Nearly two full weeks now... Last week was mostly spent doing standard touristy stuff, and shaking off the jetlag. We managed to see one city sight a day at least, including (in no particular order):

• Central Park


• Metropolitan Museum of Art


• American Museum of Natural History


• A boat cruise around the bottom of the island


• Trump Tower


• FAO Schwartz


• Carrie's stoop


• Magnolia bakery


• The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular

Central Park is probably my favourite so far, we went last Thursday when it was fine, and then I walked through it a bit today to see all of the snow. Last night we went out with Kim, Steve and Wallace, firstly to the Seinfeld diner for tea, and then walked around for ages trying to find a bar. We eventually found quite a good one and it was an interesting night, drinking fancypants cocktails (Black Forest Martini for me, Espresso Martini for Steve), talking to randoms about Ben Lee, sewing machines and didgeridoos, taking lots of stupid photos, trying to play Taboo and Scattegories without the board, and then finished up with a gyro, which was yummy but poorly wrapped. Today I walked around Union Square for a bit, with my hot apple cider, then caught then subway up to Central Park. Big week this week - two Broadway Shows, an ice hockey game, a trivia night, and some more art.

Well, nearly a week has passed since Nene and I left Melbourne, but it feels like two days max. I'm on timed internet so I'll dot point it all:

• Day 1 (and a bit) - The plane trip was pretty bad mostly, got stuck in Auckland for five hours because a catering truck crashed into the plane, and then really bad turbulence between Auckland and L.A. So 24 hours almost exactly since we flew out of Tullamarine we arrived at our L.A. hostel on Melrose Ave. We got there about 5:30pm L.A. time so we just went and got something to eat, and then crashed. Oh, and for some reason a film crew turned up to film one of the other people eating at the sushi restaurant. I guess that's L.A....

• Day 2 - This was our only full day in L.A., which was probably for the best as it turns out that L.A. is mostly shit. We walked down to Hollywood Boulevard and saw the walk of fame, then got talked into taking a tourist limo ride around L.A. We saw plenty of celebrity houses - Dr Phil, Leonardo DiCaprio, etc. - plus Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard (including the Viper Room, where River Phoenix died), and then went right up into the hills for a look at the Hollywood sign. After the limo ride ($20 well spent) we had a look around Hollywood Boulevard some more, including Grauman's Chinese Theater which is where all the handprints are, and then walked home. Another early night after some dodgy Mexican food.

• Day 3 - We got up bright and early (about 5am L.A. time) to catch our 8:50 flight to NYC, only to find out that QANTAS don't turn up to the airport until 7am at the earliest, so we had to wait around at LAX to check in. Had to take our shoes off in security, which was weird, and then flew to JFK, arriving there 5pm New York time. Steve picked us up at the airport, which was very nice of him since we were wrecked. We got to his house in time for a true American Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, cranberry sauce, string beans, sweet potato, and pumpkin pie for dessert.

• Day 4 - This was the Friday after Thanksgiving, which Americans call "Black Friday" because the shops are so crazy. Steve's dad told us to go check out Macy's (the biggest department store in NYC, possibly the world, but I can't confirm that) so we caught the train in from New Jersey. Macy's was insane, people everywhere, and 50m lines to the toilets - even the men's! We got out of there ASAP and just walked up to Times Square and Rockefeller Centre, which was a better first day in New York plan. Steve came in to meet us after work and we went out to a gig with him and a couple of his friends. The band was State Radio, who we'd never heard of (anyone?), but the support act (who we missed) was the Beautiful Girls. Afterwards we went out to a bar and had American beer (not that bad, but not that good...) and Steve and his friend drank Boags (which was probably better).

• Day 5 - We left Steve's house in the afternoon and got some DVD bargains at Best Buy, which was having a Thanksgiving sale. Then Steve drove us up to see Princeton University, which was really pretty, beautiful old buildings and fall leaves everywhere, and 1squirrels. We walked around for awhile and then caught the train in to Manhattan to go to our hostel and out for tea with a couple more of Steve's friends.

• Day 6 - That would be today, I guess! We finally got a good night's sleep last night, which was nice after painful jetlag, so we had a bit more energy to do stuff today. We caught the subway downtown and looked at Ground Zero, but you couldn't see much. Then we went to Century 21, which is a massive discount clothing store that we could've stayed in for about a year. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, which had amazing views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, and then caught the subway back uptown to go to a bookstore, called The Strand, that has 19 miles of books all up. Nearly bedtime for Nene and I now...

That's about it, for now. I'll try to update at some other stage, but I may get lazy... Hopefully tonight will be another good night of sleep, we've got a bit to catch up on. Nothing much else to report - I've had bagels for breakfast twice, I'm getting used to American coffee (except for the way Steve makes it, super strong), Nene ordered a cheeseburger meal at McDonalds that came with two cheeseburgers as a minimum. Weirdest question an American has asked yet: "What's the most popular drug in Australia?" Most condescending: "Do you guys have sushi and, like, Asian food?" New York is basically fantastic, so much better than L.A. Not too cold yet, thank god... See you all soon!

t-15 days

Well I'm new to this whole blogging scene, and the "i" key on my keyboard has gone dodgy (just in time for swot vac!), so bear with me as I find my niche in the internets. Nene and I are off to NYC in 15 days so I'll be recording that thing for the webosphere. Follow along, it could be kinda interesting! OR I could fail to find a computer in New York and this whole project could fall in a heap... I'm v. excited about the trip, Nene and I have big things planned, but if anyone has any NY suggestions for places to visit then let me know! Except no S&tC tour ideas, I'm not paying $X to go sit on Carrie's stoop. I would, however, pay money to see some SVU sights! I've still got many, many things to organise before we go - including LOTS more warm clothes. But it should be exciting, frostbite or otherwise!