Upper East, Upper West, Union Square and other things

I think it is time for a new post, cause I had people calling me and asking me if I were OK because they did not see me update the blog and wanted to hear my news :-) so sweet and thoughtful

*Apartment Hunting*

I did not have a lot of time this week unfortunately, mainly because I am running around looking for a place to live from November onwards. I have already visited Upper East side early this week and was rather disappointed by the quality of apartments that are on offer. Those of you who know Paris and how there can be a toilet almost in the kitchen can picture the type of place that I saw. Upper East is a very wide area and there is only one metro line that passes through it, which means that if you go too far east it becomes a problem to get anywhere. This is the older side of New York.

Today I visited the Upper West side and saw another 5 apartments. I liked this area much more, it is very alive, bright and well-connected. There are plenty of shops, restaurants, caffés, fresh food markets and shops. On the way back I actually took a walk on Broadway going south to catch a train and did not even notice how I walked 15 blocks! :) it was very pretty in the evening. The houses are better than on upper east. There are a lot of what they call here brownstone buildings that we are all accustomed to seeing in the movies, kinda like in the picture below:

From www.wordpress.com

Somehow as I was walking through this area I felt as if I was in Brussels and these were actually typical maisons de maître just with an added fancy stoop. And to be fair, from the inside, they do look like typical older buildings in Brussels, with old bay windows, ornate fireplaces, relatively high ceilings and charming wood floors and an occasional exposed brick wall. The windows are single pane in all of the apartments that I saw and they were also quite tiny, many had "sleeping lofts" (read: crawl space) for your bed and a little stair to get there... :-)

Definitely a very charming area though, and very much worth a visit for a walk on beautiful tree lined streets and of course the Central Park! I will make sure to go there one sunny day to take some photos to share with you. Maybe I will even find the "Central Perk", hehe

Last Thursday I had a meeting with my relocation consultant and she proposed to meet at the Union Square, so that I could take it as an opportunity to see some more of the city. There is a park there that is absolutely gorgeous! And what is even better, you can have a little table and a chair and just sit and relax and watch how dozens of squirrels (!) run around you looking for something edible to stash for the winter. Honestly, I have never seen so many squirrels that were so fearless! One nearly jumped into my bag :-)

This is how the place looks like

from www.ellensander.com

And here you can see the cute little squirrels - someone actually took very nice pictures!

Tomorrow I am off to Hoboken, which is actually in New Jersey, but is very close by being on the other side of Hudson. I'm planning to take a ferry to get there and hope that the day will be sunny!

*Buddha bar and the Meat Packing district*

Yesterday I met with some other people from my rotation program for the first time and we started by having some burgers and fries and eventually decided to improve the evening by going to Buddha Bar in the Meat Packing district.

From www.nightliferatings.com

From www.nytimes.com

This area is supposed to be super trendy and everything is "exclusive". There are plenty of designer shops around and a lot of people looking like they just stepped off the cat-walk.

From www.inetours.com

As we came out of the burger place one of the girls had an open can of been that she intended to continue drinking while walking. She was however interrupted by a guy in our group who yelled:

-What do you think you're doing??!! It's not like it's Europe here!!

:-D yeah, apparently if is a criminal offense to be drinking in the street even something relatively harmless as beer. Considering that I am a total newbie here, i asked him what else is there that I should make sure not to do and he very seriously advised not to run around naked. Hmmm..... I might have to go back to Europe after all, I mean, we are deprived of our basic instincts here! haha I was just thinking of doing that and I am so bummed now!!

Anyways, we were having a very good time in Buddha Bar until someone ordered tequila shots. AMERICAN SIZE. That means twice as big as what we are used to :-) After this I had to take my leave and jump into a yellow cab so as to make it to the office in a presentable condition next morning...

*Super Taxis*

I love taking taxis around here, they are much cheaper than in Europe and you get so much more for your money! In every taxi there is a touch screen fitted at the back of the two front seats where you can see a dynamic map showing you where you are in the city and what is the current taxi fare. You can also check out news, weather, shopping and dining nearby and a whole lot of other things that I did not check yet :-) The cherry on top is the credit card payment machine, which automatically proposes you pre-calculated tip options depending on the total fare of your ride. I find this absolutely life saving! This way I do not have to constantly make complex calculations in my head about how much I should leave as a tip, hew!

*Office Notes*

My network logins are still not working and this past week I have been hopping from one colleague's desk to another, trying to get the feel for what is done by whom and how. Already I see how territorial things can get - each one has his own set of cleaning products such as disinfecting wipes and windex, there is no "free" coffee machine like we had in Brussels - you are either expected to bring your own coffee or go across the street and get it from Starbucks (which is not thaaat bad... :-))) ).

It seems that desk cleaning was one of the first budget cuts here. For fun's sake I mentioned how in Brussels the garbage is now taken out of the offices every other day instead of every day and was quickly hushed down by the team and they also made me swear that I will not tell this to anyone here in NY so as not to put such dangerous ideas in the heads of management :-)

I gotta find myself some decent office supplies, I miss my fairy-tale wand-like butterfly pen that I left in Brussels... :-)) I wonder who will get it now

Breakfast in the office cafeteria is great though - I can have grits and oatmeal! yay! Not sure if that compensates though for the fact that we have to work on Columbus day though.... :-)

*Privacy*

With the war on terrorism there is very little left of privacy in NY. You definitely get the message and one of the means to confirm this new order it is actually by dropping by any restroom (please pardon my French). There is not a single cubicle wall that is connected at the corner or reaches the floor - all 4 corners have gaping spaces of about 3 centimeters and though you have somewhat an illusion that you are behind a door - everyone pretty much can see whatever it is you are doing in there.... the cubicle walls and doors are purely decorative, as no matter how you try, you won't be able to hide!

*I am soooo vane....*

I dropped by Bloomingdales one of these days to pick up some of the indispensable girly things that I will not mention here so as not to bore the male readers and was invited by Yves Saint Laurent to serve as their model next Saturday for a makeup-show!!! I am definitely going! :-))

xoxo to all

stay tuned for the views of Manhattan from Hoboken