Sandy approaches.

"Some have compared the tempest to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but that one hit a less populated area.

"The Perfect Storm only did US$200 million of damage and I'm thinking a billion" this time, Masters said. "Yeah, it will be worse." - Reuters. 

When a storm has it's own website then things ought to get interesting. Will try keep updates coming, but it's forecasted to pass right over top of where I am and power outages are expected. Pennsylvania has declared a state of emergency in preparation for this event and my university has sent out multiple emails giving us information about what to do. One of the emails did say to go home if that's where you feel most comfortable... but somehow I don't feel like that is a viable option for me just at this moment.  For now I'm just going to hang out in my room and do some school work for the weekend, expecting it to hit some time Sunday. I have a couple of options of places to go in case we get told to evacuate, but for now I plan to sit steady and tough it out. Whatever "it" is.

New York, New York (part 2).

New York continued...

Broadway. 

Well we eventually came to Broadway and had a wonder around on our way up to Times Square. It was getting close to dinner time so we zig-zagged backwards and forwards searching for a local place to eat (btw if you are ever in NY do not go to food places you know, go to the local food places! Live a little!).

Times Square.

After eating, we walked up to Times Square. This place is amazing! So many people, so much going on. It was night time, but felt like day with all the lights. We snuck into the Toys R Us store and I just about died... A 3-4 level toy store with half a floor dedicated to Lego! I literally could have spent the entire day there!

Lego Liberty.

Back out to Times Square and we quickly noticed a bunch of people looking up at a giant television. Oh hey, we were on it! Was some interesting "tweet who you want to get dunked" game and then motion sensed the crowd pushing the beach ball toward the target. This was a lot of fun! And yes, she got dunked.

On the jumbotron.

After that, it was getting close to our departure time so we stopped by at Starbucks to grab a coffee and then continued  few more blocks to our departure location. When we arrived back in Philadelphia, we caught the train back out to Eastern and we arrived home around 2am. Needless to say I slept like a baby that night.

Going home.

New York part 1.

So on Thursday my room mate suggested that we should go into NYC for a day over free fall days and this blog is about our adventure.

Our day started around 8am when we woke up and went for breakfast. At 9:20 we went to the train station where we rode the train into 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to catch our 11:30am bus to NYC.

Heading into NYC.

We arrived in NYC and the first place we went to was Madison Square Garden, if it was open I would have gone inside but it was undergoing renovations so I couldn't. However it was absolutely amazing to be right beside the Mecca for basketball.

Audge then convinced us get lunch at Grays Papaya, the closest one was 1.3 miles (2km) away. This was the start of our walking for the day. With Ryan and my stomachs grumbling at every smell and food place we passed, we were hoping that this place was worth the walk and the hunger. When we arrived it was a smallish hole in the wall style food place, it didn't look promising at all. I will be going back there next time I am in NYC. It was great!

About half way complete.

After lunch we took a 1.7 mile (2.7km) walk down to Ground Zero. There really isn't too much to see around there now. The old site has been fully fenced in for construction of the memorial and two massive new buildings are going up either side of it (I think one was halfway complete at 140 floors).

We walked around there for a bit following the crowd and trying to see if we could get in, you need to book a time now and there were none left for the day we had in New York.

Ground Zero.

From there we went to Brooklyn bridge (another 1.3 mile walk) and walked across about 1/3 of the way before deciding to turn back and catch a train back up to E34th (about 5 miles) street on our way back up to The Empire State Building and on our way to Time Square. When we first jumped on at Brooklyn Bridge station, I think that was the first station as we were the only ones in our carriage. I was thinking this isn't as bad as people make out, the train was reasonably clean and spacious... The next stop about 30 people walked on and by the next about another 80 people crammed into the train. This thing got full fast but was a blast to travel this way. 

Empire State Building.

We walked (0.2 miles) to the Empire State Building with the idea of climbing up to the top, but at $39 a piece our pocketbooks were saying no (I'll just have to get mum and dad to come next time!). 

Searching for a place to eat dinner we stumbled across a group of Asians (I assume they were Koreans because we were in Korea Town at the time) singing worship songs. This was awesome, and they weren't half bad either.

...to be continued....

Homesickness.

This has to be one of the worst feelings ever. I miss home, I miss my band, I miss my girlfriend and friends and family, I miss urban vineyard, and I miss music. I do feel helpless about this whole thing.

I am homesick.

I wish there was an easy answer or something I could "do" to fix this, but I think it's something I have to push on and push through. Today I am taking off, away from class to try and recoup. I haven't been sleeping the greatest either so I am pretty sore and tired on top of everything else. 

I messaged my Arts Integration professor this morning just to let him know what's up and that I wouldn't be coming in today. He replied:

Artists always understand.

I would like to escape to a field away from everything with a guitar and some friends and sing to Jesus. That would be nice.

Party in the USA, maybe not.

First week at EU is done and dusted, well kind of. I have a bunch of reading to do and assignments to get started on. There sure isn't a honeymoon period here. Right from the first class I could tell I was going to have to work a lot harder than I had before this semester. 

Going to the ball game.

On Monday I have Multicultural Education in the morning and Social Studies & Art in the evening. Tuesday is Arts Integration, Wednesday Multicultural Ed, Thursday Arts Integration and Friday is Multicultural Ed. again. 

Around that I'm going to have to fine 90 hours of placement time in a school classroom. This is going to be really tough as I have classes every day of the week and I am unable to skip classes to get more hours in a school. This will be tricky.

Trying to juggle multiple classes and assignments at once when I had been used to doing block courses will definitely be a challenge for me. Time management will become more key here than back home as I will have multiple assignments due near the same time as each other.

One of my classes also seems to be ridiculously hard, it is Multi-Cultural Education and it is a level 400 paper, which from my digging would be in between a level 7 and masters paper back home. I definitely do not doubt my ability to do this, but I don't think I'll have as much time to explore as I was hoping.

As part of orientation / induction week we were put into random groups and given a song we had to create a dance to. Our group got given Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus and this is what we came up with...

I have been making a bunch of new friends which has made my transition here a much easier one, especially being around 14,000km (8,000 miles) away from everything that I know. They have offered to take me places (I went to a Phillies game on Thursday), help with any questions I have about assignments etc. it has been a Godsend.

Citizens Bank Park, where the Philadelphia Phillies play.

Asking for prayer, it would be fantastic if you all could pray for my studies this semester as I really feel I am going to need Jesus' guidance to avoid being dumped on and caught in the undertow of academia and also for my friendships as they are developing.

Thank you for reading.

Eastern.

I arrived at Eastern a couple of days ago, it is now Monday and I am exhausted. A weekend full of induction and welcoming activities, late nights, sports, etc etc etc. The students here are LOUD, overly excited and I have no idea what to think of it haha.

My first day here left me wanting to go and hide in a nice and calm quiet place away from the hoorah and fanaticism of the freshmen (first years) arriving at uni with their parents. Oh and do those freshmen bring a crap load of gear for their halls.. I saw a few mini-vans packed to explode. I wonder how much they will actually use.

I've had a full schedule from when I arrived and it doesn't look to slow down for at least next Monday. Anyway I need to run again, I have a meeting with the faculty and transfer students.

I made it.

Last day in Ohio.

Wow, where do I start. Probably one of the best places to come and experience America from day one. The Lawson's have been flippin wonderful and their kids are adorable, when they're not feeding from each other ;)

The kids + monkey.

So many amazing things happened this week!

Firstly, I arrived seemlingly without a hitch. Then I was greeted with a true American burger at Red Robin. On Monday I walked Bailey to her first day of school for the year and hung out with Lynnette, Kaia, and Zion at the park for the day in the sweltering heat. Tuesday was Zion's day! Wednesday went for a massive walk around Columbus city (I also was blessed with an iPhone). Thursday I slept and then had an American BBQ and had an amazing time talking with the Lawsons' friends (they are so blessed to have such amazing friends around them). And today I went to the Zoo.

Batman?

Columbus Zoo covers over 234 hectares of land and is home to almost 9000 animals. Needles to say with 3 kids in tow, Lynnette and I didn't get to see much but it was still an adventure. I would have gladly spent the whole 30 degree Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) day in the water park next door (maybe when I come back!).

The zoo.

I need to pack and sleep.

For now it is Ka Kite Ano (see you again) Ohio, and Lawson family.