(no subject)

[hathycol]

So, I am still in a fairly significant amount of painful pain. It's the top of my boots, they are rubbing like there is no tomorrow. Of course, I sincerely hope there will be a tomorrow. For tomorrow is the day that I, for the first time in my adult life, am going on a plane and going out of the Continent.

Okay, let's describe my travelling history. I've actually never been out of the Continent full stop, actually. I've been to Switzerland on a Guide trip, and I turned sixteen whilst I was there. So, um, technically that wasn't Europe (neutral baby!) but it was in the middle of the Continent. Bah. I went to Cyprus when I was 13, Spain when I was 5 and Portugal when I was 18 months. That really is my entire history of Being Abroad, if we don't count the school trip tp France when I was 12. I don't. Horrible thing.

So, yes, I am going out of the country, on a bigass plane and then I am going to America. Here is the itiniery, as written by my crazy as fuck politics teacher. Who, by the way, marks us for grammar in exams but isn't keen on it herself. Bizarre lady.



Politics Law and Sociology Dept Study Visit to America
2005

Draft Itinerary.


Thursday 3rd February
10:00 am; Flight BA1503 from Manchester International Terminal 3 to JFK New York Terminal 7 arriving at 12.55pm.
MUST BE AT MANCHESTER AIRPORT BY 7.00AM TO CLEAR SECURITY.
‘Devas Tours’ coach to Washington DC arriving in the early evening.

HOTEL= Red Roof Inn
500 H Street, N.W.
Wash DC 20001.
Phone 001 (202) 289-5959 or fax 001(202) 289-0754
ROOM ONLY BUT THERE ARE MANY ‘FOOD OUTLETS’ NEARBY PLUS A RESTAURANT/ BAR ATTACHED TO THE HOTEL.
Hotel is one block from Metro subway and walking distance to Capitol Hill/Union Station and all the major sites and museums.
Sharing 4 to a room. Single sex rooms.

Friday 4th Feb
AM Tour of Capitol/ Supreme Court.
Lunch.
N,B. Early afternoon tour of the Pentagon.
Evening; Pentagon Shopping Mall and evening meal.

Saturday 5th Feb
AM;Visit to the Holocaust Museum.
Lunch.
PM; various museums/ art galleries/ major historic sites suggested; groups to choose.
Dinner.
Evening; ice-skating or long, long walk with EBM visiting Lincoln Memorial et al.

Sunday 6th Feb.
9.30am; transfer to NYC via chartered coach arriving in New York in the early afternoon.

HOTEL= Comfort Inn Manhattan
42 West 35th Street
New York
NY10001
001 212 947 0200
All students 4 to a room on a single sex basis. Breakfast included.
Early evening; Trip up the Empire State Building to see New York sparkle and visit Time Square.
Dinner.

Monday 7th Feb
10.30am; Visit to the United Nations (confirmed)
Lunch
Walking tour of Manhattan, guide provided, crossing Brooklyn Bridge,
Dinner
Show/ cinema.

Tuesday 8th Feb
9.00am; Visit to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Lunch
PM; Shopping and sight seeing – Bloomingdales/ Art galleries/ museums.
Dinner at Hard Rock Café.

Wednesday 9th Feb.
AM; Sightseeing/ shopping New York Library, Greenwich Village,
MUST BE BACK AT THE HOTEL FOR 12 O’CLOCK MIDDAY.
Checkout
Transfer to airport via chartered coach.
Flight BA1502Traveller from JFK Terminal 7 at 18.00 hours to Manchester Terminal 3 arriving at 5.55am on Thursday 10th February.

How cool is THAT going to be? So yes, this time in 24 hours I will be on a plane, waiting to take off. My boots will have made my feet explode (best not say that on the plane, though) and I will probably be very sleepy, as I have to get up at 5am. *cries* I live too far away from Manchester Airport. It's official.

So, I have not packed yet. That's tonight. I need to buy some more plasters. I also seem to be the only taking my cashcard, but I can use Cirrus at ATM machines, apparently, but I'm swapping some more money tonight, just in case. Because I need to eat, for a start. Did I mention the plasters? Also must get food and money for the airport.

This is going to be gooood. I am going to miss you all terribly, but I will come back! With photos! And blisters! And stuff!

Scored depressingly high like Buffy and Spike, here. *worries*

You scored as Willow Rosenberg. You are a very smart individual. Though, like everyone else, you've made mistakes. You've changed over the last few years, so have a lot of things in your life, but you've got great friends who love you and are there for you through anything. </td> Willow Rosenberg 79% Spike 75% Buffy Summers 75% Dawn Summers 67% Anya 67% Tara Maclay 58% Rupert Giles 38% Xander Harris 33% Which Buffy The Vampire Slayer Character Are You Most Like!? created with QuizFarm.com

So, yes. On a serious note, I will be more or less incommunicado for the next week. I will be online tonight. E-mail me personally if it's important. DON'T DO ANYTHING INTERESTING WHILE I'M AWAY. I mean that!

~Hathy_Col~

Comments

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I am so, so, so jealous of you right now. Going to Washington with you would have been the funniest thing ever.

*writhes in envy*

I hope you have a wonderful time, and take lots of pics, and if you see George Bush, shoot him!

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

As I was leaving politics today, I got collared by the politics tutor.

"While you're in that airport, I don't want a WORD on socialism, environmentalism, or anything! I mean it! You will be CAPITALIST and you will ENJOY it!"

It's like she doesn't trust me...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I mentioned tonight to Pedar that you were going to Washington and he said, worriedly, "She won't say anything, will she?"

[balthaser.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'm going ice skating on Saturday too. Hopefully, except that you'll only be getting up maybe.
Silly time difference. Have lots of fun and stuff. *is jealous*

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Oo. Sounds lovely.
Have lived in New York State all my life except the year I spent living in St. Andrews Scotland (during which I fell in love with a girl and bought my first pair of Doc Martens and trekked around Europe and learned the trick of using duct tape and double socks to prevent blisters).
Have never been to Washington DC, however.

Enjoy your trip. And buy stuff: things are cheap here and your money is worth a ton. (Or, perhaps I shouldn't encourage that behavior?)

I used to live just outside NYC and it was awesome to just wander around it. I loved the Lower East Side and their restaurants. There is the awesomest noodle shop on 9th street between 1st and 2nd Aves: Rai-Rai Ken, they're called, and my friend from Tokyo informed me that they're just like the Chinese noodle shops you find in Japan. And their $9 ramen is so so so worth it and now I'm all hungry curse you. (There are no noodle shops within three hundred miles of here, as I now live in Buffalo NY.) What made them the most amusing was that the signs behind the counter, for the employees, were in Japanese, English, and... Spanish. If you looked real close, half of the noodle-boilers weren't Japanese at all: They were Colombians with headbands on.

And that is what is so beautiful about New York.

Ah yes:
Rai-Rai Ken
214 E 10th St
212.477.7030

Not that you will be allowed to wander around the LES on your own, but honestly NYC is nothing like the dangerous place it used to be. (The LES also boasts a wonderful little sex-toys shoppe run by lesbians for lesbians, but I won't tell you about that because I'm not sure you're of age.)


Anyway. Enjoy your first trip across the Atlantic. I have now crossed the Atlantic six times (three each way) and the flights never get any shorter. Bastards!

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Dude, I am so possibly going to St Andrews next year for uni! *crosses fingers anxiously and prays for an offer* Scary biscuits, small world, etc.

I am buying lotsa stuff. I have an order form. *facepalm*

I will try and find that place; god knows which bit of the city I'm actually in (having, y'know, never been there) but lesbian shops, you say? Fabby! (Very much of the age, yes, realise shouldn't still be doing A-Levels but such is the nature of life what with one thing and the other.)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Toys in Babeland is in the neighborhood where my boy used to live. (He lived on Orchard St. for a while during the dot-com boom and it was sweet, which is why I know so many lovely places on the LES. That was also before the LES got chic-ified. It's very trendy now and the dirt and run-down-ness? Very trendy. Looks just like it did when it was a slum but rents are higher.)
94 Rivington St., New York, NY 10002 is Babeland's address, but actually it seems you can get all their stuff online so it's not such a don't-miss location. Though, the ambience of the store is pretty good, and, well, I mostly just buy postcards there like the one of a horror-novel cover proclaiming "Satan Was A Lesbian". You know. Those kinds of postcards that you'd only find in that kind of place.


I had fun in St. Andrews but it was tempered considerably by my being a prisoner, er, exchange student at the girls' school over by St. Rule's tower-- St. Leonard's, which is now co-ed. (Bastards.) They locked us in every night at ten. Very weird. I loved the fact that there was a fifteenth-century city wall, however, and the East Sands blew my mind. (I stayed away from the golf course, of course, except one night when we were all illicitly drunk we went over there and I don't even remember what we did.)

Down on the beach by the castle (Castle Sands) there's a cave where the 6th formers go to smoke. I loved that cave. Such lovely views of the North Sea. It was all very romantic and I'm-18-years-old. I should go back someday...

Good luck with your offers and exam scores and everything. I freaked out about the A levels, half-killed myself, and they told me the week before the exams were given that oh, i didn't have to have taken them, that wasn't part of my exchange program. WTF? Yeah, I was pleased. Oh well. I ended up only taking two, but I got an A and an A with star, just to spite the bastards that made me take the exams. (Thbbt.)

[tashmania.livejournal.com]

I am insanely jealous. Have a wonderful time though :D Take lots of pictures!

[emmysuze.livejournal.com]

Hey I hope you have a great time. I really enjoyed the UN, Ellis Island and Capitol when I went to New York and Washington. Have a safe journey,

Emma

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

eek, i'm either anya or dawn, with 67%.
close runner-up would be buffy, 63%

now that's just wrong. *cuddles*
ph yeah and have fun
mwah
xx