Let me just preface this by saying that I have possibly one of the worst hangover headaches of my life right now. No joke. I don't even know how I am possibly this hungover, because it's not as though I drank an obscenely large amount of liquor last night, and I ate a big dinner before going out, blah blah blah.
Oh my god. The hangover. Why is this happening to me?
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I don't remember if I wrote about my day at all yesterday, and I'm too lazy to even go back to my previous post and check right now... all I really did was sit around and read in the park, so no big deal there.
At night, the plan was to meet up with Chris and Olivia and friends for bowling at Brooklyn Bowl. I bike over, and it turns out that there is a 15 dollar cover. For bowling. Brooklyn Bowl is also a music venue, which is great, but there is no bloody way that I am going to pay 15 dollars in cover (ummmm... I find out later that the band was a pink floyd cover band... really?) and then 50 bucks an hour for a bowling lane. Just. No.
The others haven't arrived yet, but when I text them about the extra cost, we agree to go to a different bowling alley (the gutter) right around the corner. This alley is more my style. It's just a shitty old awesome bowling alley with crappy neon signs everywhere, some busted up pool tables and cheap beer. Hurray!!
There are 10 of us, and we have to take a number and wait for two lanes to open up.
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Later in the day: I couldn't keep writing because I was starving and my head was pounding and it was time to go for brunch.
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The next day: I suppose that I had time to write yesterday, because all I did all day was go for brunch and then watch movies with roommates and nap.
Ok... back to where I left off.
Bowling!! It was really great. Who doesn't love bowling, anyways? It's pretty much the perfect social activity. We had beers and bowled our faces off and made up secret handshakes and generally had a great time. After several games, we strolled over to a local bar to grab a drink.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I am so glad that Zoe introduced me to Chris and Olivia over the internet. They are such lovely people, and their friends are equally lovely. The problem with meeting great people in other cities is that you always wish that you could wrap them up in your pocket and take them home with you to your city. I mean, I guess that the plus side is that you then have people all over the world to visit (Olivia is from Sydney, Australia and Chris is from London), but wouldn't it be great if you could just teleport them over for a visit any time you wanted to see them???
After wrapping up, I biked home and then hopped on a train to go and see Jenner and a friend at some birthday party they were at - here's where my evening went horribly wrong. It was already midnight when I got home and I hadn't been in touch with Jenner since just before 11; google maps gave me really shitty directions and I ended up waiting for a train for something close to 45 minutes; there were further shitty google maps directions after I got off the train.
I bought a pack of American Spirits and asked a nice looking girl for directions to the street of the bar that I was going to, followed by "ummm... just out of curiosity, is this an ok neighbourhood for me to be walking around in by myself in the middle of the night??"
Side note: I have no idea which neighbourhoods are good or bad here, and compared to Vancouver, a lot of Brooklyn looks pretty dingy and like it MIGHT not be the greatest area of town. This means that I often feel like I am walking somewhere sketchy when it's actually safe, or biking through a neighbourhood where people get mugged and feeling like I'm totally alright. It's weird.
Also, because only super fancy buildings are brick in Vancouver, even the projects here look to me like they are probably a nice place to live.
The girl on the street tells me that I am ok to be walking around here, so I'm on my merry way. I find the bar and it's clear that Jenner and his friends are no longer here. WHY DIDN'T I TEXT TO MAKE SURE??!? I decide to grab a beer none-the-less and hang out near the wall, scanning the crowd. Some big kind of weird guy walks up to me and starts a conversation. Normally, I would try to avoid him, but I'm tired and kind of drunk so I decide that there's no harm in indulging him. It's funny, because people can obviously tell that we are not together, and keep catching my eye over his shoulder to see if I need to be rescued. Literally, about 10 people gave me that "Hey! Is that guy bothering you? I can come in and pretend to be your bestie if you want, just give me a signal." It's not like the guy was an asshole or sketchy, just... I don't know. If you're a girl, maybe you know what I mean without my having to describe it. I down my beer and decide to leave. A few blocks away, I come to a familiar corner and realize that I know exactly how to get home from here. Hurray! It's nice out, and I don't want to go wait in the scorching hellish stuffy subway and I also don't want to spend a bagillion dollars on a cab, so I decide to walk. You might be thinking, THAT's a bad idea, you asshole! But it was literally one major street all the way home, with lots of shops open, cars, and people out and about, and absolutely no chance in hell of getting lost. The only bad part of the walk was that I chain smoked the entire way home. When I finally got onto High Street, I was so proud of myself for my much improved navigation skills. A few minutes later, I was home and collapsed into bed.
The next morning, everyone at the loft was hungover. I went for brunch with Rian and a friend at a cute little place a few blocks away. It reminds me a bit of Cafe Medina.
Side note: A lot of places here that serve brunch only include hashbrowns as a side. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!? Also, no free coffee refills? YOU'RE KILLING ME NEW YORK BRUNCH!! That being said, there ARE a lot of places that have ALL YOU CAN DRINK brunch. I feel like if my Vancouver friends went there, we would probably shut the place down. They would never know what hit them.
Ok. So after brunch, we go for a walk around Brooklyn Bridge Park and then go home to crash the day away. I was torn a bit between hanging out with people, and feeling like I should be out seeing the city, but I decide on the hangouts. We literally watched four movies on Saturday. Later that night, Jenner and Rian were heading out to a show in Williamsburg and they invite me to go with them. The band is called Autolux, and they are great. They have a female drummer who is actually totally awesome, and the band members each take turns singing different songs; all of their voices are equally angelic. The downside of the show was that there was a big group of douchebags in front of us that were drunk and rowdy and kept stepping on mine and Rian's feet. We actually almost started a fight with them. No joke. Here's how one of the interactions went:
Me: Excuse me. Could you please move forward a bit, you keep bumping into my friend and I and stepping on our feet.
Douchebag: Are you German?
M: What? (guessing, in disbelief, where he is going with this...) No.
D: Are you a member of the Gestapo or something?
(REALLLY?!?!? ASKING YOU TO NOT STEP ON MY FEET MAKES ME A NAZI?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!)
M: Wow. You're really fucking racist.
When I call him a racist, he shuts up and turns around. Let me just say, I am SO bothered by people throwing around the term 'nazi' like it is no big deal. It's a really big fucking deal. Also, I'm pretty sure that the Germans have enough nazi shame as a country without us casually throwing it in their faces all the time. It's NOT OK to throw the term nazi around. (side note: there were definitely times in the past where I have said something like, 'don't be such a nazi', but I'm pretty sure that that's because I was being ignorant)
Other than the total douches, and almost getting in a fight (what kind of big beefy guy picks a fight with two small girls because he is stepping on their feet??), the show was really great.
Afterwards, we cab to Chinatown for some karaoke and a going away party. Sadly, they do not have my customary Blink 182 Adam's Song on the books, so I decide to sing "I've got you under my skin" by Sinatra instead. Thankfully, I don't botch it too badly. Hurray!!
I spend part of the night snuggling and kissing with a super awesome and cute boy. Which is pretty great.
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Now I'm hanging out at "home" waiting for some people to stop by so that we can make our way over to Coney Island. Hurray!!
I can't believe that there are only a few short days left before I am home. It feels like I have been here forever, and I wish that I could stay for just a while longer. I am just starting to figure things out here and would love to figure them out more. The people who I have met are so incredibly nice and awesome, and I feel so lucky to have met them.
Meow meow meow.
That's all for now.
See you soon, Vancouver!!
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