phenorbital

As part of my graduate training with work, I get to spend six weeks in the United States of America working in New York, which is due to start tomorrow – so I’m now sat in my apartment in Jersey City.

Yesterday started with the trip to Heathrow airport for the flight, which all started well but we soon discovered that we couldn’t check in easily as there’d been some mess up with thetickets or something. As a result 2 people got free upgrades from economy to premium economy, and through the use of the names-out-of-a-hat technique I was lucky enough to get this.

The next seven hours were spent sat on the plane, mainly watching films on Virgin’s in flight entertainment system – which is pretty good (with the exception of the slow interface).

Upon landing there was the fun with customs, where we got directed down to the side that’s supposed to be for US citizens only, which didn’t go down too well with the officer there – who said (whilst stamping the passports) “welcome to the United States – try not to have too much fun”. Baggage was then collected and a cab taken to the apartment here.

The place itself is very nice, although the view isn’t too great from the 10th floor where I am as there’s a lot of high rise buildings around here that block the view of the Manhattan skyline.

A few of us then went for a wander, got wet in the rain, and eventually ended up in a bar and grill not far from here. As my first taste of a proper American place it wasn’t too bad, and the prices were pretty similar to those in the UK… only in dollars not pounds… so it was rather cheap.

Today will see some more exploration, as all of the grads are here now and we’ve got all day before the 8am start tomorrow morning.