New York Posting #1
Well I'm here, I made it finally. And I had a great weekend aswell. I ended up not just watching the Pride parade, but being in it. Our volunteer group were invited to march along with an organisation called (wait for it) God's Love We Provide, who deliver meals to people with AIDs, along with the love of the almighty, apparently. They're not even a religious organisation either, just thought it sounded like a catchy name obviously. Anyway, we paraded down 5th Avenue and handed out sweets to the people watching, and waved lots even though we had nothing to do with the people we were marching with, but nevermind.
Pride in New York is a lot slower than Pride in London, because the parade has to stop all of the time to let the traffic cross the avenue. So after a while it all got a bit hot and tiresome, and I'm not sure what people are supposed to do when they need to go to the loo (sorry, bathroom). At one point, one of the drag queens from the float in front hitched up her dress and had a piss against the side of the float, to roaring cheers from the crowd. I decided not to do the same though, so our little group drifted off and left our sweet giving duties so that we could empty our bladders and find food. Apparently the best bit is when the parade gets to the village, which we completely missed, but to be honest, I realised that Pride in New York is the same as Pride anywhere, and apologies for being cynical, but there's only so much loud thumping techno music that I can take. Glad I did it though, it was an experience.
As for everything else, I'm getting on really well with the group of people that I'm travelling with, will definately make some long term friends out of this. The accomodation is fine. I start work tomorrow morning, and I'm really looking forward to it now.