I don't even know how much time has passed since my last post. Right now, having kicked off my worn-out sneakers, I'm on the train, half an hour away from Montauk (the easternmost point of NY state), heading home. It's hard to imagine a stranger journey than the one we've had. As always, we had grand plans for today, but I'll save the story of how they turned out for later.

To start, I'll say that we've walked through tons of streets, avenues, blocks, and boulevards of New York and all its surroundings. Mostly due to poor planning, we ended up in the most remote, quiet, and cozy neighborhoods, where you sometimes find solitary houses surrounded by forests and fields. As one of my professors likes to say, we've explored New York to its guts, even though we haven't been to many famous places. We made it to the dirty South Bronx, to Harlem—which doesn't look as criminal as people like to say—to Queens with its uniform houses and streets, to the south of quiet, modest Staten Island, and we've stomped through all of diverse Brooklyn, not to mention Manhattan itself.

Perhaps our main event was meeting a local American, an elderly man, whom we initially just waved at while passing his house. One evening, he invited us over, and we started talking. It went further—he kept inviting us over, showering us with gifts, treating us to generous lunches and desserts. Such hospitality never ceased to amaze. Recently, he gave me a thick book with paintings by a Spanish artist; I even felt ashamed.

Advice! Maybe we're just lucky, but we are increasingly convinced that Americans are very friendly and open to new acquaintances. Talk to people; we learned so much new about American life and everyday routines, about cheap stores, and interesting places, even with our broken English. Finally, we were gifted many, many souvenirs. :)

I don't think everyone knows that they hold entire tours of cemeteries here. We managed to visit one, though the guide, who was diligently telling us about local attractions at the entrance and praising our English, spoke so fast that we didn't understand anything and just started wandering between the stone blocks. Looking at large monuments and Egyptian-style tombs is interesting, but it gets boring quickly. The cemetery is located in Brooklyn, 53rd Street station, N line.

We managed to visit the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The first one is huge; you won't even be able to see half of it in a full day, but it houses exhibits from all over the world, starting from those same Egyptian tombs and ending with modern installations. MoMA is significantly smaller; we walked through it faster, but it's likely more interesting for students, as you can find a bunch of cool designer things, photos, modern exhibits, etc. The whole time, piercing screams of people are played from everywhere; it was funny to hear them the first time. :)

We went to a soccer match, a game between the local Red Bulls and guests from England's Tottenham. On the way (the stadium is in New Jersey), we ended up in a carriage with Europeans who were singing in unison for the whole train ride. The stadium itself turned out to be cozy and reminded me of an English one. We sat in the second row and were in the center of the action even before the match started, when we were shown on the big screen during the American anthem. Very symbolic! :) The fans cursed with choice profanity the whole match but behaved without aggression, so you can go to the fan section calmly (an English fan ran in here, and the entire southern part of the stadium "politely" cursed at him). We also plan to visit a baseball game (we're going to the Mets, because the cheapest tickets for the Yankees start at 90 dollars!).

As for souvenirs, I don't think I'll be discovering America if I recommend Best Buy. Of course, all the stores (with rare exceptions) scattered around Times Square are intended for rich tourists, certainly not for poor students from Russia. So don't give in to the urge to buy something in the center of Manhattan if you aren't sure about the low price.

Advice! Do you see big, big stores with a giant parking lot? Or a Best Buy sign? That's where the souvenirs are. There is also a beautiful, glamorous toy store, Toys"R"Us, on Times Square; everything there is also expensive. It's better not to go in, or you'll come out with such very important things as a telescope, some yellow hopper on a string, a Bionicle robot, etc. :)

So, that's a brief summary of today. We were going to visit Montauk, see whales, an old ranch, a lighthouse, and just walk around there (my favorite movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, was filmed there). But having messed up the schedule, as usually happens with us, we traveled halfway and didn't manage to transfer to the last train heading there. Instead, we walked around clean, for some reason flooded with designer shops, Babylon, and managed to get to another station, where, full of optimism, we walked one train station along Old Highway Montauk, encountering tree-covered rich plots, farms, lakes, and yachts. In general, we didn't really see anything today. :)