woops...didnt realise i hadnt put up christmas eve and christmas day
here you go...
24-12-08 Wednesday
So we really didn’t do much today. Like we slept till late and then just bummed around the house. We did a bit of shopping. Bought Christmas presents for ourselves and that about wraps the day up. Like a said, we really did absolutely nothing of importance. The day is a bit of a blur in my mind.
25-12-08 Thursday
CHRISTMAS!!! Wooohoo!We were all awoken by Uncle Brian (I thought it was Sam) banging on a saucepan at around 8 in the morning and all trudged to the Christmas tree to open the presents. It was all snowy and cold outside. There’s just something right about being inside around a Christmas tree while it’s freezing and there’s snow outside. We opened pressies and just sort of chilled for a bit. Tamika and I then donned our new ski gear (compliments of Mum and Dad) and went out and played in the snow. It was truly a white Christmas. We had a snowball fight and made a snowman. We’d never made one before so that was pretty interesting. I think the one we made was pretty cool. Has 3 balls on top of each other, a carrot nose, buttons, hat and scarf. We took photos of it and have left it to melt to its heart’s content. Tamika and I made snow angels on the slightly icy snow…they didn’t really work but we had fun trying.We (and by we I mean Mum and Aunty Sharon) got Christmas lunch all prepared and cooked. We ate heaps. There’s also something comforting about sitting around a table eating hot food – turkey, baked veggies, mash, stuffing – while it’s cold outside. We were all pretty exhausted after the difficult task of eating so the rest of the day we all did our own thing. Dad slept, Tamika and I just kind of bummed around the house. We all went to bed really late after watching a movie.
Friday, January 2, 2009
After Christmas and New year
Apologies for the delay in uploading. It's 40% laziness, 50% couldn't be bothered and 10% lack of time. Anyway...if you don't wanna read the entire blog (because it is rather long) then i recommend you read about our new years eve...it was a night to remember - and its at the end of the blog.
26-12-08 Friday
Did you know that they don’t celebrate Boxing Day here? We all came up with our own reasons for boxing day. No one really knows what it is, just that we get a public holiday, a day to recover.
We did a tour around Fenway Park which probably means nothing to all you non-Americans. But basically it is the home stadium of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. When I say tour I mean an historical talk to a slideshow while we watched pictures of the history of the park. It was cool cause I learnt a bit about baseball and a lot about the history if the Red Sox. We wandered through their store and the clothing was so overpriced it was embarrassing. They had the nerve to charge $75 for a tank top with a red B and an American flag faded in the background. Who has that money? Apparently Bostonians do.
We then headed to the city (as if we weren’t already there) and did part of the Freedom Walk. It’s always nice to walk around a city in freezing temperatures while seeing buildings that have no relation to your history and that you only know exist because you saw that movie National Treasure. There was a cool thing that happened – we walked on water. Walked on water I hear you say. Yes…it may have been frozen solid but we walked across the lake on the water and avoided the bridge. It was cool. Something we’ve never done before. And the squirrels. So many of them, all over the place, eating nuts and just being general pains. But they are cute.
We didn’t get home till 8pm. Felt like about midnight though cause the sun sets so early here. We survived our day in freezing temperatures with only one fall. Mum fell on the ice on our last walking stretch. We went to Paul Revere’s house, the Old North Church and a couple of graveyards where important people to the American Revolution are buried. We walked through a holocaust memorial which was eerie. And we ate oreo cake which was basically chocolate cake with heaps of cream and an oreo on top. That about describes the day…
Till next time
27-12-08 Saturday
Today we checked out the U.S.S Constitution. It is the oldest serving boat in the world. I’m not sure exactly how they said it but basically if war was declared tomorrow then the US Navy could send this boat to the war. It probably wouldn’t arrive until after the war had finished because it’s a sailboat that’s been around for a VERY long time but I guess it’s the thought that counts. It has a crew and they take tours around the boat which is something that I would love to do if I signed up to the navy. Guess they lucked out…depending on how you look at it. We wandered around the Navy base place checking out the museums and stuff. It was pretty cool. We watched b-grade films about the boat, went to a couple of exhibitions and stuff. After we had done that we headed back to Andover cause we were all pretty tired. We then headed out and watched Australia. It was a really old school cinema and it was packed. The movie was good but it was long and obviously green screened. But it was a good movie and it was nice to hear more Aussie accents. We headed home and chilled as Emily tried to stuff all her new clothes into luggage to take home because she leaves tomorrow morning.
28-12-08 Sunday
Emily left this morning so we had a late start. We went to Marshalls, T.J Maxx and Off Broadway Shoes today where we spent our last pennies in New Hampshire. When we got home Mum and Dad went out with Aunty Sharon and Uncle Brian and they ate at a restaurant somewhere. They ordered calzone (unsure of the spelling) for us. We had buffalo chicken calzone. Let me tell you, it was incredible. It’s like pizza but sooo much better. I also think buffalo chicken is a fantastically flavoured topping. After stuffing our faces full of that we kinda chilled. I must confess I have been extremely lazy and although I have had access to internet I haven’t been bothered putting anything up. I apologise for the laziness. Not that I’m planning on doing anything about it but I would like to say sorry.
29-12-08 Monday
We left Boston this morning. We had to be up and out of the house at 5am which was an absolute killer. Caught the bus with no hassles. A big shout out to Aunty Sharon and Uncle Brian for letting us chill at your place and then driving us to the station at that ridiculous time of the morning. We really appreciate it. The bus trip was smooth and we slept for most of it. Arrived in New York and then caught a bus to Brooklyn. The GPS, Gazza, as we have affectionately named her, chucked a hissy fit and decided she wasn’t going to work. We walked to 388 Bergen Street where we were staying. It was a bit of a walk and when you add our luggage…well…it wasn’t much fun. We arrived, dumped our stuff and decided we should do the Empire State building. We headed into town after navigating the subway with some help from the guard and arrived to find an incredibly long line. They said it was probably over a 3 hour wait so we decided to ditch it and just wandered a little aimlessly through Manhatten. We visited the world’s largest Macy’s store (it was over 8 stories tall), walked past the world’s largest Ugg Australia store. Something I have realized is that Americans like to be the biggest in the world. We went to Times Square and then received a call from Dan to let us know that he and Rb had arrived. We headed back home via Target where we bought some food to sustain us over the next couple of days.
30-12-08 Tuesday
Today we hit New York. We slept pretty late. Dan and Rb have joined us and we are all squished into a 2 person, one bedroom apartment (which isn’t really one bedroom…its more of a one room apartment). We headed into Manhattan and went to Ground Zero. We walked around the site. It’s basically a huge hole in the city with construction work going on. But it was kinda moving. We then headed to the harbor to go to Liberty Isand and see the Lady of Liberty herself. The line was incredibly long so we gave that a miss and headed to the place where you buy cheaper Broadway tickets. Dad and Dan waited in the line for about 2 hours as the girls went to the toilets and then side tracked to the shops which we wandered through. We found something with Tamika’s name on it so we bought it and Mum found these cool Christmas decorations so we bought them. We headed back to the line where we found Dad and Dan at the front of the line. They bought tickets to see Avenue Q. if you have never heard of it, don’t fret, neither had we. We then caught a free ferry to Staten Island which drove past the Statue of Liberty and we took heaps of photos. We jumped off the ferry at the otherside and jumped right back on to get back to Manhattan. We saw the shoreline of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. It was cool. We then headed to Broadway and grabbed something to eat and headed to our Broadway show. Tamika and Mum went to the Lion King (which is an incredible musical) and Dan, Rb, Dad and I headed to Avenue Q. I would like to let you all know that it was HILARIOUS. Its like an adults version of sesame street and it had us laughing for almost the entire time. So funny. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend that if you are ever on Broadway and want to see a show, Avenue Q is great. Tamika and Mum really enjoyed the Lion King. We headed home after that and hit the sack, ready for a big day tomorrow, New Years Eve.
31-12-08 Wednesday
Ahhh, it’s the end of the year and we totally had a busy day. We went to the Empire State building which took a couple of hours of lines. There weren’t any lines outside the building so we were like…awesome…and then we entered the building. They don’t tell you how long you have to wait so you’re in the line and they do a fantastic job at hiding them. We first joined the line to go through security which took about 20 mins. We then had go through the line to buy tickets which took about 20 mins. We then joined the line to catch a lift to the top, there are two lifts to the top so we then had to join the line for the second lift. When we finally reached the top it was below freezing and if you add the wind chill factor I can tell you it was a ridiculously cold experience. Visibility was pretty bad but you could make out the Statue Of Liberty and a park and heaps of buildings and the harbor. We didn’t stay up for very long but we were determined to be up there for longer than 5 minutes. We had spent $20 to get to the top and we were gonna get out money’s worth. Let me tell you that by the time we walked back inside we were freezing. Little did we know that it was just the beginning of a very long and very cold day. We then headed to Central Park. We successfully navigated the confusing subway and arrived at Central Park as it was snowing. It was, once again, freezing cold but with the snow it made it so beautiful. It was pretty snow as well. Giant snowflakes were lightly falling as we wandered through the park. We walked across the bridge that they use in movies…you know the one, the bride where the lovers meet and they kiss. Unfortunately I didn’t meet any lovers…there was just us and Dan and Rb. Very unromantic. But we took a photo. We then put on all our warm gear (Tamika was wearing 10 layers on her upper body) and split from Mum and Dad. See, Dan, Rb, Tamika and I thought it would be really cool if we went to Times Square to welcome the new year in and watch the ball drop. We weren’t allowed backpacks so we wore all our warm gear, there were no toilets so we didn’t drink anything all day and once you enter a pen you can’t leave so we stacked up on the snacks and food. With those really comforting rules you would assume that smart people wouldn’t go to a place like that but we did. We were herded into these pens like sheep where we stood for a very long time cause there weren’t any seats. We met the people we were standing with. Bear with me as I try to remember their names – there was Canada (can’t remember her name), Bruce, Ben, Lauren, California (her name was Ariel but we called her California cause that’s where she was from), New Hampshire (again, I think his name was Kevin?), Neil, Steph and a couple of others. Dan the man made many friends that night. We all froze together and stood for over 10 hours to watch new years in Times Square. Let me break down the celebration for you. There is no entertainment until about 11:15pm. They didn’t beam anything onto the big screens, you couldn’t see the stage or the performers because they were performing to the cameras and a crowd of about 30 people, you stand in the freezing cold (it was -7 degrees Celsius with a wind chill making it -17 degrees Celsius – it was the coldest new years for over a decade and the 5th coldest on record), you stand 5 cm from everyone around you and you get pushed and shoved the entire 10 hrs you wait (its like being in a mosh pit for 10 straight hours), you can’t sit because the ground is so cold and you’re likely to be trodden on, you can’t pee because if you leave the pen you’re not allowed back in, your feet and fingers freeze until they are numb, your feet ache because they are not supposed to be stood on for 10 hours without a break, you make 10 hrs worth of small talk with the people next to you (which is relatively easy if you from a different country but still hard), they countdown every hour and let you know exactly how long you have left to wait which is really appreciated when you have another 6 hours and then, after suffering all that, they make you stand through b-grade musicians (if you can even call them musicians) like Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers as they perform to a camera as you stand staring at a screen that looks like the size of business card which is under a ball that looks like a pinhead for 20 minutes. At 11:59 they start the countdown as the ball “drops”. When midnight clicks over and the ball has dropped (or more precisely, taken a minute to slowly slide down a pole) the 2009 sign lights up and they project “Happy New Year” on the screen and have about a 2 second fireworks display. While you’re standing there waiting for more to happen you realize that they have released confetti which will never reach you because they released it up where no one was allowed to stand and you’re waiting for the fireworks and excitement and you wait, and wait, and wait and then you realize…it’s not coming. YOU WAITED FOR 10 HOURS IN THE BITTER FREEZING COLD TO WATCH A STUPID BALL DROP AND CONFETTI BEING RELEASED!!!!!!! I’m never, ever again subjecting myself to such torture. I cannot believe that Americans think that it’s cool/exciting/amazing. It’s crap. We then headed home after wishing all our new found friends a happy new year and waited in the subway for 40 minutes to catch a train home. We got home and just went to bed…talk about a total let down.
26-12-08 Friday
Did you know that they don’t celebrate Boxing Day here? We all came up with our own reasons for boxing day. No one really knows what it is, just that we get a public holiday, a day to recover.
We did a tour around Fenway Park which probably means nothing to all you non-Americans. But basically it is the home stadium of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. When I say tour I mean an historical talk to a slideshow while we watched pictures of the history of the park. It was cool cause I learnt a bit about baseball and a lot about the history if the Red Sox. We wandered through their store and the clothing was so overpriced it was embarrassing. They had the nerve to charge $75 for a tank top with a red B and an American flag faded in the background. Who has that money? Apparently Bostonians do.
We then headed to the city (as if we weren’t already there) and did part of the Freedom Walk. It’s always nice to walk around a city in freezing temperatures while seeing buildings that have no relation to your history and that you only know exist because you saw that movie National Treasure. There was a cool thing that happened – we walked on water. Walked on water I hear you say. Yes…it may have been frozen solid but we walked across the lake on the water and avoided the bridge. It was cool. Something we’ve never done before. And the squirrels. So many of them, all over the place, eating nuts and just being general pains. But they are cute.
We didn’t get home till 8pm. Felt like about midnight though cause the sun sets so early here. We survived our day in freezing temperatures with only one fall. Mum fell on the ice on our last walking stretch. We went to Paul Revere’s house, the Old North Church and a couple of graveyards where important people to the American Revolution are buried. We walked through a holocaust memorial which was eerie. And we ate oreo cake which was basically chocolate cake with heaps of cream and an oreo on top. That about describes the day…
Till next time
27-12-08 Saturday
Today we checked out the U.S.S Constitution. It is the oldest serving boat in the world. I’m not sure exactly how they said it but basically if war was declared tomorrow then the US Navy could send this boat to the war. It probably wouldn’t arrive until after the war had finished because it’s a sailboat that’s been around for a VERY long time but I guess it’s the thought that counts. It has a crew and they take tours around the boat which is something that I would love to do if I signed up to the navy. Guess they lucked out…depending on how you look at it. We wandered around the Navy base place checking out the museums and stuff. It was pretty cool. We watched b-grade films about the boat, went to a couple of exhibitions and stuff. After we had done that we headed back to Andover cause we were all pretty tired. We then headed out and watched Australia. It was a really old school cinema and it was packed. The movie was good but it was long and obviously green screened. But it was a good movie and it was nice to hear more Aussie accents. We headed home and chilled as Emily tried to stuff all her new clothes into luggage to take home because she leaves tomorrow morning.
28-12-08 Sunday
Emily left this morning so we had a late start. We went to Marshalls, T.J Maxx and Off Broadway Shoes today where we spent our last pennies in New Hampshire. When we got home Mum and Dad went out with Aunty Sharon and Uncle Brian and they ate at a restaurant somewhere. They ordered calzone (unsure of the spelling) for us. We had buffalo chicken calzone. Let me tell you, it was incredible. It’s like pizza but sooo much better. I also think buffalo chicken is a fantastically flavoured topping. After stuffing our faces full of that we kinda chilled. I must confess I have been extremely lazy and although I have had access to internet I haven’t been bothered putting anything up. I apologise for the laziness. Not that I’m planning on doing anything about it but I would like to say sorry.
29-12-08 Monday
We left Boston this morning. We had to be up and out of the house at 5am which was an absolute killer. Caught the bus with no hassles. A big shout out to Aunty Sharon and Uncle Brian for letting us chill at your place and then driving us to the station at that ridiculous time of the morning. We really appreciate it. The bus trip was smooth and we slept for most of it. Arrived in New York and then caught a bus to Brooklyn. The GPS, Gazza, as we have affectionately named her, chucked a hissy fit and decided she wasn’t going to work. We walked to 388 Bergen Street where we were staying. It was a bit of a walk and when you add our luggage…well…it wasn’t much fun. We arrived, dumped our stuff and decided we should do the Empire State building. We headed into town after navigating the subway with some help from the guard and arrived to find an incredibly long line. They said it was probably over a 3 hour wait so we decided to ditch it and just wandered a little aimlessly through Manhatten. We visited the world’s largest Macy’s store (it was over 8 stories tall), walked past the world’s largest Ugg Australia store. Something I have realized is that Americans like to be the biggest in the world. We went to Times Square and then received a call from Dan to let us know that he and Rb had arrived. We headed back home via Target where we bought some food to sustain us over the next couple of days.
30-12-08 Tuesday
Today we hit New York. We slept pretty late. Dan and Rb have joined us and we are all squished into a 2 person, one bedroom apartment (which isn’t really one bedroom…its more of a one room apartment). We headed into Manhattan and went to Ground Zero. We walked around the site. It’s basically a huge hole in the city with construction work going on. But it was kinda moving. We then headed to the harbor to go to Liberty Isand and see the Lady of Liberty herself. The line was incredibly long so we gave that a miss and headed to the place where you buy cheaper Broadway tickets. Dad and Dan waited in the line for about 2 hours as the girls went to the toilets and then side tracked to the shops which we wandered through. We found something with Tamika’s name on it so we bought it and Mum found these cool Christmas decorations so we bought them. We headed back to the line where we found Dad and Dan at the front of the line. They bought tickets to see Avenue Q. if you have never heard of it, don’t fret, neither had we. We then caught a free ferry to Staten Island which drove past the Statue of Liberty and we took heaps of photos. We jumped off the ferry at the otherside and jumped right back on to get back to Manhattan. We saw the shoreline of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. It was cool. We then headed to Broadway and grabbed something to eat and headed to our Broadway show. Tamika and Mum went to the Lion King (which is an incredible musical) and Dan, Rb, Dad and I headed to Avenue Q. I would like to let you all know that it was HILARIOUS. Its like an adults version of sesame street and it had us laughing for almost the entire time. So funny. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend that if you are ever on Broadway and want to see a show, Avenue Q is great. Tamika and Mum really enjoyed the Lion King. We headed home after that and hit the sack, ready for a big day tomorrow, New Years Eve.
31-12-08 Wednesday
Ahhh, it’s the end of the year and we totally had a busy day. We went to the Empire State building which took a couple of hours of lines. There weren’t any lines outside the building so we were like…awesome…and then we entered the building. They don’t tell you how long you have to wait so you’re in the line and they do a fantastic job at hiding them. We first joined the line to go through security which took about 20 mins. We then had go through the line to buy tickets which took about 20 mins. We then joined the line to catch a lift to the top, there are two lifts to the top so we then had to join the line for the second lift. When we finally reached the top it was below freezing and if you add the wind chill factor I can tell you it was a ridiculously cold experience. Visibility was pretty bad but you could make out the Statue Of Liberty and a park and heaps of buildings and the harbor. We didn’t stay up for very long but we were determined to be up there for longer than 5 minutes. We had spent $20 to get to the top and we were gonna get out money’s worth. Let me tell you that by the time we walked back inside we were freezing. Little did we know that it was just the beginning of a very long and very cold day. We then headed to Central Park. We successfully navigated the confusing subway and arrived at Central Park as it was snowing. It was, once again, freezing cold but with the snow it made it so beautiful. It was pretty snow as well. Giant snowflakes were lightly falling as we wandered through the park. We walked across the bridge that they use in movies…you know the one, the bride where the lovers meet and they kiss. Unfortunately I didn’t meet any lovers…there was just us and Dan and Rb. Very unromantic. But we took a photo. We then put on all our warm gear (Tamika was wearing 10 layers on her upper body) and split from Mum and Dad. See, Dan, Rb, Tamika and I thought it would be really cool if we went to Times Square to welcome the new year in and watch the ball drop. We weren’t allowed backpacks so we wore all our warm gear, there were no toilets so we didn’t drink anything all day and once you enter a pen you can’t leave so we stacked up on the snacks and food. With those really comforting rules you would assume that smart people wouldn’t go to a place like that but we did. We were herded into these pens like sheep where we stood for a very long time cause there weren’t any seats. We met the people we were standing with. Bear with me as I try to remember their names – there was Canada (can’t remember her name), Bruce, Ben, Lauren, California (her name was Ariel but we called her California cause that’s where she was from), New Hampshire (again, I think his name was Kevin?), Neil, Steph and a couple of others. Dan the man made many friends that night. We all froze together and stood for over 10 hours to watch new years in Times Square. Let me break down the celebration for you. There is no entertainment until about 11:15pm. They didn’t beam anything onto the big screens, you couldn’t see the stage or the performers because they were performing to the cameras and a crowd of about 30 people, you stand in the freezing cold (it was -7 degrees Celsius with a wind chill making it -17 degrees Celsius – it was the coldest new years for over a decade and the 5th coldest on record), you stand 5 cm from everyone around you and you get pushed and shoved the entire 10 hrs you wait (its like being in a mosh pit for 10 straight hours), you can’t sit because the ground is so cold and you’re likely to be trodden on, you can’t pee because if you leave the pen you’re not allowed back in, your feet and fingers freeze until they are numb, your feet ache because they are not supposed to be stood on for 10 hours without a break, you make 10 hrs worth of small talk with the people next to you (which is relatively easy if you from a different country but still hard), they countdown every hour and let you know exactly how long you have left to wait which is really appreciated when you have another 6 hours and then, after suffering all that, they make you stand through b-grade musicians (if you can even call them musicians) like Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers as they perform to a camera as you stand staring at a screen that looks like the size of business card which is under a ball that looks like a pinhead for 20 minutes. At 11:59 they start the countdown as the ball “drops”. When midnight clicks over and the ball has dropped (or more precisely, taken a minute to slowly slide down a pole) the 2009 sign lights up and they project “Happy New Year” on the screen and have about a 2 second fireworks display. While you’re standing there waiting for more to happen you realize that they have released confetti which will never reach you because they released it up where no one was allowed to stand and you’re waiting for the fireworks and excitement and you wait, and wait, and wait and then you realize…it’s not coming. YOU WAITED FOR 10 HOURS IN THE BITTER FREEZING COLD TO WATCH A STUPID BALL DROP AND CONFETTI BEING RELEASED!!!!!!! I’m never, ever again subjecting myself to such torture. I cannot believe that Americans think that it’s cool/exciting/amazing. It’s crap. We then headed home after wishing all our new found friends a happy new year and waited in the subway for 40 minutes to catch a train home. We got home and just went to bed…talk about a total let down.
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