I was planning on going to NYC yesterday, but didn't quite get around to it for a variety of reasons.

First we had to go to the post office to go pick up my registered letter from Germany which contains my funky sim card. The post office is technically only about 3 mins drive away (that's how long it took us to get back), but getting there was a right-royal pain. They're changing the roads around here at the moment, so we had to go right around the whole university to get there, and then we weren't sure where the street was and didn't go far enough down the road, then went back the other way, thinking we'd gone to far.... short cut to 20-30 minutes later and we finally found the silly thing. Lord knows why they didn't leave it at our local post office on campus here which is less than 5 mins walk away.
Not that everything was peachy when i got to the post office, either. Apparently my Australian driver's license wasn't enough to convince them that I was in fact the person named on the envelope. They needed something with the address. It's a good thing my dad and his driver's license came along, or else it would have been a wasted trip.
I don't get that, though. It's not like my names very common or anything, surely they should be happy to give it to the right person, not just someone from that address. Anyway.

Well, after that exceedingly riveting ride to the post office we came back and i had to decide what to do with the rest of my day. There's a whole problem with going to NYC in that it takes around 2 hours to get there, and 2 hours to get back, and local buses stop running at 11pm because everyone here is on summer holidays. So I'd have to leave NY at like 9:30 to get back here to New Brunswick in time to catch the bus back. So that puts a serious spanner in the works if i want to go to any swing dance socials given most start at 9 pm.

So, given such transport issues I decided to go to the local town and ask about what else there is to see in New Jersey. Maybe I could go use my afternoon productively without needing 2 hours to get there. I walked into a local book store and even found an interesting book on sale. While paying for it I asked the nice-looking salesperson what there would be to see in New Jersey since i don't have time to go to NY that day. He looked at me and told me flat out that there's really not that much to see in Jersey. It's pretty boring, he said. "The best thing about Jersey is that it's fairly close to New York." Can't argue with a local, I guess.

During my campus explorations the day before I came across a flier for a Summer Session Kick-off party near one of the local fraternities. Cool, I thought. Maybe I'll get to go to one of those famous frat parties I've heard about. Who knows what wild tales I could come back with. Some of those Buffy episodes made frat parties look like an awful lot of fun, and they were often inspired by the lamest of events. The Somebody-Sneezed party idea was pretty funny, after all. :)
What could be more fun Summer session party? Here was my chance to go and check one out, my brain filled with thoughts of beer kegs and spiked punch bowls. There was even meant to be a live band playing. And free ice cream.

The free ice cream should have set alarms going in my poor little stereotype-filled head. No self-respecting party would be advertising "free ice cream" as a major attractor. But, lo and behold when I came up to where the party was meant to be, the ice cream was by far the star attraction. I think they had vanilla, chocolate AND mint... or some other green flavour I'm not familiar with. Not a drop of booze in sight. A pretty decent band was playing to the 3 people (including me) who were standing about. The other two people left as soon as they finished their ice cream. I must say I was thoroughly disappointed to the point that I went shopping instead.

Speaking of shopping, I must say that having a large backpack instead of a suitcase for a 6 month trip is annoying for one major reason. Anything I buy, I need to carry on my back for the next 6 months, or else post home. This is an excellent incentive to NOT buy much. But, at the same time, it's very frustrating looking at so many enticing products and needing to tell myself no each time. It doesn't matter how cheap or cool it looks, if i don't need it for the next few months, I shouldn't buy it. Phooey. Stupid tempting shops.

I bought a pair of shoes yesterday, but only because I'm going to European countries soon where it should be very hot and I had no sandals. See? I had an excuse. I'll need them. It's not just me being frivolous. But I think I might send some other items home, if i can decide which ones it is that I don't need so much. Eeny, meeny, miney mo...

Never fear, dear friends, tomorrow, Saturday June 4th will DEFINITELY be a NYC day, as will Monday the 6th. And Monday will also be a swing dance day. Mmmm.... swing. Exciting stories coming soon, I promise.

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It has come to my attention that some of you people who have been reading my adventures would prefer to receive them via email and not put in that massive effort that is involved in clicking on a favourite. Due to few requests, I'm going to both send out my blog entries to people via email, as well as post them up on here. If you would like to be one of these special email people, please send me an email to swishlish@gmail.com from the address you would like to have it posted to. I'll see what I can arrange.