I made it

I am in New York City.

wow, culture shock. For REAL. There is so much, everything, I feel very alone and very surrounded at the same time. There is a lot to do here, obviously.

I'm just going to start at the beginning, my flight left at 8:30 this morning and I sat next to a girl who didn't talk to me. I read my book, I enjoyed it, the flight was super bumpy because we flew through those tornadoes and everything.

OH YEAH, it was like driving through post apocalyptic Michigan when going to the airport this morning, the entire city of Dundee was dark and mangled. Tornadoes. It is supposed to rain here today sometime (please hold off until I get back to the hostel!).

Jennifer Baumgardner (One of the Camp organizers) picked me up from the airport this morning, and we drove through Harlem and to the Upper West Side to the hostel. We are staying at, Jazz on the Park, it is pretty sweet. We forgot that check-in time is not until 3pm and I was there about 11am, so I opted to explore the city a little bit. First, I had to put my bag into this tiny, tiny room with lots, and lots of other baggage in it. I seriously hope that my crap doesn't get stole.

Jennifer and I drove around Manhattan a bit, she showed me some things and almost got into a few accidents. NYC is a definite culture shock, people drive super aggressively, but they are really nice. Jennifer lives in Greenwich Village, so she drove me there and dropped me off at THE STRAND BOOKSTORE, then went to do other feministy-type things. That store is amazing, I was in heaven, it was lovely. I managed to get out of there and only bought one book! Yes! After that, I walked around a bit, to see what I could see. There are so many absolutely beautiful buildings to look at and go into.

So, right now I am in a bookstore called EastWest, its kind of like a spiritual, mind, body, love, organic kind of thing in The Village (btw, a ton of hipsters, everywhere). I have to get back to the hostel at 3:00, so I can check in. Jennifer put me in charge of getting people to their rooms and stuff, because I was the first to arrive. Oh, responsibility.

I am going to ride the subway back, wish me luck!

Amen.