I always knew New York was diverse, but I wasn't aware of the fact that every neighborhood doesn't just look, it also feels completely different. I am lucky to be experiencing three very different environments during my stay here: First the Upper East Side, then Brooklyn Heights, and now the Upper West Side. I've moved all the way northwest right next to the beautiful Columbia campus, and am staying with Alexandra, a friend of my uncle's, and her son Antony in the former nanny's room. The area is full of gigantic, palace-like buildings, some of which are student dorms (!) and some faculty accomodation, like the house I live in. Walking along the breathtaking facades and peeking into lobbies with thick carpets, brass lamps and uniformed doormen makes me gasp, but actually walking in to one of these buildings is something I haven't yet gotten used to (and hope I never will).
After over a month of squeezing my belongings into a little leftover closet space or piling them up on top of dressers or chairs, it feels good to have my own private space for the last six weeks of my stay. I still expect to hear a cat snarling and hissing from time to time, but gladly I am only hallucinating...!
Pia arrived on Monday and it is great to have her around. How she manages to have a choice of three different invitations per night within a day of her arrival puzzles me completely - but I guess I'd better hang on to that girl, she is popular! So far we've done a little sightseeing around Times Square and Midtown, had delicious mojitos, and went to see a screening of The Mission at the MoMa Film Museum yesterday. Ennio Morricone composed the soundtrack and was supposed to give an introduction, but he had some sort of trouble with a concert and didn't show up. Still, I am enjoying the fact that he could have. Everything is possible in this city.
To top things off, Colin, Bill and Thierry treated us to some palate boggling Chinese food afterwards, complete with a frog on a log carved out of vegetables as a table decoration.
Plans for the weekend include some Guggenheim art and music tonight, a dinner at the Skypad tomorrow, and a little more sightseeing in between. My time in New York is halfway over, and I think I need to start making a To Do List to make sure I've seen all I've wanted to see.
On the other hand, my New York experience is so much more about people than sights and places - and that is exactly the way I like it.
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2 comments:
sounds like a lot of input for your brain. good stuff. and honestly, what's a sight, when you get to know so many interesting people and chaps? enjoy.
You are forgiven, because I know you can appreciate some good croquetas or gazpacho ;) By the way, you never replied about going to Chile! what are your plans after you come back to Vienna?
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