Max and the city: August 2008

Hey folks! What's up?

This is the story of little Max in the big city:
Man, New York City is crazy...right know I actually don't know where to start. I guess the best would be, at the beginning:

The flight was long, but okay. I took Alitalia, and I wondered that the only language on board was Italian, though half of the passengers didn't understand that. I couldn't sleep, so I watched two movies ("21" and "Jumpers"- first one was great, the other one a little bit weired, but I also liked it) and for the first time in my life the lunch on the plane tasted so good! (Lasagne, yummie) Italians can't speak any other language than their's, but damn, they can cook!
However, 12 hours later I arrived at the JFK-airport and had no problems with the visa- and passport-control...my luggage also arrived undamaged, couldn't believe it.

Hannes (one of the other guys who is in the exchange-program) waited for me at the gate, he arrived an hour earlier. We took a taxi to the youth hostel "Hostel International of New York", and we got our first lection: in NY, EVERY price is without taxes and tolls...

Suspicious

The youth hostel is...well, it's a typical hostel. Many people (there are about 400 beds in it) from different countries, everyone friendly, some of them strange. There were some problems with our reservations, but after some time we got the keys to the 12-bed-room. The first (so necessary) action was to take a shower, after that we decided to visit a friend of Hannes, Sandra. She is here for 2 months and lives somewhere in the Lower East side...there we met here roommate (right now i can't remember her name) and 4 Austrian guys. The first music i heard in NY was "Hüttengaudi", that's not what I expected before. Then we decided to visit a Nightclub in Chelsea (not that one in Britain...the district, jerk! ;-) ). The girls had to talk so nice and to smile so much, but after about half an hour, the bouncer let us in. That club, called "Marquee", was so cool, finest house-music and great location! On 4 a.m., after 26 hours awake, we took the Metro to our hostel...that was my first day here (don't be afraid, I won't describe every day or week so detailed- just for those people, that don't like reading.)

First Breakfast

The rest of the week went by very fast: on thursday we inspected the area of our apartment, Upper West side, Morningside, and Harlem. I don’t want to explain where all these areas are, so watch the map. Our apartment is 517 West 135th street, Amsterdam Avenue, it’s the building next to the corner. Go on „street view“ to take a look at our street, it’s so...well, ugly. But the location is great, 2 minutes from the city university, and the whole district has become very save in the last 10 years, so all the scary stories about Harlem are so ninetees!

Harlem

On the campus evryone is so f***ing friendly, it’s incredible, even the dean of the education-department invited us for cookies and coke (THAT’S the American way! ;-) ). Getting into the courses is very difficult, because all of the were already closed, so we had to ask every single prof. to open it for us. One of our teachers is from Vienna, funny to talk to someone for about 10 minutes and then recognize that she is able to speak your language! To geht the student’s IDs we will have to come back on monday. For those, who are interested: my courses are „Strategic
management“, „Government regulation“, „Finance“,
and „Introduction to econometric development“.

<= Campus life

The other days of the week we’ve spent in Downtown, Chinatown, Midtown, and so on...most of the time with Hannes’ sister and her boyfriend, and we did all the tourist stuff. The view from the Empire state-building is so amazing, but it is expensive and you have to wait very long. From Governour’s island you have a wonderful view over the skyline, and the best: the ferry is free! Times square is very busy, New Yorkers seem to go much faster than Austrians do, I’ll have to research that.

Times square

Chrysler-Building

without any words...

On NY stock-exchange...

...it's all about the money!

Friday evening we got to a Jazzclub in East-Harlem, called „Shrine“. Without Sam (a New Yorker we’ve met) I would had never entered this bar, from outside it look so fucked up. But inside...wow! We heard sessions of two bands, the first one was great, Viki (another member of the exchange program) bought the Cd, I will burn it...memo to myself: Burn that Cd!!!!

On Saturday we went to the movies and watched „The Dark Knight“, I love this movie! Watch it! Just one thing wasn’t cool, or better, much TOO cool: the aircondition was so brain-freezing cold!!!
What else could I tell...oh yes, the Central park really impressed me, it’s like an own world between all these huge buildings.

Central Park

Sunday was very exciting, we could move in into the apartment. In NY-relations it’s huge and you can’t hear street’s noise in the bedrooms. The refridgerator and the microwave are so over-dimensioned! (As most Americans are!) The landlord, her name is Inna, is very friendly, but she wanted the first month’s rent cash and it took a while to explain to her, that it would be much easier for us to wire the money. The first night in the apartment was so good, I didn’t really miss other 11 guys sleeping in the same room.

My bedroom

Kitchen

On monday we spent the half day on campus again, and finally, i couldn’t believe it, we got our ID-cards. In the evening we went to an vegetarian Indian’s place, I know what you think: vegetarian?! That’s what I thought at the beginning, but I changed my mind, it was so delicious!
Tuesday evening we tried to get tickets for the US-Open evening session, but they were sold out. So we bought some for next tuesday evening, I hope we will see good matches.
On wednesday our classes start, I am looking forward to it and I am a litte bit excited, too.

Hudson-River

Right now, I am back from campus, the "strategic management" lession was so cool! We were splitted into groups of 5, the others are from Ukrain, Bratislava, Latin-America, and, what else, China! That's New York!!! Tomorrow we will travel to Washington D.C. until sunday, so see you on monday in a new post.

Max

PS: Some more pictures: