Notebook and Pen

Another visit to the library today (mostly to use the internet this time) enabled us to find out about a weekly Couch Surfing get together at a bar near Union Square which was on tonight.

We also mastered the art of finding ways out of paying for access to the events guides on the internet and found a free writing class was taking place in Bryant Park, just behind the library later on this afternoon, which I attended out of interest and met some people, all who individually lived in New York but had never spent a full summer there and were now learning to take advantage of living in a city with so many free events.

This finished with just enough time to grab a slice of pizza in the exact way a New York pizza should be eaten, as we were told later into the night: extremely greasy, on a paper plate and standing on the street before running for the subway. Job done.

Though we are meeting lots of new people everyday in NY, we hadn't yet been successful in finding a Couch Surfing host and were spending a lot of the remaining budget on overpriced hostels, so mainly wanted to attend the party for potential contacts.

The most expensive bottle of cider I've ever bought and an accidental intrusion on a private party for someone's leaving night later and we eventually found ourselves kitted out with name tags (which usefully served as discount entitlement to the bar), free Chinese food and a lot of new friends. One of them, I forget his name (ok, they weren't best friends) owns a website to which he publishes spontaneous acts of entertainment from the public, and also organizes and films them, which he was doing tonight.

After carefully waiting until everyone had drunk enough to join in, he talked everyone into leaving the bar and forming a line in pairs across Union Square. From here each pair would dance as randomly as they could to the speakers he'd set up out of nowhere and ultimately try and encourage as many passers-by to join in as possible.

Not many did, still though it was the most random thing we've done in NY so far and there's no denying everyone had a lot of fun becoming internet video stars.

I hope we won't regret it when we see the video...