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April 22, 2005
New York City
so i'm sitting at my cousin Mikey's apt. here in Chelsea, Manhatten. it's sunny and brisk out, and people on the streets seem very happy. Spring in this city seems to do that.
i arrived 2 days ago, landing in La Guardia after an early morning flight out of Ft. Lauderdale. i caught a bus and then the subway to my aunt Freddi's house, and hung around all day, relaxing. since then i've been staying at Mikey's house. He just got accepted to the Cornell vet school, and is moving up there in a few months. we've been walking all over the city, catching up since the last time i saw him, when drew and i were out here for the RNC. last night i commented on how it's a shame our folks didn't stick us on airplanes more when we were younger to come visit, but at least now it's excellent to have a relative my own age who's becoming a good friend.
I'm still a little discombobulated after the flight home, in the same way i was when i flew down to Ecuador, nearly 4 months ago. when possible i prefer to cross all the borders overland, you get much more of a sense of the distance instead of a sudden change. being back here in an english speaking country is nice, i'm still answering waiters and folks at the bagel shop in spanish, and it's novel to be overhear so many conversations just walking down the street. anytime anyone sneezes, i say "jesus" or "salud," instead of bless you or what ever.
before is started my trip i had decided on returning to try and move out to the east coast, either here or philly, however, i found an interpreting program online, it's based at UCSF and seems challenging and interesting. So i'm going to head back to SF by the 20th of next month to take a fluency test, and if i pass that i will attempt to enroll in the course. my old housemates at the purple house are amazing and are pretty much saving a room for me until august, when i will be returning from riding across the country with daveo. then i will move to s.f. and hopefully begin school, and a year later i'll be able to work as an interpreter. in so many ways this is very exciting, i love sf, and during my absense reading all the emails and looking at megan's photos of the city made me homesick as hell. now i'll be able to jump back into my old life and take part in all the tons of stuff that city has to offer. at the same time though, part of me wants to balk at living somewhere i have already lived, when there is the whole country and indeed the whole world to try out. still, i think i will be busy and content, and a year isn't that long of time, really. i can always move to senegal afterwords.
so tonight we're going to the brooklyn brewery and then the brooklyn underground film festival. i also plan to hang out with some of my few friends who live out here, including nick, tamara and justin. i also want to take the train to philly to hang out with kelsey forbes. it was a good choice to stop over here before heading back out west, i plan to take more of the 200 dollar round trip sf-nyc flights so that i can visit next year.
so all in all, life is good. what is even better is that we're finding a loaner bike for me, and i'll get to ride bikes today after not doing so at all for 4 months. i'm very excited about that.
Posted by bendan at April 22, 2005 09:08 AM
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