I arrived in New York on Friday evening, though due to the time zone change, it felt like the middle of the night to me. I got out the plane, anxious and scared. It took a short while to get through immigration and customs, and so a few minutes later I emerged from the arrivals gate, nervously searching for Eddie. He turned out to be a man of honor, for he was waiting there, as he had promised he would.
Apparently, he also knew a very good way of dealing with jetlag. After he fed me (which was sort of a difficult task, as I was so nervous I wouldn't eat), he took me to a bar where we met up with one of his friends, and got me drunk with vodka and Red Bull (a mixture I didn't believe was harmless, but was soon proved wrong). We stayed up late that night, and woke up on Saturday just on time to meet GreNME and his friend who came to see us in New York.
At first, Eddie tried to convince John that I was, indeed, a computer program. He almost succeeded, but then John realized that it is his own laptop he's looking at. Once this was settled, we went to the Natural History Museum, in which Wolverine found his kin, and spent the rest of the afternoon searching for Spiderman. We failed, which made John so unhappy that we had to take him to a bar and soothe him with booze.
The week in New York was very busy, with a successful Spiderman search, a visit at the Columbia campus, Eddie's attempt to kill me on a rollercoaster at Coney Island, Empire State Building (which consists mainly of lines, but you have to see it once in your life), bowling, and more Red Bull and vodka. New York is a place where street vendors know as much about the Ender's Game movie as you do, Indian men dance at the poles and get more money than the strippers, and you get a professional photo session for free.
Alas, time flies too fast in New York, and soon we had to leave. But why be sad, if what you're leaving for is over 40 people awaiting to prove their existence?
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On Thursday we set out to recover Eddie's car from Poughkeepsie. Noah joined us in the afternoon; we had wonderful Italian dinner cooked by Eddie's grandma (a very sweet, sweet lady) and we started for Chicago. Eddie did a great job driving through pouring rain, torrential storms and hurricanes, and the next morning we managed to arrive safe in the hotel. Apparently, we were the first ones there, if you don't count the Moose family who cheated by turning up a few days earlier. We were soon joined by AJ and Nathan. Since AJ had people to pick up from the airport, Nate was put in charge of the meeting room, and was ordered to greet all who arrived. And for a while, he managed to fulfill the task... until he got distracted by Mooselet, who played hide-and-seek with him - and won.
With more and more people arriving, I got scared, so I took up on AJ's offer to accompany her and kat in their pick-up quest. Kat got so excited with her mission that she started right outside the hotel door, giving a random stranger a much-telling, "Hey, what's your name?" line. Much to her disappointment, the stranger turned out to be a married man, known to some as "The Tick". After this incident, Katie decided she would not hit on strangers anymore, and so we had no problems retrieving other people from the airport. That is, only if you do not count lost luggage as a problem. But hey, who needs clothes in Chicago? Um.
We came back to the hotel, only to find thousands of people already gathered in the common room. Who would have known there were so many hatrackers? Fortunately, celia provided an honorful way out, by offering me to join her in the hot tub. We went to get our bikinis and wake up AJ sleeping after a hard day's work. The hot tub was fun, and we succeeded in not having out pictures taken. We came back just in time for Chicago style pizza, which turned out to be very filling and very good. The evening was crowned with the Eye of Argon reading.
The next day was museum day. I expected the Art Institute to be bigger, but since we got kinda lost before we got there, we didn't really have as much time for museum-ing anyway. I learned a lot about modern art that day. Namely, that it makes pretty much no sense, unless you give it sense. And that anything can be art, if only you're able to sell it. Afterwards, we went to eat in a German place which bastardises sauerkraut, but was otherwise very good, and came back to the hotel.
The day was only beginning. A group of people set off to AJ's place for a beer-tasting evening. We were supposed to get the beer on our way there, but since the store was closed, we ended up with AJ's German beer explained by Punwit with a large doze of expertize. We also wanted to drink a bottle of Frisco's Polish herb vodka, but AJ maliciously did not buy the apple juice, which was a necessary ingredient. We headed back to the hotel. Apple juice was found, and that meant only one thing - Party at Eddie's!!!
As the night progressed, we were joined by Nathan. I offered him some apple juice, but he was suspicious enough to decline. That however did not stop him from making a artistic performance, henceforth known as the "Kung-Fu Fighting Dance". I tried to learn it, but soon failed, and let Nathan do the job.
Apparently, the news of the party spread fast, for we had two more guests. By that time the vodka was over, so neither Katie nor Rivka got to try it. I'm sure they would like it, otherwise. Since we were out of booze, we decided to head back to the main room and play Cranium. The battle was even, despite Eddie's and ElJay's psychic bond. At some point, we were disturbed by the fire alarm. The game was so fascinating, however, that we risked our lives and kept on playing. Some time at dawn , we finally decided it was Time For Bed.
Sunday was spent playing games and saying good bye to people. In the afternoon, there was another hot-tub session, followed by my one-on-one encounter with celia. After that, some of us went to spend the night at AJ and Steve's, who turned out to be wonderful hosts. Noah and I went back to the hotel on Monday, to meet the small group of people who have not left yet, and found out that we are going to Chinatown to have Dim-Sum for lunch. This was Kama's first Dim-Sum experience, and she liked it.
The group kept getting smaller, and soon it was only the 5 of us left. We squeezed into Eddie's car (so filled with other stuff that I had no choice but to travel on Noah's lap) and went to AJ's workplace to return her printer. We didn't know that what awaited us was a free tour of AJ's lab. It was filled with all sorts of toys, such as the coin-ingredient-checker, or poisonous-crystal-laser. We stole some protective glasses and proceeded to drop Katie and Zevlag off at the airport. Despite our best efforts, Josh missed his flight.
After we said our goodbyes, we went back to the hotel, where Eddie and Noah started fighting with their new Chinese bamboo swords. It was already dark, and it was time to go back. The last of the Conners left the site. We thought we had plenty of time to get to New York. After all, it was only 8 or 9 in the evening, and Noah's bus did not leave the station until 3 p.m. the next day. Little did we know. Apparently, 90% of Americans chose that very day to go to New York. We got to a point where it would be quicker to walk than drive. At 2:45, we were entering New York. Catching Noah's bus seemed like an impossible task. It would take a miracle. But then again, wasn't it Jesus driving the car? Needless to say, we made it. We even had the entire 30 seconds to kill before the bus left.
It was only me and Eddie, again, but we too had to part ways. He got me on a train to Jersey, and much to his relief, his baby-sitting job was finally over.
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I took the train to meet my old high school friend, who moved to the US and got married, and whom I haven’t seen in 5 years. It was an interesting visit… which gave me quite a different look on America… Suffice it to say, I would not like the America she lives in. On Thursday, I boarded on a Greyhound bus to Boston. Aware of Space Opera’s adventures, I did not wear my “Kiss me” shirt. I arrived in Boston in the afternoon, and was greeted by Bokonon’s lovely fiancée, Karen. She took me to their apartment, where we waited for Mike and went to dinner. Karen makes beautiful Christmas ornaments. She must have liked me, cause she gave me one.
Unfortunately, Mike and Karen had to work on Friday so I was left to explore Boston on my own. I went to see the LOTR Exhibition at the Science Museum, which was great, even though I was a bit disappointed in Galadriel’s dress. I was then supposed to walk the Freedom trail, but after a while, I wandered off. I got tired, went to a park, and waited for Karen to finish work. We were going to dinner in the Italian District, and scheduled to meet Mike at a bus stop. We waited… and the sky broke down. It was the scariest thunderstorm ever, and it was right there! We prepared for death. Suddenly, the storm died down, just in time for Mike to appear. We went to eat yummy food.
Saturday was picnic day. It rained. And rained. At first, we were hiding under the bridge, waiting for more people to appear. Kwea was getting angry. We were getting scared of his wrath. Rescue came in the person of Myr, who decided it was time to Feed The Ducks. We went out to the rain, with old people (Suneun and Karen) equipped with umbrellas. We set on our duck quest, equipped only with bread. We succeeded. And got wet. And cold. We came back to hide under the bridge, but it didn't get any warmer. In the meantime, more people appeared, and Kwea started working on starting a fire. He claimed he had experience. For someone with experience, it took him a lot of time to get the fire going. But we were not complaining. After all, he volunteered to get wet in order to feed us. Finally, food was being cooked, people were getting dry (though not warm), and the moods lightened up.
And then came the disaster. Someone dropped a plate into the water. The horror! It would take all the bravery of the bravest of men, all the skills and wit to recover it. Who could do it? Where is Superman when you need him most? He's right here. Strangely enough, soon after the plate catastrophe it stopped raining. We could go do stuff! And we did! There was fencing, there were swings, there were balls... There was circus! We had fun. But then it got dark, and we had to go.
A train ride from Boston to Philly takes 6 hours, just about enough time to get through 100 pages of Ayn Rand’s book. And yes, I usually read much faster than that. Javert was waiting for me in Philly, and we spend a couple of hours together waiting for Strider to get off work. After that, Greg took me to a place he shares with one girl, two kitties and three ferrets. He made yummy dinner, and we watched the Princess Bride. It was a good movie. I was woken up by one of the kittens at 6 a.m. the next morning. It took me half an hour to convince him it was still sleep time. After we all finally decided to wake up, Kira and Greg took me to play golf. In the evening, Kira went to work, and Greg took me out to dinner. Unfortunately, we were served by this one hot chick and Greg lost all his interest in me. He even gave her his phone number! I got so jealous I didn’t leave her a tip. We had a small party that evening, with some random people, one of which ended up sleeping in my room. The next day, Kira’s girlfriend joined us in a bar, where we tried to play a game, but changed our minds and built Stonehenge. And stuff.
On Wendnesday we headed to John’s place. I cooked Polish food with much help from Dave and survived an assassination attack. The boys then decided it’s a very cool idea to jump into the pool from the roof. They didn’t get killed, so we played in the pool, drank some White Russians, had Polish dinner (which didn’t turn out quite they way it was supposed to, but at least no one got sick), and we played in the pool some more, until it got dark. Oh, and Dave and I re-played our photoshop pic. We look even better for real!. After it got dark, we went down to John’s basement, played with swords, got bored and came back up to watch Donnie Darko, which I have not seen before, and the others wanted to see again. I’m not surprised they did, the movie was excellent. Alas, when it ended, it was very late, and some people (and dogs) had to go back home. Starla actually left even earlier, which was a shame, cause I didn’t get to talk to her much. The rest of us stayed up for a little while, but then we too got tired and went to sleep.
In the morning (morning being the very late time of day after John and I managed to kick people out of beds) we went to breakfast (lunch?) at a place where everyone knew John. We had fun, but when the food was gone, we had to be gone, too. We said goodbye to Greg and Kira and went back to get my things from John’s house. My American adventure was almost over. John and Earl got rid of me at some parking lot, and I found my way back to Poland. Or Narnia. Or both.
This was a summer I’ll never forget.
PS. My baby-sitters: Eddie, Mike and Karen, Greg and Kira - you rock!
posted
Thank you for sharing, Kama! I'm glad you had a good time, and I'm glad I got to meet you! You took some great pics...
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posted
What a great journal! I love your descriptors (and I love the way you sometimes bounce from talking about yourself in the first person, to talking about yourself in the third person).
It was great meeting you! I'm so glad you came to America!
quote:I took the train to meet my old high school friend, who moved to the US and got married, and whom I haven’t seen in 5 years. It was an interesting visit… which gave me quite a different look on America… Suffice it to say, I would not like the America she lives in.
I'd love to hear more about this, if you ever feel the desire to elaborate...
posted
Kama's accent is, to put it in a way that would probably make her hit me, absolutely adorable. She sounds exactly like what you'd imagine a tiny, huggable anthropomorphic robot constructed entirely out of metal spheres and colored like an iMac would sound like. Her voice is one that I somehow associate with joyful hopping.
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posted
Kama speaks very quietly and always stands to my right. I am almost totally deaf in my right ear. I would hear her words, but unless I was trying to read her lips or made a conscious effort to turn my head to catch 'em, they would reach my brain stripped of all consonants, transformed into a delicious verbal pudding.
quote: quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We squeezed into Eddie's car (so filled with other stuff that I had no choice but to travel on Noah's lap) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is this, a Hatrack Gathering tradition?
Wait... I know I sat on someones lap during that ordeal, but I don't think it was me. Who DID sit on Noah's lap?
Edit: Oh, and Kama it was absolutely fun having you there. Seriously, come visit again some time... come to Utah... or, maybe in the future, New Hampshire.
Also, I don't remember Kat being there during the Polish Vodka part. And just what IS Eddie/Richard going to do with that video, anyway?
posted
It was indeed Katie on Noah's lap last time. With Kama on Noah's lap this time, the meme is spreading.
Kama, this is a fabulous account!! It's quite unfair that you live in Poland, you know. These are fabulous pictures.
Hey...I have an outline for KamaCon that I'm in the process of writing out. What would you think of putting on this thread when/if I finish it?
quote:Nate was put in charge of the meeting room, and was ordered to greet all who arrived. And for a while, he managed to fulfill the task... until he got distracted by Mooselet, who played hide-and-seek with him - and won.
posted
That was nice. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, impressions and experiences. I missed a lot of that, or the information was never previously disseminated. Anyway, I'm glad you came on over and happy that you had a good time. As for that saurkraut thing, don't you know that it's us that do it right and the rest of the world gets it wrong?
*changing gears a bit*
Who was that who asked about the accent? I think it was edited, but I'll say this anyway. Cuter than a bug's ear. As I implied in the "Accents you love" thread here.
posted
*thinks* Was that in the hotel room? I was sitting on the bed closest to the door with celia while we were talking about guns and abortion bills and Eddie was playing music on the computer.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Well, I am glad you were having so much fun.....even if you were in "fear" of my anger....lol...
So...
quote: Kwea started working on starting a fire. He claimed he had experience. For someone with experience, it took him a lot of time to get the fire going.
Lets see you start a fire (no charcol allowed, only very wet wood) in a downpour any faster...
posted
Well, I missed the vodka entirely (which is just fine, I loathe the taste), and I know quite definitely that kat was not there when I joined y'all.
Because at shortly before 4 am, when I meandered back to our room, heading to sleep, I was startled to see only kat (fast asleep) in there. (Silly me, I thought that Kama, who had been quite tired, had actually headed to bed long before! ) And then I heard Kama's voice . . . stepped back out into the hall, and realized it was coming from the adjacent room.
So much for sleep. Then again, if I had gone to sleep, the fire alarm would likely have awakened me.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
kat should also be glad I was not sleeping in our room when the alarm went off. I almost certainly would have woken her up. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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