The Sickness and Sadness

I am writing from the small town of Seaton in the county of Rutland which is north of London, England. I am currently watching over my cousin Jerry's dog and his house while he and his wife, Charlotte, are away on vacation to Italy. NYC has come and gone. Actually, it went much faster then I thought it would. Things did not go exactly as I had envisioned for my stay in NYC.

I had planned to see and do a lot of things in NY before my flight to London. I was supposed to be there for about 6 full days in NY. I arrived on the 19th and was due to leave on the 25th. This did end up being what happened, but my body gave out on me well before the 25th arrived and I did not end up staying in NY the entire time. On the morning of Friday, February 22nd, I woke up with a dreadful sickness that hit me extremely fast. I was fine the night before; a little tired, yes, but fine. I have since been doing my best to get over whatever virus it is that has infected me. It was not until yesterday that I have finally started to feel somewhat normal again. It is due to this sickness that I was not able to do everything that I had planned while I was in NYC. What did I get to do then?

The first full day I had in the city I spent at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). That took up most of my day seeing as how I spent about 5, or so, hours at the museum. I also decided that I wanted some free internet access so I went to the Apple Store on 5th Ave and took advantage of their computers and internet. The rest of the day I spent exploring options of what I could do with the rest of my time while in NYC. I took a lot of pictures on this day which you can see by clicking on the picture at the bottom of this post.

My second full day in NY began with me having to check out of my room at the hostel where I stayed the first two nights. As luck would have it, I did end up finding someone on couchsurfing who was willing to take me in for two nights at his place in New Jersey, but I was not scheduled to meet him until the very end of this day. I decided that I would take all of my gear with me where ever my travels happened to take me this day since it would have costed me some money to store it and I would have had to make an extra trip to come back to pick it all up. So my day began as I walked around a large part of the city carrying all of my things and wearing sandals. The looks I got from native New Yorkers for wearing sandals in 30 degree weather was quite amusing; they all seemed to think I was crazy. I found I had to explain to a number of people it was only because of a wart on my toe that I am needed to be in sandals rather than regular shoes. Although, I never said it was a wart, only that my toe was injured and I was trying to heal it. Most people seemed to very relieved by this statement and proceeded to look at me normally from that point on. Anyway, back to what I ended up doing with my time on this day: I ended up eating at the Carnegie Delicatessen which my Uncle Ken recommended to me. I ordered a corned beef sandwich for $13. After getting the sandwich, I can see why they charge $13 for it; the thing was huge. I took a picture of it and it is in the NYC album linked below. I also stopped by the Carnegie Hall to see if there were any performances that looked like they would fit into my schedule for the rest of the week. I had every intention of going to a performance here, but because I got sick, that never happened. After this I walked around a lot and went where ever my feet took me. I ended up seeing a lot of midtown Manhattan. I stopped at the Rockefeller Plaza where the NBC studios are located. This is also where the Nintendo World Store is located (of which, I had no idea) so I visited that store as well. My main destination for the day was the International Center of Photography. I did make it to the building and entered in the lobby, but by the time I got there, I was quite tired from already walking for a couple of hours around the city with all my gear and did not feel like I had the energy to concentrate on art. I did take some pamphlets and other materials that they gave out for free though. At this point since I was so tired I decided that I would go to the New York Public Library to sit down and relax to recover my strength before moving on. Upon entering the building, I was informed that I would not be able to enter with my backpack and since they were not going to hold it for me, I could not go in the building. I then walked to the United Nations building. After going through the visitors checkpoint at the UN you enter into somewhat of a lobby area that all the public has access to, but really, it is all the general public has access to unless you go on a tour. By this time, it was getting near the time in the day that I was due to meet H.B. from couchsurfing at the Grand Central Station so that he could take me to his place in Jersey where I was to stay for the next two nights. I decided that it was to late in the day to start a tour of the UN so I left with the intention of coming back another day to take in the sights from the other parts of the building. I proceeded to the Grand Central Station and met H.B. He was a very nice guy and we got along quite well. He took me back to his place in Jersey City which turned out to be about half an hour away from Manhattan on a train which I was more then happy with considering I got to stay for free. Later that night, H.B. took me to my first couchsurfing party where I got to meet some other couchsurfers from NY and all over. By the end of the night I was feeling quite tired, but I assumed that it was just due to me having carried all my gear around for about 8 hours all through NYC. After all, that was the first time I had carried my gear with me for an entire day and I assumed that it would be difficult the first time.

The next morning I woke up completely sick. H.B. had already left for work and since this was my first time couchsurfing I figured I should not stay inside the persons house all day even if I was sick because I was not sure if that was okay or not. I opened the curtains and everything was covered in snow. I decided that it probably would not be a good idea to wear my sandals on this day. I left H.B.s house with the intention of seeing the International Center for Photography since I did not get to on the previous day. Even though I got to leave my gear at H.B.s place on this day, by the time I got to the center, I was completely exhausted and did not feel like I had the energy to walk around let alone concentrate on looking at art. I again made my way to the New York Public Library. This time, they let me in the front doors and I was able to look around. I finally made my way into the art section of the library where I found a Norman Rockwell book to occupy my sickly self. I did not get to see or do much more during this day because I was so debilitated by whatever it was I had. I did not have the energy to do very much at all; even taking pictures sounded like a chore. For the last couple of days prior to this I had been conversing back and forth with my cousin Cal who was up in Connecticut with the NAVY. The tentative plan was for him to come down to NYC for the day so that we could visit, however, by the end of the day I had decided that with me being as debilitated as I was, there was not really any point in me staying in the city since I probably would not end up doing very much and I had no idea where I would have been sleeping either.

So, the next day I parted ways with H.B. after a very pleasant couchsurfing experience and hopped on a train bound for Connecticut. I stayed the rest of the time on the East Coast with my cousin at his hotel room. Cal did arrange for us to take a tour of a submarine that was ported in Groton. I found that to be quite interesting and claustrophobic. After going nuts on the open sea on a sailboat after only 8 days, I cannot imagine living in a tightly enclosed tin can for months at a time with no sea to look at.

So looking back at NY, it is to bad that I got sick because I wish I had been able to go see a performance at Carnigee Hall; I wish I had been able to go on a tour of the UN; I wish I had been able to get down to China Town to have some Dim Sum. Most of all, however, I wish I had made my way into the International Center of Photography. I just hope this sickness thing does not become the norm anytime I venture into a new area. I did get to spend some quality time with my cousin, though. I just hope I did not get him sick as well.

When Monday, the 25th rolled around I was back on a train headed for JFK airport in NY for my flight to London. The flight went by without any problems, and I even got a little sleep on the plane. I got into London the next day at about 7am London time. Originally, the plan was to have me stop by the Madison House where my cousin Jerry's wife Charlotte is living and working in order to pick up their dog, Miriah, to take her straight up to Seaton that afternoon. Once I arrived at the Madison House, I had very little energy left in me. I ended up taking a nap, which really turned into me sleeping for a number of hours. I decided that it would probably be best if I traveled up to Seaton on the morrow.

That is exactly what I did, and now here I am with Miriah and the Seaton house all to myself for the next week and a bit. I am finally starting to feel better and am beginning to come around to my normal self once more. I will be spending my time here at the Seaton house relaxing and trying to determine where it is that I will go from here. Once my cousin and his wife return from their trip to Italy, Jerry and I will probably go on some trips together and I plan on helping him do some projects here around the house while I stay with them. Hopefully I will find some volunteer work here in the UK and visit some areas worth note.

At this point I feel a little odd. I have been thinking a lot about the future and the past. It is hard to believe that my life, as I have known it, up to this point, has changed, now, forever. When I return to the states, I have no idea what I will be doing or where I will be doing it. I feel as though the places I go, the things I see and the people that I meet during this travel adventure will all have a huge impact on where my life will take me...and that is a little scary for me. I feel pressure to make the "right" choices to lead my life in a direction that I am satisfied with and yet I do not even know what those choices are or when they will get here. I am also currently dealing with feelings of sadness and separation. I have fallen in love with the girl I am dating, Irene.

Irene means the world to me and it was very hard for me to leave her in order to do what I know it is that I have to. Not knowing when I will see her again makes me extremely sad, but at the same time I feel so very fortunate and lucky to have found her. Had I not sent off a single myspace message a couple months ago, right now I would be non-the-wiser with regards to the feelings that I am experiencing right now. I would feel no sadness or hardship, but I would never trade these bad feelings away if that meant that I would have to give back all the memories that she and I have made together in the past few months. It is because of Irene that I have love in my life and that I know what that love is and means. The relatively few days that I have spent with her have been the happiest of my entire life and I look forward with eager anticipation when I will get to look into her eyes and hold her hand once more.

I have uploaded pictures from NYC:

New York City