Alastair Cameron's Letter from America

Time's up

2006-10-09T07:33:00.000-04:00

I'll be somewhat surprised if anyone reads this post, with most having long since given up checking for new material over the past four months. Nonetheless, it felt necessary to do a final posting to round things off. As it happens, I did attempt a new posting a couple of months ago, but technical problems got in my way. In any event, this is a short closing post before I return to New Zealand. It's really just to highlight the highlights from my remaining time in the US, some London moments and subsequent travels.

As for the US, I had a nearly three weeks to fill-in following graduation before leaving for London. Many good times, but notably:

Brother and sister in town, with their respective girlfriends, and fellow travellers. Lots of fun, including an evening with Candyce. Celebrated Dunc's 30th with brunch, free mimosas and a New York style cake!
Six Flags Amusement Park in New Jersey - rode so many roller-coasters that I felt nauseous.
Visiting Boston with my German friend Sylvia, and staying with my kiwi friend and fellow Fulbright, Jo. Walked the Freedom Trail (Boston is, you see, "The Cradle of Liberty"). Had fantastic time with Jo (thanks so much), plus Joshua (another kiwi Fulbright). Really liked Boston, would go back. Bought some shoes.
John Forde arrived into the City; we rendezvoused on a street corner in Chelsea and immediately got accosted by a (Jewish?) woman carrying two trays of Krispy Kreme donuts asking us if we were Jewish. When we said we weren't she proceeded to tell us all about the intracicies of her life anyway, including what she was cooking for the dinner party she was having the following Wednesday (for which the Krispy Kreme's were the dessert - bought on a Sunday...not very fresh!). I don't know what she would have said if we had replied that we were Jewish. A very New York moment.
Fire Island - sun, sand and homos galore at David & Barrie's beach-side bach (well, mansion really). Drinking cocktails from early afternoon, ended up in the pool, to another party, seriously hung-over by 8pm. Quite an experience. Thoroughly recommend it.
Hanging with my fabulous friends David and Lara who I met in Miami previous March. Tremendous fun.

Manue, me, Kirsty, Duncan and Catherine on the corner of W 3rd St and MacDougal, my old address in New York City

I wasn't too sad to leave New York since I was really looking forward to London. If I'd had nothing particular to go from New York, I think it would have been a traumatic parting. As it is, I love London, but I do miss New York. The city itself, of course, with its buzz and everything it has to offer. But mostly the life I had there and the friends who remain. Being a student again provided for a great nine months. I didn't have much money, and had a lot of work to do, but my time was very much my own and I was the master of my own destiny. I like the routine of a job, but the change of pace in New York after working was tremendous fun.

Speaking of London, it's been a fantastic summer. My internship at FIELD was all it was meant to be - lots of climate change and energy work plus a bit of biodiversity, mostly new stuff so I learned a lot. Some work also included climate change issues as they relate to Pacific Island Countries - perfect. I also met interesting and dynamic people (including Mary Robinson, the Chair of the IIED Board) and understand more the role these kinds of organisations play on the international scene. Main mission accomplished.

Otherwise, I've enjoyed the summer buzzing around London on the free bike I managed to score, hanging out in the fabulous parks with my many friends, and even travelling a little. Mentionables include:

A trip with my fantastic friend Louise up to Manchester, the Ribble Valley, the Lake District and Blackpool. We stayed with Val, Louise's mother, who generously drove us around the gorgeous country-side. The stone fences and rambling hedges were as English as imaginable. Manchester had a very easy feel, the Ribble Valley and Lake District were stunning, and Blackpool was, well, worth saying I've seen. Big thanks to Louise and Val.
Europride, the parade along Oxford Street, main party Ruby, and the benefit concert at the Royal Albert Hall - all larger than life and fantastic fun. Post-parade drinks in Soho Square were like a gay-Wellington reunion as I bumped into faces from the past at every turn - nice to see you, Sam & Brendan. It was a star-studded line-up at the Albert Hall: Stephen Fry, Sir Ian MacKellan, Graham Norton, Elton John, Sandi Toksvig and Julian Clary among others. And of course the London Gay Men's Chorus, who provided sensational back-up for the person who probably stole the show - Heather Small from the M-People (whose concert in the Wellington Show Buildings was my first ever music concert, incidentally).
Numerous picnic dinners in Kensington Gardens with Karlis, my NY buddy and fellow Costa Rica traveller. Sad when he left for home.
Toast New Zealand in St James Park with Duncan and Catherine, Jordan Carter from home, and many many others. Many faces recognised, but no names able to be put to them. Remarkably well behaved for a large group of drunk New Zealanders.
Spain - travelled to Alicante with ten other NZ Labour people to attend the International Union of Socialist Youth World Festival. 4000 people all up from all over the world. All young socialists and social democrats. The workshops and panels were interesting and thought provoking. The social events were hilarious. What else would you imagine with 500 Spaniards, 400 Italians, 300 Germans, 200 Swedes and 100 Dutch among others all on their (subsidised) summer holiday looking for fun. The tent city was quite something...
Brighton - went down to see my friend Kate and to check-out Brighton Pride. Kate (whom I've hardly ever seen in NZ, but have hung-out with in Mauritius, New York, Costa Rica and now Brighton) was in fine form and showed me great hospitality. She displayed great humour even though I accused her of being conservative, reactionary and pessimistic. I retracted all three after considered discussion. I liked Brighton itself and could happily live there if I worked in London. And Brighton Pride was fantastic - the best I've ever experienced. 120,000 people from all walks of life, all out in a big open park with fair rides, food stalls, clothing stalls, fake tattoo artists, large dance tests, performance spaces. It was a big old mix, straight and gay - you name it, they were there. A model to follow.
Being treated to a fabulous cocktail at the Long Bar in the Sanderson Hotel, one of London's trendiest drinking establishments, some public performance in Trafalgar Square, and a very memorable meal at the Oxo Restaurant on the Thames waterfront by Nick, a (now) very good friend I met through IIED/FIELD. The black muscat stood-out (and how lucky am I to have been given my very own bottle by Nick for my birthday!).
Cambridge for a day to see my German friend Moritz and his Canadian boyfriend Gavin. Super people, lovely town. Happened across Jean, with whom I did undergrad Latin at Victoria University of Wellington, on the petanque lawn of Corpus Christi Graduate Housing - very random!
Handel's Julius Caesar at Glyndebourne - very posh but a great experience.
Meeting Hamish at Heathrow after 8 months apart - phew!
Farewell dinner party at Jonathan's. Cooked for 20 people; quite a feat. Thanks to Hamish and others who chipped in on the night to make it one to remember!

Me, Mikey, Chris, two friends of Kevin whose names escape me, Kevin and Stu at Seven Dials (the Box) in Covent Garden one sunny Sunday afternoon (Hamish behind the camera)

From London it was on to Paris, Spain and Morocco with Hamish. Great to be together again, of course. Barcelona was groovy and cool. Ibiza great fun and something marvellous to have done. Super expensive with club cover charges of E45.00, and a bottle of water costing E8.00 (NZ$16.00)! Moreover, the buggers salt the water in the bathroom taps, so can't fall back on that classy option. The Alpuharras were beautiful - love to Rich and Hannah for putting us up. The Alhambra was magical (of course), and the souqs in Marrakech and camel trekking in the Sahara something to remember. It was a fabulous six weeks, but I think both Hamish and I are ready for some routine and no longer living out of a suitcase.

OK, so not such a short post afterall, but still a flying overview of the past four months. Thanks to all my readers, it's been a blast.

One last photo...taken above a Kasbah next to one of Morocco's amazing oases.

All said and done

2006-05-14T16:16:00.000-04:00

It's unofficial; I have my master of laws. My student colleagues and I graduated last Friday and had our degrees formally conferred. And while the small-print makes this conferral contingent upon us actually passing our exams, I don't anticipate this will stand in the way of me receiving my degree. So it's more-or-less official; I have my master of laws from NYU.

We had two ceremonies in the end. One was with the entire graduating class at NYU - 15,000 students or so - in Washington Square Park. Mercifully, the ceremony did not involve each student having their name called out individually, but rather our degrees were conferred en masse in our respective schools. The law school graduation in Madison Square Gardens did involve all 946 students - JSD (doctorate), LLM and JDs - having their name called and walking across the stage to be "hooded" before shaking the hand of the dean and having our photo taken. Although long, the speeches were genuinely meaningful on the whole, and it was fun seeing friends having their 25 seconds in the limelight, so I enjoyed the day. Some photos appear below and there are more here.

And of course it is always fun to dress up for such occasions. Our gowns did make some of us feel like breaking into a James Brown gospel number: something akin to his role in the Blues Brothers . Others felt very priestly, desiring to swing some incense around in time with the music that ushered us into the hall - luckily we all restrained ourselves. People's cameras were in full flight, and below is a photo of me with my flatmates, Quang and Harold, outside our dorm.

Still, it was interesting to wear something different from the traditional, black, open-front black gowns worn during NZ graduation ceremonies. The particular shade of purple wasn't an enormously flattering colour on too many people, although I think Sharon (far left;

Canada

) looks pretty good in the photo below, with me and Liliana (

Brazil

).

And there were some particularly meaningful moments, such as the four New Zealanders in the program each graduating. None of us knew each other well before coming, but have forged what I imagine will be enduring friendships.

Nina Khouri (Akld), Sarah Raudkivi (Akld), me, Quang Trinh (Wgtn)

The two photos above were taken in Madison Square Gardens, whereas the one below of me and Nina was taken during the Washington Square Park ceremony involving the entire university.

Nina was kind enough to invite me to join her family celebration after the law school graduation on Friday. Her boyfriend, Tim, surprised Nina (and me in the process) with a trip to the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of the Rockefeller Centre. The view was spectacular, the bubbly delicious and club sandwiches cute. Thanks so much to Nina, Tim, Philip and Suzanne for adopting me for the afternoon for a memorable kiwi celebration.

One of the best things about the two graduation ceremonies was that they provided a chance to see people before they began leaving the city, as many have done this weekend. The Barristers Ball, which is the end-of-year graduation ball for final year JD students and completing LLM students provided the same opportunity. Held at Tavern on the Green in Central Park, it was great to see people letting their hair down after a long, hard exam period, and taking advantage of the open bar. The level of behaviour was very respectable on the whole, although some people looked very green around the gills at 8:45am the next morning at the graduation ceremony. Below is a shot of me, Harold and Quang on the way to the ball (good to put up a before shot...).

I have to say that it all still feels a little unreal. The year here is all but over, but that fact, and what I've achieved, hasn't properly sunken-in, which I think is because it all ended so quickly. We finished exams, graduated more-or-less the next day, and had to be out of our rooms the day after that. So there's been little time to reflect on the whole experience. Still, that reflection will occur over the coming months, filled with happy memories and perhaps some feelings of remorse that the year came to an end so soon. But even now, I do feel some sense of the achievement involved with getting a masters from one of the best law schools in the world.

Right now, however, I will enjoy the company of my brother and sister here in New York, free from the pressure of readings, lectures and exam study. They're off sight-seeing at the moment, leaving me some much-needed own time to write this blog and read my book in a cute cafe on the Upper East Side (providing free wireless internet allowing me to use my own laptop - pure luxury).

If I can find something to say, I may post again before leaving New York. Otherwise, I'll hail next from London.

Exam Stress Causes Coffee Meltdown...

2006-05-04T20:58:00.000-04:00

You have to see to believe how seriously people take exams at this university. The NYU Law Library goes into extended hours, staying open until 2am - and this is because people stay there unil then. 1Ls in particular start outlining for their exams weeks before classes finish; I've seen them working in the lobby of my dorm at 2am on a Friday/Saturday night. I heard that the University had to ban lecturers setting 72-hour take-home exams because people would spend the entire 72 hours working on them without adequate food, water or sleep.

Don't get me wrong, I take my exams seriously, but honestly...

A colleague from Fordham University Law School recently started blogging about the effects of exams on A-type personality law students: FishWatch2006. Take a look for a rundown of, and reaction to, a particularly nasty incident driven by exam stress and caffeine overload.

Luckily and NYU the librarians allow coffee into our library (if it's in spill-proof cup), so hopefully the risk of similar meltdowns here is lower. Having said that, people smuggle their sugar-loaded study-fixes into the library along with their spill-proof coffee, so the mix of stress, caffeine and sugar could get pretty volatile in the last few days of the exam period. (Apparently one Cinnabon, something that makes a regular appearance, has the recommended daily caloric intake for the average adult female...)

Anyway, enough procrastination. Three days to go for me!

Spring has sprung, and onwards to pastures new...

2006-04-25T22:02:00.000-04:00

I promise this isn't a whole post about the weather, but it is worth noting that spring has truly sprung here in New York, and that after such a long, cold winter it is most welcome. It seemed like overnight that temperatures went from hovering around zero into the high teens (Celsius, that is), a remarkable change. Since then, they have graduated up and down, but have got as high as 28 deg., so definitely some lovely balmy days.

The main point is that the different seasons a very noticeable in this part of the world. They are too in New Zealand of course, although less so in Wellington. The photos below go some way towards illustrating the difference. Both are of Washington Square, one taken near the start of winter and other just the other week.

The only downside to this happy transition is that I am just about to enter finals mode, meaning that I'll be spending my days cooped up in the NYU Law library either studying or taking exams. Still, it is only two weeks, so only a short-term hardship.

But yes, only two weeks until this whole academic adventure is over. We actually graduate on 12 May, which is a bit of a faux-graduation since we don't have our marks, but it makes the point - we have completed our LLMs. I felt a pang of reflectiveness at the end of my final class today, but overall am looking forward to finishing and moving-on to new challenges. Not because I haven't enjoyed the experience - it has been incredible in a whole range of ways - but because it is simply time to complete the degree and take the achievement.

Speaking of moving-on, the adventure is not over quite yet. I'm going to London to do a three month internship at the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD), which is an NGO focusing on international sustainable development law. I'll be working in their climate change/energy and biodiversity/marine resources programmes, which is very exciting (particularly the climate change part). I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but whatever it is should be interesting given the work they do now. Check out their website if you're so inclined (www.field.org.uk).

But before heading to London, I get to enjoy the New York spring/summer for nearly three weeks free of having any school work to do. More notably, there is a procession of visitors coming into the city before I leave who will ensure a good time. First, my big sister and brother arrive on 13 May for the week with their respective others and a whole posse of people, and then two good friends arrive from London. There were rumours of some other NZ arrivals, but they remain unconfirmed... So with the good company and the warm weather, it should be the ideal way to say goodbye to New York.

My arrival date in London is 31 May for a 5 June start date at FIELD. All going to plan, Hamish will join me in London on 31 August, at the end of the internship, after which we'll hang in London before traveling for a bit, and then returning home. Our tentative departure date is 10 October, getting us back onto New Zealand shores on 12 October. Still awaiting final confirmation of the flights, but either way, looks like an ETA of early to mid-October.

So that's my news. Will disappear into finals land for the next two weeks but will aim to post again before I leave New York, even if only with all the new photos I have of family and friends in sunny New York.

PS: I just have to mention two recent (independent) visits by two very cool Kiwis - Kate Lee (as seen in the Costa Rica post below) and Jessica Hodgson. Apart from having fun just knocking around the City together, Kate and I managed to elicit a request to bribe a bouncer so that he would let Kate into a club without ID (only $20 but the van full of NYPD officers nearby made us a little wary). And Jess and I saw the most excellent play - The History Boys - which of course played in the Wellington International Festival of the Arts. If you ever get a chance to see it, you must do so. It is a masterpiece.

Jessica outside Magnolia, a bakery in the West Village famous for its cupcakes, and made more so by the Sex in the City girls deeming it their cupcake bakery of choice.

Getting around a bit

2006-03-24T22:12:00.000-05:00

Since there's less than half the semester left, I thought perhaps it was appropriate to post what I've been up to in the first half.

Most importantly I suppose, I'm still enjoying university life. My courses are all really interesting, dealing with a range of subjects: environmental values, ethnocultural diversity, economic and social rights and international economic transactions. Sounds like a bit of a dog's breakfast I know, but believe it or not they actually form quite a coherent programme, even when matched with the courses I completed last semester.

In addition to my courses, I've picked up some interesting research as part of the Global Administrative Law Project here at NYU, and am still doing graduate editor work for the Journal. And every week there's a wide range of talks on offer, some of which I attend. This week included John Brutton, the current European Union Ambassador to the United States and former Irish Prime Minister. He was great - very frank as only an ex-politician now diplomat can be. I'd relay his best musings except that the forum is supposed to be chatham house rules. Michael McCloskey, former long-time head of the Sierra Club (a major US environmental group) spoke later in the week and offered many insightful reflections about his involvement in the environmental movement from its inception in the 1960s until the present.

But school hasn't been the be-all and end-all of this semester. An early highlight was a visit from my very good friend Louise, whom having just completed her LLM at the London School of Economics, I hadn't seen for 18 months. It was tremendous seeing her again, and we had a great time together walking around the best parts of New York, going to my favourite places to eat as well as trying a few new ones, and checking out some of New York's cultural offerings. The play we saw was indescribably dreadful, but the Puccini concert in Carnegie Hall was fantastic. If you haven't already viewed them from two posts ago, click here to see some photos.

In fact, New York hasn't even been the be-all and end-all of this semester. Brief trips away to Washington DC, Miami and Costa Rica have proven fun little diversions. Take a look at the photos to see why.

No prizes for guessing where this is. Jacinda and I took the bus down to DC one Thursday night (I have no classes on a Friday, you see), and while we were supposed to come back Sunday night (as I do have classes on a Monday), the snow-storm that weekend delayed our return by a day. Special thanks to Fiona Hutchinson who put me up for the entire weekend, and the both of us when we suddenly found ourselves stranded in the City for another night. Fiona and I worked together in Wellington and it was great seeing her again in DC. We had some fun times, including Italian brunch in Georgetown, excellent frozen magueritas at a very popular Mexican joint in Dupont Circle, and sampling the local Ethiopian cuisine (Washington DC is evidently the largest Ethiopian city outside of Addis Abiba - who knew?)

Fiona, me and Jacinda enjoying authentic Ethopian food in the traditional style, ie. communal dishes and using our hands, along with rather grey, flannel like crepes. Sounds weird, but actually very nice. One word to the wise: avoid the honey wine...

As you'd expect, Jacinda and I spent a day doing notable places, monuments and memorials: the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, various bits of the Smithsonian, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. We did a lot of walking that day, but got a real feel for the "public" part of the City. Very much a capital city with large public buildings (all in the classical style to evoke the ancient republics), monuments of all kinds, and statues wherever a space could be found. There was very definitely a "public service vibe" and certain infusion of politics. I liked the City because of this, but also because it was a nice change of pace from crazy New York. Still a big city, but a lot less frenetic.

We also paid a visit to the US National Archives to view the original US Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Quite mixed feelings about this one, actually. Tremendously symbolic of the law's power to bind successive generations under enduring values, but also highlights the potential absurdity of attempting to govern people using words written over 200 years ago by men with no ability to comprehend how those people would be living today. The Holocaust Museum was equally thought provoking, although hardly a joyous affair. The exhibit was quite scathing of the US's failure to take more Jewish immigrants from Europe before the war broke out, and forn not acting earlier to prevent the final solution from progressing as far as it did, which was not a view I had seen represented in other holocaust museums.

A slightly different affair was Miami, Florida. This wasn't a self-initiated trip like DC, but in fact a "Fulbright Enrichment Seminar". In other words, 180 foreigners studying in the US on a Fulbright Scholarship were flown to Miami for a conference on "Civic Participation in a Diverse Society", ie. how to cope better with mass immigration, as has occurred in Miami where the white population is now a minority next to the Latino communities, the largest of which consists of Cuban exiles.

Perhaps the best part of the weekend was going into one of the local Miami high schools to give a talk about New Zealand. The school was enormous - about 5000 students - and very diverse. Most of the kids in my class were Latino, with some African American and a couple of whities, although every one of them spoke Spanish. They knew a bit about New Zealand - like that it is off the coast of Australia, grrr - but were interested to hear more, and asked clever questions. One guy asked what the food was like in NZ compared to the food in the US...I was diplomatic about American food but waxed lyrical about the wonderful food we have back home. Just doing my bit for tourism and the elimination of agricultural subsidies...

Apart from the academic content of the conference itself, which was genuinely eye-opening and stimulating, the really cool part of the weekend was the people I met. All dynamic, smart and engaged, as well as willing and able to have a good time. I've already had a coffee with one of the women - Kate - a Canadian studying at Yale who came to New York recently for a meeting at the UN. Plans are afoot to visit another Canadian - David - in Boston if possible, and I'm hoping some of the others might come through New York at some point (Moritz, Laura etc - that is your cue!).

Laura (US), me, David (Canada), Thembela (South Africa) and Michael (Germany) on the final day (we'd just been caught in a tropical rain storm)

Another blessing of Miami was that it was warm, which meant relief from this long, cold New York winter. Of course three days of warmth was scarcely enough, so it was lucky that two weeks later I left for Costa Rica. There was warm and sunny, with fabulous beaches, all of which means I now have a sun-tan! That is my usual state of being in March given the New Zealand summer, so it was bliss to lie in the sun long enough to restore that norm.

The beach at Zancudo: black sand, palm trees down to the high tide mark, warm water (about 25 degrees) - that is the Pacific I love.

Apart from the sun and warmth, Costa Rica really provided a fun Spring Break vacation. We (Karlis, Kevin and I) spent half the time in the mountains around Turrialba, and the other half down on the Pacific coast, mostly in a little town called Zancudo. The mountains were more temperate and offered activities such as white-water rafting through beautiful river gorges and hiking up the Volcan Turrialba. The coast provided beach relaxation, rain-forest and the odd bit of wild-life. It also involved delicious fresh mahi mahi cooked to perfection - if you're in Costa Rica and you want good restaurants, go to Zancudo.

White-water rafting near Turrialba. We stopped for a rest in front of this beautiful waterfall. Karlis and Kevin are in the yellow.

Splitting our time between both meant we got to see and do quite different things, which was great since we only had eight days. We even got a night in San Jose (the capital city), which in spite of being a bit of a dump overall, managed to put-on a fun night for the three of us. The locals - "Ticos" in their own lingo - were friendly on the whole and often had enough English to mean we (with little to no Espanol) could get through a reasonably complex conversation.

One thing definitely deserving of a mention is the roads. There are three kinds - paved as we know them, paved but with unavoidable, axel-breaking pot-holes, and unpaved bone-jarring dirt and gravel. One lane bridges featured prominently, and occasionally we had to drive through rivers or get ferried across them on a barge. Our little rental coped admirably, with no break-downs or even flat-tires, as did our driver Karlis, who managed not to lose his nerve as cars passed trucks going around blind-corners on single lane mountain highways. All good fun. In the end, I just lay down and closed my eyes so I didn't have to see, which I found a most satisfactory approach.

Rush hour at the river crossing...we are just watching at this point to see how it's done.

And just to emphasise that I am a kiwi and such things happen, I spent the final night with Kate Lee, a friend from Wellington. She is doing her masters at Brighton University in the UK, so the two of us - originally from Wellington but now one in New York and the other in Brighton - got together in San Jose to drink local Costa Rican beer (Imperial) and eat the national dish, Gallo Pinto (ie. beans and rice). It wasn't a complete coincidence in the sense that we unexpectedly bumped into each other, as Kate is doing her development studies project in Costa Rica so we realised we'd be there at the same time, but it is still somewhat surprising and a quintessentially kiwi travel experience.

Kate and me after our delicious beans and rice (the food was actually pretty good on the whole - Ticos know how to do beans and rice, and their plantain chips are so good!)

But now I am back in New York City, back to the cold, although there are small signs that things are getting warmer. And daylight savings starts in a week, so that should buoy the mood somewhat.

The thing I can hardly believe is that I only have two more months here. There are still a few things I want to do, but I feel I've given New York a pretty good go so far, meaning I don't need to go into a frenzy doing all the things I haven't yet done. Which is just as well since I do actually have to write a seminar paper and pass my exams...

Still, things are certainly wrapping up here. What happens next is nearly settled, so keep an eye out here for a formal announcement.

SEX in the CITY

2006-02-16T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well, I had to give this post an arresting title since it is actually about the weather. Would you have even got this far if the title had been: "Weather in New York"? Sounds like bad small-talk.

Anyway, I thought I should post something about the weather since I've received several emails and texts enquiring as to my wellbeing following the supposedly massive snow storm we've just had here in the Northeastern United States. It was very nice to know people were thinking of me, but I'd be interested to know how it was portrayed in the NZ media, since it really wasn't that bad. Sure, there was a lot of snow, and it shut things down for a bit, but only for a short time. They have plenty of infrastructure in place to cope pretty well (here in New York at least) meaning the city got back underway fairly quickly.

As it happens, I was in Washington DC rather than New York during the actual blizzard (more on my trip in a post to come shortly). We got the storm there too, although not as heavy as New York. Still, it was a decent covering, but of little inconvenience. In fact it was kind-of fun trudging through the snow in America's capital city. Also, I was staying in a nice part of town (Dupont Circle for those in the know), so the snow made things look rather pretty - see below.

These are taken from just outside Fiona's house (where I was staying). I'm helping her shovel snow because there is a legal requirement for people to clear the sidewalks outside their houses within 24 hours of the snowfall.

There were really only two annoyances in DC brought about by the snow. First, the taxis charged double price - daylight robbery! Second, my bus home to New York on Sunday night was cancelled, so I had to stay an extra night and catch the bus at 9:30am the next morning. But no big deal, especially as it was essentially an extension of my holiday, and we had a relaxing evening eating tasty home-cooked food and watching Grey's Anatomy (luxury, since I don't have TV these days!). Thanks to Fiona for putting me up another night.

Once back in New York the heavy snowfall was very evident - piles of snow up to my waist on the sidewalk, some cars completely covered and lots of hideous brown sludge all over the road. This sludge is really the worst thing following a snow-storm. It carries the hazards of either stepping into hidden deep sludgey puddles as you step off the sidewalk, or worse, getting sprayed by yellow cabs as they speed past with no regard for us mere pedestrians. Waterproof shoes are essential.

Washington Square (Greenwich Village, New York)...this is actually from the snowfall we had last November, but the effect is similar - just think a lot more snow.

luckily it's been warm the past few days (8-10 deg cent.), which means most of the snow has already melted.

So really, very little drama overall. Still, thank you for your enquiries after my winter wellbeing; I appreciated them.

2006 so far (in pictures)

2006-02-01T00:50:00.000-05:00

As promised in my previous post, there are now photos online from our Christmas/New Year holidays.

There is also a new album with photos from this year, including ice-skating in Central Park, some pre-drinks drinks, and Louise Moreland's recent visit to New York.

Words to go with the photos will appear this weekend.

Happy Holidays in New York and Beyond

2006-01-16T21:12:00.000-05:00

Me and Hamish

Christmas in New York
December 2005

Happy new year to you all, and here's to a successful and fulfilling 2006. For those back in New Zealand, I hope the kiwi summer has provided some restful good times. I've thought of you often, as either on the beach, or enjoying a heavenly flat white in the Wellington sunshine - two of things I miss the most.

Still, here with my lover, I had a fantastic break. My holidays began officially on December 22nd, the final day of exams. I handed in my final paper, and that was it, the first half of my masters degree was over. I've been away six months, and while it now seems to have flown by, it also feels like a much longer time. So much has happened, I guess, that it is hard to believe it is only six months.

We (my class-mates and I) celebrated our freedom that night with a bit of drinking and dancing, but my real focus was on the next night, when Hamish was to arrive. His coming to New York was the light at the end of the exams tunnel, so I couldn't wait to get on the subway out to JFK airport to meet him off the plane (that long, tedious subway ride is not normally something to look forward to, but this time I definitely was).

What was a fantastic holiday began the moment we saw each other outside the airport gate. We had a marvelous time together, experiencing New York at Christmas time and over new year, and then traveling up to experience the winter wonderland that is Quebec in January.

Our extreme thanks go to David and Barrie who let us stay in their apartment while they were home in New Zealand. Up on 20th Street in Chelsea, one of the NYC's best areas, it is a cute place with all the amenities we needed to be happy and comfortable. It meant we could cook our Christmas and new year meals in a proper kitchen, eat at a real dining table, relax together in a comfortable lounge, and perhaps most importantly, sleep in a double bed. Having to cope in my little dorm would not have been cool.

On the whole, we spent much of our time just wandering around New York. It's a strange place at Christmas time. The days before are mad with Christmas shoppers. The day itself is eerily quiet, although that only lasts until the early evening, when the city comes to life again. And then boxing day is insane, as people head for the shops to take advantage of the (supposedly) massive sales. Avenues 5 to 7, anywhere between 30th and 50th Streets, literally teem with people; there seemed no end to the sea of people.

All roads apparently led to the Rockefeller Centre, where there is a giant Christmas tree and ice-skating. Against our better judgement, we fought the crowds to see the tree, and have photos to prove it. I'm pleased to have done it, but am in no hurry to do so again.

Hamish at the Rockefeller Center

Christmas Day itself was low-key, but perfect. We'd had a pot-luck dinner on Christmas Eve with some other international students who had also remained in the city. They were mostly New Zealanders, Australians, South Americans and South Asians, all those for whom the trip home was too far (there were very few Europeans around). Christmas morning began slowly, with some ripe melon, followed by coffee and bagels with cream cheese and jam (so, so good). We opened our presents, and I did particularly well as Hamish had carried quite a loot across with him.

We then walked down to Greenwich Village to meet another student friend, Gianni, for coffee; we went to a Jewish owned place, which of course was open on Christmas Day. After wandering home again, we cooked our festive dinner, which was followed by sublime kiwi chocolate (how I had missed that!). But that wasn't the end of our Christmas Day. This is New York City on a Sunday night, so there was much fun to be had! There is a regular Sunday night party called "Spirit" where we thought we'd go for a little Christmas dance. Well, not that little...we didn't get home until 6am the next morning! Not only that, but we managed to get our photo taken and placed on the Spirit web site. Showing you doesn't actually do our image that much good (given some of the company), but in the spirit of openness, follow this link to check it out.

Shopping was one order of the week between Christmas and new year; Hamish managed to fill up another bag entirely, and I bought one or two small items... There were actually some pretty good deals, so it was a worthwhile time to shop, in spite of having to fight the crowds. Otherwise, I showed Hamish the New York that has been keeping my amused, taking him to my favourite cafes, restaurants and bars (the latter revolving around the specials nights that treat a student budget very well). Highlights included Spirit, Distortion Disco at Duvet (the bar with beds), and Eatery (fantastic midtown restaurant). Gingernut rice pudding at Rice To Riches, the rice pudding restaurant, was a must-do but not necessarily a must repeat...

As well as seeing the places that keep me amused, Hamish got to meet some of the people that keep me amused, including my flatmate Quang and several other LLM students, as well as Karlis and Kevin, two American guys from law school I've got to know well. They managed to put on a good front, convincing Hamish I have upstanding friends here in NYC... It was also great fun to hang-out with Jacinda Ardern (now a NYC resident from NZ) and Darren Hughes, who was over from NZ for the holidays. We reached a consensus that the watermelon margaritas at Food Bar were excellent.

There are more photos from the week; I'll put them on Webshots once the site has finished its maintenance.

What felt like the second half of the holiday began when my sister and Manue arrived in New York from Montreal on New Year's Eve. I was especially pleased to see them since they had to drive through a blizzard to get here (well, not quite a blizzard, but a big snow storm). It was odd, because the weather until that point had been remarkably mild - only three layers of clothes were needed when outside, instead of the normal four or five.

Manue and Kirsty with the Statue of Liberty silhouetted in the background

Anyway, we didn't go to Times Square for new years. We thought about it for about five seconds, and then decided against standing in the cold for eight hours in a crowd of strangers, with nothing to drink and no opportunity to go to the toilet, all in an effort to hear from Dick Clark and see a little ball drop. Reports from those who did go confirmed that our decision was the right one. Nonetheless, we could hear Times Square from the apartment at midnight, so we got a little bit of the action (and we watched it on TV).

Instead of being out in the cold, we cooked a beautiful meal, drank some lovely wine, and generally had a very civilised evening. We saved the big celebration for the next night, driven mostly by the fact that new years eve itself in New York is hideously expensive and there are long lines everywhere. So on the night of the first, we went to Brite Bar to see Candis Cayne do her show - incredible! CC has hair and legs most women would kill for, and does a stand-up show in between going out onto the street (10th Ave) to do her numbers, incorporating into her act the taxis and pedestrians who happen to be passing by. It's not often you see a woman doing the splits in the middle of a New York avenue... From there, it was back to Spirit for some more dancing - I think fun was had by all.

Manue then drove us all up to Canada on 3 January. The country-side got progressively whiter as we went further north, until we arrived in Montreal, which was under a think layer of snow. It was charming to see Christmas decorations with real snow on them, instead of the fake frosting stuff we use in summary New Zealand. And the little time we spent in Montreal proved again what a great city it is. Good shopping and cool restaurants, with L'Avenue topping the food poll once again. I think my preference is to go in the summer - since it is #%&*!! freezing - but I'm glad to have visited in the winter time.

Quebec City was even more beautiful under its coating of snow than Montreal. Hamish and I stayed in a little B&B in Old Quebec, amongst 400 year old stone buildings, and beneath the City's original fortifications. The St Lawrence River with its ice-sheets was a sight to see, as was the construction of the ice hotel for the winter festival. Very cool. One other notable thing from Quebec City was our ice-skating. Or to be more precise, Hamish's ice-skating and mine and Kirsty's amateur hobbling around the ice-rink. Something everyone should do once, in my view.

Looking out over the St Lawrence

As promised we had some great food in Quebec City. The highlight was the stunning meal Dominique, Manue's mother, cooked for us in her home. How lovely to have a home cooked meal during holiday time in Quebec. In addition, we had an authentic Quebec breakfast at a fantastic greasy spoon (baked beans with maple syrup instead of tomato sauce - sounds gross, but is great with eggs, bacon, sausage and toast!). On a slightly more upmarket scale was some of the best Eggs Benedict I have ever eaten at another little breakfast place. The coffee still left a lot to be desired, but that is par for the course here in North America I'm sad to say.

The only downside of Quebec is that both Hamish and I got sick. Traipsing around in the snow and freezing cold finally took its toll, and we both had to retire to bed. Still, at least we were sick together, and we did get to watch some trashy Canadian TV in the hotel room, which is always fun. I reckon you learn a lot about a nation from its adverts and reality TV programs...I'll say no more...

Then it was back to New York where we stayed with David and Barrie for a couple of nights before retiring to my hostel for the final two nights. Again, it was a low-key few days (during which I had to attend classes), but a nice way to end the holiday. For instance, we spent a morning walking in Central Park and checking out just a fraction of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On Hamish's final night we saw Avenue Q, one of the leading Broadway shows, and it was so good - a great way to end the holiday. New Yorkers seem to hold Broadway in a bit of contempt as being a glitzy tourist trap, but there is no doubt the productions are impressive. The actors have great voices, excellent timing with the jokes, and some pretty tricky dance moves. Anyway, we laughed a lot and had a good time. (Before going to Canada we saw an off-Broadway show called Altar Boyz, which was less impressive but still good, fun entertainment.)

Saying goodbye at the airport the next day was horrible, but the less said about that the better. The point is that we had a fantastic holiday together, providing us with memories to share forever. And it won't be long before we see each other again - less than the time we'd been apart before this holiday.

In the meantime, school is back into full swing, and focusing on that will see the time fly by. And I have a few things to look forward to along the way - friends visiting and various times, Miami in February, hopefully Washington too, and maybe the Caribbean for spring break in March. Keep an eye out here for more details.

Many a Cross-Cultural Moment

2005-12-01T20:46:00.000-05:00

Everyday in New York City heralds some kind of cross-cultural learning-curve, for while I like these Americans a lot, they do some strange things and have some funny pass-times. The last couple of weeks in particular threw-up some interesting lessons.

The first came last Tuesday during my office hours at the Journal of International Law and Politics (an NYU Law School journal for which I am one of several Graduate Editors). One of the American girls working on the journal asked me to explain cricket to her. I agreed, but only if she promised to explain baseball to me. The diagrams below are the result of our pact...

I now understand why the baseball players never seem to hit the ball but still get to run. I think I could watch a match and more or less know what was going-on. And in spite of my rather sub-standard diagram, I think Beth (the American) came away with at least a rudimentary understanding of cricket. (For the purposes of this blog, let's ignore the irony of me, of all people, explaining the rules of a major team-sport to someone else).

And to keep with the sporting theme, last Wednesday I went to a basketball match at Madison Square Gardens. Two matches, actually - Duke v Drexel and UCLA v Memphis - both semi-final matches in the National Intercollege Tournament. Duke beat Drexel and Memphis beat UCLA, meaning that Duke went on to play Memphis in the final. Duke won for something like the eighth year in a row.

I went along with my friend, Kevin, who is a long-time Duke fan. So we were routing for them in the first match; it was all pretty-much the same to me, but I was happy to take a side. Me and basketball have never been the closest of acquaintances, but it was definitely more exciting being there in person. In the cavernous MSG, and with the very enthusiastic crowd, I have to confess to genuinely enjoying myself. So much so that Hamish and I are even planning to take-in an ice-hockey match while he's here at the end of the year.

Some photos just to prove I was actually there...

And finally, November 24 was Thanksgiving, that all-American holiday. (And it is a "holiday", as opposed to a "vacation", which is when you take time off work to go on a trip or something.) I was very lucky to be invited to two celebrations. A Kiwi-Aussie-Irish lunch at David and Barrie's (Kiwi friends who live here in New York), and a true-blue American dinner at my friend Darren's (whom I met when I first came to NYC nearly four years ago to the day).

Lunch was superb. The turkey was perfect, which is no mean feat when you consider the size of those birds! The accompaniments were exquisite, and the desert, sticky date pudding, was divine. Take a bow David & Barrie!

Dinner was also a masterpiece. More turkey, with all the traditional trimmings - cranberry sauce, stuffing and mashed-potatoes, and the piece de resistance, pumpkin pie for afters. I was more than sated by the end of the evening (if it's even possible to be more than satisfied to excess, that is).

And Darren, following his family tradition of the guest carving the turkey, gave me the honour. See below for proof...note also the large marguerita...

The Lunch Crowd & The Carving

So I'm heading into the exam period shortly, but I will no doubt need some respite from the rigours of American Constitutional Law and European Union Law, so I might find something else to blog about. There is, of course, the WORLD PREMIERE of King Kong this Monday that I happen to be attending...

Halloween in the USA...scary

2005-11-05T23:18:00.000-05:00

So I attended my first real Halloween party last week, getting into the spirit and donning a costume. You can see who I was from the photo above, where I'm accompanied by Winter, Vampire, Scream and Bumble Bee. Check out the rest of my photos to see how other people dressed-up.

Prizes for the most creative costumes, in my view, would have gone to the Asian Bird Flu, White Trash and the Freudian Slip (you'll have to view the photos to see how she made that costume).

There's no doubt that people go all out at Halloween over here. Almost everyone at the party had pulled together some kind of costume. It was a law school event, meaning there were probably 1000 people there, so we're not talking just a few costumes. I went into a costume shop a week before the day itself (31 October) and it was PACKED. Packed with wall-to-wall merchandise, and packed with people buying it.

The whole thing must add a couple of billion dollars to America's GDP. Once you take into account costume manufacture and distribution, retail, advertising, candy sales for the trick-and-treaters, alcohol sales for all the parties, health costs of all the party injuries, and the second-hand costume trade (because nobody wheres their costumes twice), there's a lot of money swirling around Halloween.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and might even view costume parties less skeptically in the future because of it...

2005-10-29T00:45:00.000-04:00

Thou Shalt Speaketh!

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all ~~men~~ straights are created equal" The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies 1776

People speak freely over here in the United States. Free and long and loud.

I heard it for myself a week ago during a protest here at NYU. A group of progressive students were protesting military recruitment on campus because of the military's ban on enlisting gay and lesbian soldiers. Or more specifically, we were protesting the Federal government's policy of withholding funding from NYU, who because it opposes the military's ban, wishes to stop the military from recruiting on campus. The effect of the policy is to force NYU to admit the military recruiters in spite of its principled ban on the military's discriminatory practice.

But this is America, so there isn't just protests and political opposition, there is also litigation underway. A consortium of universities are claiming the government's policy breaches the universities' freedom of speech by effectively preventing them from voicing their opposition to the military's discriminatory practices. The case goes before the Supreme Court this December.

The freedom of speak one's mind in America is enshrined in the Constitution, and as I've recently learned in my Constitutional Law class, vigorously protected by the American Supreme Court. What the the First Amendment of the Constitution actually says is: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press". While this sounds absolute, we've just finished four weeks learning what limits Congress can legitimately put on freedom of speech. The short answer is "very little".

Nazi's have a constitutional right to march through a predominately Jewish neighbourhood in which a large number of holocaust survivors live. The media is constitutionally protected from defamation suits if they publish patently false information, unless the particular media outlet knew or ought to have known the facts were false. Laws prohibiting hate speech, simulated child pornography and political campaign expenditure limits are constitutionally invalid. Even advertisers have constitutional rights to "commercial speech".

In essence, and with only some very slight exceptions, Congress can pass no law preventing people from expressing their point-of-view, no matter how obnoxious, offensive and at times misleading.

There can be no doubt, however, that America's robust doctrine of free speech gave voice to those who otherwise struggled to be heard in the face of grave injustice.

When the worst excesses of Southern racism were resulting in the suppression of those seeking basic civil rights for African Americans, the Supreme Court cleared the way for those brave activists to speak. It enabled them to show America what a corrupting influence its racism had become, even though the white majority really didn't want to hear. Without the robust free speech protection afforded by the Court, the majority, blinded by prejudice and fear, would have continued to suppress those voices screaming injustice.

In earlier times, valuing people's right to hold unpopular opinions led to the invalidation of 20 year prison sentences for those who conscientiously objected to World War 1. Ultimately, it stopped the post-WW2 communist witch-hunts, the side-affect of which had been to frighten people away from expressing, or even holding, political opinions of the left.

Maybe this justifies America's doctrine of free speech, in spite of its less palatable excesses. But I am left with some residual discomfort.

There is an argument that says if you give judges the power to make decisions about what people can and cannot say, for instance, then it removes the issue from the arena of normal political debate. Instead of politicians acting responsibly to find solutions that reconcile the interests of all their constituents, they can impose populist solutions that appeal to the majority, knowing that in the end, judges will strike the right balance. In other words, politicians can pander to the majority, whose votes they need at the next election, at the expense of the minority. When the courts then re-strike the balance in favour of minority interests, the politicians can hide behind the court's judgment, saying the resulting state of affairs is not their fault, but that of a cabal of liberal judges.

This reduces politics to a commercial pass-time, in which politicians produce their wares for the largest, most lucrative market, and voters make their choices based solely on individual preferences. Any notion of the "collective good" drops out of the political rubric because it is the responsibility of actors (judges) outside the political process.

My discomfort lies in the fact that I find this kind of politics wholly undesirable. I want politicians to take responsibility; I want them to fully consider the implications of their actions when they look their minority constituents in the eye. I don't want them able to look away with their fingers crossed, knowing that in the end judges will do the right thing.

Similarly, I want voters to cast their ballots knowing they are making the decision, not a group of unelected judges.

To ground this in reality for a moment, I want Wayne Mapp and all National Party MPs to take full responsibility for eradicating every trace of non-majoritarian viewpoint from government. And I want anyone voting for Mr Mapp and his kin to know their votes will directly affect their family, friends and colleagues who don't fit within Mr Mapp's conception of the majority. (For those unfamiliar with this reference to current Kiwi politics, check out LAWS 179: Elephants and the law for a good run-down of the issue.)

Of course it's naive to suggest this will happen all the time, and so any democracy requires checks on the ability of the majority, through their representatives, to run amok. I'm just not yet convinced giving judges the final decision is the way to do it.

Whatever the answer to this quandary, the near absolute freedom of speech is undoubtedly here to stay in the US of A.

Just to finish, it's worth noting that my other experience of this tradition has been inside the classroom. American students are not only impressively able, but also admirably willing, to speak-up in class. They know what their opinion is, and they are sure we all have to hear it.

I, like many of the foreign students, am more reticent about pushing my views forward. This is partly the result of my liberal tendencies, which prevent me from taking my own side in an argument. I think I believe one thing, but the other side has good points, too...

But there is something to learn from the Americans in this regard. You have to speak to be heard. If you're speaking rubbish, someone will tell you, and it'll stop you speaking rubbish in the future. If you're speaking sense, America's tradition of free speech shows that you could end-up changing the World.

So speak up. Freely and forthrightly.

The Who's Who

2005-10-16T23:25:00.000-04:00

People are the theme of this blog. Believe it or not, I'm not spending my entire time reading, studying and attending lectures, but am also managing a bit of socialising in between. The idea of this post is to give you an idea of who I spend my days with (outside the classroom, that is). I've also posted some new photos to show you who some of these people are - follow the link and check them out.

The starting point is my flatmates, Quang and Harold, who I probably see more than anyone else. The first observation to make is that they're great; it was definitely good luck ending-up in a flat with these two.

In the photo here, Quang is on the left and Harold on the right. The girl is Katie, an Aussie who lives down the hall. The photo was taken on my birthday, when Quang, Harold, Katie and her roomate Fan surprised me by buying a (delicious) New York cheesecake from one of the local bakeries, and a t-shirt from the "Grey Dog Grill", a popular nearby cafe. Very kind of them.

Harold is Dutch, doing his LLM in Corporate Studies. Quang is a kiwi like me, also doing his LLM but concentrating in international legal studies. We're not sure whether Quang and I were deliberately put together, but it seems too much of a coincidence to be otherwise. Perhaps the most bizarre thing is that Quang also lived in Wellington, and yet we didn't know each other - virtually unheard of when it comes to such kiwi connections.

We get on well personally, and also work easily as a flat. We don't get in each other's way in the common areas, which consist only of the very small kitchen and bathroom. There are no territorial fights over the shelves in the fridge, and we don't appear to drink each other's orange juice or milk. We don't cook communally, but we'll eat together if our timetables allow it.

So other than Quang and Harold, there is also a core group of New Zealanders who I see pretty regularly. Nina and Sarah are also LLM students, and James is completing his masters of journalism. It's great to meet people from elsewhere, but also a comfort to have New Zealanders nearby, especially when you're sick of not being understood half the time...

And then there are the Aussies. The whole ANZAC thing comes to the fore when NZers and Australians meet overseas, totally surrounded by people from "elsewhere". There is undoubtedly an unspoken, natural connection that occurs, making it easy to get to know each other. Katie is in the photo above and some others appear in the photos online.

Otherwise, the wider LLM group, of which there are around 400 from over 50 countries, are a great bunch. We all worked hard when we first arrived to prioritise each other, meaning that invitations to dinner, drinks, sight-seeing or whatever were often extended far and wide. That predictably caused a few organisational issues, as numbers for restaurants quickly swelled into the twenties, but this is New York, so you can always find somewhere to accommodate the group. The point is that it was pretty easy to get to know people, so that now there is always a familiar and friendly face not far away.

NYU organised various receptions and social functions at the start of the term which provided helpful opportunities to meet others in the programme. One of the best was a sunset boat cruise down the Hudson from Chelsea Pier, around the bottom of Manhattan to Brooklyn Bridge, and then back via the Statute of Liberty. From left in the photo: Laura and Bruce (Australia), Dan (USA), Katie (Australia), me, Felix and Carston (Germany).

As with California, I gel most easily with the Europeans (including Australians, Canadians, South Africans etc), and interestingly, the Indians. Which is not to say, of course, that I haven't really enjoyed meeting the Turks, Filipinos, Koreans and Jamaicans as well.

But what of the Americans? They're an aloof bunch in some ways. It is evidently a bit of a joke amongst the American JD students (JD being the American law degree), that New York University attracts hundreds of supposedly interesting LLM students from all around the world, and then the Americans never talk to them. This is an exaggeration, but it is true to say that the LLMs tend to stick together and thus, by definition, so do the Americans.

I think this is mainly a product of our programmes and orientation. The first year JD students, who arrive at the same time as the LLMs, get inducted together and divided into sections of 100 with whom they share classes, tutorials, study groups and so on. The practice, it seems, is that they also form their social networks almost exclusively within their sections. The result is that when us LLM students arrive, first year JD students are busy in their own sections, and second and third year JD students already have established networks from their previous years studying. So even though we share classes, we don't interact to a huge degree.

Interestingly, the exceptions are the few American LLM students, who do hang-out with the foreign LLMs. I guess that suggests the segregation is more a product of the programme rather than nationality itself.

The other point that supports this theory is that it is possible to meet American students through other means. For instance, I've got to know several people through OUTLaw, the law students lesbian and gay group. The other student groups provide a similar opportunity. For instance, this weekend I went on a "hike" organised through the Environmental Law Students Society, and spent a long time talking with the Americans who went along. I also attended the first meeting of the NYU LawDems (the law student Democrats group) and signed onto their listserv. I haven't done much since, but opportunities will no doubt arise.

What I'm trying to say is that when I have actually come face-to-face with the Americans, they are interested in knowing where I'm from and what I'm doing over here. And the interest is genuine, contrary to some reasonably prevalent national stereotypes that persist...

Eating lunch during our hike in the New Jersey Palisades Park, on the banks of the Hudson with the Bronx in the background. From left, Kevin (USA), Sowl (Korea), Atthi (India), Stephanie (USA), Menz (Jamaica) and Bryant (USA). Note also that the weather is sunny, a merciful relief after eight days of solid rain!

And then off campus (because one's life can't all be law school), I have my lovely kiwi friends, David and Barrie, who took me to dinner the first night I arrived in New York. As well as Andrew, who kindly put me up before I was able to move into my accommodation.

***

I just need to take a short deviation here to share a quintessentially kiwi anecdote. Having said that, it is so extreme that it can't even be said to be typically NZ...

David, Barrie, Jacque Keane and I had brunch in Chelsea at a place named Cafeteria one Sunday morning when Jacque (a friend of Hamish's for those who don't know) was over here on holiday. David and Barrie knew the waitress in the cafe, and introduced her to us. The waitress looked at Jacque and asked "what is your surname". We wondered why. Jacque said it was "Keane". The waitress said that her and Jacque knew each other.

A bizarre coincidence we all thought, but not that extreme since Jacque had actually lived in New York for quite a while several years ago. But no, the waitress then asked whether Jacque had been an exchange student in Norway in 1987, to which Jacque had to answer that she had been. In a voice the whole cafe would have heard, the waitress them reminded Jacque that they had in fact traveled around Europe together that year.

So of all the brunch places in New York we could have chosen that morning, and of all the waitresses that could have worked in them, we chose the one in which the American waitress knew Jacque, a New Zealander, from Norway in 1987. Spoooooky.

***

And finally, but not in any diminished by being mentioned last, there are my extremely generous American friends, Darren and Eric, who have made me feel very welcome in their fair city. The five of us (Darren, Eric, David, Barrie and I) went to dinner for my birthday, and had a whale of a time. Photos here.

So that's my social network in a nutshell. Exactly what I do with these people will form the basis of future posts. Given the amount of work I need to do in the next two months, I suspect most of the socialising for the term has already occurred!

New York hasn't claimed me (yet)

2005-09-26T23:20:00.000-04:00

Ok, so my intention of regular chatty posts hasn't quite materialised in the four weeks I've been here in New York City. You could say I've been doing something right if I haven't had time to sit at a computer writing another installment. While that might in fact be true, it's just a sub-factor in the larger picture, which is that life in this city so far has been CRAZY.

But in a good way. I'm enjoying myself immensely; both the process of settling into the coming year, as well as the city itself, the people and the study.

The simple truth, however, is that there aren't enough hours in the day to achieve everything. And while I suspect this will be an ongoing phenomenon to some degree or another, I also think it's been particularly heightened in recent weeks because of all the "set-up" I've had to do.

First-up, life administration such as opening bank accounts and getting a cell-phone took great chunks of hours out of the day.

From there I entered the phase of having to navigate New York University's enrolment bureaucracy, which is no mean feat in a university of 50,000 students.

I moved into my room five days after arriving in the city, which held out the promise of getting myself settled. To do so, however, meant buying pillows, linen, a mattress cover, reading lamps, coat-hangers, a mirror (essential!), kitchen knives, pots and pans, a toaster oven, picture hooks, soap holders...you get my drift.

And in a strange city as big as this one, it takes considerable time to actually locate the right shores, physically get there, find what you need at the right price, and then get it all back to the dorm. In fact, this took inordinate amounts of time. And then the same experience was replicated with other kinds of shopping - finding the nearest (and cheapest) supermarkets, chemists, ATMs, and most importantly, decent coffee.

Classes started two days later. It was a bit shocking to learn that the first lectures wouldn't consist of administration only; my four classes had upwards of 30 page reading assignments for the first lectures alone, and more for the classes later in the week. The pattern has continued since then.

And in the midst of all this, there's the imperative of getting to know the other LLM and JD (American) students at the various receptions, orientation events, impromptu gatherings and so on. All lots of fun, of course, but time-guzzling (and the hang-over means the next day's start is unhelpfully slow).

So to sum up, my days have been fairly full of late. But, as I said above, the crazy pace has been a product starting new endeavours in an unfamiliar city. I've now got my room in order, found the nearest and cheapest places to buy food and other essentials, figured out how much time I need for reading etc, so things feel a little calmer.

Don't get me wrong, though. Life will remain a whirlwind of study and NYC life, but I'm pretty sure it'll be more focused and controlled than the last month has been.

Still, given this reality, how to overcome the likely problem of no blogging? To keep the posts short and poignant, I'll be theming them. Over the next few months I'll post about where I live, my neighbourhood, the people, the University and my classes, politics, food, cultural events, and most probably, the weather.

Who knows if it will all paint a coherent picture by the end, but then who said that was the goal anyway?

I haven't got around to taking too many photos, but here's the view from my room...very NYC don't you think? (At least it faces south, which means lovely afternoon sun.)

O Canada...

2005-08-23T17:18:00.000-04:00

As my time on Canada's east coast draws to a close, the saddest thing is saying goodbye to my sister, Kirsty (whose blog you will find linked to this one), and her wife, Manue. They've been superb hosts, and I think enjoyed having me around. Still, we've been living in a one room loft, so I'm glad to be giving them some well deserved privacy.

As it happens, the last two and half weeks in Montreal haven't been nearly as eventful as the previous four, but that was precisely the point. This part of my travels was always meant to be chilled-out, cheap and cheerful. Thus long days lying in the sun reading my book were just the ticket.

Still, there was time for a brief trip to Ottawa, some very expert belly-dancing complete with a real live snake and fire-sword (I was watching rather than belly-dancing, in case you were wondering), strolling around the (gay) Village, purchasing a certain pair of jeans I'd had my eyes on since San Francisco, helping Kirsty and Manue clean and paint their new apartment and then move into it, and of course sampling Montreal's fine French pastry, especially the divine Croissant aux Amandes et Chocolat.

But in line with my desire to do not much at all, the highlight of my time here was simply hanging out with Kirsty and Manue, seeing how they live their everyday lives. I've never watched my sister in a relationship before, and while I had met Manue several times previously, this is the longest continuous time we've had to get to know each other. I'm glad to report that we all got on famously, and that Kirsty and Manue are demonstrably happy, safely ensconsed in their lives together. It's been fantastic getting to know Kirsty's life here in Canada.

The photo above is of the three of us canoeing on a lake by Manue's father's house in the suburbs of Montreal. They also roped me into helping them move, which included painting their new apartment. Me with a paint-brush and roller in hand...Hamish would have been proud. What was great, however, was that Manue's mother, Dominque, and brother, Edourd, came down from Quebec City to help as well, meaning I got to meet them again.

Who would have thought hanging-out with my sisters in the Land of the Beaver could be so enriching?

Otherwise, just sifting about in Montreal confirmed my impression that this is one of the great cities of the World. It seems to have all the good things about North America without some of the excesses I observed in California. It's a big city, but clean, relatively uncongested and easy to get around. And on top is the overriding "Frenchness", giving the city something palpably unique. I felt self-conscious not being able to speak French, but that was more to do with my own feelings of inadequacy rather than any annoyance on the part of Montrealers, most of whom spoke excellent English.

I also took a stroll up and around the McGill University campus, which came pretty close to being my university of choice. Given my feelings about Montreal, and the fact that Kirsty lives here, I definitely felt some pangs of "what if...". Of course, had I chosen McGill rather than NYU, the alternative pangs of "what if..." would almost certainly have been more intense.

I guess the big "event" in Canada was our weekend away in Ottawa. It's only a 2 hour drive, and since Kirsty has a NZer friend there, Robyn Devane, we decided to rent a car and make our way down to check-out the nation's capital. I even got to drive there and back, on the right-hand side of the road no less, in a large Chrysler Seabring. It felt very American, indeed.

Ottawa is very much a capital city with large, some very ornate, public buildings, Canadian and provincial flags flying everywhere, a public service feel and so on. But still large enough to be interesting and lively. Not wanting to offend the land of my father's birth, but I had to contrast Ottawa with Canberra as both have a similar feel...Canberra is a "nice" public service town, but I'm afraid there's not much going on when measured against Ottawa, which was comparatively (and relatively, for that matter) dynamic.

While there, we did the obligatory Parliamentary tour, and surveyed the Canadian art in the National Museum. Some of the art was great, although one of the most interesting things about the National Museum was the building itself. Very light and quite minimalist - plain granite floors and walls with high ceilings, lots of glass and interior atriums so that natural light made its way into all the non-gallery space. Strangely, the US Embassy just down the road was very similarly designed. We hoped the National Museum was there first and the US Embassy modelled on it, rather than the other way around...

And one tip if you go to Ottawa - DON'T go to a bar called Barrymore's! Not because of its nominal association with a recent NZ immigrant of dubious entertainment credentials, but because the staff are a pack of wankers! Saturday night saw us and Robyn, plus her flatmate Janine and a couple of their friends, head out for the monthly 70s night at Barrymore's - live band and everything. We were there for the first set, grooving to such classics as fever, when one barman took a dislike to Robyn's boyfriend and decided to throw him out. When I tried to explain that if they really did throw him out, all 7 of us would have to leave instead of staying and spending more money at their bar, I was told to "get the f*ck back inside or get thrown onto the f**cken street". Such charming ambassadors for their country in their nation's capital...

Nonetheless, I was glad to carry-on my proud tradition of visiting nations' capitals...many of you will remember my scintillating comment on the dome of the Riechstag and how many EU flags were flying in different European capitals... Once I get to DC, I'll have a North American trio - Mexico City, Ottawa and Washington DC.

Kirsty and Manue underneath the Peace Tower at the front of the Canadian Parliament.

See more photos of Montreal and Ottawa on my webshots page.

Speaking of the States, I head down to New York tomorrow morning - yikes! I'm pretty excited, although my "to-do" list for when I get there is rather long. If only America worked less like a federation, I could have got a social security number and opened a bank account in California (I wasn't able to do either), and life in New York would have begun much more easily!

Still, it'll be an experience getting everything organised...perhaps the subject of my next post.

Salut.

2005-08-08T21:30:00.000-04:00

Yosemite National Park, Cal.
July 2005

Another Voice Inside the Blogosphere

2005-08-08T21:20:00.000-04:00

I had thought I'd send my news from abroad via email, but a very good friend pointed out that doing so is old news. Blogging was the way to go. So I thought about it and decided being away and having news to send was the pefect excuse to give it a go.

So here it is, Alastair Cameron's Letter from America. I can't promise the depth or lucidity of the late Alastair Cook, and I certainly hope this blog doesn't run as long as his radio postings. Nonetheless, it might contain some original thoughts about our American brothers and sisters arising from the perspective of this kiwi expat.

The postings will be supplemented by photos, which you'll be able to access from Webshots. Follow this link and you'll see a series of photo albums with names like "Yosemite National Park (July 2005)" and "UC Davis (July 2005)". Click on the albums to see the photos and my explanations of where it is and who the people are.

For those of you who made representations before I left that I don’t write overly extensive travelogues, my intention isn't to include every detail and observation. It's to hit the points of most interest to me, and so hopefully to you, my friends and family back home.

Having said that, you might need to flick down for key words in my first substantive post, California Dreaming. A lot was crammed into my four weeks in California, so the post is a bit of a monster. Given the kind of content you're probably most interested in, I suggest searching for margarita, Casto, young men, beach, pool and gym. Of course pictures speak a thousand words, so you could just look at the photos...

Enjoy.

California Dreaming

2005-08-08T21:15:00.000-04:00

While this post is about my time in the Golden State, it's actually beaming out of East Coast Canada, Montreal to be precise. I'm here with Kirsty, staying in her and Manue's cute little loft apartment, slowing preparing myself for the final trip to New York.

And remember, I’ve put some photos on the web - there's a link off to the side that will take you straight to the site ("PHOTOS...to go with the words").

As far as California goes, I definitely knew I was in America:

Everything is bigger – the cars, roads, houses, shops, malls, food, hair and of course the people themselves, even though California is supposedly one of the thinner states. As one American put it to me “Big is the point”...
The waitress wasn’t allowed to serve lemonade after 8pm but she could serve Sprite - huh??? (and then she tried to charge for the lemonade anyway!)...
Several people heard my accent and spoke back to me in a slow drawl as if English was clearly my second language...
Almost every car has either a pro-Bush or anti-Bush sticker on its bumper; my personal favourite is “Lies, Hate, Greed: The Republican Way”...
The newspapers almost have half a page of international news (although admittedly I haven’t been reading any of the major city dailies)...
Every bar plays Hip-Hop/Rap, which drives me crazy!

It really is like a different country/planet!

But I enjoyed myself. For those who don’t know, Fulbright sent me on a four week course entitled “Orientation to USA Law”, which was held for three weeks at the University of California Davis and one week at the University of California Berkeley. The course itself was interesting, although a little basic at times. Each day consisted of lectures running from 9am-4:30pm on a certain area of American law. Much of the teaching was for students from civil law countries, so coming from a common law country myself many of the concepts were very familiar. Nonetheless, it’s been a useful refresher and helped me get my head back into the study of law.

As for the people, there was about 85 students in the course from perhaps 30 different countries. The group included 12 other Fulbrighters, two of whom are going to New York as well. Around half the 85 were Japanese; the next biggest groupings came from Germany and Brazil, and then a grab-bag from the rest of Europe, Central and South America and few from other parts of Asia. Including me, there were only two other native English speakers: a girl from Ireland and a guy from Australia.

Ironically, the unanimous verdict from others in the class was that we three native speakers were the hardest to understand! It’s actually quite logical when you think about it – we speak too fast and use odd words and colloquialisms. While most people’s English was really good, to make myself understood, I had to slow my speech right down and try to use reasonably uncomplicated words...

Putting such a diverse group together presented a pretty unique set of opportunities, both academically and socially. Academically speaking, I gained a fascinating comparative look into other countries’ law and legal systems. The only thing everyone had in common was that we were all lawyers, so naturally people discussed the differences and similarities between their home systems and those of others.

Socially, the experience was equally unique. Navigating each others’ cultural norms, boundaries and language was a challenge. For example, ten lawyers from eight different countries organising themselves for a weekend away at Yosemite National Park (more later) provided a series of useful insights into cross-cultural interaction. Someone could write a thesis on the communication – or mostly miscommunication – that occurred that weekend! But it all transpired in good humour, and by the end of the course, we were a pretty cohesive group.

As my photos show, I’ve tended to spend most of my time with the Europeans, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Central and South Americans. I got to know a few of the Japanese, although mostly the women, who on the whole seemed more socially outgoing than the guys. The major exception was the soccer game – Japan v the World – where the men’s competitive spirit came out. Against my recommendation, I played for the World team...it was pretty bad but not a complete disaster.

DAVIS

Davis itself is a small university town about 2 hours north of San Francisco, 20 minutes south of Sacramento. While it felt a bit sleepy and out the way, it was an ideal start to my time over here. The town itself and the huge UC Davis campus were very easy to get around. Since the weather was consistently fine and calm, we hired bikes and then cycled everywhere. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, so I could get used to driving/biking on the right side of the road with relative ease. I still haven’t quite worked out who gives way to who, but that’s just details, right?

And as I said in my last email, it was hot hot hot – daily averages of 38 degrees – so there was plenty of opportunity to swim and work on overcoming my Southern Hemisphere serious lack of tan. Of course such pursuits were only pursued after class each day...

Certainly the highlight from the three weeks in Davis was the trip to Yosemite National Park. What a stunningly beautiful place. Our specific destination was Yosemite Valley, much of which we got to see over the couple of days we were there. On the Sunday, me and two others tackled a 13 mile hike, which took us up a 1000 metre incline and right around the top of the valley. It was exhausting, but well worthwhile. The photos say it better than I can describe, so I’ll let you look through those.

The other fun outdoor pursuit was the course organised trip to Lake Tahoe, a deep freshwater lake high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Again, there are some photos to give you the gist. We spent our day kayaking, swimming and sunbathing. Three large pina coladas from the bar on the beach before we left knocked me out for the long bus ride home. I have to give it to the Americans, while the drinks can be expensive, especially when you add the tip, the bartenders certainly don’t skimp on the spirits!

The course also organised some field trips to various legal institutions. The most interesting was the California State prison in Vacaville, about 20 minutes south of Davis. The prison was built in the early 80s for 2700 prisoners and currently holds over 6000 – can you believe it? Congress passed legislation forcing judges to give longer sentences and the result was, naturally, a huge increase in the long-term prison population, leading to gross overcrowding.

According to the Lieutenant who showed us around, the inmates have “no right to privacy” so there was no problem with trekking us through their living quarters. Many of them were showering at the time, and yes, there were women in our group. We could see the triple bunking, where there was supposed to be only one bunk. The guys weren’t in cells because they were only Level 2 (out of 4), which meant a few came up and asked us who we were and what we were doing. Not aggro at all, even though we were invading their space as if they were animals in a zoo. The prison guards made no effort to explain who we were.

We saw where the inmates ate, although “feeding” had not started (that’s literally what the guard called dinner time). They were allowed out for the their afternoon’s exercise while we were there; it was hot with no shade, so none wore a shirt – almost every inmate was incredibly fit, since all they had to do, it seemed, was run around and play sport. 95% appeared black or Hispanic; the oldest inmate was 85 years old. The prison held about 2100 “lifers”, ie. inmates who were almost certain to die in prison. The trip served to strengthen my belief that in 200 years or so history will judge our criminal justice system very poorly.

It’s worth noting the unbelievable resources these university campuses have. They are, essentially, small towns. UC Davis alone has 26,000 students, so the services and support facilities for them are the same as those for the population of a town like Masterton. The gym at UC Davis, for instance, is enormous. Consider weights and cardio spaces as big as the first two floors of Les Mills on Taranaki Street, and then add three basketball courts, four badminton courts, a volleyball court, eight squash courts, group fitness areas including a Spin/RPM room, a wrestling mat, a climbing wall and a four-lane running track built around the top of the basketball courts. Any equipment you need for any of these activities is lent out free of charge. The resources do seem incredible to me, but I guess it’s not that surprising when you consider the kinds of fees they charge every student; upwards of US $30,000, which gives them an annual budget of at least US $780,000,000!!

So while there wasn’t much activity going on in Davis itself, the three weeks there were great fun. I think it’s almost certain that if they had taken us to Berkeley first, with its close proximity to San Francisco, the group wouldn’t have bonded. Everyone would have splintered off and done their own thing. At Davis, we were forced to get to know each other. As such, I'm definitely keen to look-up some people in Europe next year, and told them they should contact me if they come to New York in the short-term or New Zealand in the longer-term.

BERKELEY / SAN FRANCISCO

Next stop was Berkeley, or more specifically, the campus at the University of California Berkeley. Having been fed a diet in Davis consisting mainly of Mexican food, pizza, hamburgers and (thank goodness) fresh fruit and salad, we made a b-line for Telegraph Avenue in downtown Berkeley for some decent Indian food. Telegraph Ave and Berkeley is all you’d expect – street stalls selling tie-dye by the metre, pan-handlers, Hari Krishnas dancing with flowers in their hair, grungy music stores specialising in used hard punk/rock, piercing and tattoo store after piercing and tattoo store, a series of divy, cheap eateries and mixed in among all of this a few decidedly “normal” looking students.

The campus itself is attractive with lots of trees and lawns, a stream running through middle and some interesting old buildings. Unfortunately the law school, known as Boalt Hall, appeared to be the exception. It’s very functional, but looking a bit tired these days.

And of course there is San Francisco itself, only 20 minutes away on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), so very accessible. Beautiful, although surprisingly cold. The western (pacific facing) part of the city is frequently under fog all day. It rolls in off the cold water that evidently comes down from Alaska in a jet-stream, and in the evening, the wind comes up so the city is freezing. With that weather, plus the city’s hills and harbour, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Wellington...

Still, what a great place. Incredibly diverse. In 45 minutes you can walk from Nob Hill and the palace like homes of the original railroad tycoons, into North Beach (Little Italy), down through China Town into Union Square, the glitzy shopping area. From there through the Tenderloin with all the beggars and prostitutes, and a little further on into the Mission (Latin) District and finally into the Castro, where the normal assumptions most definitely go out the window. You have to assume most people are gay rather than the usual assumption the other way around. The large rainbow flag towering over those below on the main intersection, and the smaller ones on almost every building, leave you in no doubt about which part of town you’re in!

On the weekend we arrived, I met up with Zack Allen, who I met through work when Marian and I travelled to New York in May this year. He had recently moved to the Berkeley area himself, because he is about to begin his law degree, so he handily picked me up in his car and took me into the City. It was great having a local show me around; he knew exactly where to go and what was worth seeing. We spent the afternoon wandering the Castro, before finishing up with a few drinks and dinner with a friend of his, Shawn (v. American spelling). From there they took me to a party of another friend’s place; the theme was 80s sitcoms, but luckily no one really dressed-up... It was fun meeting Americans in their own setting, and my accent provided automatic conversation: "where are you from", "what’s NZ like", "you do that dance before playing sport" etc etc. Zack and I went from the party back into town to meet-up with Zack’s boyfriend, Cassio, in a bar called Badlands. Fun place; a smattering nice young men one could have talked to if one was so inclined...

But every bar in California closes at 2pm; just as the party’s getting started in other words. Zack and Cassio dropped me back at the dorm in Berkeley, before which we had made plans for brunch the next morning (a world-wide phenomenon it seems) and some more sightseeing. We spent Sunday afternoon at El Rio, a run-down little salsa bar in the Mission District. It had a live salsa band, a free BBQ and a hundred or so people getting decidedly sloshed on the lethal margaritas being served. I can’t dance salsa, but after three of those margaritas I certainly thought I could!

I went in and out of San Francisco the following week, outside class time of course. Having said that, I might have skipped the day of tax lectures to hire a bike to cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County. I was in good company, though, with five others joining me. We lunched in the sun at Sausalito, looking back over the fog-shrouded City. The biking remained light exercise for a short time, and then took a harder turn up some very steep coastal trails... I learned it’s virtually impossible to stay upright on a bike when the hill is so steep that you’re in the lowest gear of 24, and your wheels are spinning because the ground is dry and dusty. I coped surprisingly well. Again, great fun, but exhausting when all was said and done.

And the week ended with a semi-formal "Graduation Dinner" back at Berkeley, and a long night of goodbyes. Some people I'll see again when I arrive in New York. Others, especially the Fulbrighters, will probably come to New York at some point over the next year, so we'll touch base again then. And hopefully I'll be in Europe within the year to see a few others. But some people I mightn't see again at all, or at least not for a long time. But the organisers did give us a "networking schedule" with each others' contacts, so the possibility is there!

And so from sunny California to francophone Montreal.