The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding

Yesterday we all finished our last exam, and we of course had to celebrate such an occasion. Some went out partying and dancing, while I wanted to visit Cafe Wha one last time. I persuaded Helene, Ane and Catrine to come with me. We ordered food, drinks and sang along with the great music that was played. I was especially happy, since they played both Pink Floyd, Nirvana, U2, Radiohead and Kings of Leon.

Cafe Wha always gets me in the mood. The the music, the people, the drinks. The whole place is just great, and keeps on being that each time I visit.  I will miss it as hell when I get home to quiet and boring Norway.

Concrete jungle where dreams are made

My stay here is coming to an end, which also is the case for most of the other Gateway-students. Therefore, it was natural for Gateway to arrange an goodbye-dinner. Well, in this case it was an goodbye-breakfast. On Tuesday, Gateway had made reservations for the whole gang, at Ellen's Stardust Diner.

Since it was the 17th of May, there were Norwegian flags all over the place, and on each table there was a sheet with the National Anthem printed on. We got up and sung as loud as we could, criminally early in the morning before we had even had breakfast. That didn't matter, 'cause the pride and solidarity that filled me up during the singing was enough feed for me.

Then we were finally served the food, while the waiters danced and singed around us. You see, at Ellen's Stardust Diner all of the waiters are hopeful actors, singers and entertainers, waiting for their big Broadway-breaktrough. You don't visit this diner for the food, but for the entertainment. 'Cause they are really entertaining and very talented. If you're in NYC, I recommend you to check it out.

Ja, vi elsker

Today, as you probably already know, is the birthday of the extraordinary lovely country Norway.
This is my first time celebrating our national day abroad, so I was excited to see how the americans mark the day. Each year, there is a 17th-of-May-parade going up 5th avenue in Brooklyn, but since the 17th of May is not a holiday here, the parade was set to the nearest Sunday. Therefore, Helene and I this year celebrated the 17th of May at the 15th of May.

The date didn't really matter, 'cause when we came there and saw all those Norwegian flags, Norwegian national costumes and heard the national anthem, we instantly got the proud 17th-of-May-feelig.
I rarely feel patriotic, but at that moment I was the biggest patriot of them all. I sung the national anthem at the top of my lungs, waved the flag as high as I could and felt exceptionally proud of being a Norwegian. I even got a little homesick. Still, I was glad I got to celebrate the national day here in New York. Marching down an avenue in Brooklyn, waving the Norwegian flag, and seeing all those Norwegian-Americans cheering for your country, is an experience I will not easily forget.

Shit happens..

... way to often to me. 

The hard drive of my lovely MacBook crashed on Sunday. Without warning, without provocation, without reason. Neither the people at Apple Store or Tek Serve understood why it crashed.

But they did understand that it indeed was crashed, which meant that I lost all of my documents, photos, settings, contacts, calendars, music, and soooooo much more. My whole life was in that hard drive, and now it's just gone. Without a reason. I feel hopelessly empty. 

Sadly, these things tends to happen to me, but I can't find the reason why. What have I done to deserve all of this shit? I must have been Stalin in my previous life, 'cause bad karma seems to follow me around wherever I go. 

New York was an infinitely romantic notion, the mysterious nexus of all love and money and power, the shining and the perishable dream itself.

I apologize for the lack of blogging. You see, my exams are coming up way to quickly, so most of the week I've been reading and studying.

Still, I've had some breaks. On Monday, the whole class went to Ellis Island where we were given a guided tour around the buildings there. We also got to see the Statue of Liberty up close.
I found the tour quite interesting, but it's not the most exciting cultural thing I've experienced here in NY. Nonetheless, it was worth a trip, if only to see the beautiful building and the sweet, tiny island.

Yesterday, on Friday, Catrine dragged me to a rooftop film-display, run by the film-festival Rooftop Films. In different roofs or location around New York, the festival is responsible for showing about 25 films and 150 short-films throughout the summer. Often, the films are accompanied by a live concert, and a after-party.
This was the first viewing of the year, and a lot of people had found their way to the rooftop in East Village. There were about 30 minutes of beautiful guitar-playing, and then the short-films started. In all, we got to see about 8 very interesting, and sometimes very strange, short-films. After the last film was shown, most people went to a after-party in a bar nearby, but we decided to head home and get some sleep.