Day 1

The words...I'm in New York...have a particular ring to them. I try and pretend that I'm an urbanite - a jaded east-coaster. A city's a city, and it's all the same to me. But then you get into Penn Station and without even SEEING the city, you know you're here. It's New York City. And suddenly the stakes are that much higher.

Firsts of today - first trip to NYC by myself. First time on the subway. First hotel check-in alone. First Broadway street fair. First visit to Columbia university. First meeting with all my fellow institute-mates. First impressions, first conversations, first first first.


Makes sense for day 1.


An early train arrival took me to Penn Station at 12...then for a subway ride. It seems trite, but there is something totally different about the New York Subway. It' s constant night, inside, with lights flickering in the distance beyond the shaded windows. Although part of me knows that they are from development or construction, it still looks like pinpricks in the distance. Then a saxaphonist boards the train, and plays my way uptown.

How can this not be the center of the music universe? Within moments my ears are bombarded with sound - three performers in the subway, then more at the Fall Festival on Broadway near 96th St.

My ears are ringing and in the best way possible. My head is spinning and it's not just from the wine. Everything is here, is happening, is on, and I can't believe I'm even along for the ride.


I'm counting on the fact that no-one has the link to my blog just yet, but I suppose the possibility is present that someone I've met today will come back and read this, time-capsule style. So, hello from future to past. It was an honor, a pleasure, and a propelled.

And it's still just day 1.




Coherency is out the window, and exhaustion is creeping in. I'm preparing myself for the onslaught, and ready for what comes next. I hope.