verena

i like this video a lot. new york feeling.

it’s april and it’s not really warm, but we are far from icy temperatures. nevertheless our boss michael planned an ice skating party down at the chelsea piers tonight. almost everyone from the office is here, even the colleagues from los angeles.
i haven’t done this in years. i actually can’t even remember my last time on skates, but i don’t fall and i don’t hit the ice with my backside. after being brave sportsmen and sportswomen we get pasta, meatballs and salads, while we are watching the next group entering the skyrink: some fast and furious amateur ice hockey cracks….

continuously thinking about how low the dollar is is dangerous, when a) you get paid in dollars and b) you love shopping… but this time it’s different. i work from at home, so i thought it would be good for my eyes and my neck to have an external screen. i find a cheap one at best buy. the shop clerks are helpful as always i am a bit paranoid about dead pixel, but they don’t let me open the package to check. so i carry the good piece home.
and as it turns out, there is a dead pixel! actually not a dead one. it’s flimmering red. so even more annoying. grrrrrrh!

i am looking forward to another evening with my austrian guest hansi. i try to get a table at peter luger, the very famous steak house in brooklyn, but no chance. so we are going for indian food in hell’s kitchen, which i love since my india trip in january.
and then there are certain things you only do when you have guests… i have never been to the revolving restaurant on top of the marriott on times square. so let’s go…
to go there is not as easy as you think. when you take the elevator in a high rise building you normally have two sorts of elevators, ones that bring you to the lower floors and ones to the upper floors. very easy. not here. first you have to press the right number on a display. that shows the letter of the elevator you have to take. still easy. not today. we take the right elevator, but either it goes in the wrong direction or stops at the wrong floor and there are not buttons you can press. after 20 minutes of high speed up and down (don’t forget we just had dinner!) we make it to the restaurant. it’s full of tourists, what else?
i am ordering a kind of hot chocolate with rum in it. it’s called caribbean delight. i regret it after the first sip. the view is not bad, but the circular restaurant is rotating within a big square of concrete columns, so it’s not too exciting.

i have my first visitor from austria. hansi, a former classmate form boarding school in bad gleichenberg. i haven’t seen him in quite a long time. he picks me up from work, but he is too early, so i send him down to rudy’s, the legendary dive right across film center where i work.
once i am at rudy’s we have a relaxed beer and it’s very nice to talk to someone in “österreichisch”. i don’t have to tell hansi about some weird american habits, because he lived long enough in florida to know how crazy it can be sometimes.
we are heading to gramercy park hotel. i have never been there so far, so i am curious. one of hansi’s coworker recommended the bar there. what should i say? it’s supercool! see here: www.gramercyparkhotel.com/bars.html. it’s in real much darker and looks much better. people are more upscale but still not over the top. i like it. one place more where i can take out visitors….
after rose bar we are heading to an “österreichertreffen” 20 blocks uptown. nothing a new yorker would ever do by foot, but we are austrians, so “hurra die gemse!” wharf bar: bettina is there, dominika and magdalena, the austrian student researching on hiphop language. and bunch more austrians.
one german guy is also here, who introduces himself as a spiegel-editor. he is looking for german-speaking students or very young people who moved to the city recently to stay here for quite a long time. that’s hard to find. because once you have your student visa, they let you study, but then you have to leave the us. or when you are young you probably find a job but you don’t get a visa… his story is about people who move to a city that’s actually falling apart, that’s lost a lot of its energy and vibrance already and has nothing to offer anymore for young people.
i have some thoughts here, but i will blog about that some time later…
i meet ursula, a physical therapeut from hartberg, who is married to a new yorker. again a nice evening and a good start into my second week…

oh, one thing i forgot to tell. before we meet dominika at the new museum, bettina and i strolled around soho and nolita. we came along a stand with fashion jewelery. bettina came to talk with the vendor. first thing she tells is always that she’s a teacher on a public high school. a common question when meeting someone new is always “what did you study?”. he studied food science and casino management. hä?? food science, yes, but casino management? very funny. that kept me smiling the next 15 minutes. i should have asked “at the university of las vegas?”

i haven’t heard that the pope will be in town since i arrived in new york. he has been to the city for a couple for days now, causing traffic jams and crowds of people strolling around the upper east side or fifth avenue to get a glimpse of “pope”. i am not very religious, but i believe in god and jesus. today is actually the big day. pope benedict is celebrating a holy mass in famous yankee stadium. so why seeing him in mariazell, when i can see him in yankee stadium? the thing is: actually i cannot. it’s impossible to get tickets, because each of the tickets has the owner’s name printed on, which you have to show with an ID. no blackmarket. so. no pope for me.
in the meanwhile i am meeting a potential future roommate. a woman, i guess end of thirty, who is also searching for something new. she is nice, we have breakfast, she tells me about her two cats. a little bit edith-klinger-type but after seeing the room yesterday, i think of staying there.

ok. today i am going to see the first apartment i checked out from craigslist. i got an email from jason, who said that i can come over and see the room. it’s somewhere on 134th street and broadway. not really harlem anymore. but cheap. 770. and the posting sounds nice.
after some grocery shopping i take my beloved camera and leave the apartment. i want to walk the way and enjoy the beautiful weather and take some pictures. stupid me. i forgot that there is still a morningside park and a city college campus. so after some detours i am finally there.
jesus. what a shabby street. what a shabby apartment building. ihhh. i walk up three floors and say hello to jason. the room is right off the door. great. i hear practically everyone that comes home. the room is more than small but…. i have to say there is sunlight coming in! everything else is just horrible. the kitchen is dirty and tiny. someone is just taking a shower when i pass by the bathroom door. the living room is more a storage for suitcases than anything else but… i have to say there is a couch! i hear two of the other three roommates doing something in their rooms, but nobody wants to meet me nor shows up. then a guy with a hairy back and just covered with a towel enters the hallway and without saying a word goes into the kitchen. what a great apartment with nice roommates. i take a look at the bathroom and really want to start puking. gross, filthy. i don’t want to go into details. immediately an awful smell takes over the whole apartment. i leave within a minute.
hey, who can live there? jason? i guess he just lived there for a week and is eagerly searching for replacement.
i walk home and think about my apartment. actually it’s right now really not too bad. the cleaning lady did her job and since my roommates are not too much around, i have the apartment for myself. the rooftop terrace has a nice view. and i am in a really nice neighborhood (pictures coming!). so i consider staying.
in the afternoon i meet up with bettina for a walk through the right now wonderful central park. i tell her the horrible room story.
one hour later we meet bettina’s new friend dominika at the new museum. so it’s not only a new museum, the name itself is “new museum”. i like it. a cool building. not too big at bowery and prince.
it has a terrace with a stunning view over downtown. the exhibition is rather small, but shows some really cool light installations. luba and ari are also here…
after dinner at the pink pony (great cheese cake!) we decide to go and see a movie. nothing easier than that with my new supercool internet cellphone. ok. it takes me a couple of minutes to find a program information in a theatre nearby but i like the phone. we see the leatherheads. funny, but nothing special. a you-don’t-need-to-see-it-movie. the day ends in the flatiron lounge.
wow, i am tired!

ok. the first week of work is over. it seems that it’s still like it was three years ago. i can spend my hours on being creative and not worrying about how the whole thing is being programmed. because therefor we have brilliant programmers. in the afternoon i get a new very cool project. very happy.
there is a kind of new tradition. the whole office goes out on friday to have an international dinner. this time it’s belgium. picked by our belgium intern michael.
it’s of course a place with a never ending list of beers. close to time square. we are a pretty big crowd. luba brings her fiance ari, whom i haven’t seen for ages. it turns out that only the international part of firstborn is here. what do we have…. takashi from japan, su from korea, thomas from austria, mathieu from france, izaias from brazil, juan from spain, po from taiwan, markus from germany, luan from taiwan plus some friends i don’t know yet. food is very good. i have beef in a dark and heavy gravy made of beer (what else?). it’s just big enough for two persons. so takashi is emptying my plate.
it’s fun and i feel very welcomed in my new-old company.
i come to talk to a girl from japan. let’s say i pretend. because i have no clue what she is talking about. i can hardly understand her but it’s a funny conversation. she has this very japanese-girl kind of talking, very happy and very twirly. she is an architect. more i don’t know.

thank god. the cleaning lady is here. her name is jenny and i meet here, when i come home from work. i have only five minutes, because i need to go to the t-mobile store to get a cellphone. she is standing in my bathroom which hopefully will afterwards be nice and clean. that sets me instantly in a good mood. my new phone is a t-mobile dash. i am generous to myself and take the internet unlimited package for 20 dollars into my plan. so i can get emails on my cellphone, use skype or surf the internet. hey, i am a geek, that has to be!
back at home. jenny i already gone. on first sight the apartment looks clean, but on second sight i see it’s only on the surface. on top of the fridge is still dust. windows are still “new york style” (hard to see through clearly…). hmm. ok. at least a step forward….
good night