Arrival and Day 2

I get into Newark 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Immediately upon arrival, I receive a text from Mikey. He is no longer able to pick me up from the airport. Womps. This is completely understandable, since I arrive in the middle of the night, and he is currently in the middle of his own going away party. He leaves me detailed instructions on how to take the train and then cab into town, and calls me to make sure that I will be ok.
As soon as I leave the air-conditioned comfort of the airport, it hits me... the humidity. OH, THE HUMIDITY. It's 1 am, and still the heat is sweltering. It must be 25 degrees. As I sit on the platform waiting for the train to Penn Station, I am actually thankful for the heat. It makes the station seem less desolate somehow. Crickets chirp in the distance as I sit on my suitcase and wait. I try to take a video perhaps to upload to a VLOG at a later date, but for the life of me I CANNOT figure out how to make my camera record sound.... why would this not be the default setting? That's what I want to know... who ever takes a video and thinks to themselves "damn this pesky sound! how can i turn it off?!"

When I arrive at Penn Station, I hop in a cab and give the driver directions to Mikey's place in Brooklyn. The cabbie gets lost and we drive around the block several times, and I tell him that I am not paying the full fair. I give him 10 dollars, which is, apparently, a phenomenal deal for the cab ride that I have just taken. Woot! Mikey greets me and introduces me to the few friends that are still awake at this late hour. We go up onto the rooftop deck for a phenomenal view of the Brooklyn Bridge and to snap a few photos.
It's finally time for bed!! My head hits my pillow on the couch and I'm out like a light.

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In the morning, I wake to the sound of laughter and people chatting in the other room. I stumble in and say good morning. I'm introduced to everyone who was asleep when I got in the night before. We have a good morning chit-chat before it's time to start getting ready and heading out. Mikey wants to take me for a bike around town to show me some things before he packs himself off to Europe later tonight. We bike around town and meet people and run errands. The city itself is larger than I had expected, but the traffic is not as bad as I had imagined. Maybe it's calm because it's rainy and overcast today? The biggest problem is that I am riding a free-wheel bicycle (with gears, no less!!) and I'm finding it incredibly difficult to maneuver and stop. It's only been half a day and I already miss my fixie!!

As I write this, I am sitting in Mikey's office waiting for our lunch date, Ani. Then we're off to get some delicious vegan foods! Nom nom nom!

In the past few hours, I have discovered that several friends who I didn't know were in town are in the city, and have also been invited to a rooftop BBQ on Saturday and a game of kickball on Sunday. Hurray!!

I know that these first updates are longer than life, but as I get to know my way around and the days get filled up, I'm sure that they will dwindle in length. I'm hangry and exhausted at the moment, so this is me, signing off for now!