New York City Boy

The strange thing is - walking around in NYC is not strange at all. Probably because you saw the exact same thing a zillion times befor in the movies, but it just doesn't feel completely new. The fact that it's still very unfamiliar just adds to the confusion. Central Park with joggers and bikers in the morning, tourists and locals alike crowding to pictures of some movie shoot, baggy trousers on the silver-colour trains, this is exactly what I would have expected :) It's a bit reassuring at the same time, especially combined with the fact that English is spoken a lot less muddled here than in London. Obviously I'm still a bit lost in a lot of places, one in particular is your usual Midtown deli. For one I can't seem to figure out where they keep the beer. Also I'm not entirely sure yet about the selection of pastries and sandwiches, I can't match up the names on the price list with the actual objects behind the counter. Just this morning I had something made out of too sweet, too crumbly dough dipped in sugar crystals, and I don't know the name of it to make it easier avoiding the same stuff in the future :)
The office is cool, luckily I managed to get out of the "hoteling booth", which is basically an oversized phone booth with a desk and a small single PC screen - I can use the desk of a colleague on vacation instead. There was the usual issue with the entry in the AM where the access card never works as promised but it was resolved quickly. Oh yeah, AM... the jet lag - I always forget which direction they say is worse, but I'm quite convinced it's this way around :) Yesterday I got in after 14 hours of travel still in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon, so I strolled around the Avenues to fall asleep late enough, and still I awoke at 2AM (or 8AM per my internal clock). Maybe tomorrow will be better :) To prepare for it today I checked out Lower Manhattan, the Wall Street and NYSE with the signature bull, and also the new buildings on Ground Zero. I kinda expected the memorial to be in a more obvious place, but I only saw the arrows pointing towards it after a long walk in the opposite direction. Of course the arrows also mentioned I should pre-book so I just skipped this one. Further south was even better, not that many people at this "late" hour around 8PM. The small parks and the high houses gave that part a nice athmosphere, and I also found the street of Irish pubs for later reference.

Let's close this for tonight and log a quest for tomorrow - to find wifi to post this! (Actually in the end office internet was the Holy Grail - I'll still need the WiFi to add pictures)

M