Hello, Long Island!

So we finally made it to Long Island, after a 24 hour period of crazy snow, bad road conditions, dead car batteries, and a crazy Australian GPS system named Victoria. Or Veronica. Or Virginia. (Really, any female V name will do...)

I don't really know what I expected Long Island to look like, but this wasn't it. It's quite ... rural. And affluent. All at the same time (Long Island is talented like that). We're staying in the town of Wainscott, which is right next to East Hampton, which is right next to Bridgehampton, which is right next to South Hampton. There are wineries. I mean, seriously, wineries?! Long Island? Huh. (Puts my Californian wine snob away) Interestingly (or not, as you prefer), many of the cities/names along the L.I.E. (The Long Island Expressway) are all Native names: Syosset, Manhasset, Montauk, Nissequogue, Patchogue - Wikipedia says the language of the Natives (which are tribes of the Algonquins) is Narragansett. I know, I know. I'm a wealth of information. Or, well, wikipedia is.

Also, Wainscott is named after town in Kent that was made famous in Dicken's Great Expectations. The town in NY was founded in 1665, which blew my mind for some reason. Why? I don't know. I clearly don't know my American History as well as I should. (Did I mention I've never been to Long Island?)

The drive down was long, but highly delightful. I have two really awesome partners ... Kelley and Allissa. We spent the drive singing, laughing, and making a rather extensive list of things we must do in the 4 weeks we're here. There is, obviously, a conflict of interest in that Allissa and I have similar names. Which can prove problematic for children, let alone adults. We had quite the awkward, laughing moment with the faculty of the school this afternoon, when they mixed us up, twice, after meeting us. We thought maybe we'd go with Rosencrants and Guildenstern, but that just might be too pretentious. And gross. I may just go with Lisa for the month ... no one but my family ever calls me Lisa ... but there it is. I'm taking one for the team.

We're at an incredibly awesome school, and I can't wait to meet the kids. Pictures of the cottage (oh, it's *so* totally a cottage!) and surrounding area to come forthwith.

Here is a list of examples from the list of excursions we decided we'd attempt to pursue:

Visiting Gray Gardens
Going to the seaside
Going to the wineries
Going to Montauk
Getting a Netflix subscription
Getting TWO Netflix subscriptions

(we lead exciting lives)
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Wikipedia
The Long Island Express Way
Shell Gasoline
Australian GPS systems everywhere