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Last Saturday I went to a BBQ and birthday party in a converted textile factory. In an unfortunate incident involving alcohol and harnesses I ended up with some rope burn.

Later that night I got my first taste of US pub/club culture. First impressions are that folk on the East coast drink less than the Irish. There is also a very individual and secluded atmosphere in bars and clubs, you stick to your friends and you don’t bother anyone else.

On Monday I moved house to Brooklyn. I’m living in a newly renovated building with two Philosophy postgrads. I’ve a great view of Manhattan from my bedroom and there are laundry facilities in the basement. It’s a good place.

I’ve been trying to find the fastest route to work. I can:

1. Get the R from 45^th St. all the way to 28^th St. without changes. This takes about 50 minutes.
2. Change in 36^th St. to the N and take the N to 34^th. Changing trains is marginally faster as the N is an express train and skips 12 of the stops, but requires waiting at a station.

The plus side to taking the N is that I get to go across The Manhattan Bridge and see this fantastic view of the Financial District and the Brooklyn Bridge twice a day (and not have my ears pop in a subaquatic tunnel).

I’ve discovered that The Onion is available weekly (on Thursdays) in print. The Lisbon Treaty Referendum was the top headline for the Wall Street Journal last weekend.

On Friday artemis’ brother came down from Boston. Spent Friday night on artemis’ roof deck drinking Corona and chatting. Realised that many people end up working with banks, one way or another.

Saturday afternoon consisted of waking up on a couch in the apartment from the night before (at noon) seeking food, playing chess & Guitar Hero and then going longboarding around battery park.

On Saturday night we visited a place called Mars Bar which is the divest dive bar I’ve ever seen. Colm recommended the place and I’m incredibly glad we went. Drinks were cheap (~$4 for longnecks), there were no lights (or very few, the place was in almost complete darkness) the Jukebox died about an hour into our stay there, the toilets were approximately a 7.5 (on a collective scale of 0 to manky), there were no taps and almost every patron in the joint was intoxicated on more than just alcohol (I suspect).

The people were genuine and friendly, nobody cared about what you wore, when the Jukebox stopped accepting money a Vietnam war vet (a regular) started singing to keep the mood up and the bartenders weren’t pushy.

Two notable incidents come to mind, one was the drag queen who came in, paraded along the bar and then dive-bombed off the bar. Guys really can’t pull off heels. The other was that artemis lost her glasses during the night. I called the bar while they were cleaning up and asked Amy (bar girl) if she’d seen the glasses. She went and had a look for us and couldn’t find them, but suggested that we call the taxi. Considering I was holding her back from finishing cleaning, leaving and going home I found it surprising that she was so polite and helpful. I can see myself and artemis becoming regulars.

Went to the Comedy Cellar on Sunday night, saw some great acts and had a laugh. Those performing were: Marina Franklin, Julian McCullough, Tim Young, Godfrey, Erik Rivera and Ardie Fuqua.

We still don’t have furniture in the house, or an internet connection. Last week the landlord called TimeWarner to see why we still didn’t have cable; the building had been wired and the had to be some issue with TimeWarner because they weren’t delivering bits to our tubes. The TimeWarner guy explained that the building was in fact wired, but cementing the bundle of cables from the building into the pavement would not be sufficient. The landlord was shocked and claimed that once the cables were “in the ground” it was no longer his problem, and was entirely the fault of TimeWarner that we didn’t have a connection. Hillarity ensued.

I still haven’t seen any cockroaches. I suspect they may be a lie.

I flew into New York last Saturday and have been finding my feet in this city since. I arrived in the middle of a heat wave and suddenly realised that the four hoodies I brought with me were obsolete.

I’ve been sleeping on the floor of artemis’ apartment in the Financial District since I’ve arrived. She is actually a fantastic and lovely person, beyond her armadillo-esque exterior. She has given me some great practical advice on the day-to-day workings of New York. In related news: she’s disappointed that she hasn’t seen a shooting… yet.

After searching around I finally found my own place to live for the summer. It’s near Sunset Park, rent is good, it’s near the R (which I can take to work) and it has just been renovated. I’ll be living with two Philosophy graduates and I’m moving in tomorrow.

I had a job interview on Monday with a Web Design firm. It went well, consisted of “Show me some sites you’ve worked on”; “Here, here and here“; “Cool, you’ve got a job, come in Wednesday and we’ll draw up a contract”. I’ll mostly be doing PHP, CSS, xHTML and SQL work, with a bit of Flash, ActionScript and JavaScript thrown in. It’ll pay the rent.

I met up with Julia & Dan last night for a really tasty meal in a curry house called Brick Lane. The first time I met artemis in London we went to a great curry place too, in the actual Brick Lane in London.

I’ve had my first really bad Customer Service Experience too. I went into a Sprint Store on Fifth Avenue and asked for directions to the Apple store. The clerk replied with “Why do people always come in here looking for other places? We’re not a damn tourist information office! Get the hell out of here!”.

I’ve also had an Overheard moment:

Guy #1: You know about the Swedish; those guys in Paris.

Guy #2: Naw, the Swedish are from Norway.

So, to sum up, so far New York is: busy, hot, smelly, expensive, multi-racial, tall and fun.

Just about to hop on my flight to NY. Free wireless in SNN rocks. I’ll keep this updated with news and info during the summer (I’ve been hopeless with updates recently).