Subscribe To
This Site
Peter Brusikiewicz' Weekly Blog
|
I am finally settled in... I think. I have a roof over my head, I have a phone, and I have the internet (the internet, I thank my neighbor for, whoever he or she may be!). I am writing this blog to share with all of you my experiences in New York. This will be a journal for me and I plan to write a new blog once a week or so...depending on how everything goes. Before I begin to tell you about my journey, I have to point out the second sentence that I wrote in this blog...I find it funny that right after mentioning the roof over my head, I unintentionally wrote PHONE and INTERNET. It seems that nowadays we cannot survive without a cell phone and the internet...it is a priority over such other things as food and health.
Peter Brusikiewicz packs up to leave
Anyways, my adventure began on Thursday January 4th 2007. I had my room all archived. I put all my belongings in bins to be stashed away in the corner of my house for who knows how long. I have decided to go to New York to attend the Acting School. What will come of it you ask? I don't know. Will I come back to Toronto after I finish? Truthfully, I do not know where I will be one year from now. I don’t really know where I am right now. I am not familiar with New York. I have only been here once before and that was just for a weekend. I just know that I had the door open for me financially and personally and I got a gut feeling that I had to get out of Toronto and go on this wacky adventure. There is a personal motive behind this rather than a professional one. Am I ready to entirely dedicate myself to acting? For the moment I am.
Peter Brusikiewicz' leaves home
So my step dad and mom drove me to New York from Toronto. I guess they wanted a little bit of family bonding out of the occasion before they let me off on my own. I am 25, and I have not lived on my own yet. It is quite the leap to actually start living on your own so far away from family and friends. I guess the loneliness has not hit me yet and maybe it won’t because I have been preparing myself mentally for this trip for about half a year.
Peter Brusikiewicz says goodbye to his family
So we left on Thursday at around 8pm. We drove to my cousin's in North York and then to my brother's in Mississauga on the way to the border. A lot of tears were shed by the family members and the friends as well. I find it quite comforting that I have so much love and so many people to count on back in Toronto. I drove to the border while my step dad slept and my mom sat with me and just chatted. As we approached the border at around 11pm, I began to get nervous. I began to get nervous about whether I have everything that I need and whether they will let me through. I have heard stories that they did not let people through the border for the most absurd reasons, and I did not want to be a victim of that. I got to the border and went to the immigrations office, and I passed everything with flying colors (I am sure that me being a blonde hair, blue eyed, white guy also helped). The immigrations officer gave me my documents and my visa and he said "you are now an American citizen". For some reason, it felt good!
Peter Brusikiewicz arrives in New York
My step dad took over the driving from there on and then my mom and then my step dad again and then me. It was 5.30am when I took over the driving and we were already in New Jersey. I drove all the way to Manhattan and we stopped at a diner to get breakfast at 7.30am. We were by Union Square and by the school’s head office. I had to see the housing director John about a lead that he had for me for a room. If that lead would not have worked out, I would have been fucked. I imagined myself living in a hostel with all my belongings for God knows how long. At 9.00am I went to the office to see if John was there but he was not. My parents and I killed some time and walked around until 9.30. We went back to the head office and John was there. He gave me the address and the phone number of some guy (my future roommate) who was already there. We drove up to 5th Avenue and 107th to see the apartment. It is furnished and each room has a TV and a DVD player, shared washroom, shared kitchen. I don’t need much because I don't intend to spend a lot of time in my room other than sleeping and writing these blogs. I took the room. I need somewhere to live for the time being. If I find something better than I can always move out.
Peter Brusikiewicz in the big smoke
I am not going to say how much I am paying for this room...all I can say is that it is a good deal for a room in Manhattan but a shitty deal for an apartment in Toronto. But I love it! We are located on 107th street and 5th Avenue. We have a balcony! Let me repeat that. We have a BALCONY! This is a rare thing in Manhattan. We also have a view onto Central Park.
People have been telling me that I should not walk through this part of Central Park when it gets dark. I have also been told that everything north of here is pretty dangerous, and so I should be careful and not wonder around at night. I hear sirens at night, people yelling, and screaming among each other. As strange as it may seem...I love it. It breathes life to the city. This city is full of energy, both positive and negative. The people here are in such close range to each other that you start to talk to random people wherever and whenever. I have been here for a short time, but this is one thing that I did not see in Toronto....that people do not seem to connect with one another as they do here.
Peter Brusikiewicz - an actor prepares
My first impressions of the city are awesome. This city never sleeps. It breathes life and energy. I start school on Monday. I have no idea what kind of people will be there; what my schedule will be like; how many courses I have; or whether I will like it. They seemed pretty tight-lipped about all of this from the beginning. All they said is that we have an orientation on Monday at 8.30am.
Peter Brusikiewicz learns to be a grown-up
I have a cell phone here and a bank account now. The one thing that worries me is that my mom never taught me how to do my own laundry before I left. It's pathetic I know... that I still do not know how to do my own laundry. I feel as if I can conquer any challenge here in New York, but this laundry thing makes me most nervous. If I leave New York knowing how to do laundry, I will consider this trip a success!
I do not know what to expect but I will keep you posted.
Do you have questions or comments about what you've read in Peter Brusikiewicz' blog, or on the rest of the site? Then cl ick here to send us your thoughts, ideas for content or any other feedback. We'd love to hear from you!
Return from Peter Brusikiewicz's Blog January 7th 2007 to Peter's Blog Archive
Return from Peter Brusikiewicz' Blog January 7th 2007 to the WILDsound Filmmaking Feedback Events home page
