EPTDay 1: My flight went off at 11.20 am. my seat neighbour was another student on his way to visit his sister, who had been an au pair for a year near the NY area. He was going to spend a week with her and then both would fly back to germany. He was kind of a nerdy guy, he actually read a book about lasers on the plane. But anyways, better than nothing.
After an uneventful flight ( didn't get a good look at nyc from the plane unfortunately) I landed at 14.05 local time. I was picked up from the airport by my landlady Nana and her husband. The apartment is in a completely black neighbourhood called stuyvesant heights (i think) in brooklyn. My room however is clean, has a big screen tv and a large bed. I share the kitchen and bathroom with another guy and a girl.
After unpacking I was eager to get to Manhattan, so I took the A train to 34th Penn station. When I got out onto the streets, I had to keep myself from smiling from ear to ear. Manhattan is such a sick place, I could definitely imagine living here later on. I think the best way to detect a tourist in NY is to check if they keep looking up while walking, cuz that's what I did that day. I walked around a bit, checking out Times Square, Empire state building and broadway for a while.
I took the train back at 9 pm and after some wrong turns finally found the way back to my apartment. 10 pm eastern is 4 am german time, so I fell asleep rather quickly, happy that I managed to stay awake that long to avoid the worst jet lag.
day 2 I got up around 9, because the day after I would have to start my job, so I wanted to see as much of the sights as possible. My plan was to get out at Canal street, walk through SoHo and little Italy, get a Pizza at Lombardi's, then head down to ground zero, take the staten island ferry, then after that take the subway uptown to Times Square, check out Rockefeller Center, take a walk through Central Park, visit the Met. Museum and finally take the subway back home. However, after I got out at Canal street I accidently went west instead of east, which I only realized when I saw the Hudson River and the NJ skyline. So I changed my plan a little, walked downtown past ground zero, had a Pretzel at battery Park and decided to take the Staten Island ferry another day, since it was very warm and I was feeling rather tired after that long walk. So instead I took the subway uptown to Times Square, and guess who I met: the guy that sat next to me on the plane, along with his sister. Talking about coincidence. We walked a bit together since she knew the area, checked out m&m world (just a huge 3 story building with ANYTHING imaginable with m&ms on it) and nintendo world. I bought a ticket for The Broadway Comedy Club from a promo guy in front of the virgin megastore at half price ( 20 bucks for a two person ticket, valid until the end of the year ). If anyone feels like going to one of their shows sometime in november, PM me. It's 10 bucks plus 2 drinks minimum for a two hour show. They also film for comedy central quite often.
At Rockefeller Center we split up again, since the chick wanted to go to LaCoste, so I went north towards Central Park. I wasn't really in the mood for a museum however, so I headed west after walking through Central Park a bit, towards Columbia circle&time warner center. After about 5 hours of walking I took the subway back and chilled in my room for a while, falling to sleep at around 9.
Day 3: First day of work. I got up early in order to get breakfast in Manhattan before going to work.
I went to dunkin donuts and headed towards my office, which is in the St.James Building, Broadway 1133. I got there about 15 minutes too late because I had trouble finding the adress. The office is pretty cool, I got my own desk and own mac, my colleagues are really cool and laid-back. I work with one guy and 3 "girls".
Janne, the guy that got me the internship, is a very nice guy, originally from Finland. I guess he's in the mid 30s, shaved head and a funny scandinavian accent. Very open-minded, he actually told me to get to work at 10 am every day, even though the rest gets here at 8-9. He also invited me for drinks tommorow night with the others.
Too bad he"s leaving the company at the end of the month and will be replaced by someone else.
Joan is already around 55 I guess, she's kind of a grandma type and apparently just got to the company. Also, she has her own business going on so apparently she just comes and goes whenever she wants, noone really seems to know.
Then we have Kenia, typical latin chick, born and raised in the Bronx. She's cool too though, but not that good-looking.
And last but not least there's Maya, I think she's in her late 20s but it's hard to guess. She seems really cool and also pretty hot. She moved to NY from Georgia about 10 years ago. Everything in the office seems rather unorganized, and everyone is surfing as much as they're working. We can take an hour lunch break whenever we feel like it and I was allowed to do whatever I want on mc mac when I got nothing to do, which isn't much right now, but I guess that's to be expected. I'm done at 6 pm so work is really fun, but I still hope to get to work a bit more in the future, since I wanna learn some stuff and not ONLY have fun.
Some remarks and anecdotes.
You can get ANYTHING in Manhattan at any time. The Amount of shops and food is amazing and kinda overwhelming.
Still looking for a regular pizza or chinese place that I can have my lunch break at, so any recommendations around broadway and 25th are greatly appreciated.
Also people are really nice and helpful.
Two examples: I try to buy a can of coke at an automat (?), but it keeps rejecting my change. So this guy that stands next to me offers his assistance. After trying for a while he gets his wife to give me a dollar for my 4 quarters, because bills don"t get rejected.
On Tuesday I was sitting at battery park, when an older couple sits down next to me. We chat a little and I find out that they're Canadians on a bus trip. I ask them if there's a coffee place in the area. They don't know, but the husband gets up and says: wait here, I'll find out. Two minutes later he gets back and tells me like 4 coffee places nearby.
Also, NYC is probably the place where you can see something you've never seen or experienced before EVERY single day.
- a south-american couple getting up in a small coffee place on Broadway and dancing a Salsa to one of the songs.
- A guy riding his bike BACKWARDS (he was actually sitting on the front of the bike with his back towards where he was going) WHILE having a smoke.
Insane much? At the same time, it starts raining a tiny bit, and literally in the next second you will see some guy next to you selling umbrellas from a plastic bag.
There are just countless WTF moments happening when you walk through NY, which is really the most amazing experience I've had so far. I"m enjoiying every minute of it.
Pictures coming soon.
