Leaving the financial district

Today was my last day in 110 Greenwich street. I have moved to East village, which is a much more fun area. And the apartment is only a two minutes walk from the school.

But I am gonna miss the rooftop balcony.

Warehouse party in Brooklyn

I really don't know where to start. Last night I was at this party in an old brewery building. It was kind of crazy. I was suppose to go with a group of people that I've never met. I've been mailing one of them about a room that I was thinking of renting (actually I didn't really consider it, it was in New Jersey). Any way, he invited me to this party. They were really really delayed so I ended up going by my self. That was no problem, it was this kind of party which is fun regardless of who you go with. There were a lot of crazy dressers there. Fifty percent of people there had what's considered normal clothing. The other half looked like they came from a American Apparel commercial / Carnival freak show. There were this Aladdin character who was constantly making out with a women in a wedding dress. A woman (50 +) in turquoise spandex tights danced with a rubber snake. In one corner a man was shouting in a megaphone, he had made a stand where you could throw cakes at him. There were an Axel Rose look a like (Tokyo live, red hot pants). The first DJ wore nothing but a home made thong and many of the female bartenders had a very burlesque look. I had obviously picked out an outfit which suggested that I was a dealer. People approached me and asked if I was selling blow.

There were also shows around in the building. There were at one point three female acrobats dancing and doing stunts from fabrics hanging from the high ceiling over the dance floor. When they were finished, the music was turned down and a band started playing in the neighboring room. They played a punk Balkan mix. It was really fun, not the best musicians, but that didn't matter. Two girls walked around in front of the stage pouring tequila in/on people. Soaked in liquor I walked back to the main dance floor. A man was inside a balloon. He got out of it and went in to another. When his last balloon burst, an enormous amount of rose leafs started falling from the roof and the dance floor exploded.

I don't think the party had reached its climax when I left around 4:30am.

Party in Alphabet city

Last night I went to a party in Alphabet city. It is an area in East village from ave A through ave D. The party was hosted by J who is M's roomie, I think it was some kind of farewell party for a Spanish girl who lived there. J was a nice guy. I came quite late, people were already puking and passing out, and I was completely sober. But J took care of that he saw it that I had some thing to drink all the time. There were high hip hop and blunt factor at the party. The crowed was mainly put together of trendy Japanese people from Tokyo and some Spanish folks. As it got late and half the people there had capitulated, we went to a club at ave B. J was still concerned with me getting to their level of tipsiness and kept buying me Apple Jacks. It was a cool little club. Kind of dark, kind of trendy minimalistic, but worn out.

When I decided to go home, the sky opened up and the rain was pouring down tropical style. But I was in a good mood and danced my way home listening to MGMT.

Cherry Vanilla Pluss

In Norway I was always obsessed with trying new flavors on known brands. Like Vanilla Coke. It was great! But no one else seemed to like it. Only mister V and me would go through fire to keep that one on the market.

The States is heaven when it comes to strange flavored sodas. Some days ago, I had Coca Cola Pluss. It tastes pretty much like a diet coke, but it contains vitamins an minerals! I hope that people are smart enough to understand that this won't cover their daily needs. I also had a Dr. Pepper with vanilla and Cherry. When it was really cold it tasted just like marzipan. As it got warmer, the artificial cherry taste became more and more distinct. I'm really open and resistant to the strangeness, but yesterday I had capitulate. I tasted a root beer. Thats the most awful, disgusting soda I've ever tasted in my life!

Today I think I'll go for a Cream soda of some kind today.
I'm gonna be filled to the brim of carcinogenic substances when I come home.

NY Circle Line

Today I had my first meeting with Cooper Union Students. It was fun. Didn't meet any art students, only Engineer students, they really were sweet, but so young! They were all 18 and 19 years old. All freshmen. I'm seriously going to be the oldest student at school, Grandpa A. We went on a complementary cruise around the southern parts of Manhattan. We got to see the Statue of liberty and the new Olafur Eliasson installation "Waterfall".

There was a DJ on board the boat, playing all kinds of silly hits (inc. Rednex and Macarena!!!). And people were dancing unembarrassed. From a Scandinavian perspective, this was kind of awkward. But it was entertaining and really lightened the atmosphere.

Money to burn

I've gotten my money from the Norwegian Student Loan Funding, I'm really aching to spend them. I tried to be rational, and decided to go for some vintage shopping. I walked in 7th to 12th street between 1st and 3rd ave. It is suppose to be a lot of secondhand shops there. And it was, but none of them had any good selection for men. I walked down to Alice Underground on Broadway between Broome st and Prince st, But it wasn't there anymore . Really annoying! Alice underground was a really huge (I have read this) vintage shop with a good assortment of clothes. The designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of D&G has been spotted there, looking for clothes to inspire their new collections.

Since I came here I've bought three pairs of purple socks. If you asked me why, I couldn't come up with a good answer. The problem is that I can't wear them with any of the pants I posses. I have to get some new ones. That was the actual goal for my search. But I had no luck.

I didn't acquire any vintage clothes today. But I did get a pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs jeans at Bloomingdale´s.

34 east, 7th street

Finally! I have permanent accommodation for the rest of my stay here in NYC. Me and L are going to be roomies.

Corner of Broadway and Prince Street

I've been to two really good stores (and loads of pretty good ones) so far. None of them are hidden jewels, but shops that most people here know about, but still. The UNIQLO flagship store on 546 Broadway is great. UNIQLO is a Japanese brand, I guess you could say it's American Apparels less sexy sister. It's the perfect place to obtain the base garments of your wardrobe.

The other good place is on the corner of the same block. It's Dean & DeLuca, it has nothing to do with the Norwegian convenience store chain Deli de Luca, except that the name is suspiciously similar. Dean & DeLuca is a super fresh upscale grocery store on 560 Broadway at Prince Street. I love food, and it always makes me happy to go into a quality store! Since I don't have a permanent place to stay, I couldn't be bothered to buy any of the goodies except a delicious ham and brie sandwich. Yummy!!

Thank god for Craigslist

On Thursday I got a bit of a scare. I suddenly realized that I hadn't booked a bed in the hostel for any longer, and I still didn't have a permanent place to stay. I got on to the web and to Hostels.com to reserve one. It turned out that I wasn't the only one who needed a bed the upcoming weekend or the coming week for that sake. The rooms were from 150,- dollar per night and up. And I'm not talking about ensuite singles. Anyway it might not be that expensive, but it's to much for my student budget, and I was looking at a at least nine nights stay.

I went on to craigslist.org. There you can find anything from bikes to sex-partners. It can actually be quite good entertaining reading the personals. I found a room who was available for a short term rent. It was announced for females only, but since my other alternative was sleeping in my suitcase in Central Park, I gave it a shot. I got the room. I'm now staying with a Russian girl in an apartment right next to ground zero. The picture above is taken from the rooftop balcony. In the lower left corner you can see the place where the second tower was.