This is my first real chance to sit down and catch up on a few things that have happened since my last post. There have been rather a lot and forgive me if my memory fails me.
So... the last thing I mentioned was that we were planning our 4th July day. WELL... what a day! IT began with me and C waking up very very early as you saw and then a lot of sitting around waiting for something to do. I was basically waiting for the planned "end of run" meeting at my old lab for my chance to catch up with some of the people I worked with last summer (and also get a free lunch - the woman who runs the lab traditionally pays for them all to have lunch). So I went off to have my free lunch and left C behind in the house. It was also my first attempt at driving over here, but personally I think it went fine. EM and MH were alive by the end of the journey so surely that makes it successful? Anyway, I went down to Gregg's (not the same as the one in the UK) and had my free lunch and met all the new Dement Fellows. It was all very nice, but I was still pretty jet lagged.
As soon as I got back we immediately went to a liquor store and bought beer for the day. Standard. We then headed over to some of the Dement Fellows' house pushing our collection of two 30 crates of beer, cardboard for signs and lots of meat for BBQing in a shopping cart that had luckily been left outside our house, result! When we got to the house C was introduced to people and soon after my first game of beer pong since last summer began. I sucked. I drank... a lot. Whilst this was going on EM came in to announce she had made our "you honk we drink" signs, including a comma sign and exclamation mark sign (for those not worth of holding main words). The sign had developed from last year's fun and we each had our own words to be responsible for holding. We then headed down to an intersection and the game began. It was probably the most fun I have had drinking in a long long time. WC pointed out the beauty of having individual signs as we could theoretically change the sign around ("Drink, we honk you!" was a suggestion). We realised we were all getting very drunk very quick, but it was still hilarious. We then headed back and BBQing ensued. Around late evening we made our way down to the waterfront for 4th July fireworks. Although they were very spectacular, myself and C couldn't help noticing how 'over the top' it all was. We think we managed to offend Mr and Mrs America sat infront of us. Oh well. The rest of the night included chilling on the Dement Fellows' porch and I decided to play them a few songs on the guitar. I was too drunk to play though really and messed up nearly every song.
WOW, that is a loooooot of stuff to remember and its just one day's worth. Keep up guys, you're doing well.
So, the 5th of July. Christ on a big red bike what a FAIL of a day. We attempted to go to Watchill Beach with the Dement Fellows and I decided to drive. It was supposed to be 45 mins away somewhere in Rhode Island, but 2 hours later we found ourselves VERY lost and in Conneticut. With our moods fast dropping we crawled closer to the beach in very heavy traffic only to have our hearts broken when we were within touching distance. A traffic person told us the beach had closed and we turned around and went home :( We drove for about 4 hours and all we had to show for it was a stop at Subway for lunch. Both myself, C and JL were very thirsty and pissed off so we drove straight to the liquor store and picked up some beer. JL purchased some Duct Tape from a CVS on Thayer St and we sat on the porch in the sun making Wizard Staffs. This is also a very simple game (if you can call it a game - I like to go with "drinking challenge") of taping each empty can to your new one effectively making a staff. When you are drunk you then fight with them, but mine and JL's main motive is to drink until the staff is taller than we are.
- JL and his Wizard Staff -After failing at this we moved onto "Ride the Bus", a game that was introduced to me in Loughborough, and one that I introduced to my Yank friends last summer. C got royally screwed in this game and we chuckled. That evening we headed down to the British Pub again and were joined by two of the Dement Fellows. We played many games of "Asshole" (don't worry, an innocent card based drinking game). It was a merry evening.
- C losing at Ride the Bus and drinking from his fat Fosters Wizard Staff -OK, so July 6th. C and I woke up feeling rather sorry for ourselves to say the least. We were planning to make a successful trip to the beach, but we were shocked to find our paperwork said we were booked into NYC a day earlier than we had thought. That changed a lot and I broke the news to MH who we were planning to give a ride to. She didn't take it too well as we had planned to meet up with MGF and JR. I drove MH to the lab where we spoke to our old boss for a while and went out for a coffee with MGF. It was the least we could do. MH decided she wasn't coming with us that day to NYC so me and C set off in the car. It was the first time we had been driving with no Americans. I chose to drove and practically soiled myself the closer we got to the city. We eventually got to Brooklyn and found our hostel. We gathered our things and made our way straight into Manhattan. Our first aim was to find Times Square. This ended up being a big big failure of a plan as both myself and C didn't remember New York quite as well as we thought we did. Once we got to Times Square though we felt rather thirsty again and found ourselves and Irish Pub. We spent 5 hours in there and drank a lot. We then attempted to find our way back to the hostel and took a lot longer a route than we did on the way in. Who'd have thunk it?
-Times Square-Today we got into Manhattan early and after breakfast in the lobby of the Rockefeller centre we bought tickets to go to the top (apparently the best view of Manhattan). To be honest, the view was more than incredible at the top.
- A rather dashing looking gentleman at the top of the Rockefeller Centre, New York -After taking a lot of pictures we made our way back to Times Square and back to the Irish Pub to watch Spain vs. Germany in the World Cup. After seeing Spain defeat ze Germans we had a wander and went to Union Square to try and meet MH. We failed to meet up though so me and C had our dinner in the Heartland Brewery. We decided to have an easy night in and for a change of scenery NOT drink. I know what people must be thinking "Were you feeling OK?". The answer: No. 5 days of drinking had taken its toll and we both felt VERY rough. We have spent the evening in the hostel suffering in the extreme muggy heat that has hit New York.
Right, tomorrow we plan to take a ferry to see the Statue and do other touristy things. I hope you are all well and I will try and keep you all updated as often as I possibly can.
Turra!
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