Are you Californian?

I soak up accents like a sponge, I was the only girl at school who could 'do' a Geordie accent due to spending one week with some geordies at a horse camp. So travelling around must be playing havoc with my accent, even though I am unaware of the changes. Today i have been accused of being Californian, Australian, Scottish (by an American who was particularly proud at not calling a Scot English, I let him think he was right!), Texan and most surprisingly someone who was convinced that my accent sounded like I'd lived in South America for a couple of years! Very very confusing.

I arrived in the old town of my namesake town Philadelphia yesterday evening, to be greeted by a rather ominous looking 28 person dorm room - I'm sure even boarding school students don't have 28 bed dorms! in a hostel decorated entirely in a hideous orange and green colour combination... not a good start. However after my initial trepidation, Philly has proved really interesting. As one of the oldest towns in American, the home of the Declaration of Independence, and the Liberty bell I've been stocking up on my American history (history older than 1800!) and getting my fix of really cute rows of houses with beautiful coloured shutters. I also ran up the famous Rocky steps at the museum of art, although I have to admit I've never seen Rocky and so initially had no idea why all these people were running up the steps to the art museum...

Aside from the history though there is a really bustling art scene and i spent most of yesterday afternoon wandering round teh Magic Gardens on South Street. this project was started in the 60's when the town council was threatening to knock the whole area down. A group of artists started to cover a whole block of houses with mosaic tiles. the area survived and today there are three houses covered inside and out with a variety of mosaics made from mirrors, tiles, bicycle wheels, broken plates, wine bottles - you name it and these artists have put it into a mosaic. the whole effect is amazing. Its so colourful, bright and yet strangely disorientating. The area surrounding the houses has become a mecca for local art galleries and street artists. Some of the work for sale in teh streets was amazing (and incredibly cheap) I had to restrain myself from buying a 3ft x 2ft canvas of London for $60 (it was really beautiful I'm now kinda regretting not buying it) with the reasoning how was I going to get it home! (I didn't reject the piece without first taking it to the UPS shop and asking how much it would be to ship to England, needless to say the cost was prohibitive for a $60 piece of art work.

As well as lost of history the sounds of the pier last night rocked to a free concert of jazz music, which I attended with some of the girls from the giant hostel room - I love cities that promote free music concerts, its such a good way of getting different types of music to those who can't afford to see it otherwise, plus concerts add a whole new element to teh music. Tonight I'm going to another concert R&B this time, followed by fireworks. Should be fun :)

I think I've found my ideal job... while at one of the Smithsonian museums yesterday i found the children's science lab. Inside there we're three chemists playing with Lego (to explain organic chemistry) and making bangs and explosions for the kids - what fun.

So I've finally made it to Washington D.C. and the last week of my trip. Back into full tourist mode, after the relaxation of Cape Cod, I've been on tours of the White House, the Capitol building, National Museum of American History (highlight being Kermit the Frog...), the Holocaust museum, danced to Welsh folk music (?!? - Smithsonian folk festival which basically consists of Welsh, Mexican and African American folk, they are showign teh similarities between them all with a final concert with a welsh harpist and male voice choir, performing with Maraichi band and a gospel choir - wish I was here for that). I am currently in the student union of Georgetown University (Alma Mata of Bill Clinton).

D.C. is hot! 97 F for the Imperialists ( ~35 C for the Europeans amongst you). But the city is really great, I've learnt more about American history than I really ever needed to know, and its pretty amazing to see the places where decisions that affect us all take place. For instance did you know that the room that originally housed the Senate (I stood on the square where Lincoln had his desk) has a strange acoustic trait that means its impossibly hard to hear the person sitting next to you, but you can hear people at the other side of the room loud and clear? Or that the original Capitol building was nearly burnt to the ground by the British in 1815? Or that the oldest house in DC was built in 1765 - which makes it more modern than most Oxford colleges. A host of stereotypes were then displayed by two lovely ladies from Mississippi "oh my god! its so old, (then turning to me), I bet you've never stepped foot in a building this old before" - then upon learning that I'm from England where many buildings are this old "my ancestors are from England, from London, do you know any of my relatives" ?!? Surprisingly we failed to find any of her relatives that I knew - I tried explaining that the UK has a population of ~60million but...

Seriously though D.C. is a great city, there is an efficient and clean public transport system (admittedly the metro crashed on Monday killing 9 people, so maybe the systems not that safe), the museums are free (thanks to a legacy set-up by Englishman James Smithsonian who wanted to educate the American people, even though he never went to America) and everyone I've met has been extraordinarily friendly.

I've finally found a way of using the internet so should be able to update my blog more often for the last couple of days. Finding internet access during the second half of my trip has been harder than expected! Australia had internet cafes on every corner, I think due to its status as a backpackers mecca. Nepal had a number of internet cafes, I suspect this is how most Nepalis get online, but the power situation was so bad that finding and internet cafe with power got to be quite difficult at times. At the other end of the scale America has no power troubles, but is also not as popular with backpacker type travellers. Every second cafe has free wifi access, but i have no computer to access it with. Sublime to ridiculous?!? Anyway I finally found out, via a trip to Borders to browse the travel guide section, that FedEx Kinkos offers internet access. This took looking in 12 separate DC travel guides, asking bewildered student attendants at book shops and getting hopelessly lost in possibly the largest book shop I've ever been in. Its the simple things that are hardest right?

Oh well today I'm taking a break from monuments and museums and am exploring Georgetown, looking round some amazing boutiques that would make Paris proud and reading Obamas book in the Park. Tomorrow I sample the wonder that is Amtrak (Americans have pretty much abandoned trains for long distance travel, so I'm quite intrigued to see what the trains are like?) and head north to Philadelphia.

Pilgrims, Rain and a visit from Phil

Phil arrived on Thursday evening for teh weekend. Being the dutiful girlfriend I made my way on the bus up to Boston and sat in the airport for 2 hours waiting for his plane to land - the difficulty of th American public transport system meant a two hour wait. Unfortunatly in this two hour period I have managed to loose my camera and with it all my Nepal photos... The irony is I was getting worried about not having backed up that I was taking the camera to Boston to find a photo shop that would accept my 8GB card as no shops on the Cape had the equipment. After much tears and ringing every lost and found office in Boston I've accepted that the camera and more importantly my photos are gone. Luckily I have a CD of Australia photos up until the last week of Sydney and there were other people in Nepal who I can steal from. So really all thats lost is a fantastic shot of Mount Everest that I was planning to enlarge and frame and my photos of New York...



Aside from loosing my camera on the way between the Cape and Boston I visited the Plimouth Plantation which is a replica 1627 village representing the colony from the MayFlower. As well as the period role play actors in the pilgrims village there are Wampanoag people the native American tribe who origionally settled the New England area. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon learning about the Wmapanoag people - i was shocked to learn that there are only 2 museums in the US that have Native Americans as staff to talk about their own culture, all other museums about the native Americans have non-native American curators! It was also interesting to find out about the share arrangements that let the Mayflower and other Plymouh pilgroms sail out. Its quite incredible to think that in 1627 North America was really sparesly populated (1/2 colonies) and yet by 1700 the population had exploded and its easy to find evidence of proper houses from that time all around New England.

The next days we explored Boston (in the rain), which is a great city, our tour was helped by Phils old boss who showed us round the best parts and then showed us an amazing bar at the top of a sky scrapper with amazing views of the city. We then spent a rainy weekend on the Cape, exploring the old towns and looking in art galleries.

Today I made it to Washington DC - after a flight which was delayed by boston storms for 6 hours... had a great time exploring Capitol hill, the Library of Congress and the Mall. Tomorrow I do more museums and then head to Gerogetown for the day on Thursday.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears...

Mmm one post a week... not good, I'll try to do better!

So the Cape is experiencing one of the coldest Junes in a long while, its raining and not yet touched more than 20 degrees! Which means rather than laying on the beech working on my tan, I've been helping Mikey (my cousin) with Junior English homework, "Describe how Shakespeare uses rhetorical questions in persuasive speech, illustrate your point uses text from Anthony's funeral speech in Julius Ceaser"... Answers on a postcard please :)

So this week has been graduation and prom week for Katrina, my eldest cousin. Leaving high school is such a big deal out here, its kind of overwhelming. Very different from BGS's "see ya and don't fail your A-levels speech"... although to be fair I do remember getting dolled up for the sixth form ball. On Wednesday after endless rounds of hairdressing appointments, manicures, pedicures (me and my Aunt did this one) etc etc Katrina and friends left for the Prom. They looked gorgeous! Some of the dresses alone were worthy of the red carpet. Before arriving at the prom they all made their way to various friends houses and then onto the park by the ocean for hundreds and hundreds of photos. I've never seen so many stretched limos and beautiful dresses congregate in a park! Quite an experience... 

The prom (and prom worry by my aunt) was soon over to be replaced by graduation worries. Basically all the year group, class of '09, get together in the gym for speeches, get given their diplomas and throw hats in the air. I learnt lots of new terms, that somehow years of cheesey American teen dramas have failed to teach me:

Valedictorian: Person who gets highest grades in class.

Class President: I don't think we had anything like this at school, I suppose the closest would be head boy/ girl. I think they arrange the class events etc including prom.

Salutatorian: Second highest ranking student.

Basically all these students got up and delivered addresses at the graduation ceremony. The children then all went off with hidden bottles of alcohol to various graduation parties around the cape: great fun - more worry for parents!

Oh well, I'm home in 2 weeks. Next stop Boston, then Washington before heading to Philadelphia (for Ken). 

Travels on a Greyhound

New York is quite un-American in some respects... I think this is why I enjoyed the city so much. For instance most people don't own a car (rather like London) and get around on a rather excellent (if a little confusing) public transport system that runs throughout the night (why can't the tube run throughout the night?!?) or make their way on foot (revolutionary as most US cities are strangely devoid of pavements). I was most worried upon leaving the party on Friday and noticing that it was 4am... taxis to the other end of Manhattan are not cheap and I assumed that public transport would be out of the question - surprisingly though I wandered to the subway stop and up pulled a train that made its way helpfully to the stop just outside my hostel - amazing. It was interesting that even at 4am the subway was quite packed, and not only with hobos and drunkards, perhaps NYC really is the city that never sleeps...

The next day I awoke at 7am (why my body can't let me sleep in is a complete mystery!). I spent the day wandering round lower Manhattan and the villages - stopping off again at teh Brooklyn bridge (for sunny photographs!) Around Brooklyn bridge I heard a strange thing - the sounds of Metallica, closely followed by a Pink Floyd tune. Being a fan of music and a definite lover of street performance (free!) I decided to investigate. Stepping under the bridge (something my sense would normally tell me was probably a dodgy area!) I was confronted by the sight of hundreds and hundreds of youths all with skate boards... Again my sense of self preservation would normally kick in and thinking the worst of people carrying skateboards I would probably have left. Then I noticed a couple of police officers drinking cans of Red Bull and rather comically trying to skate board - something about officials on skate boards is hilariously funny. So I investigated further, it turns out I'd stumbled quite haphazardly on some kind of skate competition. On closer inspection there were cameras from MTV as well as loads of young boys idolising their skating hero's. The whole set-up was quite cool, the bridge had been made into an impromptu skate park, there was music (I heard everything from Bob Dylan through to the Dave Brubeck Quartet right back round again to some scary rap types) and the obligatory Red Bull girls in skimpy shorts. Quite an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a bit.

The next day I spent a very enjoyable morning reading in Central Park and watching the world go by. On a completely side note since being away I have read over 40 books - which is an average of one every 3 days... I've just started the first offering from Barack Obama about the life of his father and race issues in America (written before he became a politician). The afternoon was spent at an open gallery in a converted warehouse in Brooklyn, before heading out for pizza and beer.

The next day I travelled to Cape Cod. It was really quite interesting to watch New England pass by. Including some rather beautiful little towns just off the highway...

This week is Prom week for my eldest cousin - which is great fun. We've had dress alterations, nails to be manicured, hair dyed... watch this space. Interestingly prom night is one fo the most dangerous nights on America roads as lots of illegally drunk 18 year olds try to find their way home from after prom parties! Wish us luck :)

Sightseeing

Its quite strange to be a tourist again - quite lonely being on my own again - but nice to be in charge of my own time! My sightseeing has been somewhat marred by the exceedingly heavy rain to hit the Manhattan Island the last couple of days... seeing the drizzle on Thursday I decided to opt for a museum day, I should however have checked the weather forecast and realised it was going to get worse and save museums for today. Oh well hindsight is a wonderful thing, right?!?

Thursday morning I set off across Central Park towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Central park is actually surprisingly small, in fact Manhattan is surprisingly small, very walkable if you have the time. After racing the joggers (some of whom were jogging slower than I was walking) I made it to the Met, which is a caviverous maze of a building with lots of different wings and three floors each dedicated to different areas of art and design. Armed with the Lonely Planet, I checked out the Egyptian collection which is probably the most famous collection at the Met. Sorry to all the Egyptologists out there but Ancient Egypt just doesn't do it for me. Its amazing to look at all the statues and the mummification's are cool (if not a little gruesome), but there just isn't the wow factor for me... or at least that's what i thought until i reached the Egyptian jewelry section. Wow! I didn't realist how much gold, beads and intricate jewelry the Egyptians had, some of it is just stunning and its amazing how alot of the pieces wouldn't seem out of place if worn today. Another impressive part of the exhibit is the Shackler wing which house a temple donated to the Americans to save it from being flooded, it was quite surreal to be walking through an Egyptian temple housed inside a very modern (very beautiful) glass exhibition room complete with its own moat to surround the temple.

After making my way haphazardly through the Egyptian collection I found myself in the American rooms exhibit. This covered three floors and involved walking through living rooms from famous houses through the ages of America. Again i am showing my ignorance, but I didn't realise how wealthy some parts of America became so quickly. Some of the interior design was incredible and wouldn't of looked out of place in the palaces and gentry homes of Europe. Although it was interesting walking through all these rooms and quite impressive looking at wealth of these early American, it would have been quite nice for the exhibition to show more variance. I am quite sure that not all Americans lived in such opulence! I'm also quite certain that alot of the immigrants to America brought alot of their own culture with them and it would have been nice to see more on how these people married their own culture with the American one in their homes. The high point (for me anyway) was the open storage at the end of the exhibit, this consisted of a huge room with rows and rows of glass cases each containing hundreds of chairs, clocks, chests, dolls houses etc all lined up. This represents the part of the collection that couldn't be placed in the exhibits. Its nice to see it all on show, I know lots of museums lock away the non-permanent collections in the vaults, it was quite nice to see some of it on display - although to be surround by all these cases was a little disorientating.

Next I headed up to the Model as a Muse exhibition, which is sponsored by Marc Jacobs and details the rise of the super model and how models help designers change the face of fashion. This was a really well put together exhibition, there were some incredible exhibits showing some beautiful dresses ( I sneakily took photos of loads to see if I can recreate them at home - although just how many Galliano, and Dior imitation ball gowns does a girl need?). It was particularly interesting to note how the ideas of what a model should look like changed through the ages, and also to chart the fame of the super models...

It then took me 15 minutes to find the exit to the museum as I skipped through European painting (interesting but...), suits of armour (not that interesting), photography (really good, but I was hungry at this point!) and eventually the gift shop (which seemed to be larger than most exhibition halls...)

I then finished my stroll through central park along 5th Avenue, stopping for a hot dog and pretzel from a street vendor. I then reached the the end of Central Park and Millionaires row, complete with the De Beers, Bulgari, Gucci and Armani shops to finally reach the Rockefeller center my next port of call.

The Rockefeller center land was originally intended as the home for the Metropolitan opera, but then the Great Depression hit and the opera pulled out. Rockefeller decided that he still wanted to build something on the site and decided to fund the project himself. The resultant 70 floor building is now home to part of NBC studios - I saw the end of the 'Today Show' being filmed - the Rockefeller music hall (home to the Rockettes) as well as being a business and shopping complex. My destination is the 'Top of the Rock' observation deck on the 67,68 and 69 floor which afforded some stunning views over the city.

I ended the evening at a Belgium themed jazz evening, complete with moules et frites! A half of Belgium beer cost $8! All in all quite a good night though and I was defiantly ready for bed by the time I climbed off the subway at 11pm.

Today I decided (rather stupidly) to brave the rain and check out Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty and then the original plan was to walk back through Soho, Little Italy and into Greenwich Village (the 'hip and arty' areas of New York). However as the rain got worse and my shoes began to leak I called it a day and decided to head back after seeing only Wall Street and the site of the World Trade Center (now just a big building site). I've decided that sky scrappers are distinctly unimpressive from under an umbrella!

Tonight I'm heading to the Lower Eastside to hear a New Orleans DJ doing something new with 60's dance tunes.... could be interesting!

NYC...

Its been awhile since I've updated my blog - hopefully with better Internet and 24 hour power supply I should be better. I left Nepal on Monday evening - the trip to teh airport was in itself quite an adventure. The Newari community of the Kathmandu Valley had called a general Bhanda (strike) for the 1st of June. Apparently one year ago the Newari petition to the government to have the Newari language taught in schools and to have Newaris more involved int he leadership of the valley was rejected (the Newaris are the traditional inhabitants of the valley and are famous for their fantastic metal work skills and tired temples). The Newaris have now moved on to asking for the Kathmandu valley to be a semi-autonomous area run by a Newari government. This is one of the main sticking points in the Nepali constitution at the moment - part of the peace agreement is that he government should set up different administrative districts in Nepal but there is disagreement whether this should be done along ethnic lines or geographical lines. I suspect that geographical lines is the best option if Nepal is to be divided (although why such a small country needs to be divided is systematic of how far from cooperation the Nepali people have come) - the ethnic communities in Nepal are now so spread out (due in part to refugees from the Maoist conflict and in part from economic migration to teh Kathmandu Valley), that borders drawn on ethnic lines will mean that some ethnic groups are alienated in their adopted home... This doesn't look good for the future peace of Nepal! Anyway the general strike meant that all the roads, shops etc were closed (think burning tyres and young boys with guns and no brains!). I was left with two options - my personal favourite of walking the 40 minutes to teh airport and the schools favourite (driven by a desire to look after the volunteers) to carry my bag on the back of a motorbike and sneak round to the airport via the small roads... needless to say I lost the walking argument (they were worried that the quickest way to walk was on the main roads and they didn't want me to see the blockades) Oh well I eventually reached the airport and made it through to Abu Dhabi for a 12 hours stop over - very very boring!

Now I'm in New York -immigration that I'd been so worried about (horror stories abound in the back packing community) was easy. A case of how long are you here, what are you doing? Ok enjoy your trip! I reached my hostel at 6pm and set about exploring Broadway to try and keep myself awake for a couple of hours. I enjoyed my first hot shower in too long - I'd forgotten how nice it is to not have to brace yourself for a shower - ate bagels (yay!), drank some wine, had a hair cut (4 inches off and hair now looks acceptable again) and went to a beauty parlor for a facial to try and remove some of the ingrained dirt from Kathmandu.

Yesterday I went shopping - ok i should probably be more touristy and see the sights on the first day, especially as it is now pissing it down so i'm forced into a museum day today! But I'd run out of clothes - in my bag were two kurtors, sari material, wrap round trousers, 5 pashminias (presents), a Nepali flute (gift for me) and some Nepali hats (gifts for brothers)... however my bag only contained one pair of western style trousers and 2 western style t-shirts... Shopping completed (well at least to a passable level of clothes now) I looked round Times Square and ate more bagels (when in Rome).

Its been quite a culture shock (as expected). Mainly I am amazed a the sheer quantity of food on other, I have yet to get close to finishing a meal. Also I'm amazed by the number of obese people walking the streets. I suppose it is more evident after Kathmandu, where a serious number of the population suffer from malnutrition, but really...

Oh well today I go to the Met. and then hopefully the rain will have stopped! I need to walk only small distances as my feet are now unused to shoes and I have hideous blisters (but beautiful new shoes!)