Chicago

This is the family that drove me and my friend Polina to Chicago, they are Russian and lovely. Chicago was not as cold as everyone warned me but then, there was no wind.


This is the museum we went to and saw some submarine thing that was German and captured by the Americans, so much about how everyone was losing the war til America came to save the day hahahaha the arrogance!




YES WE CAN!! Go Obama! And below is the Sears tower, highest building in the
USA

Here, we are down by the lake it was FREEEZING and I was pretending to look warm, but it was all lies and deception, The view was pretty but slippery to get to, I landed on ym butt going down some stiar that ice had turned into a ramp.

My red capped friend Sasha, freezing with me =)

Car crash

Last week I was involved in a car accident, it was crazy times. We pulled over to the right side of the road, as you do in the States, due to poor visibility. Some young girl rear ended us, going at quite a speed, luckily it was on snow so we glided and it took some of the impact, I think. Oddly enough she hit us on the right side, the furtherest from the road, and sadly my side =(
But still both me and my lovely driver got whiplash, and Michigan is a 'no fault' state. I am starting to realise that many many things here are not to be understood but just accepted as life, and that is one of them. What this means is, that although it was clearly not our fault to be parked on the side of the road and rear-ended, and it was clearly this girl's fault who rear ended us and from such an angle, because of this no fault insurance scam, the girl's insurance company will not pay to fix my friend's car because its never anyones fault!! And as my friend, Polina, has no comprehensive insurance on her old car, being a student and all, she is now left with a smashed up boot that she can't afford to fix because someone else hit her. DON'T MOVE TO AMERICA!!! she has a mechanic friend who fixed it up a little hahahaha and now it looks like this.... (notice the paint can)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snooooow!

So I'm back in Berrien and everywhere is white and snowy and cold and beautiful and COLD!! This is my house where I stay, there is 20 times more snow now! And the other pics are of the campus. This is me and my flatmate, Chenoa, in lightly falling snow.

more New York moments

Mel and I went to St John's Cathedral, the biggest catholic cathedral in New York. It was very nice, but been there done that in Ecuador, and they had more gold in Ecuador hahaha. After that we walked some 30 blocks through Central Park to the Museum of Natural History.


We went to the Phantom of the Opera on the Saturday night, which was great, even though we sat sort of towards the back.
The final day I went to the Museum of Modern Art, which seemed full of really over rated artists, Picasso, Andy Warhol and Mondrian, for instance, and then back to little old Berrien Springs!

New York Times

Pizza pieces were huge!!!

Hahaha I found it!!


Mel and I eating the best New York Cheesecake in New York (as voted by the New York Times)



Posing in the fairy lights

Statue of Liberty

Manhattan at Dusk

The Bronx by sunset






The last glimpse

Lady Liberty

It was such a freezing day and the Big Line struck again but it was outside =( A few hours of waiting while snow gently fell around us made me desperate enough to try a large, soft, warm pretzel. Eugh too much salt and not enough flavour, I do not know why they are popular.

There were many entertainers that busked for money to those lining up, probly the best was a man who played Fur Elise on steel drums (for the oldies, its not actually a drum but an instrument from the Carribean) There were also food stalls along the way selling hot chocolate, coffee and these pretzels (eugh!) While I line up to get a hot chocolate to delay the hypothermia, I noticed a squirrel creep in from the trees and go over to the boxes of doughnuts behind the food van, it was sniffing the air and walking round trying to find a way in, it was the cutest thing!





Mel and I are on the boat to go to Staaten Island, residence of the statue of liberty. And next up we are on Staaten Island with Manhattan as our backdrop, Mel is being a poser hahahaha

Madame Tussauds

So I'm not posting in strict chronological order, we went to Madame Tussauds Waxworks during the day before the Empire State Building. We had fun =)