My third visit to New York with Peacebuilding...

...and never have I been more stupid... I will tell you about that later:p

We did kind of expect it, but it was shocking anyway when we learned that the police screwed up for Glenn. He was supposed to join us for the trip, but simply couldn't get the passport in time. That means for the first time that I am alone in New York City, with three students... We still hope that Glenn can come in a couple of days, but there are no guarantee, and we just have to make the best of what we got. That means me...

Back to what was stupid.... all the peacebuilders did not sleep the night before we left. Stupid? Yes, because we're all devastated now.I can't remember the last time I was this tired, but a qualified guess would be sometime during my struggle with the master thesis. However, it was not a bad night, and really nice to spend time with some people that I care a lot about.

The travel was quite straightforward, but almost as expected the security at the check in to Continental Airlines was terrible. They used a lot of time on us, and treated us as they would probably do with criminals...however they didn't know that we're peacebuilders. Torgil was even chosen for a "random" test of his luggage...

This year we landed in Newark, New Jersey for the first time. The security there was actually very nice. What was not nice was the personnel at the airport confusing us and telling us that we should not take the train. Eventually it lead to me sending Krischan and Torgil alone to the hostel in a taxi with most of our luggage. The rest I carried while walking the wheelchair of Frode. Me and Frode took the train, and that was actually very nice. When we arrived in Penn Station we couldn't find an elevator, and when we did I decided to walk all the way from 31st street to 103rd street. That was a major mistake. It took forever as we managed to get a red light in every pedestrian crossing. We finally arrived at the hostel 3 hours later than the other guys... Frode with a sore neck, and me with the worst pain in my back since carrying a student last year. We were all very tired, and just put our stuff in the room and went for some big pizza's that we couldn't eat. At nine, Frode, Kriscan and Torgil was in bed... Exhausted... I am writing this blog post, and really have a messed up mind now. So good night, sleep tight and lots of love from Øyvind

By the way, these are some pictures of tired peacebuilders