I actually managed to buy myself a cable to upload my pictures from my camera…but I can’t seem to get them on here!! but they’re up on facebook so you can check them out there if you’re interested!
Goodbye East Coast.
Hey everyone!
I’m on the flight from JFK to San Francisco, with about an hour to go. So my New York experience has come to end.. On Tuesday I met my Aunt Marybeth for dinner and then she brought me to a show! We saw American Idiot, oh ya, a musical featuring all the songs from the one Greenday album I really know well. It was as expected, a punk rock musical full of lots of angst, but it was good, my Aunt even liked it! Wednesday was my last day of work which was fun cause Fred went out and bought us all Snickers ice cream (a favorite of mine) to celebrate! I was beyond excited, you can imagine.
I’d decided to go into NYC on Thursday, just to spend one last full day in the city which was a great last day! got the usual train in, headed down to my usual Soho/Greenwich Village area and got some last minute gifts for the Manleys. Despite the FREEZING cold, it was really sunny and just a great day to walk around and soak up my last remaining hours of Manhattan. After walking down a couple of my favorite streets, I got on the subway up to Central Park cause I hadn’t gotten up there yet, walked through the park for a little bit but it was really too cold to enjoy.
Next stop: M&M World, Time Square. I promised Cath I’d get us a bag of hand-chosen m&ms to share in San Francisco :) And honestly there was no way I was going to leave NY without making a stop there. I decided to grab some lunch on my way but it turned into a stressful experience. Walking to Time Sq. from up where I was meant walking through the madness of Midtown at lunch time. Basically ALL the people working on Park/ Madison/ 5th Avenues hitting the streets to get their own lunch PLUS the flocks of tourists meant madness on the streets and nowhere to eat. I was seriously stressing out and really hungry, which didn’t help the situation. A subway entrance suddenly appeared amongst the masses and I ran for it.
Went back downtown, grabbed lunch, and finally made it up to Time Square. I headed into M&M World alongside all the German tourist kids, filled some bags with a few pounds of m&ms, paid way too much money for them and got out of there fast. Time Square is only fun when your with other people, otherwise you just feel seriously out of place. I can’t get over how different upper and lower Manhattan are, like 2 completely different cities.
That night we had a really nice dinner back at the Manleys, complete with the best ice cream cake in the world, literally. I was supposed to fly out yesterday but then the flight got cancelled so here I am! I’ll update you soon with my California experiences, miss you!
decision time
Not much to update on this week, it was pretty uneventful, besides the day I managed to sleep through my alarm and not wake up until 10.30am..didn’t quite make into the city that day..Main news of this week was my boss at the ARChive offering me a paid job until April 12th! Whaat. I guess I would be in charge of a project they’ve got going, which would’ve been nice to have on my CV. So I thought about it all day, consulted with both parents and finally came to the conclusion that I would turn down the offer. I won’t bore you with the details of my decision-making but bottom line is I miss being home with all of you guys, and as much as I’ve loved working in New York I’m feeling like it’s time to move on to the next leg of my journey! So, it’s looking like it’s on to California next weekend! Can’t wait!! AND I’m still planning on being back home by mid-March!
UNC, with Luciee.
Hey guys!
I’m finally making myself sit down and update…in between episodes of Gossip Girl..I’m not proud of myself. So I guess the next installment is gonna be an account of my days in North Carolina, visiting the wonderful Lucie Shelly! I’ll try keep it as short as possible.
So on Thursday morning, after a night of trying to get myself to pack, I got my directions to JFK airport and headed out. With my only excuse being that I was so concerned with trying to drive to JFK without getting lost in Queens, I managed to forget my passport. Classic Repko traveling. Luckily for me I only needed photo ID since I wasn’t leaving the country.. Unlucky for me all I had was my Irish driver’s license which isn’t the most official-looking document, more like a laminated piece of pink paper with a picture stuck on it. So I ended up making it to JFK only to be faced with the security proceedures of the American airport. The circumstances weren’t looking too promising but I was EVENTUALLY let through security. Now for the joys of flying on standby. I waited 2 hours at my gate to hear if I would get on the next flight to N.Carolina, which I didn’t, and the next flight a couple hours later wasn’t looking too promising. You could say I was a little anxious while I watched them board the flight, and all I could hear was the “last call for Patel party of 3 for the 2.30 flight to Raleigh/Durham” over the loudspeaker. Welll the Patel’s never showed up and I got my seat on the flight! I couldn’t believe it!
The flight was a quick one, and as soon as I stepped out of the RDU airport doors my bad mood pretty much disintegrated, it felt like summer!! Waiting outside for the bus was an enjoyable (to say the least) 20 minutes after living in the tundra for the past month. I felt like I was living a Dixie Chicks song (see: ‘Travelling Soldier’) as the bus drove through the forests of North Carolina, with a guy in his full US Marines uniform sitting in the row in front of me, holding hands with his UNC girlfriend who he was visiting for the weekend, getting smiles from the patriotic bus-takers and getting a free bus ride from the driver. Picture-perfect.
I finally made it to Lucie’s campus. The bus drove up to the stop and all I could see was Lucie’s horrified face scanning the windows cause she couldn’t see me on it, assuming I managed to get on the wrong bus or something :) I ran off the bus and after a couple screams and hugs we made our way down the road to Lucie’s favorite restuarant for some dinner.
The weekend consisted of dinner with friends, sitting on the BEAUTIFUL UNC campus, in the INCREDIBLE weather, reading, getting sun burnt(!!). My cousin Mary Claire actually happened to be at UNC that weekend too with her improv comedy group from college so we got to see them perform which was sweeet! AND me and Lu got to have dinner with the little beauty too, it was a pretty nice coincidence that we were all there at the same time. Another night me, Lucie and her roommate Lauren went to their friend Elly’s Jazz/ Latin music concert (she’s a flute major!) that ended in me and Luc hitting the floor with our Latin dancing moves. It was so much fun, I’d never really gone to see a live Jazz concert, or live Latin music either! Very cool. After that we headed home, changed our clothes, and headed out to a bar called The Station in the next town over where we met all of Lucie’s friends and danced ALL night and had an awesome time.
Well that was my feeble attempt at keeping this post short and sweet. Hope everyone’s doing great! Missing you.
Procrastinating..
Hey guys!
Well I’ve finally managed to set a date to visit Lucie Shelly in UNC! I’m flying out of JFK tomorrow, fingers crossed that I don’t get lost driving to the airport and that I get on a flight (I’m going on the usual stand-by) pleasee, I’m a little nervous. I should be packing, I need to get up at about 6.30am..oh well!
Work was alright this week, nothing too exciting but I did get to catalogue these really sweet remastered copies of all 13 Beatles albums. I ended up reading through the front booklets of about 5 of them until I realized I was taking a ridiculously long time to get through those babies. We also had a lengthy debate on what we could throw into Leonardo DiCaprio’s neglected yet constantly running pool that’s just under our back window, to see how long it would take for someone to notice. We decided that buying some live frogs from Chinatown would be the most effective but the plan hasn’t been executed as of yet. I’ll keep you posted. So that was a productive hour at work too.
I’m having a slight obsession with Bruno Mars this week after watching the Grammys, and spend my drive to and from the train station flicking back and forth the 2 radio stations I know of waiting for ‘Grenade’ to come on. This ones my particular favorite though… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGANPhIQgoM
Tonight I met the Manleys (my adoptive family) in the city for dinner! I was so pumped all day, I love going out for dinner and I knew it was sure to be a good one. So I left work at 4, had 2 hours to kill before meeting for dinner on 9th Ave in the Meat Packing District of Manhattan (West Side). Mission: birthday presents. So I headed to my favorite stationary store to get some birthday cards and wrapping paper for Lucie and dad, proceeded to walk towards my favorite bookstore to get Lucie’s present but ended up finding another cool one called Housing Works Bookstore that had a cafe AND the book I was looking for (‘All The Pretty Horses’, Cormac McCarthy), it was wonderful.
So I made my purchases (books for like $5!!??) and sat down with a cup of coffee, imagining I was cool enough to be one of the regulars there.. Thennn I made my way to the restaurant which took a little over half an hour, discovering a new part of the city which is always appreciated. The restaurant was incredible, must have been something like a carpark before cause you had to go down a flight of stairs in a room that was about 3 stories high! Very cool. As my dad said, “only in New York City”.
Oh ya.
Anyway I think that’s enough for tonight, I really should start packing.. Missing you all as always :)
Sorry I really wanted to include pictures in these blogs but I don’t have the cable for the camera! Pretty annoyed..
Boston..
Ok now onto the Boston excursion! On Friday morning I took Grandma Betty’s old Subaru, loaded up with fuel, with 2 different sets of printed directions on the passenger seat and hit the road towards Boston! Thank God for Ipod players. It was an extremely enjoyable 3 and a half hour road trip up, filled with sing-alongs to goood music (the shuffle setting is the best thing about an ipod) and a lengthy hunt for a McDonalds drive-thru…even though they seem to be off every exit.. Managed to make it to Boston without getting lost, despite all the warnings that I would “definitely get lost driving in Boston” haha I got to my Aunt Annie’s house and when she and my beautiful cousin Gianna got home we hugged it out and then went for a bite to eat.
The next day Gianna (she’s in her last year of high school) had an ice hockey game in New Hampshire, so we went to her school, got lunch and then headed up to the rink which was an hour and a half drive. It was awesome to see Gianna play, she’s INCREDIBLE! Stole the show :) We finished the excursion with a good 2 hour visit to the ice hockey store so G could get some new stuff and then headed home. Then me and G went to get our nails done and got some valuable advice from my Vietnamese nail technician. Sweet deal. It was so nice to spend time with my cousin, she’s one of my favorite people ever.
On Sunday Gianna again had hockey stuff allll day so my Aunt Annie took me to explore Boston! So much fun, I still can’t figure out how we managed to pack so much into a few hours but we went EVERYWHERE. It was sunny too which made it so great. We had lunch in Harvard Square; a little intimidating but nothing compared to talking to a guy who goes to MIT on the subway and walking through the campus. But it was pretty cool to know that every person we walked by was brilliantly intelligent. In the evening we picked G up and brought her to more hockey practice and then got ICE CREAM for dinner!! and then fell asleep on the couch.
I spent Monday morning exploring Boston some more and then met G for lunch near her school which was lovely :) Later on my Aunt Donna who also lives in Btown picked me up and we went to Boston University to pick up my 2nd cousin Liz (oh ya, lotts of family) The three of us went back to Donna’s and made stir-fry and brownies and got all caught up on each others’ lives :) I was exhausted at this point. But the next morning me and Donna managed to squeeze in a visit to the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, really cool. And I finally came home! I felt like I’d been in Btown for a month :)
Today I’m back in the old routine and having a great time! But I miss every single one of you every day, I really mean that. No matter how hard it’ll be to leave here I’ll still be beyond excited to see all of your faces again!!! Sorry this was a little too long, I’m impressed if you read all the way to here.. LOVE YOU ALL! xoxo
Soundtracks in Manhattan
Hi all!
So I guess it’s about time I updated this thing. It’s going really great over here! I was feeling kinda home-sick during the start of last week but I got over it. New York is getting less daunting everyday, and I love it more each time I walk through it. I’ve started really exploring the city, I love walking through the smaller streets that are squeezed between the big avenues, there’s so much to see and so many cool stores! I’m pretty lucky that I work in lower Manhattan cause that’s the better half :) I’m actually getting kinda worried now cause I think by the time its time to leave I’m really going to miss going into the city everyday..
Works going well too. I managed to finish my rigorous project of adding another set of shelves to the soundtrack vinyls to make some room cause they were sooo tight. I ended up moving like 20 million soundtrack vinyls (do not underestimate the weight of vinyl records) and kept having to restart cause I’d run out of room and we’d have to figure out how to make MORE space for them! It was ridiculous, hours of just climbing up and down a ladder, good exercise though! The project was successfully completed so I’ve been spending the past few days just inputting new CDs into the computer system. Seriously appreciating a desk job. Having fun :)
I’m gonna put the Boston section in a separate text cause its way too long!
The first 2 weeks..
Hey kids!
Alright I know, I know, I know 2 weeks is wayyy to long to wait before writing this and I’m truly sorry! I have however, been missing you all a ton..literally. I think about you guys daily. Ok so I guess I’ll just give some form of an account of what I’ve been doing since I got to the US, starting from the top :)
So after my wonderful Ali brought me to Dublin airport I made my way to Heathrow (on BMI which is still pretty cheap and a warmly welcomed alternative to Ryanair) and then managed to get on the next flight to JFK on standby! Lovely. My dad, who was visiting Connecticut before I arrived, picked me up from the airport, made a stop to see my wonderful grandma Betty Repko, and then met my uncle and 2 cousins for pizzaa! It was weird to be in CT (CT is Connecticut by the way) cause I haven’t been here in about 3 and a half years, I felt like a little kid again.. Anyway I spent the next 2 days with my cousin Mary Claire, (the one we always work at the ranch with) lucky me she was still home from college for her xmas break.
That weekend me and my dad went skiing with 2 of my aunts and my cousin Margaret in Vermont, a 3 hour drive which I undertook and managed not to pull out onto the wrong side of the road! Which Tom, you’ll be especially glad to hear :) That was fun, I love skiing more than anything but I was sick so I had to skip out on the fun on Sunday. I was back on the slopes on Monday though and after managing to catch a little unexpected air, I tumbled down TWO of these hills, literally I think I was sliding down for at least 4 minutes. It was a seriously epic fall.
Guys I warned you this blog was gonna be boring for you…But anyway.
So I think it was the day before we went skiing and I was already feeling kinda restless, like I knew I couldnt spend the next few weeks just doing nothing but visiting people. So I took a quick look online for some internships in NYC online and I found the ARChive of Comtemporary Music (The ARChive of Contemporary Music is a not-for-profit music library dedicated to collecting, preserving and providing information about popular music from around the world) and the website said they offered internships. I emailed the director B. George not expecting to get much of a reply but he emailed back that same day and told me to come in next week!
So I headed into NYC on Wednesday afternoon, (ruined my feet from walking too much) and after slightly hesitating, wondering did I really want to be doing this and if I should really commit to something I wasn’t sure I should be committing to, blah blah blah, I went to the ARC, it’s these 2 big rooms with shelves and shelves of records which have been donated by people including people like Keith Richards and a bunch of record labels! Talked to B. George. He’s a pretty cool guy, it didn’t end up being much of an interview but more of a casual conversation. He was telling me about all the places he’d been to in the world DJing and going to music events. He seems to have some seriously incredible stories to tell. And then he asked me when I wanted to start so I went in the next day! Not entirely sure what I’ll be doing there, I think it kinda depends on how long i’m gonna be working there for but so far I’ve just been sorting through and putting away old records like Frank Sinatra albums and soundtracks :) Not that many people work there, seems like 2 permanent guys and a couple other interns.
I’m writing this whilst watching an AMERICAN football game with my uncle and cousin. That’s right, I’m becoming a true american..even though I have no idea what’s going on..
So I worked on Thursday and Friday. I love having an excuse to go into NYC everyday :) I get the train into Grand Central Station and it takes me an hour to walk all the way down Madison Ave. and down Broadway to work! But I love walking through the city, it’s my favorite part of the day :)
So I guess that’s all I have to say for myself. I think I might go to Boston either this weekend or the next to visit people there and spend some time in the city!
Missing everyone, think about home literally everyday. Wish you were all here with me, we’d have some serious fun :) I’ll try to update this more frequently.
All my love,
Hil xoxo
Journey Part 1
It is 12.57 am. Im finishing my packing so I can sleep and get up at 5am to go to the airport to start my travels. I will be delivered to my first stop by my great best friend, ever in the world, Ali O’Kane. My first journey is Dublin to Heathrow and from there I will go to J.F.K. No idea how long I will be gone for. My plan is to keep every one updated with this blog. I’ve had a great send off, thank you everyone who just showed up at my house. I felt the love boys and girls. You, my friends, are the best people ever. And once again, I am not moving, I’m on tour.
