able to take some pictures for references for a new book assignment in the weapons galleries, so it was the right decision. After 5:30pm, the museum closed and everyone flooded onto the front steps to rest after a day of walking and standing. Performers started showing up and gave a great show.

So that's the short version. Go here see the evidence