Good Morning New York!
It's day 2 for me here and I'm up typing because I've been struck with jetlag, not that bad though because I managed to sleep until 6:30am. Alot of people get up at 6:30am, just that it is Sunday here and awful quiet.
I'm not staying in Manhattan, I'm staying in Hoboken New Jersey with Mark's brother Tim and his girlfriend Fabienne. Up until now the only thing I knew about Hoboken was how much I enjoyed the Homer Hudson icecream, 'Hoboken Crunch.' Hoboken reminds me alot of Pyrmont in Sydney, lots of rebuilding and middle class white couples wandering around, we are in a two bedroom apartment about 10 blocks from the water and the 'PATH' (the train to Manhattan.) To live and rent here is almost exactly the same price as East Sydney, about US$400 per week for a one bedroom. Interesting!
So far I find New York... comfortable (as long as you have the money to make it that way!) I did not think that would be how I would describe New York at all, but I don't really find it awkward, or challenging, or really that confronting.
Yesterday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I immediately started singing Rufus Wainwright's song 'The Art Teacher' in my head, but I did not see any of the artworks mentioned in his song. Instead Mark and I saw a great Morandi exhibition and I generally longed for my early twenties again where all of this stuff could have fed directly into my study. (Then I spent lots of time imagining I was a kid in New York and visiting The Met was a common and normal thing to do.)
We walked across Central Park and saw the squirrels running around and zig zagged back down 5th, Lexington, and Madison Aves. There were lots of unhappy faces inside the designer stores, probably due to all of the recent financial troubles in New York - they were all empty! I must add that now most of these stores are just about anywhere around the world, including airports and internets, they are not nearly as impressive or exciting. If anything it all looked a little bit stupid, and there certainly weren't any Carrie Bradshaws swanning about. Not a pair of platform high heels or a giant-flowered lapel in sight, phew!
It's been hot and muggy here both days so far, and there is sort of a fog over the city. Apparently there is a hurricane off the coast, and New York feels more like Asia, hot and muggy. It has rained on and off and I'm dying to feel just the slightest breeze. There is alot of aircon around but it just doesn't feel like it's cooling anything down, and the subways are steaming! Up on the road steam is rising and pouring out of manholes and pipes, it feels as though underneath the city is bubbling away, a giant pot of dirty soup. For some reason it reminds me of Loreal and Maybelline commercials, where a lady always seems to be running across the street away from a yellow cab in New York, smiling and applying lipstick. Go figure!
The people here are, well, even out on the edge of the city this place is full of people who don't live here! My ear is constantly straining to hear an accent, but instead I hear French, or Russian, or even Australian accents (yes, there seems to be more of us here than you would expect.) Living in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and Inner West has given me a thick enough skin so being ignored or spoken down to doesn't really crack me up. A lady at the subway gave me a dressing down yesterday because Mark lost his ticket and I came back through the gates to help him - then my ticket wouldn't work when I tried to get back through. Apparently you can only use your subway ticket once every 20 minutes, point being? I don't know. Although it was obvious I was not a local I just stood there and shrugged, waited for her to finish. I smiled at the end because it was actually interesting to hear someone talk in real life like they would in the audience of an American talk show - she was very to the point and forceful!
The food here is awesome. It's not what I expected at all, I thought it was all Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. Yesterday we had breakfast at an amazing store called Garden of Eden which was basically any organic store you could imagine on steroids. Fresh fruit and vegetables are everywhere, and we even stumbled on a Farmer's Market in Union Square yesterday. Paying people in tips means that service is excellent and you are never forgotten. I feel like slapping Sydney waitstaff over the hand now I see how it works here. Last night we went up to a local grill and gig venue called Maxwells, nothing showy, $30 for two people including a giant margherita! The food was fresh, fast, and friendly. The night before we ate at a great Mexican restaurant called Charritos. It was possibly the best Mexican I have ever had! That said, I'm still thinking I might get some donuts today, or something like that, you have to try everything once!
Today we are going to walk less and subway more, there is a Kirchner exhibit on at MOMA and we might try the Guggenheim as well. I haven't really been shopping yet, but plan to make Monday a shopping day as more of the smaller stores will be open. Later in the week we are going to stay in Manhattan for a few days while Tim and Fabienne move house. It has been hard deciding where we will stay as everything is so expensive, but we feel a bit beyond hostels, it' hard to make a decision about what to spend when you will hardly be there, hmmm.
Well, time to go and make a cup of tea, it's nicer making it here at home and then I'll catch up on my facebook scrabble games while I wait for Sunday to happen. Hopefully by tomorrow, my (very mild) jetlag will be over!!
PS No photos yet but I'll add them later
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