Problems With My Sleep

I want to begin by saying no I am not having 'actual' problems with my sleep aside from the usual self inflicted lack of sleep. No insomnia, no distractions, no noisy neighbours...in fact no neighbours at all; it's just a reference to a song. That song would be 'Moving to New York' by The Wombats. Yes, that's right. Although I (Jesse Lewis in case you've forgot) am not literally 'moving' to New York, I do leave Panorama Mountain Village (which has become a ghost town in the days following the mass exodus) and fly to New York in exactly one week and one day, for some good times with great friends, good food, of course some tourist action, possibly going live and then music festivities in New Jersey. That's why I'm writing this blog in two parts; before and after. To be honest it's all quite exciting for me. Not only am I already over the other side of the world from my life in Australia but now that I'm here I'm going to fly to the other side of this country; covering the spreadsheet if you will.

I hope you've already guessed that this bit is part one as I am writing on Monday the 19th of April, 2010. My first thoughts are that I can't believe Dim and myself actually came through with our plans. After much excitement about Vegas and not much action we ditched that idea and decided on New York City and The Bamboozle, and to be honest I had my doubts about whether it would come off. But flights are booked and I received my tickets yesterday (cutting it pretty thin don't you think North American ticketing systems? Your dead to me).

But before I start on my thoughts of New York City, which has completely plagued the planning section of my brain for the past month; I must also talk about the plans in which I have neglected to focus on and are now biting me in the bottom hard leading up to my departure from Panorama. Can anyone remember where I was supposed to be actually moving to? Oh yeah! That's right, Vancouver. Totally forgot. Well at least it feels like it. Today the floor in which I was meant to crash on cancelled on me (last time I rely on a floor) and now I am staying in Panorama an extra two days. But as that thought hit me, it appeared he brought a plus one to the realisation party...I have no job prepared or place to live. Sounds catastrophic. Feels it too. I might have something for the next couple of days to deprive me from my sleep after all. Well, other than a drunk girl aiming a shotgun at my face (true story). On top of all that, I catch my greyhound bus from Golden to Vancouver on the 27th of April, arriving in Vancouver at 5am and then flying to NYC at 8am...3 hour gap...I guess you can tell I planned this with precision.

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Turns out the title of this blog fits just perfectly. As much as I thought it was going to be an allusion to the Wombats song "Moving to New York" when I began to write the first half, my two and a half weeks of travel outside of Panorama Mountain Village actually caused many problems with my sleep literally. For the past three weeks I have been living in hostel beds, couches and airport lounges, (and I use the word lounge very loosely, more like doctors waiting room chairs pushed together) eating nothing but ramen noodles and kraft dinner (cheap and very, very disgusting macaroni and cheese).

Part two of this saga is not so much a downfall as it is just a straight out fact of life, and of traveling for more than 6 months overseas. It involves bright lights, big city, sweet music, high times and failed plans. As a side note, I would like to say that just because it involves failed plans doesn't mean everything didn't work out for the best. First off I'd like to say I had a wicked "holiday". New York City was so much fun and even the time I spent kicking back and partying in Vancouver after deciding not to settle in there was amazing. Before I start with the tale of my struggle back to the mountains, let's start with the good stuff.

I left Panorama on Tuesday the 27th of April in a car with my friend Alana to be dropped of at Golden greyhound station, ready for the bus to Vancouver. Overnight I was in transit for 14 hours arriving in Vancouver at 5am, rushing to the airport for my 8am flight to NYC. Basically my Pano room mate Dim and I flew all day to get to JFK airport where we arrived at 9:30pm. My first impressions of New York were scary as hell. Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Law & Order or read too many Jeffery Deaver novels but straight out from the airport I was on alert. We walked out with our bags with every taxi driver harassing the arrivals for their commission; the cheapest ride being an unmarked black "taxi". There were a few like it but I still felt on edge. As soon as we got in the taxi the doors locked and I realised there was no taxi meter to judge the fare. I was freaking but didn't say anything. We drove through Queens and Brooklyn and first red light we come to there are noises of arguments in the streets, people screaming and fights; not helping my attitude much. Lucky I didn't react to the driver, he actually turned out to be really helpful and even when dropping us off, offered to drive around to ask about the apartment when we had trouble finding it at the address it specified.

When the sun came up for the first day we had to spend in the City everything looked completely different. The view from our window in the upper east side showed young kids walking unaccompanied to school, businessmen walking their dogs and sidewalks lined with flower beds. Sounds corny but it was completely true; apparently we picked the perfect neighbourhood. On our first day in NYC, Dim and I proved to be the ultimate tourists. In one day we saw the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, Rockerfeller Centre, Lincoln Centre, Broadway & Times Square, Central Park and Central Park Zoo. The city was pretty busy as expected but was an amazing experience just to be amongst it. The second day was no different. We went to canal street and Chinatown for breakfast, walked the Brooklyn Bridge for Ice Cream in the "Not so secret Park", saw Wall Street and the Stock Exchange, the Trump Building, took the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Centre site, had dinner in Soho and drinks in West Village. Seeing so much in such a short time on the most perfect of days was the best.

Some funny times came after that second day though. We had a few drinks in West Village and after a long, long walk, finally found our way back home to the apartment. By that time I was very keen to go out for a good time and see what the New York nightlife has to offer; even though my travel buddy Dim wasn't. So while Dim hit the sack early ready for the Bamboozle Festival the next day, I found a bar appropriately named "The Stumble Inn" and sat down for a few quiet drinks. On my first beer, a black girl at the bar began to talk to me and after hearing the story of where I was from and what not introduced me to her crew who were all from Brooklyn. It ended up being a pretty crazy night. All I can say is we drank lots, chatted lots and had some loose times out on the streets of the upper east side in NYC. After saying goodbye at the bar I dropped into a 24 hour deli to get a chicken salad sandwich and headed back to the apartment. Straight away it sounded like a shambles; strange loud noises coming from the room downstairs of ours. So before heading home I decided to check out what sounded like a pretty rowdy party. My suspicions were confirmed immediately as I walked into a room full of about 20-30 Uruguayian people jumping around, swinging their drinks and chanting what sounded like a never ending Ricky Martin song but was actually just lots of different latin songs. Within about two minutes of entering the room I had a beer in my hand and was trying to follow the spanish lyrics to the ricky martin rip-off songs. After loads of "What?" and "Huh?", I learned that not only was it someone's birthday party, but these guys did not speak a word of english and couldn't understand a word I said. The funniest part of this was that after they gave up trying to understand me the birthday boy just shrugged and said the only words of english he seemed to know "Oh well, it's a party".

Next two days were the Bamboozle festival. It was boiling both days and I got severely burnt!! Despite this setback it was absolutely amazing. For $104 bucks, the two days were well worth the money and more. I saw MGMT, Girl Talk, Say Anything, Motion City Soundtrack, Ke$ha, The Maine, The Ready Set, Fun., Arj Barker, Something Corporate and heaps of other sick bands in an amazing setting outside the New York Giants stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The most fun and challenging part was on the second day, downing a litre bottle of apple pucker before the festival and then going on every single ride in the theme park section of the festival (which by the way, was all completely free). The night time on the second day blew my mind; Dim left early because she'd seen hanson already (haha) and I doubt wanted to see any of the other acts. When it went dark, all the lights turned on and it looked some crazy carnival with Girl Talk and MGMT's stage and light shows going off and me still in mood to cut loose in the dance pit; it was the perfect finish to a great four days.

Long story short, after sleeping in JFK and Portland airports over a collective 34 hours, I got to Vancouver and was offered two jobs within about three days. I can say that Vancouver is an amazing place to live and stay if you're set up already and would've been perfect had I done all this upon arrival in November. But doing it now when I'm running low on funds and looking towards a much more important one to two month road trip through the west coast of the U.S.A, it seems to expensive, not worth it and I decided to return to Panorama where I have set myself back up with two jobs, making good money and spending very little. Although it's off season and there has been some hiccups getting settled back in with the crowd I am now back on track and am very well positioned to save lots of money for what I hope will be an amazing, haggard and loose road trip with the boys B-Rod and Dad.

As for Panorama summer. I'm not too fussed about golf, mountain biking or hiking. But there is lots to do, more crowd to come and I'm sure lots to blog about, so stay tuned. If there is a big hiatus until the road trip, trust me...it'll be worth it.