6 days - no coffee

I have now gone nearly 6 consecutive days without tea or coffee. Although I am suffering extreme withdrawal symptoms such as praising 'The Wonder Years' in my sleep with KR trying to carry on a coherent conversation with me until he realised I was sleep-talking.

In other stories of withdrawal - for some reason, I cannot log on to BBC News when I'm on the NYU wireless network. I think it some evil plot to deprive me of my commonwealth sports (more coffee withdrawal symptoms evident).

I hope for the sake of my sanity that I can at least access it from D'Ag...pls pls pls

I have located a place which serves cheap(ish) Guiness, but not necessarily showing the rugby. I have been referred to other pubs which may. I have also located Irish classmates. Updates will follow.

NYC - First Impressions

I might want to just stop typing at some stage, so I'm going to put some random observations down in bullet form:

• 2 days of Air India sponsored jet lag does not help the cause
• Someone to show you around does
• Went for the Mets v. Padres game courtesy KR's luck in a raffle. Baseball is actually quite fun to watch, although, probably more so because there's always something happening rather than the actual game itself. We had fairly expensive outfield'ish tickets, but thanks to us getting thrown out of what we thought were our seats, KR decided to try and sit up closer to home plate. That it was a cold and wet evening, meant a number of the regular box seats were empty. We ended up watching the last 2.5 innings about 30 feet from the batter. An exciting game (Mets coming from one run behind to win in the bottom of the 9th) seemed to try and press home the fact that baseball can be fun. But as I said in an email to one of my English friends - 'give me the Wankhede crowd anyday!' Am kicking myself for not carrying the camera.
  
• After the game, we decided to explore Flushing Meadows, which is across the road. Although all relevant areas (USTA Tennis Centre) were shut (it was nearly 11), we got to the 'globe'...it is HUGE!! All those shots on the sports channels must be either on fish-eye lenses or from 1.5 km away.
• There is a Dosa thela outside the NYU Law School building. I have consciously refrained from consuming his wares, lest I end up with cravings every evening when I shift into the next street.
• I am struggling to come to terms with the idea of ultra-fast internet access 24X7 (minus downloading though). I fear it will be even more difficult for me when I move in to my place.
• As my academic career progressed, the distance between my place of habitation to my place of study progressively decreased. It is now going to be frighteningly short. The entrance to my 'hostel' is about 30 feet away from the rear wall of the Law School building.
• A (the larger one) comes in today. It's been a while and I think we shall make all attempts to make inexpensive nuisances of ourselves
• I have quickly given up, admittedly with minimal efforts to the contrary,all efforts (at least until I move on Sunday) to retain my shakhahari status. The worst bit is that the food here is ghastly
• Am trying to get US Open tickets for cheap, although that seems an oxymoron in this city
  
• Air-conditioned subway trains make for far more pleasurable travel than the Motherland's nauseous equivalents
• I still haven't got the 'feeling' that I'm an 8 hour flight away from anything I can call home. 16 hours for the puritans...
• I fear I shall have to put on an American accent at times to allow many of the local yokels to understand the precious words that exit my mouth...

That's it...time to do some reading for tomorrow's exam. I very much fear that blogging activity over the next 9 months is going to either be excessive or nearly non-existent. I hope for the sake of my grades - the latter. I hope for the sake of my sanity - the former....

Traversing

17 August 2007

So I’m sitting in Heathrow’s Terminal 3 and waiting at Gate 32 to board (once again) the aircraft. In what was, from my perspective, a completely futile action, we were made to de-plane, go through Heathrow’s de-shoe, de-laptop, de-everything security check before being made to walk all the way around the terminal and wait for the aircraft to be ready. A surprisingly heavy backpack coupled with the awful seats on Air India (notice the new name sans hyphen!) has ensured that my lower back has been announcing its existence. Somehow the non-stop flights may have some utility, but then again - 16 hours can be very trying…

Am kicking myself for not carrying the smaller A’s number. It would have finally put to use the pound coin that is permanently in my wallet.

Thanks to the use of several individuals’ good offices carrying the acoustic girlfriend has not thrown up any problems…phew…

It still hasn’t sunk in that I’ve left. As I told Footnote Unaware, that’ll most probably happen when I take off from the Motherland, which if all goes well, should be a matter of 60 minutes.

I feel tired enough to sleep a little more on the flight now, so I’m not too worried about jet lag, especially since I was already on BST after staying up 2 nights in a row…

The landing into Heathrow was beautiful. It’s a great day out there (17 degrees, clear sky) and we flew right across London in what was pretty much as close to a chopper tour that one will get in a 747. The only regret is that I wont get a whiff of fresh air.

They’ve started boarding and the lines have begun forming. Time to start packing and reading Law 101 in-flight…that’s the bit I’m not looking forward to.

Epi: After recurring bouts of sleep, I think I've finally got over my jet lag over 36 hours after hitting NYC. Reading status: nil. Hitting Manhattan today...