Day 18..New York New York - 14th July

Did sweet FA today! Got up around 2pm and lost most of the day at the wonderful US Postal service. Its the same service everywhere in the States really. 1-2 people standing around completely bored, totally ignoring the lines in front of them and chewing gum absently. They make an effort not to make eye contact with the queue and busy themselves on the computer or talking to someone else, then go on a break and disappear! Fookin rude eh! Assholes.

Because of that experience at the post office, we pretty much headed straight to Yankee Stadium after grabbing a quick bite to eat before we died. After a quick accidental stop in Queens (woops!) we turned up for the baseball game and it was great! It was the Yankees vs the White Sox. It was crowded in Yankee stadium with a bright green baseball diamond, happy crowd and a big screen with announcements and ads and stuff. When they announced the White Sox they played the Darth Vador theme from Star Wars - they were the enemy!!! Then when Yankees were announced, they played what? Superman theme! Typical. What a laugh. I totally forgot that they were going to do the National Anthem and was so excited when that came on. Everyone stood up and had their hands on their chest it was fantastic.

At first, the game was semi-slow going, and then it heated up with chants and songs and claps and musical riffs. The crowd got so swept up in it, so it was infectious! Sitting in front of us were 4 huge Yankee guys eating peanuts in the shells and drinking Budweiser Beer. They were so big that they all had to sit side on with their arms around each other to fit. A lovely girl called Sarah who was a diehard fan was sitting next to us, and she gave us a great commentary the whole way through - she was invaluable. She taught us who the players were, what they were doing, what their strategy should be next and stuff. Then there was some more USA propaganda in the 7th inning with God Sace America (they really get into that shit let me tell you! There was whooping and cheering after that song!) and then....my head nearly popped off with happiness for this one - they played "take me out to the ball game"! Everyone sang it and whooped and cheered. (By the way, they still serve cracker jack here - it's caramelised popcorn). The music was a mix throughout the night with thumping top songs and organ music - you know the type you hear in baseball movies? Strike me down dead they played it here! Kewl! There was also some smattering of bad commentary by some horrible old geezer. But we clapped and shouted and it was rip roaring good o'l fun! Everyone was talking to everyone else in the stands, it was a real social sport.

Then we caught the subway back, ate a quick bite and went to bed.