Thanksgiving.

Well I get to experience my first ever Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday I flew into Columbus, OH. to meet up with Ron and Lynnette's and family for a week of thanks. 

Wednesday we had a few people and their kids come over for a vegan style (kinda, there was still turkey) dinner. We played games and there were plenty of laughs to be had. 

Today (Thursday) we are going out to Ron and Lynnette's  friends place for Thanksgiving dinner and for some football. 

Friday we are going back to Columbus Zoo at night time because they have lights all set up. I have been told this will be similar to Pukekura Park back home, albeit less spectacular.

Saturday I get to go tailgating at the Ohio State University versus University of Michigan game. Apparently this is a huge game and an intense rivalry so this should be fun (I will have to be on my best behaviour though, cant incite a riot now!). The weather forecast for that day is going to be cold too! A high of 35 and a low of 23 degrees Fahrenheit (freezing is 32). Glad I packed my thermals! 

And finally on Sunday it's church and I'm playing in the church band at night! It's been a while since I've jammed with a full band but it'll be nice for sure! 

Oh and then after church I fly back to Philadelphia and maybe rush in some last minute homework... by the sounds of what is planned I am unsure with how much homework is going to be done.

Thankful.

Video.

Title says it all really.

I did this video to capture the walk from my dorm to the dining commons, or my classes. This is only one small corner of campus.

Was a bit of fun to do.

Sandy.

Well Hurricane Sandy came and went without anything more than power outages and trees falling around where I was, it didn't even blow the pile of leaves off the front lawn where I was staying near Pottstown, PA. However Sandy did a lot of damage to the coastal areas, especially New Jersey, NYC, Cuba, and all the islands around there. Please pray for the people who are affected still. They need it.

The other day I met a student here at Eastern who's family had been displaced by the Hurricane, they were currently staying at a refuge as their house is not safe to live in and awaiting inspection. Hopefully they will get a green sticker saying that the house is safe to inhabit again. I pray for this. Another unfortunate thing is that the inspectors cannot come around until the houses have electricity but the power company wont put the electricity back on until the houses are safe and secure for fear of causing fires. Reminds me of what is going on in Christchurch at the moment because of the earthquakes.

Speaking of the earthquakes in Christchurch, it's really surreal to know that a place where you once were is now destroyed or severely damaged. This happened in Christchurch where I was in the Cathedral there and then the next day Christchurch had their fist 7.1 magnitude earthquake. After more earthquakes following that the Cathedral was destroyed and no one will enter that building again as it once was.

In some of the places I went in NYC were completely swamped by water. Ground Zero had sea water rushing down into it...

Sea water floods the Ground Zero construction site, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain. (Photo: John Minchillo / AP)

The subways became flooded..

This is a few miles north of where I used the subway, even further away from where the storm surge hit.
(Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority)  

Up near the Bronx. (Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority)  

Tunnels too...

Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin

More pics here.

Such a surreal feeling to have been there and then to see these places like this only a week after.

I really pray for those that were affected that Jesus draws near to them and comforts them and gives them the strength and supernatural peace to carry on and get life back to normal.

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.