Having fun in Manhattan :)

So on Thursday I took the Hampton Jitney, a bus which connects Manhattan with the Hamptons, from Quogue back into the city, then went to my two favorite stores (Ann Taylor Loft for clothes and Barnes & Noble for books), stopped by at Veronika’s as Maximillian was sick, and then went to the movies in the evening (Harry Potter – liked it).

On Friday I ran some errands and went to the East Village to check out “East Side Ink”, a tattoo parlor where Rihanna (the R&B/pop singer from Barbados) got one of here tattoos recently. In the evening I babysat for Veronika and Christian – part of my birthday present for her.

On Saturday I met with Stephanie, a former student of mine, at Pinkberry’s, and then met up with Michelle, my friend from Chicago, whom I have known since my first year in the city when I was living at the Webster. Hanging out with Michelle is always funny, she’s hilarious! We ended up rowing a boat for 2 1/2 hours at the lake in Central Park - something we both had wanted to do for a long time, but never did. So we were rowing in Central Park, talking and cracking up. Whenever I meet Michelle I have a stomach ache afterwards because we always laugh a lot. I don’t know what it is, but that’s the way it is with Michelle   We also have this idea (from our days back at the Webster) that one day – when I’ll be living in Vienna and she’ll be living in Chicago or New York – we’d do a “kid swap” over the summer. When we met we thought it would be fun, partly also because I’m white and she’s black, or in politically correct terms:  Caucasian (I still remember how puzzled I was when I found out that I’m Caucasian racewise – I never knew until I moved to the U.S.) and African-American. So we think it would be a great experience for the kids. Well, now that I’m writing this it doesn’t sound particularly funny, but believe me, for some reason, when I talk about this with Michelle, it IS funny…

In the evening I had dinner with my dear colleague from my former school, Alla, her husband and her daughter. They had made a reservation at “Counter”, a vegetarian restaurant in the East Village. Alla and her husband are originally from Russia, and she knows a lot of math. She is one of the best math teachers I have met during my 6 years in New York! And she is such a nice person! I’ll miss her and working with her when I go back to Austria… So we had a really nice evening together, first talking about school and then leaving school behind and talking about our travels and all sorts of things   Alla also mentioned that she had checked my blog and I hadn’t written anything since 7/7…

On Sunday, today, I got myself a nice birthday present in the East Village in the afternoon, and then went home (staying at Jan’s place in the city this week) to update my blog. – So now my blog is updated and it’s late, almost midnight. I’ll be going to bed soon. – I have two more days in the city before my trip ends. It doesn’t feel like it. It doesn’t feel like it is going to end soon. I’m very much living in the present these days…

However, I’m not totally planless   I’ll be arriving in Zurich this Wednesday morning (the last leg of my RTW-Ticket) and be in Vorarlberg from 7/29-8/7, then in Graz for the weekend (8/7-9), and then in Vienna from Aug.10 onwards – looking for an apartment there…

The Hamptons :)

Jan had invited me to spend a few days in Quogue – in the Hamptons – from Sunday to Thursday to be exact   I had never been to the Hamptons before, just knew about it from hearsay… It was so nice!!! We spent some time at the beach at the beach club when the weather was good, and did some shopping in an outlet center the day it rained (Tue). Jan is an amazing cook, so we ate lots of good food -  I must admit that this month in New York has been so much fun – I would almost say my best month ever in New York – and if I could live here like this, then I might actually reconsider leaving New York   But of course, I’m very much aware that this month, just like this year, has been special and it is time for me to return to work and a more permanent living situation. Therefore I’m happy with my decision to leave the U.S. and return to Europe at this point in my life

Back in New York – more catching up & MY B-DAY :)

Having another fun week in the city

On Monday, upon my arrival at JFK (from Miami) I met up with Sonja & Christian, two very good friends of mine who moved to New York 8 years ago (to teach in the city like me), left last summer (just like me) to travel for a year (North and Central America by car), and were about to leave for Austria that day, where they’ll be spending the summer. The only difference between us is that I’m at a point in my life where I’ll be moving back to Austria this summer and stay there for at least a couple of years, whereas Sonja and Christian will return to their life in the New York City. So it was great to see them for an hour or so, to catch up briefly on our past trips and future plans

Then I took the subway to Bed-Stuy as I’m staying there with Bibiane, her husband Calixte and their two children Anna and Anselm this week. I ended up meeting more friends (some the same and some different than the first two weeks, like Eszter, Behnoosh, Peter, Michi, Veronika, etc.) – hanging out, catching up and having fun Then yesterday, Friday,…

…I had a wonderful birthday       I had a manicure and pedicure (which I only get like once every two years, but it’s such a New York thing and so I felt like doing this before I leave this place for  good) in the morning, then a wonderful picnic in Central Park (near 97th Street, my old neighborhood – East Harlem/Upper East Side) with Veronika, Maximillian and Katharina, and a great dinner at Gobo‘s, a vegetarian restaurant in Greenwich Village with Veronika, Tatjana, Natalie, Verena and Andrea. We had a blast and only left when the restaurant closed. The moms went home and Verena, Andrea and I went to two bars for more drinks – one in Greenwich Village and another one on the Lower East Side. I haven’t been out this late in the city for quite a while… On the way home I felt very happy about this rather unexpected (in terms of not really planned in advance), but wonderful birthday   I even got lucky and found a yellow cab back to Brooklyn, Bed-Sty to be exact   Lucky me   On the way home I thought that if the next 35 years of my life go as well as my first 35, then I’ll have no complaints by the time I turn 70

By the way, thanks for all your lovely birthday-wishes (e-mail, facebook, etc.)! I started to reply to some of them in an attempt to get back to every single one, but due to my rather limited internet access this month I haven’t succeed in completing this task. So, if you haven’t received a “thank you” yet, please accept this one: THANK YOU for thinking of me on my birthday!

   

Florida – visiting Jenny & her family

I’m visiting Jenny and her family from 7/8-13 in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

Jenny and I have known each other for 19 years – since August 1990 when Jenny moved to Austria for one year as part of an exchange program (AFS) to live with my family and attend high school (BGD) in Dornbirn. It was great having her as a sister that year and after she moved back to Florida and  I continued living in Austria (and other places) we loosely stayed in touch throughout the years. When I moved to the U.S. 7 years ago that’s when we started to see each other on an almost regular basis. When I was living in New York I visited her about once or twice a year – I remember her wedding, her baby shower for Madison, two thanksgivings, one Christmas, and numerous other visits in February or in the summer   It’s been really nice to live so “close” and be able to visit her so often over the last 7 years. Somehow Jenny really is like a sister to me and her family is somehow family to me. Thanks, Jenny! I’m so glad we met!

I spent the days with Jenny, her daugher Madison (who is 2 1/2 now and such a cute girl), their two dogs (Jake and Zach) and their cat   On Sunday Ed joined us to go to “Lion Country Safari” where we were having a lot of fun – especially in the water park   Jenny and I went to the movies twice: Ice Age III ( a little scarier than the first two, especially considering it’s a children’s movie) on Thursday and “Bruno” today. OMG, “Bruno” was quite hilarious! I have never seen a movie like this (I haven’t seen “Borat, I must admit, though) and seeing such a movie in the States was even more unexpected. Anyway, I enjoyed both movies for very different reasons and both movies were fun – again for very different reasons

Tomorrow I’ll be flying back to New York – to meet more friends

PS: On the flight from New York to Miami on Wednesday- just as we were about to take off – there was the following announcment: “WHOSE BABY is this in the middle of the isle? We’re about to take off! Please, take your baby!!! The plane is about to take off! Take the baby if it’s yours!!!”

Happy in New York – catching up with friends :)

Being back in New York is actually wonderful and a lot of fun   Not having to work, just spending time with my friends – who wouldn’t be happy…

I’ve been meeting up with friends, spent time on playgrounds in Central Park with their kids, gone out for dinner a couple of times and drinks afterwards, celebrated a friend’s birthday in Prospect Park and another friend-of-a-friend’s birthday on a Harlem rooftop, spent a day out on Long Island, and another one up in Westchester, went to the movies, did some shopping at Ann Taylor Loft (my favorite clothing store in the city), watched the “4th of July” fireworks – on the Hudson river this year for the first time since I moved to NY in 2002 - from a Harlem rooftop, had a “Maedelsbrunch”, went for a walk on the new highline, did my laundry, etc. But I won’t bore you any longer with this part of my trip because it’s not that exciting – for you to read about this, I mean. The “real” travel part of my trip is pretty much over and all I’m doing this month is taking it easy and catching up with friends in and around New York and also Florida (visiting Jenny for a few days). Furthermore I feel this part of my trip is more personal than the previous 8 months. This month there won’t be any sightseeing, there won’t be any interesting and/or funny stories about a new country or continent. New York was my home for 6 years before I went on this trip and it would be strange to write about the conversations I’m having with my friends on this blog.

I do have a story for you (i.e. this blog), though: There was a shooting outside the Harlem apartment I’m staying at on Wed, July 1st. I’ll write about it when I have more time…

Shooting in Harlem

will write about this soon – too tired now.