You know you're a freak and/or very scary looking when New Yorkers at you funny.

So this is my big week in New York, and today was my first full day. Some quick impressions.

OMG, you can waste a FORTUNE in this town on hiring a car, or you can fork over a few bucks and take the subway/busses and get anywhere you need cheaply.

The car to get to class this morning? $50
The subway and bus to get home from Yankee Stadium? $4

Thank goodness the State of Texas is paying for most of this.

What else? What else?

I saw the giant fucking hole once known as the World Trade Center today. It didn't stir a lot of emotions because they've got it so blocked off for construction you can't see much. Also, it's just a Giant Fucking Hole now. Some of the buildings around it are still fucked up though. It does give you pause to realize that enough damage was done that it's now 3 and a half years later the extent of reconstruction of the area is mostly limited to simply removing the debris.

My class is only two blocks from the Giant Fucking Hole, so today's tour was pretty impromptu. I didn't realize I was smack in the middle of downtown (omg, I know New York terms now, but more on that later) Another kid in the class had never been to New York before (he was from Toronto), so he and I took the foot tour around downtown Manhattan after class ended. We walked past TGFH, and then down to Battery Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty across the water. It was about this point I realized that my camera is still in Houston. Thankfully my new buddy offered to email me all the pics he took with his camera. On the way back we walked down Broad St. and O.M.G. I've never seen anything like it. Honestly it felt like I was in a western movie at the bottom of a canyon in Arizona. Except in this western the canyon wall were all office buildings. The streets are all one way like in downtown Houston, but the difference is that they are very narrow, there is a small sidewalk, and then WHACK giant fucking building straight up. I know there are a few buildings like this in Houston, but this was every single one. The entire street was one 50-60 story building after another. bah.. words don't do it justice. I'll just have to pass around the photos and hope they help. Probably not though because photos just aren't nearly as physically intimidating as the actual thing.

We walked in front of the NYSE. That was cool. Then we walked to City Hall where we took the train north. He got off ant Grand Central and I kept going all the way to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Holy crap, another thing. Talk about a real world education. I went from being slightly intimidated by all the "New York stuff" like the subway to being able to talk in phrases like, "You take the 4 all the way north until you get to 125th st, then you take the m60 bus to La Guardia." It's fucking scary I tell you.

I had to check my backpack at the game since they seem to have developed a phobia around here of letting people wander in to prominent places with closed packages. Iunno, weird. The thing is, it wasn't like a professional place, or even in the staidum. When the lady told me that I needed to chedck my bag she sent me, and I shit you not, around the corner to a bowling alley. A fucking bowling alley handles all the luggage check-in for Yankee Stadium.

So I headed back to Gate 4 and into my seat. My amazing grandmother gave me money to go to this game, so I was able to get a really good seat. I was right behind home plate about twenty rows up. How good were my seats? Better than Daryl Strawberry's. Yup. There was a commotion around the fourth inning, so I turned around like everyone else and Daryl was right there being mobbed with autograph seekers and defended by a passle of cops.

The game itself was pretty much a blowout for the Angels, but I did get to see a few good plays. Derek Jeter got nailed at home plate right in front of me trying to score from first on a double in the first inning. I got see A-Rod smash one out of dead center field. Carolanne Tivo'dd it for me, so I'll have to go over the footage later and see if my tropical-ass made the tv cameras. Mostly I was there to see Yankee Stadium though. As a stadium goes, I honestly like Minute Maid better. It's newer, larger, indoors (if necessary) and cleaner, but there's just something historic about Yankee Stadium. I got to hear the chant of "Let's go Yan-kees" rat-tat rat-tat-tat in person, and I got to hear the Yankee fans verbally abuse the other team (all in good fun of course).

Speaking of the fans, that is one dour fucking bunch let me tell you. Nearly every single person there was in solid black or blue. There was an occasional splash of solid red, but I stood out as much for my loud fucking Hawaiian shirt as I did for my 6'10"-ness and my shiny fucking dome.

Shockingly, I sat next to some Jews. I don't say that with any derision, but there are just Jews fucking everywhere in this city. And not like regular Texas Jews that you really can't tell from normal people either. I'm talking Hassidic(sp?), side-fucking pig tails, long bushy beard, yarmulkha-wearing, big black coat, pasty skinned, giant-nosed JEWS. It's something strange to see that many gathered in one place. And if you think that makes me racist, then Fuck You. You get yanked out of your comfort zone, placed in a giant ethnic salad bowl and see if a ton of goofy looking fuckers strolling around with funy haircuts don't shock you into a few, "er.. what?"s.

But I digress. First of all, let me back up a bit. I don't think I gave nearly enough props to the woman who made this evening all possible. Nana. She just kicks so many different kinds of ass that I lost count somewhere, and not just for the cash to see the game, but for the sentiment behind it. It was so important to her that I have at least one super memorable experience while I was here that she sent my parents to Humble the Sunday before with $150 for me; not so that I could experience Yankee Stadium, but so that I could experience it WELL. Anyway, no amount of my raving can get across just how great this woman is, or how much she means to me, so I'll just stop.

So my trip home? I decided not to blow my wad of cash, and test my newfound Mass Transit skills at the same time. I paid my two bucks and hopped on the downtown bound 4. I was planning the rest of my getaway when I heard the lady say that the m-60 bus was coming up next, and that it went to La Guardia. La Guardia you say? Why, that's where I want to go. So I left early (I was going to transfer to the 7 at Grand Central and take that, but I guess I'll have to see Grand Central tomorrow), and paid another $2 for bus fare. Whilst I was waiting on the bus I realized what part of town I was in. It didn't really feel dangerous, but I just happened to be standing on Martin Luther King Blvd right in front of the DMV. Err.. yeah. Nothing bad ever happens on MLK or the DMV part of town right? I'll just stand here and look as mean as fucking possible until my bus comes. Nothing ended up remotely happening, but it was a bit of a shock. There were an awful lot of poor black folk wandering around down there.

So I hop on my bus and start perusing the map to figure out where to get off. After about 15 minutes, the bus got to where I figured I needed to be, so I got off and walked the remaining mile back to my hotel. Story over.

A few more quick things as they come to me:

• You can walk anywhere in this fucking city as long as you feel like taking the time. There are literally even sidewalks on the highways.
• It's freaky how you can be walking down one street through what feels like homeless-trash central, turn the corner and be smack in the middle of super-money. And it's the same fucking building.
• I now understand why New Yorkers have the aloof persona. It's not that they don't really like people; it's that in a city THIS crowded, you have to studiously go about your daily life without paying attention to all the people around you. There are just too many to bother with them all.
• O.M.G. the PEOPLE! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! I WOULD GO CRAZY LIVING HERE! This place is geographically smaller than Houston (and even then is further cut up by waterways and such) yet has twice the population of the whole Houston-Galveston area. FUCKING CRAZY
• It's strange knowing the geography of New York City now. I know where all the boroughs are, and most of how Manhattan is laid out.

and I'm spent