travel

It has been a day

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Well, it seems I have a cold. I am not feeling very well and the fatigue is building again.

But I am still enjoying Boston. The weather is lovely at the moment—the air is brisk and there’s a low fog hanging over the city. The buildings here are beautiful. Some of them are clad in shingles and the neat rows remind me of the weatherboard houses in Vic Park back home. It’s nice.

We had a lunch at HUNAP (Harvard University Native American Program) today, where we heard about the services available to Indigenous students at Harvard and some of the courses taught there as well. Unfortunately I had to leave halfway through to have a lie down, but it was definitely still worth attending.

In the afternoon I stopped by the Coop (Harvard’s merch store—everybody here calls it the coop [like chicken coop] rather than co-op [like co-operative]) and then bounced around four or five different shops in search of new shoelaces for my boots. I had success just in time to jump on the shuttle back to the hotel!

The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent napping. I am taking a brief break from rest to write this blog post and do some admin tasks before my full day of meetings tomorrow. I might stop by the chemist in the morning for some cold and flu tablets to make my day more bearable.

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A nice view from my Uber this morning

Hello Massachusetts!

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We have arrived in Boston (well, Cambridge, technically).

We left our New York accommodation at 8.30 this morning to avoid the complication of trying to navigate through the New York Marathon, and then had three hours to kill at the airport. Some of the Scholars found little nooks to nap in, while others amused themselves with comparing terrible coffees with worse ones.

I found a bunch of magazines with AI features and accidentally bought them. And also one on Mars (as research for the short story I’m writing).

We had dinner at a little Japanese restaurant—which was delicious—and then came back to our hotel for a debrief and a chat about the week to come.

Boston (Cambridge) is so pretty. It’s nice to be under the open sky again and surrounded by trees. And I’m looking forward to my Harvard meetings; I’ve also been invited to a seminar discussing how search engines reinforce racism. It should be interesting!

On Thursday I’m going to sneaky sneak over to MIT for a meeting about a super cool PhD program which mashes together History / Anthropology / Science, Technology and Society. Excitement!

Oh, and the fatigue is starting to subside. Hooray!

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Trees!! I am happy.

Last day in New York

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Today we attended the Ivy Native Council Fall Summit, which featured presentations and workshops on the theme of Expansion, Intervention, Refusal: Representing Indigeneity through Art in New York City.

I left at lunch time due to fatigue, but prior to that I got to chat with some lovely Indigenous students from all over the US about our experiences and our homes.

One student from Arizona showed me pictures of her home town—the landscape was gorgeous. The colours reminded me of Western Australia, but the topography was completely different. She showed me a picture of a cedar tree and the trunk looked very much like that of a bottlebrush, though the structure of the branches and leaves was very different.

I napped in the afternoon, and then a group of us went out to a Japanese restaurant a couple of blocks away for dinner. The food was delicious and made me miss all the amazing little Japanese places in Perth. I’m keen for Hakata Gensuke ramen when I get home!

Tomorrow morning we’re taking a short flight to Boston. It looks like it’ll be a busy week at Harvard but I’m hoping to cancel or reschedule a couple of my meetings so I don’t burn out.

I’m very glad I made it to Central Park yesterday. It’s actually made it easier to notice and appreciate what little greenery is scattered around the city.

Thanks, New York, and see you again.

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The opening presentation at the Ivy Native Council Fall Summit

I made it to Central Park!

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Today was another bad fatigue day, so I ended up cancelling my meetings and sleeping instead. In the afternoon I caught an Uber to Central Park and spent a couple of hours there wandering around.

It was nice to be surrounded by nature, though even there the sounds of the city permeate.

I found a bench inscribed: “Shay’s bench—she taught us a masterclass in how to lead a life” and sat on it for a while. From there I could see people rowing on the lake, and hear their laughter through the trees.

My favourite part of the day was walking through the Ramble, probably the most natural-feeling area of the park (even though the trees are fenced off and the paths are all bitumen). According to the signage at the entrance it’s one of the best places for bird-watching in the United States. I saw a cardinal finch and got very excited! And promptly forgot to take a picture of it.

Fun fact: Perth’s Kings Park is bigger than Central Park, at 400.6 ha vs Central Park’s 315 ha. Take that, America.

After resting on Shay’s Bench I went in search of Bethesda Fountain. I did find it, but from the other side of the lake. One of the other Scholars and I stood on opposite shores and waved.

Then it was back in an Uber and to the accommodation to rest. Later, one of the other Scholars shaved my undercut for me (it was getting long and looking a bit weird). The evening has been slow and lazy. I have binged a lot of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix.

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View of the city skyline from a bridge in Central Park

Fatigue strikes again

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I had a lazy day today. I had hoped to go across to Brooklyn and look around, but my fatigue was bad so I mostly just rested.

I had breakfast with one of the other Scholars at a restaurant down the road. They had little pumpkins as table centrepieces for Halloween, which I still find kind of odd. So many pumpkins, so little eating of pumpkins.

After breakfast I picked up my washing from the laundromat and came back to the accommodation to rest. I went out again briefly for lunch and to investigate the Columbia book shop (it was disappointing), then came back and napped again.

I spent most of the afternoon working on a short story for the Neilma Sidney short story prize on the theme of travel. I’m nearly done with the first draft and will hopefully have it ready well before the November 19th deadline!

Tomorrow I have my last NYU and Columbia meetings, and hopefully my fatigue will be a bit more manageable so I can stop by Central Park before we have to move on to the next city. It’s a shame that I haven’t been able to do many touristy things or see much of the city, but I guess that just means I’ll have to come back! Next time I think I will spend longer here to allow for fatigue days and tourist days.

Also, I ate half a tub of Haagen Dazs ice cream. It was great.

Self, eating ice cream
Self, eating ice cream
Self, eating ice cream
Self, eating ice cream

Halloween and such

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Today was a good, if exhausting, day. I met with Professor Kimon Keramidas at NYU and had a good chat about science fiction and the Masters in Experimental Humanities program, then I got to sit in on his class discussing urban spaces in science fiction. It was so good. All the students were so insightful and intelligent and I felt like the littlest fish in the biggest pond. It was great.

We had a group dinner at Mel’s Burgers just down the road in Harlem, then all hopped on the subway to wander around the city for Halloween. There was a parade on somewhere, but we couldn’t find it, so we just walked around looking at all the different costumes and chatting. It was a good evening.

I’m feeling very conflicted about this city. I’m swinging between not liking it at all, and thinking that maybe I could make it work if I found the right place to stay and a good support network. I found a bunch of dance schools today that do rhythm tap classes, which would be absolutely amazing. I might try to drop in to one of the studios tomorrow and try a class—hopefully they will let me borrow some shoes!

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Starbucks memes are real – just call me JR from now on

Perhaps it’s not so bad?

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New York is growing on me, surprisingly. I’m still not a huge fan, and I still don’t think I could live here, but I will begrudgingly admit that it’s not awful.

My favourite part of this city is the subway. I love the feeling of being down beneath the surface surrounded by warm-white tiles and still air. The place we’re staying is right next to an elevated line, so I can hear the trains going by at all hours, which I find very comforting. I love the noises of the city, the windows rattling as buses idle in the street outside.

There still aren’t enough trees, though.

Today I met with a current (Australian!) student in the writing program at Columbia, and had a good chat about the program and what it’s like living and studying in New York. The course sounds amazing, honestly. So I’m going to go have a mosey around Brooklyn tomorrow to see if there’s anywhere in this vast place that could feel remotely like a home for a little while. I’m not holding my breath.

The one thing I absolutely have to do before we move on to Boston is to go to Central Park. All the other touristy things can wait until my next visit (…yes, there will probably be a next visit) but I have to see Central Park. I’m hoping Thursday will be as sunny and nice as it was today, because I have the whole day free to wander around and soak in the vibes of the urban oasis.

I also need to get to the post office some time this week and send some stuff home (I may have accidentally bought a few too many books).

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Look! some trees!

Columbia

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Today I had my first two meetings at Columbia University, with staff from the creative writing Master of Fine Arts program.

I had a bit of a rough start to the day, as I was feeling a little homesick and missing my dog and the trees and the gardens. But the other Scholars were super supportive, with two of the girls taking me out for coffee in the morning and another coming to bunk with me tonight (hi Gem!).

The day took a definite turn for the better in the writing offices at Columbia. Let me just say: books. Wall to wall books. I was in heaven.

The two people I spoke with were absolutely lovely too, with the Director of Academic Administration going out of his way to recommend coffee spots and book shops and other courses that might be a good fit for me. I’ve got his contact details and have extended an offer of ramen and book shopping should he ever end up in my corner of the world.

Then this evening we had our New York reception at the home of Patrick Loftus-Hills and Konnin Tam, who spoiled us with snacks and drinks and intelligent conversation. Their dog Harlan was the cutest thing, and gave me lots of snuggles throughout the evening.

After a subway ride home, we ate some leftover Indian food and are now settling down to sleep. I’m feeling better about being in New York this evening. It was nice to have everyone together as a group again.

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This building near Patrick and Konnin’s apartment in Tribeca felt very science fiction

Rest Day?

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I had been planning to take it easy today, but it ended up being quite busy. After a late breakfast at a small café near our accommodation, four of us took the subway down to Fifth Ave, where we then parted ways.

I wandered down to Grand Central Station and took another train out to Lower Manhattan where I proceeded to get very lost when the store I was looking for was literally right opposite the subway entrance. Grand Central is indeed very grand, and I could see the top of the Empire State Building from the entrance. I was a bit too tired today to go see it up close, but I’m sure I’ll find time before the end of this week.

Back in Midtown I met up with one of the other Scholars and we took a wander through Times Square. It was very busy and very bright, but not quite as spectacular as I had been expecting. We took some selfies and spent some time sitting and people watching, and then took the subway back towards our accommodation on Broadway.

On our way home we stopped in at a little restaurant to eat ramen and drink bubble tea, and had a good giggle over our different taste in movies (my faves make her cringe, and vice versa).

Then it was time to part ways again and climb into bed with my newest bookish purchase (I can’t help myself!)—Good Bye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, a collection of personal essays edited by Sari Botton.

After walking around New York in the daylight I can say that it isn’t quite as awful as I thought when I first saw it last night, but it’s still definitely not my cup of tea. I’m looking forward to my academic meetings this week, but the courses will have to be pretty darn good to tempt me to stay in this city for any length of time.

I can see myself spending a lot of time in Central Park for the remainder of our time here.

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Being a nerd in Times Square

New York, New York

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Today we woke up around 4am to travel to the airport for our flight to New York. I got really ill on the plane, but the flight attendants were so lovely and moved me closer to the front so I could lay down and sleep, and I felt better after that.

We landed late-afternoon and took a shuttle through the suburbs to our accommodation. The houses were beautiful, with steep roofs and cute little details on the window frames. Once we drove into the city proper, though, it was all tall buildings and grime.

We’ve only been here for a few hours so I’m trying not to judge it too quickly, but already I’m feeling like New York is not the place for me. I’m hoping to go see Central Park either tomorrow or the day following to fill my veins with nature. I’m already missing California’s trees and grasses.

It’s a full-on week this week, with meetings at both NYU and Columbia. I doubt I’ll have time for many tourist-y activities, but I am very open to suggestions if anybody has them!