When you least expect it.

Thursday, we took it easier than we had yet to date, and hung around in the apartment with Malcolm. The big events for the day (for me) included cooking (yay!) and dumpstering numerous vases worth of flowers i had never seen before. i filled the apartment with them.

Friday is a completely different story.

We left the house at nine thirty to grab a cup of coffee and catch the train to the Museum of Natural History. We visited the Lennon memorial, which is incidently, the most peaceful of memorials I have ever seen. Then, we met our friend Patrick (we originally met at common ground - talk about fated!) at the museum for a day of super fun and learning. Marshall and I honestly visited every exhibit.

The museum filled me with a jealousy I can honestly say I've felt before. It would have been an immeasurable advantage to have lived near this sort of information during my childhood and adolescent years. Maybe you are scoffing about how teenagers aren't interested in museums? Well, for one, I was. For two, they have dinosaur bones.




Okay, the second picture is some extinct super moose. A moose of unmentionable proportions!


Everything in the museum is beautiful. Here is another (slightly blurred) example:


After the museum, Patrick took us out for pizza under the brooklyn bridge (which was delicious) and ice cream (which was delicious). We then walked the bridge to the Manhattan side. We took no pictures of this event, so you can imagine the beauty.

We returned to the apartment with just enough time to go move the car (i now have three parking tickets) before we joined critical mass.

Marshall and I had been wondering where we would be for critical mass, and we were definitely fortunate to be in New York. (Critical Mass is a bike ride that involves a large number of people as a statement about earth friendly transportation.) Apparently, there has been a two year long fight with the police over the legality of critical mass in New York. This led to the critical mass we attended being more akin to a protest than a peaceful ride. The City claims that the assembly of bicyclists is a parade without a permit, and will ticket and/or arrest riders.

There were around two hundred and fifty riders and probably fifity police waiting at the meet-up point when we arrived. The ride managed to go almost two blocks before any police involvement. There were police stationed strategically along the street, followed by a barricade - a full street blocked by police who began pulling riders from their bikes. Marshall and I pumped some pedals and managed to use our weaving and dodging skills, and even had a chance to warn some other riders before cutting down a side street.

We met up with a few of the other riders (we probably had a group of about thirty now), and headed toward times square. We covered all of the streets on Broadway and did a bike stand (holding our bicycles in the air to stop traffic) before the police came again (We were actually within the legal limit of bicyclists to not be considered an 'unlicensed parade' at this time). Then, we were furious pedalers. We had been to times square a few nights before. This is what it looks like when the traffic is allowed to go by unmanaged -


This is times square plus bicycle resistance-



After this ride, we joined the other, seperated riders at a meeting point. We rode back through times sqaure - taking over an extensive amount of the street! Some of the tourists were cheering us on and videotaping the ride when we came across another police stronghold. There were transporter vans at two major intersections, and many riders were grabbed by police. I overheard a few commands to not resist. The group split, and we spent a while riding to find other critical mass riders before returning to the apartment (there's something about getting away four times that made me feel like our luck might run out).

This was one of the strangest encounters I have ever had with police. At the march on the pentagon in DC, it was apparent that the police were willing to arrest anyone that left the designated "free speech zone" (don't even get me started), but they were not pulling people out of the march and ticketing them. This parade law is an obvious excuse for the police to eradicate and disassemble the people that they see to be a nuisance. I had never seen a person pulled from a bicycle just for riding before, and I want you to know that this is really happening. This happened. Our rights are being compromised.


Now, it is Saturday. I have washed my socks nad undershirts in the sink, Marshall is sleeping, and we will be leaving New York sometime before eight. It has been wonderful to spend two full weeks here. I'm glad that we had such a variety of experiences - and who knows what we didn't see? We discovered dumpsters and markets, lower east side radical bookstores and vegan restaurants, traffic and politeness, poverty ignored and wealth exhalted - and most of that is just Manhattan.

We don't really know where we are going. We are each alternately homesick and excited to be travelling.

We love you,
j