Hello Chairman

Another day, another adventure. This time George and I waltzed our way to the Met and ended up fully saturating ourselves with culture before we could even make it off the first floor. Intelligently (in our opinion), we've become associates of the museum so we have an unlimited free reign there. Considering how large it is (and ever changing) we both thought it would be a good investment.
Outside the museum, Georgie talked me into a hot dog (twist my rubber arm, I know). It was the first of the trip and most excellent.


I can't speak for my partner-in-crime, but I think I'm starting to understand the Subway system here. The lines are easy enough -- that's not what I mean. What I'm referring to are the constant performers who will hop into your car at one stop, whip out a tune, and drop their hat. A good trick is to keep your headphones on, but turn off your MP3 player. This way you can enjoy their noise, but avoid awkwardly avoiding them when they walk by with your hat, and you have no change. It's also quite tricky to figure out where you are, when you not only can't understand a damned word the conductor is saying over the loudspeaker, but you also can't see through the wall of people in order to read what stop you're at. Every ride is a transitorial "Hail Mary."

Home sickness still comes in waves, but it's a less common assault. I'm not sure if the video calls on Skype with the folks help, or just make the pain worse. Soon though, we'll be able to call New York our home.

Until then, please send care packages. We really need dishcloths.

Oh, and Balsamic Vinegar. Plain old spinach and olive oil kind of suck.

G&G

We're here!

Well, it's about time we posted I guess. For the lot of you who have been pressuring us to make the announcement, I should remind you that it is difficult to find time to make a blog post when you're running around trying to put yourself together after moving to the entire opposite side of North America.

I should begin with the flight over. It was long, and while the flight from Calgary was first class, it did little to mask the fact that we were both leaving home for quite a while. The wine helped, I guess...

After arriving, our separation anxiety kicked into high gear. The rock hard mattress, cheap polyester sheets, and that one goddamn car alarm, all amounted to very very little sleep for us. The first day, however, saw a great discovery: Costco! Thanks to Google maps, we discovered one down the street and have since lugged at least a couple hundred pounds of memory foam mattress topper, down comforter, 25 lb. rice bags, and over a dozen boxes of pasta home. We're starting to think about bringing our luggage bags into the store to carry all our spoils back.

All in all, everything is great. Our landlady and fellow tenants are all Spanish. In fact, since we have arrived we have seen only two white people walk down our street. What this translates into is: the passionate shouting of fighting lovers at four in the morning, smashed T.V.'s on the street and ex-boyfriends moving out, screaming children, and coming home to a man playing Spanish guitar and singing on the doorstep.

The apartment is smaller than we thought, but we're making it ours. New post up soon, with some pictures of us around NY.

Holyshitholyshitholyshit

With less than thirty days until departure, my anxiety is in full swing. And by anxiety I mean excitement and vice versa. I first wish to welcome any of those on councils which have helped me fund my "big apple endeavor." Secondly, I wish to convey to you the excitement that only a young man can feel, as he walks into a store of suits, and piece by piece builds what will surely be the clothing he wears when he eventually has the pleasure of working a period piece. Oh, and character shoes. It may be an acting thing, but when you walk around in some fancy ass Italian leather shoes, you feel like you could make the stage your bitch. That, and you can't wait to wear them at your first fancy party. But I digress from my original point: Our departure date is very, very close.

It is strange to know that this is my last month in my bed, and my last month of simple fun. I should also note that I am done working, after cooking for months at the local eatery. I was finally able to ditch the joint and am currently lounging around with my friends and family for my final month. You can almost be sure I will be at Giordana's place of work drinking coffee and surfing the internet, so if you do wish to find me you can do so there.

On another note, the boys will be happy to know I have found an Ultimate Frisbee drop in league in central park. So if anyone's up for a game to dust off the old cobwebs, I am more than ready.

Goodies in the mail!

So it's official!

In the beginning, everyone was a little bit suspicious. Roger Carr doubted the sincerity of the whole New York Experience, my parents doubted my ability to commit to such a lofty goal and often doubted the security of acting as a profession (what they didn't count on was my understanding of such a sad sad truth). In moments of self doubt I questioned my abilities as a young lad taking out a massive line of credit to pursue some hair-brained scheme.

Now, after months and months of planning, preparation, auditions and money earning the only person I need to convince is the big bad scary border guard. All my papers are in and accepted. My final payments (of $19,500) are due, and all I need to do now is pack, alert my landlord of my immediate arrival, and fly away. Packing is going to be the fun part: Giordana and I are toying with the idea of packing our entire lives into airplane luggage. Or at least enough of our lives to allow us to survive for a couple weeks before our folks can DHL the rest of our stuff to us.

At this point in the game, reality is biting me right in the ass. It kind of clicked recently that I may very well never be living at home with my parents again. And that, family and friends, is a scary thought.

Ow!

It's the female half of the B.A.E (Big! Apple! Endeavour! I made an acronym!) here, just giving a small and insignificant update on our steady progress.

A week or so ago, we went to the main health clinic to get some forms filled out by a health practitioner, stating that we'd had immunization against mumps and measles and rubella. It turns out we'd only had a shot for mumps once, so unfortunately for the one with the intense needle phobia (that would be me), we were directed into a little room where wham bam thank you nursey health practitioner ma'am, we had our second shots for that. This whole moving-to-NY thing is turning out to be a lot bigger of a pain in the ass than I thought. You're not only taking my money, you're giving me shots? Seriously?

Anyway, I'm glad we're almost done. I've been out of commission for four or five days because of a very slow and painful (did I mention painful? PAINFUL.) recovery from getting my four wisdom teeth removed. Needless to say, Garry was there with me in the operating room pre and post surgery, and is still by my side feeding me yogurt and making me whipped cream for putting on my pudding.

It's getting to summer now (as you can tell by the ... rain ... and freezing weather ...) so we're basically on the last leg! Good luck to us!

Holy smokes things have been happening quickly!

Financially, in about a week I'm going in to get approved for my student loan; I've already received my USD Visa card, and my American Dollar cheque book. George and I have also recently discovered that the forms we have to fill out are brutally extensive. Medical and financial proofs, etc etc. With graduation right around the corner and all sorts of other poop hitting the fan things are a little more than hectic. However, we will prevail!

It's all coming together.

So the lease is signed! Flights are booked! I have probably already told you this, but it can be said again. A more recent development is the financial one:

TD Canada trust saved our butts.

We were both unaware that by saving USD in our local credit union, we were actually being counter productive. In order to access it in America we would have had to transfer it back to Canadian, then back to American. How dumb is that? Anywho, long story short: I'm getting an American Dollar Visa from TD Canada trust and coupled with their awesome "Borderless US Savings account" (shameless plug) we can pay our USD Visa bill with USD. No exchange rates. Thank god for that. I also get a checkbook! Awesome eh? All that's left now is to apply for a massive student loan, and we're good to go. Then these posts will be less erratic as we will be living in a city with non-stop action and excitement.