new york seems smaller and quieter

It's my third night in New York and I think I'm starting to feel quite settled. I can't be sure if the hours I've spent laying awake in the middle of the night so far are about jet lag or something more existential - perhaps a bit of both. But the apartment is very comfortable and it's in a fantastic location in the middle of funkster territory Williamsburg. It's a little bit Newtown or Surry Hills with more Polish and Hispanic people and businesses. But plenty of skinny jeans types, an excellent bookshop, some decent cafes and surely a whole lot more I haven't found yet. And it's one subway ride to Lower Manhattan. I've located a place to do yoga, which I think I'll try out tomorrow. Swimming doesn't look so likely. There is an indoor municipal pool literally two minutes from the apartment but it's only tiny and I'm not sure I want to pay up for membership as seems required. Makes me realise how spoiled we are in Sydney for swimming options.

I got myself a new camera which takes great photos. I bought it from this enormous electronics store in Midtown staffed almost entirely by Hassidic Jewish men. I got a much cheaper price than in Sydney and the whole thing was a painless production line-type process where I ordered, took a ticket to someone else, then went to the payment counter where my merchandise was waiting for me. Unbelievably efficient. I've so far resisted buying the amazing khaki/green suede boots which took my fancy but needless to say it's only a matter of time before I relent. I got a couple of academicky books from the brilliant St Marks Bookstore, where I considered asking for a job. And then this evening, I went to a not-so-interesting talk at NYU by three trans-men talking about themselves in/and transgender porn in a room full of funky but earnest gender studies undergraduates and a few self-serving older people (including a very annoying woman who claimed to be some kind of drag king pioneer from twenty years ago - that's great, but shut up occasionally!)



And the most vomitous thing so far (except for having to face photos of Bush and Cheney on arrival at LAX after 12 hours in a sardine can) was the window display at a high-end chocolate shop in SoHo (see photo above). So all in all, a pretty full couple of days. I catch an early morning train to Baltimore on Friday for my first conference. More then!