I'm sitting in Dulles airport, yet again - I think I've spent over 15 hours here in the past 8 days! I'm waiting now to board my flight to Amsterdam. A week ago yesterday I landed at IAD from London only to have my flight on to NYC canceled that evening, rescheduled for the next day, and then delayed until that evening! It took over 40 hours for me to get from my dorm in London to New York! Despite the travel woes on the way over, I had a very successful trip to New York. The visa process went incredibly well and I was surprised at how smoothly everything worked (especially given the horrible reviews of the British Consulate online). After getting fingerprinted in Brooklyn and finding a great (and cheap) Italian grocery store, I went to the British Consulate on Thursday morning for my premium service appointment, turned in my passport, and returned that afternoon to pick up my passport stamped with my new Tier 4 visa! During the week I was in New York, I was able to stay with my aunt at her family's great apartment right on Union Square, where I could visit the Green Market, walk to Trader Joe's (which I've missed terribly while out of the country) and enjoy the sights and sounds of New York City. My aunt and I did a ton of fun things in New York, from walking the High Line to shopping at Zabar's and The Strand. Over the weekend I was able to meet up with a good friend from Michigan (we were in the same ENGR 100 group together as freshmen!) who's working in the city. We visited an exhibit of Buddhist art from Pakistan, parts of which reminded me strongly of the decorations at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, though most of the buddhas on display at the museum hadn't had their faces chipped out of the stone. Afterwards we walked through a bit of Central Park and looked at the great views of New York from the 29th floor of the Bloomberg Tower. New York has a completely different feel to it than London, and it was really interesting to notice the things I've gotten used to over the summer that surprised me when back in the States. I kept expecting the announcer on the subway to speak in a British accent, and I saw way more ripped jeans and fanny packs in the past few days than when I was in the UK! Plus a few bizarre things, like a completely tattooed man and the interestingly named "Taco Tortilla King Chinese Food" restaurant.
I love the skyline in New York - it's so dramatic and different from the buildings in London. I was a shameless tourist and took tons of pictures (much to the chagrin of my local New York friends).
A few more photos from the past week:
Part of the impressive cheese selection at Zabar's:
A piece from the Buddhist art from Pakistan exhibit at the Asia Society:
Some cool art in the subway station:
The original Bloomingdale's:
Assuming today's travel goes better than my trip back to the US last week, I should arrive in Amsterdam tomorrow morning! I'm staying with a friend from the first session of King's Summer School who has a house in the city - I can't wait to see her again and visit the Netherlands for the first time! I've yet to make any firm plans for travels before I return to the UK by Sept 16 for Orientation, but I may meet up with friends from UM in Spain after Amsterdam, and I'm hoping to spend some time in Morocco as well. More on that to come as I figure out what works best.
Only 4 more hours at the Dulles airport - seems like nothing after all the time I've spent here recently. I decided to leave my computer with my aunt and ship it to London when I get back so I don't have to haul it around while I'm traveling and worry about losing it, so I'm trying to post this from my iPad - apologies for any typos or formatting issues, I'm trying out a new blogging app! Not sure if the pictures will work out either, but I'll play around with it and try to make it work. If not, I promise many pictures to come when I get to a real computer.
