Monday, 5 October 2009

October 5

Hey guys!

Last night I decided to walk to Wall street from the place where I am staying and it is actually just 15 minutes away. While looking for the right turn to get there I stumbled on the famous bull and a flock of tourists taking turns to take photos. Mostly everyone preferred to hold him by a horn, but there were others, more creative that almost tried to climb on the poor animal. One landmark less to see already :-) Sorry the pics are not that good, it was rather dark...


This morning I headed to a building located on Greenwich street to have my HR paperwork sorted out and open a bank account. It took about 3 hours to get everything done:

- sign a bunch of forms
- get finger-printed
- get my new badge (on which I look very evil for some reason...)
- get drug tested (I did not know, but this is a urine test, so it is best to come prepared.... if you see what I mean)
- open an account with a guy who did not understand that my passport was Greek and not Belgian and then asked me "How do you spell Brussels?"

I arrived to the office close to lunch time and met my boss and my new "colleaguers" :-))) everyone seemed very nice, some really shy... some already wanted to recruit me as a cheerleader for their favorite soccer club... tough choice.... :-)

I was shown to my new desk or as they call it my "cube" and both me and my supervisor realized that probably no one sat there for at least 6 months. All of a suddenly I had a picture of a Snow White in my mind and how she was cleaning the house of the seven dwarfs while twirling graciously with a broom to pickup up all the cob-webs. I already see myself picking up some cleaning towels and giving a good go at everything that I will call my cube now.

After a couple more minutes it also became apparent that both the monitor and the mouse are dead and no attempts to re-connect/restart seemed to be bringing them back to the land of living. At this point my manager declared that he will take them to the "dead monitors place".... guess a lot of them did not survive the crisis :-)) I would like to see that place - I wonder if they show it to the newcomers?...

Security here is much more austere than in our offices in Europe. I could not access any outside websites... the browser was pretending that it could not find them... at least there were no scary red messages of the sort "WE KNOW WHICH WEBSITES YOU VISIT! AND WE RECORD EVERYTHING!" I guess it is done more undercover here... :-)

Later on, while sitting in my cube and trying to make some phone calls, I realized that I could hear my neighbor in the next cube, with whom we share a cube wall. I don't know his name yet, and I don't know how he looks like, but I know how his mouse scrolls and clicks and how he sighs once in a while.... I think I will have to walk over there soon to take a look.

There are so many places to go have a bite at lunch, you are really spoiled with choice. If you saw the movie called "The Hurt Locker", there is a scene where the protagonist comes back to the US from the war in Iraq and blanks out at the cereal isle where there are so many boxes that he just can't pick one and in the end he just grabs whatever is in front of him, that is kinda how I had lunch today. I stepped out of the building and saw a trolley with pretzels (yes, they have these here too!!) and just grabbed myself one and quickly regretted it when my colleagues showed up with takeaway soups from a japanese place... next time!!

Anyways, today I am done early, which will probably be the first and the last time, considering that their motto is "we work till the work gets done" (read: don't expect to get out of here early). So I will be going to see some apartments this afternoon, wish me luck! I already got myself a basic SIM card for my iPhone and I already feel handicapped as I will not yet be able to use maps and email (can you imagine???!!!) :((( Have to get a social security number first

Oh, and lastly: remember my yesterday's fretting about what to wear?? Forget it, I had a major fashion disappointment so far seeing girls in work suits and flip flops, as well as various degrees of semi-casual / semi-ironed / semi-washed attire and being called "sexy mommmaaa" by another woman in the street....


Here are some more pics of Wall Street for you:



This is the NY Stock Exchange:


And this is Trinity Church that is on my way from the office to the apartment where I am currently staying:


It also has a very spooky cemetery - imagine walking by here every evening....



And here is my Evil badge pic


xoxo

the NY Girl



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Sunday, 4 October 2009

My trip to NY and first Impressions

So here goes my first blog post! Yay! After a long delay caused by the document preparations to obrain a US work visa and after about 4 send-off parties, I finally made it to the other side yesterday at 15:30 local time.

I flew out of Brussels with Continental Airlines and landed in Newark airport. Before my trip I was researching the reviews and feedback of other people that flew with Continental from Europe to the US and all seemed to be raving about how amazing Continental is and how at the same time their tickets are super affordable. Though it is true that their tickets are some of the cheapest on the market, they are by far not my favorite choice now... the seats were narrow, the plane was old, entertainment sucked and the screens were so outdated that I was really disappointed after a nice Delta flight that I had earlier this year.

We also had a considerable delay of about 4 hours, most of which we spent on the place while still being on the tarmac. To be fair, the delay was not at all related to Continental, there seemed to be some sort of a technical systems issues in Ireland & Scotland and all of the European transatlantic flights were severely delayed.

Anyhow, after a long wait and a bumpy ride, we finally landed in Newark!

I was shocked by how warm is was! 20° C in October and people walking around in flip-flops and shorts. I was prepared for cold winds and gloomy weather :-) This was definitely a nice surprise. Happy and a bit tired I got to my temporary apartment by taxi and did not rest till I unpacked both my suitcases and made myself feel at home... :-)

The two doormen downstairs were really helpful and provided me with info on the area and also a heap of menus for Japanese sushi delivery! yay

The apartment I'm staying in is really beautiful and is located in the lower Manhattan area, close to the Financial district. It will be nice to stay here for the 1st month but I definitely need to find myself something further north! I'm really not a a downtown girl... :-D

Here is a peak at the place:








This morning I woke up early, trying to get used to my new time schedule of getting up at 6.30AM to be at work at 8.30 at the latest. Ahhh.... I already see how I will miss Brussels and my work days that started at 9:30-10.00AM....!

I decided to walk around the neighborhood and went to the Whole Foods Market and Bed, Bath and Beyond. All of these place deliver, which is really great, cause I did not want to walk around with the groceries I picked up. Though some of the stuff is really expensive at WFM, they have a very good selection of products and they also have my favorite Greek yoghurt!!! I got myself about a half a kilo of it and a jar of honey :-)) It is crazy, however, what price tags there are on olive oil bottles. The one below is the cheapest I found:

*I guess I got really spoiled by Greece that I am surprised at such prices*


As I was walking I took some photos of the area where I am currently staying:

*No, I do not stay under a bridge...*


Unfortunately, there are soooo many construction works going on in the Financial district and the surroundings that it is impossible to get anywhere without taking 15 detours... the pictures below are what "ground zero" looks like:


From NY Diaries


And this is the inside of World Financial Center, which used to stand right next to the Two Towers:


There are some restaurants and shops in this center and a loooooooot of tourists :-)

Just around the corner I saw a cute little park and this lady with two adorable yorkies - made me miss my little baby Hermes


I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people jog, walk, cycle at the bank of Hudson river. Also here you can really see the difference between Europe and the US in terms of pet friendliness - there were so many adorable doggies around! I even managed to take a pic of a cute little squirrel :-)


from here you can see the statue of Liberty and admire some of the gorgeous office buildings:



...all the while enjoying the quietness and tranquility of fishing :-)


there were a lot of Chinese gentlemen fishing actually, which made me wonder if this is what they take home or whether Hudson fish is what they serve in their restaurants?...

After walking around for about 2-3 hours I found a nice spot to have an italian ice-cream and then headed back home to rest a bit. Wonder what I will do later... manicure in a parlor next door? a haircut? another walk to Wall street? or a movie on a very comfy couch?

Tomorrow is my first work day in NY, so I might as well spend my evening deciding what to wear! haha
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