Borrowed Angels

27.08.08

Today was our last day in New York. We woke up around 10 or 11, but were reluctant to get out of bed. We didn’t want to. So we slowly got dressed and made sure we didn’t forget anything in our room. We then dragged our butts downstairs and flopped down on the couch. Because we had both our bags with us, we decided it would be best if we didn’t get breakfast together, but one person would stay with the suitcases, while the other one went to get her breakfast next door.

Sophie went first and I stayed behind reading. Then when she came back, I went to get my breakfast. I found out that they actually had French Vanilla coffee next door. I had not seen that in all those times we were there >_< damn it. So I took a large French Vanilla and a panini (tosti for the Dutch among us). We ate our breakfast and then spent some time on the internet, checking our mail and wasting our time. We didn’t have to be at the airport until 7pm or something. Sophie went to the Hershey’s store to buy some chocolate and I asked her to bring me some as well.

When it was around one, we just didn’t want to wait any longer. So we went to the subway and waited for the right train. We spoke with a girl from Brazile that had to go to JFK airport as well and she didn’t know where to go, so she asked us and waited as well. It took a freakin half hour for the stupid train to arrive. By that time, I was so dead! The platforms are so freakin hot, it’s not normal! You’re freakin underground!! It’s supposed to be cold -_-

We got on the train and had a long ride ahead of us. We didn’t do much talking or anything. I think we were both a little dead and not in the mood for talking about how we had to leave. So we spend some time listening to music and reading. When we arrived at the last stop, we got out and got our tickets for the Airtrain, to spend another half hour on that bloody thing. Lots of people got in and they all stayed near the entrance… so when it was time for us to get out, we had to squirm between 20 people to get out, almost not making it! Seriously people… to quote a wise woman… “MOVE!”

So then we were at the airport around four or something, which was waaaaaay too early. We spent our time reading and writing. I got thirsty at one point so I went in search of a shop. I walked all the way to the other side of the airport for my feelings and found lots of shops… they were pretty expensive there as well -_- I also wanted an envelope, but guess what… they don’t have those at the airport for somereason.  So I just got my drink and walked back to Sophie.

When we could finally check in, we did it with the machine, which apparently also gave us our stickers for on the bags. This guy had to help us with it as the machine was jammed. Then we had to put our suitcases near luggage belt 5 and we were free to roam the rest of the airport. We walked down the stairs and I think we ended up in the same place I was before… what the heck? o.O otherwise they have all the same shops in exactly the same order…

Since we were hungry, we decided to grab something to eat and went to find an ATM. The first one was broken. So we walked down the shops and 10 minutes later we found one that did work. We past about 5 restaurants but it was either too expensive or just didn’t look nice. So we went to Mickey D’s haha. I had the same burger as before, witht he mushrooms and the Swiss cheese.

We sat down near the entrance of pasport controle and ate our dinner. We watched people go by **monkey watching I believe they call it** and commented on some things. Like the beard on one guy, the stupidity of another one. Just to pass the time. When we were finished, we went through passport controle and then had to take of our shoes, bells and jackets to have them X-rayed -_- why my shoes?

Than we walked on to our gate and sat there talking (still 2 hours too early or something) and I was talking about how sensitive mys tomach was when I suddenly had to go to the bathroom as my stomach reacted with the hamburger… I was really not waiting for that. We watched as well how some ADHD kid was screaming the whole time and running around… We were this close to tripping the kid, just to shut him up. Parents, raise your kids properly. Don’t let them run around, screaming, like some headless chicken. -_-

Then we could finally board the plain. We alsot ran to our seats and noticed we didn’t have the screens infront of us. There was only the big screens in the hall. Oh pooh! We wanted to have the same movie choices as on the way to New York. But noooo, we had the choice to watch what ever they were showing or listen to music. We settled for listening to music. One channel was actually quite jazzy and had Michael Buble sing Do Re Me from The Sound Of Music. So weird!!

We also slept a little and woke up when food came around. Well, Sophie slept, I only closed my eyes and hoped to fall asleep. We had one stewardess that was explaining to me the food choices we had for dinner, so I turned to Sophie and told them in Dutch. And the stewardess looked at us in surprise and said in Dutch “You speak Dutch? Why didn’t you say so! I had been speaking English to you the whole time!” Well I told her I was used to speaking English (living in Ireland and all) and Sophie speaks a lot of English too, so we were okay with it. Then we laughed and ate. She was really nice and kept saying the next things in a joking voice in Dutch.

When the sun was coming up, Sophie opened the blinds and nearly blinded me. I’m not a morning person and I have snesitive eyes. So I acted like Joxer, quoting him saying “my eyes! I’m blind, I’m bnlind!” hahaha XD We also laughed our heads off because our pilot has probably the worst English we’ve ever heard. He almost litterally translated is Dutch in English and made up words like “Easterly and Westerly.” saying we were flying in an Easterly direction xD yeah that was funny. But it could also just have been that time at night when everything is funny

When we landed we had to go through passport controle again, but this time it was quicker, since we have ran hahaha SPEEEEEEED! We got our bags, I got myself a trainticket and we went in search of Sophie’s mom, sister and friends that were picking her up. I was just saying something to Sophie when we heard her mom repeating it. She just knew we were the once to say something like that, hahahaha. We went to Starbucks then to grab a drink and talked a little and then had to say our goodbyes. I quickly gave Sophie the present I had bought for Kris and then we hugged and said we had to do it agian soon. Sophie was taking the car home and I was taking the train.

I had about a two hour train ride in front of me -_- since I was going to the other side of the country. When I was at the trainstation in Zwolle, I called my mom to come ick me up in Ommen, which would take me 15 minutes to get there. But when I got there, my parents were no where in sight! So I walked to the campsite where they were staing (imagine me after not having slept since we woke up the day before in New York, then having one suitcase with a broken wheel, one sports back that I carried on my back and my backpack which I carried on my stomach). And I walked over to the camper they were staying in and yelled hello. They didn’t hear me at first, so I yelled again. Now my mom did look up and she was so sirprised to see me. I asked her why they weren’t there to pick me up and my mom said they thought I was calling from Schiphol airport -____- I told her that I had said on the phone that I would be there in 15 minutes! ugh… ah well, I could at least dump my stuff and relax a little, but I wasn’t allowed to sleep until late that night, in case of jetlag and all. But I managed.

And that was the long long sotry of the time Sophie and I spent in New York. If you have read all 15 days, then you know what it was like (or at least from my point of view hehehe). If you are curious about the pictures, just go HERE. I hope you enjoyed my writing!

26.08.08

We woke up at half past 11 today. Guess the day before took more out of us then expected. We decided to go to the Yankee shop to buy a baseball glove and ball, so we could play catch in Central Park. So we did. It didn’t take us long to find what we wanted, pay for it and leave.

We then took the Subway back to 34th street and walked to Crumbs. A shp that I wanted to see. I read that it was full of cupcakes that were really good, so I was expecting a lot! But when we got there, it was just a counter with 20 cupcakes and nothing else. DISAPPOINTMENT! So we didn’t even go in, but just kept walking. We went in to the Hallmark shop and played around with the musical cards there. We saw some of The Wizard Of Oz, which we just HAD to open (I’ll get you my pretty and your little dog too!)

Then we walked to the nearest Subway and went back to Central Park. We found an entrance (probably the main entrance as it has a huge statue infront of it) and we bought some food at the shop there and I also bought a coffee. Hadn’t had my morning coffee yet, so I needed to tank up. I bought these chocolate covered yummi things, whose names I have now forgotten. We sat in the shade of a tree and had our “breakfast”. We played catch for a while, injuring each other with the balls that are rather hard :S

When it was time to go, we left and took the train to the Gershwin, to try again for the Wicked Lottery, We both entered our names on tickets and waited. People got chosen and when they named the last person, we weren’t in the group. Bugger!! But, the last person named didn’t respond, so the guy drew another name and OMIGOD!!!!! It was Sophie’s name!! WE WON TICKETS OMIGOD!!! We were so happy!! We waited until we could get our tickets, quickly rushed back to the hotel to get changed and then went back to the Gershwin.

We had seats on the second row, just to the left of the stage, which meant we could see everything that happened behind the scenes on the right. We sat in the perfect place to see Kendra up close **YAAAY!** And we also had Aaron Tveit, who is the main Fiyero in New York. But guess what… he was no Oliver Tompsett. They just didn’t have is suave. Kendra’s Popular was so hilarious that I almost died laughing. Sophie actually had to ask me if I was still alive, hahaha. Kendra and Kerry were teasing each other the whole time, making faces at each other, which had us in a laughing fit so many times. They were both doing some dancy during the Wizomania scene that our side of the audience were laughing, but not many others. And when it was time for Curtain Call, Kendra and Aaron were at it. I probably never laughed so much during Wicked.

So then we rushed to the Stage Door to get some more autographes. I had them sign another Playbill and had my other one with me for Kerry to sign. We spotted one guy from London that we’ve seen at all our shows so we compared New York to London and we all agreed we liked London a little better. I also talked a little with Janey Houdyshell. I told her I loved the show and that we were leaving the next day to go home, so it was a nice ending of our holidays. Then she asked where home was and I said the Netherlands. And she looked at me and said. “Oh my! We have a lot of people from Europe today. I always wanted to go to Amsterdam, though.” I told her she should XD

Then Kerry came out and she practically jumped on the guy form London as she recognized him. She hugged him and was all excited going “heeeeeey you’re here!” And he said “I told you I would!” And she was like “yeah! How are you? What you think of the show?” And they talked for a while… I was kind of jealous. XD We’ve seen Kerry six times and she doesn’t recognise us like that! theehee But then Kerry came over and signed our playbills and I told her we missed her in London and sh ewent “YAAAAAAY!!! More Londoners!” and I told her “No… we are actually from the Netherlands.” Sophie said “Holland” And Kerry looked up in surprise and went “oh…. YAAAAAAAY!” hahahahaha. Yeah, Kerry is really cool. And then we took a picture together with the three of us.

Than we stood there waiting for 10 more minutes for Kendra, because I really wanted to tell her how fantastic she was and that I came from Ireland to see her hahaha. But Kendra didn’t come out again . So I didn’t get to tell her and I didn’t get to have a picture with her. I was a little saddened that she didn’t come out three times.  So then we went back to the hotel instead to pack our stuff. Stopped on the way at the Subway restaurant to get a sandwhich.

When we were inside the room, we split up the streamers we stole form the theatre xD We didn’t really steal them. They shoot them form these cannons and they end up in the audience. So we took them with us. We finished our bread and packed our bags again because it was our last night in New York. boohoo. Then we went to sleep.