Home Sweet Home

A few people have pointed out that I haven’t finished my blog so thought I’d better write this last post although I expect many of you have already lost interest now I’m back. I’ve been telling people that I’m taking my time because I’m going to write something profound about the whole experience….I wouldn’t hold your breath.

17th September

I wanted to spend my last day seeing some of the sights that I didn’t get chance to the first time I was in New York. First was a failed attempt to see the Statue of Liberty when the boat broke down and the second was a more successful attempt at strolling down the Brooklyn Bridge. Afterwards I finished off my shopping, bartering for handbags in China Town and buying chocolates in the Hershey store. It took me a good few hours to squeeze all my new stuff into my backpack and suitcase but my strategic packing (screwing everything up and shoving it in) paid off and I managed to get everything in. Spent my last night in New York sleeping in a room the size of my bathroom with 3 German girls who all snored. Oh the joys of travelling!

18th September

So you know how I said that I would tell you all about my flight home because it was bound to be eventful? Well…..it all ran like clockwork. In fact I ended up with three seats to myself and at one point was watching two televisions at once. And then I did something that I never thought I’d do. I was sat there thinking about what I’ve achieved on this trip and my previous travels when it occurred to me that it was time to look danger straight in the eye. I’ve skydived, bungee jumped, and travelled around a country by myself for 3 months so it was time to conquer my greatest fear. And with that…….I went to the toilet on the plane! Not only this, I didn’t even make a dash for it after I’d flushed the toilet! That is bravery for you! And as if my day couldn’t have been going any better, as I walked up to the baggage carousel at Heathrow both my bags came out next to each other, intact and with no stray pants in sight!

2nd December

So it’s now December and I’ve been back in the UK for exactly two weeks. I’ve just about adjusted to not wanting to carry my entire wardrobe round on my back, take photos of everything in sight and refer to everything in dollars. My cell phone is back to being my mobile, a Subway sandwich followed by a dunkin’ doughnut is no longer my healthy meal of the week and my English accent has ceased to be ‘awesome’.

In total I was away for 79 days. During this time I travelled a total of 11,844 miles on the Greyhound bus alone which is further than London to New Zealand and doesn’t include the other various forms of public transport I took and the hundreds of miles I walked. I travelled through 29 States stopping in 17 and crossing the border into Canada twice.

Since I’ve been back everyone’s been asking me what the highlight of my trip was.

Well where do I start?

I’ve laid at the edge of the Grand Canyon, walked across the Golden Gate bridge and climbed Grouse mountain. I’ve celebrated Halloween in New Orleans, watched the sunrise at Cape Cod and gambled (and lost) in Vegas. I’ve spent 43 hours on a bus, stayed in a haunted jail and got caught in the worst storm San Francisco has experienced in 35 years. I’ve eaten genuine Chicago hot dogs, Philly cheese steaks, a Texan bbq and enough take aways and cups of coffee to last me a life time. I’ve met Haven and Bunny Roosevelt, Jerry Springer and a series of weird and wonderful people from all over the world. I’ve been asked what language we speak in England, if I know Robin Hood (at least a million times) and been told by a psychic that I’m going to marry an American man.

But it wasn’t all fun and frolicks. Obviously I was in America to do some serious work , learning more about the American approach to urban renewal and social inclusion. I met with people from all different organisations including research institutes, Universities, private planners, economic development agencies and grassroot groups. I’ve researched a number of important factors including looking at the physical and civic infrastructure of a number of inner city areas across the USA and their relationship with the rest of the urban region within which they are located.

And what have I found?

Well there’s no doubt that there’s some interesting inovative work going on to try to develop inner city neighbourhoods in a way that promotes the social inclusion of young minority groups and to make sure they have the same opportunities in life as people from more affluent areas. I was particularly impressed by the youth led work promoted by the Laidlaw Foundation in Toronto and also the University of Pennsylvania’s work with schools around West Philadelphia, incorporating practical community based initiatives into academic studies. I definitely think that youth based initiatives run and managed by young people should be something that more time and money is invested in.

However, like many cities in the UK, there are still major problems that need addressing. Youth gang crime is a particular problem as well as school absenteeism and under achievement. From what I’ve seen in America, despite the good work that’s been going on there isn’t a miracle solution to these problems and initiatives that work well in one place will not necessary be successful in another.

These are just a couple of my initial thoughts, I’m not even going to try and write down all my research in my blog but I will be writing a report which I’ll upload on here by the end of January.

So what do I think of America?

Well I was overwhelmed how friendly everyone I met were, from families I stayed with through the SERVAS organisation to the people I met with for my research who gave up their time to talk to me and show me round their cities. One thing British people are always surprised at is how little American’s travel but with a country the size of the USA I’m really not surprised. They have everything they could want all within one country from ski resorts, to beaches to some of the most amazing cities in the world.

One thing I would take issue with is people’s views of those that travel on the Greyhound bus. So often when I told people that I was travelling on the bus people questioned my safety and described those that used the bus as ‘the scum of society’. Well I spent a lot of time on the bus and never once did I feel unsafe. I’ve seen a young man look after a blind stranger who sat next to him for 24 hours, guiding him off and on the bus at every break stop for the entire bus journey. I’ve seen a middle aged man take a baby off a young mother during a night bus ride so that she could get some sleep, they didn’t know each other. And everybody that I met were friendly and genuinely interested to hear more about Nottingham and my travels. If that’s the scum of society then America is very lucky.

Finally…

All in all this has been a brilliant experience not only in terms of developing my understanding of urban renewal issues in the USA but also because of all the amazing things I’ve seen and done and the great people I’ve met. I’ve come back with a greater appreciation of the NHS, annual leave entitlements and vegetables as well as a valuable life experience, brilliant memories that will last me a life time and a slight crush on President Obama!

I just want to say thanks to all the people that I met in America for making my time there so much fun and also to emda for letting me have the time off in the first place. And finally my biggest thanks go to the Nottingham Roosevelt Travelling Scholarship without which this amazing experience wouldn’t have been possible.

 Thanks for reading!

More Shopping!!

16^th November

Once again the day was lost in a flurry of New York shops and swearing under my breath at people that stop suddenly in front of me in the middle of the sidewalk.They’ve got a lot of the Christmas decorations up already and it’s really busy now so I can’t imagine how busy it gets just before xmas. I certainly don’t want to be here to find out. You’ll all be pleased to know that I’ve snapped out of my ‘tight travelling mode’ and have found my inner shopper. It’s a good job I bought a suitcase yesterday because I definitely won’t be able to fit everything in my backpack. We’ll overlook the fact that I asked for the cheapest one they’ve got and will subsequently have to claim a polka dot black and pink suitcase with a massive pink bow from the luggage carousel on Wednesday. That won’t be embarrassing! Lets just hope it’s sturdy or else my ultimate airport nightmare might come true – the suitcase splitting and me having to reclaim all my dirty clothes one by one as they come round on the carousel! I’m actually flying in to terminal 5 so if my luggage actually arrives at all it will be a bonus.

One more day left and with the shopping pretty much done I’m intending to go and see the Statue of Liberty and then have a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge. The weather’s been nice again the past couple of days so I should have another day of sun before I head home. This will be the last post I do whilst I’m out here but I’ll do another one at some point when I’m back letting you know what weird events happen on my way home because in case you haven’t noticed they always seem to occur when I’m about!

 

Shopping!!

15^th November

Went to Jersey Gardens, an outlet mall, today to commence my 3 days of intensive shopping. Someone told me about this place when I was in Vancouver so I’ve only been waiting about 7 weeks to come here. I didn’t buy as much as I thought I would actually which is mainly down to the fact I’m in ‘tight travelling mode’. That consists of looking at a top that costs $30 and working out how many meals / nights accommodation I could buy with that before deciding it’s clearly too expensive.

So unless you want a run down of every shop I went into I haven’t got much to report other than the girl standing next to me on the bus throwing up on her boyfriend’s new trainers, that was pretty funny!

No more buses!

14^th November

My last Greyhound bus went like clockwork and now I’ve officially hung up my gloves (imagine if Greyhounds had to wear boxing gloves, that would slow them down). So I’m in New York and it’s still raining but it’s still an awesome city. Commence the shopping!

Rocky VI featuring…..me and a homeless guy

13^th November

Had to do a whistle stop tour of Philly today which was actually quite good because running from place to place was about the only thing I would do to keep warm. Did all the famous landmarks (won’t bore you with the details) and went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art which has the famous stairs from the Rocky film. Whilst several people ran up and down the stairs in a bid to look like Sylvester Stallone I was cornered by a homeless guy next to a statue of Rocky who promptly took my camera off me and commenced a 10 minute long photo shoot of me and the statue with him as director.

After that I had my final meeting of the scholarship with Joanne, one of the Directors of the Netter Centre for Community Partnerships based at the University of Pennsylvania. They’re doing a lot of good work making sure that the University engages with the community of West Philadelphia in which it is situated. This includes getting students to do community projects with school children, offering internships for people within the community and making sure that any construction work that costs over a certain amount involves local businesses.

My evening was spent watching films with an autistic guy who insisted on being called Rain Man before demonstrating how he could tell you the details of any film including when it was released, who was in it and how many awards it was nominated for. Pretty impressive.

When is a bell not a bell?

12^th November

My three and a half hour bus journey to Philadelphia took an extra 2 hours when the bus was late and then the windscreen wiper kept falling off mid interstate. This was quite a problem due to the fact that its been raining pretty much non stop for the past 2 days a fact I have neglected to tell you as I am in denial that my summer is well and truly over and that my tan is already falling off.

Philly was really cold as well and I’m not really equipped for this weather, particularly as my right trainer has a hole in it which means its constantly filling up with water and leaving me with soggy feet. Not nice! Anyway I braved the cold and went to see the Liberty Bell which some boast is the ‘best bell in the world’. Well I had a little giggle at this firstly because who keeps a league table of bells, secondly because it’s actually really small and thirdly because its got a crack in it so it doesn’t even work – technically does that even mean its  bell anymore? My laughing was met with some dirty looks probably because I was on my own and looked like a weirdo but most likely because it’s an iconic part of US history back to when Philadelphia was the capital of America.

After that I managed to bare the cold enough to go get my tea, a subway sandwich (my healthy snack of the week) followed by a dunkin’ doughnut (not so healthy). At Subway I asked for a 6 inch sandwich to which they said ‘it’s only a dollar more for a footlong’ so I said ‘why not’. At Dunkin’ Doughnuts I asked for 2 doughnuts to which they said ‘it’s only a dollar for 6’ to which I said ‘why not’. I think this adequately illustrates why there are obesity problems in America but also that whilst people might be overweight boy do they get their moneys worth!

No show chilli Wednesday

11^th November

It’s Veterans Day today so all the flags throughout the city (which is a lot) are all at half mast. They have been for the past few days actually but I think this ismainly due to the shootings at the military base at Fort Hood, Texas. Presumably you all heard about this back home but for those of you that haven’t, an army psychiatrist opened fire on his colleagues at the base and killed 13 soldiers and wounded about 30. He was stopped when someone shot him but they didn’t kill him despite the fact he’ll probably get the death penalty with it being in Texas. Unfortunately it’s also kicked up the terrorism debate again as he is a Muslim and seems to have links with radical clerics.

Anyway, went up to Capitol Hill today and learnt a bit about American politics which is slightly less baffling now, probably should have done that at the start of my trip. Went to a couple more museums and had a look at the Whitehouse. I was going to knock on the door and ask whether Obama was playing but didn’t think that joke would go down to well with the 50 or so armed police circling the lawn. Besides he was busy today so I’ve said he can come round to mine for tea next week.

Chilli Wednesday at the hostel was sadly a no show due to a lack of people to actually make the chilli. Was pretty impressed however, when they turned up with about 10 pizzas and a load of cupcakes instead. Can’t argue with that!

Taco Tuesday

10^th November

My challenge for today was to see if I could go the whole day without spending any money. Armed with rolls for lunch and safe in the knowledge that is was Taco Tuesday at the hostel (free tacos) I succeeded! That’s another $20 towards the New York shopping fund.

Went to Arlington Cemetery which is the military cemetery and is pretty impressive for a Graveyard. It’s kept in immaculate condition as well. Whilst I was there there were loads of people sweeping up leaves and jet washing the gravestones although that may have had something to do with the fact that Obama’s visiting tomorrow. People always go on about how pretty places are in Fall with all the different colours and I’m not one to usually notice but it was a pretty beautiful place (does that make me middle aged?). Saw where JFK is buried and the tomb of the unknown soldier which contains the remains of unidentified soldiers from several wars and is constantly being guarded 24 hours a day. It’s Veterans day tomorrow (the American equivalent of Remembrance Sunday) so there were lots of people laying flowers and lots of old men in uniforms everywhere. Went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the WW2 Memorial and then up to the top of the Washington Memorial.

They certainly like to remember their dead here which I think is important especially with regards to educating people about war and what people in the past have gone through to secure the freedom of future generations but personally its led me to question whether they are spending to much time and money immortalising the past. Washington DC is known as the murder capital of the United States and has severe drug, violent crime and hate crime problems. It alsohas a large population of homeless people. The suburbs in particular have got large problems due to the gentrification of the downtown area which havepushed poorer people out as property prices and the cost of living have increased. This is becoming a familiar story in many of the cities I have visited in the USA. I therefore wonder whether millions of pounds spent on monuments to honour the dead should really be the priority and whether the focus should maybe be more on the here and now. Whilst it’s great the museums are free it seems almost baffling. I’m sure that they would argue that it’s to keep them accessible for everyone but I bet that 99% of people would still go to them if they had to pay. Even if they just charged a couple of dollars and reinvested it into the area. I’m sure that there are huge political reasons behind all this but it seems astonishing to me.

As for the cemetery I understand that it’s an honour to be buried there and it certainly is a beautiful place but I wouldn’t be keen on being a tourist attraction after I’m dead. Personally I’d like to be cremated and put in a firework (I had that idea long before that TV show) or maybe cremated and put into a capsule then implanted into a whale along with a tracking device. And then you’d go on underwater adventures with the whale. Just a thought.

Taco Tuesday was a great and tasty success. It was for the first 20 people that signed up which in the ended up being 18 blokes and 2 girls. Blokes are definitely quick off the mark when free food is involved and apparently so am I!

 

A Squirrel eating Mayo

 

Free museums

9^th November

Arrived at 9am, dumped my bags at the hostel and went to see the sights and sounds of Washington DC. The good thing about this place is that nearly all themuseums, monuments etc are free and they’re all pretty impressive.

I went to the Holocaust museum which was very well laid out and really informative. As you go in they give you an identity card for someone who actually lived during the holocaust outlining who they were, what they went through and what happened to them. I thought this was quite a good touch as I always find that suffering on such a large scale like during the holocaust and the Killing Fields in Cambodia is so difficult to comprehend. I can’t even imagine what 6 million people look like let alone try and understand what they went through. This therefore gave you the opportunity to bring it down to a much more personal level and offered you the chance to empathise with the individual. The museum itself didn’t really tell me anything that I didn’t already know but I have studied it at school and college, been to various holocaust museums across the world and been to Auschwitz. However, what was most interesting to me was listening to other people visiting the museum and their reactions to the exhibits. Some were of genuine shock, like they never realised that this had happened or not to the same extent anyway. It left me wondering the degree to which history outside of America is taught in schools.

It was another gorgeous day so went for a walk around and thought I’d head to the FDR memorial seeing as without him I wouldn’t actually have had the opportunity to come on this scholarship as it wouldn’t have existed. Then I went to the Air and Space Museum which has got loads of artefacts to do with the space race as well as the plane the Wright brothers used for their first flight. A very good museum for kids and people who like anything to do with physics, not so much for someone who had little sleep the night before.

Charleston to DC

8^th November

Left Charleston today on my last long bus journey up to Washington DC.  It was a 17 hour bus journey but I only spent about 10 hours on the bus, the rest of the time was spent waiting to transfer buses in various stations up the East coast. Met a load of carnival workers on their way home for the summer that were pretty entertaining. I also met a German girl who had skipped Charleston because she didn’t like the bus station. If I’d done that I don’t think I’d have gotten off the bus in 3 months.