Coney Island...

... is where we went last weekend. Cedric wrote about it a couple of days ago. It is actually not a real island but the southern part of Brooklyn. It is like getting into the subway in New York and getting out just 40 mins later in a completely different world. This place reminds me more of a little town in the mid-west than a part of New York. The beach (which is contradicting the mid-west idea) is surprisingly clean but the water itself looks just like you would expect it to look flowing out of East and Hudson River. No swimming!! Besides the New York Aquarium (which was really good) Nathan's is the biggest attraction. This fast food restaurant does not only claim to have invented the hot dog they also host the annual hot dog eating contest (Trace???). In former years, I would have been easy even for me to win that competition as a smooth 15 to 20 hot dogs would have been enough to win. Then, all of a sudden in the late 90's, a Japanese guy comes along and eats 50 (yes, 50!!!) hot dogs. And he weights barely a third of what the average contestant at this competition weights. Strange! He won the contest now for seven consecutive years and there is no end in sight. His appetite is unlimited! On Coney Island, you can even buy videos of his "performance".

9/11...

... Many of you asked me ow it was to be here on 9/11. Well, it was ok. We had an even of NYU remembering not only the members of university that died that day but also those who were volunteering to help where ever they could. I didn't go down to the WTC site on that particular day but have been there a couple of times already. It is impressive and kind of depressing. But what strikes me most is what little goes on there. Taking into consideration that ground zero is in the heart of the city I as mayor or construction manager would do everything to get this scar away asap. But not really much goes on there! Funny though is this sign warning of blasts. A thing you would not expect in a city center! The pic above is one displayed at the site. I was impressed by the sheer panic in the eyes of the people. It is really a terrifying even now just to see these people and try to imagine what they might have felt on that particular day in this very moment. Since then, feelings for the event itself and the tragedy for many individuals haven't changed. But there is a movement questioning the source of this terror which tries to earmark the whole attacks as a conspiracy. Yeah, like the moonlanding you might say. Just another stupid conspiracy theory of people who don't know what else to do. But apparenty (according to the 'trustworthy' source www.youtube.com more than 36% of Americans question the official media coverage) it is something to be at least aware of. To be honest, I was shocked after watching THIS documentary! Check it out and tell me what you think!

Another Sunday in the park...

... where we enjoyed the magnificent weather. We found this place where you can do International Folk Dancing. And all for free! Plus, you meet some interesting people who can tell you stories out of their often 90+ years of life experience. I left Cedric there for the rest of the day where he made some new friends ;-). Later that day, I enjoyed Roosevelt Island which has nothing really to offer besides a funicular (--> Seilbahn) connecting it with Manhattan. Other than that its just a hospital and some big apartment blocks that drive people to this small island between Manhattan and Queens. After that, I picked up Cedric and we wanted to go for a boat tour on Hudson River. But apparently even in the city that never sleeps boats are leaving only until 3 pm (???). Doing the laundry in one of these nice washing centers where American politics seems to be made finished off a rather quiet weekend.

What to say...

... when being called on your mobile phone? Well, an easy question for Europeans, just as muchg as you want because its the caller who decided to call you so he is paying the bill and you don't have to bother whether he is calling from a landline or a mobile. It's different here in the States. Anybody who receives a call bears part of the costs. That means if the Off Campus Housing Center calls me from their landline to ask whether I still need the little yello card asking for accomodation (btw the firs call I ever received on that yellow card) which I put on their blackboard, I have to pay part of the calling fee. In this case 30 Cents! This screws up the business model of many, many firms that operate more or less successfully in Europe. What about these nasty telemarketing companies selling you lottery tickets? You say that there is an even better environment for them here as they do not have to pay the full costs? Not really true because a caller who doesn't want anything I want is not only wasting my time but here also my money. So I guess that unsolicited calls will trigger some nice lawsuits. It also changes the behavior on the phone ;-). Smalltalk is out. Get to the point! Tell me what you want and don't waste my time (Time = Money)!!! Mmmmhhhh, I think in this regard I have been americanized before! Best from New York to the rest of the world!

No business trash...

... I wonder whether that is ok? Well, as Cedric posted on his blog (see links) the city really has a waste problem! Even if you say "eat in" at my favorite coffee place (Coffee + Breakfast Burger (!) $ 1.75) they wrap it up in two bags. Just so that the incredible weight of a coffee and a burger really doesn't brake through the bag on the way to a table. Since a couple of months, New YOrkers are asked to seperate their waste, just for me to see the garbage collectors throw everything into the same truck. Well, we had that in Germany too, some 15 years ago ;-). Walking through New York in the morning is still quite ok but over the day more and more waste "mountains" pile up along the streets so that by late afternoon great parts of the sidewalk are covered by a cloud of not so appealing smells. It's like sitting next to Karim after an indian dinner!

A picnic in the park...

... Last weekend the sun finally came out for more than just 45 minutes and we went to Central Park for a really cool picnic. After just a ten minute walk from Broadway, you are in the midst of nothing. Almost forest-like, you can forget the city and all its hastiness for a few hours. We found a spot where just 3 or four other people were and it really felt great. If I only had some cases to read ;-). We had bread and Hummos (which I never had heard of --> apparently some mashed white peas) and some grapes afterwards. Mmmmmhhhh, New York rulez.

Where to invest your money...

... if still something is left after your Harley purchase. Well, I am not a person with excellent prediction skills but if I had to foresee one stock to rise, it would be apple! When I came to IE almost a year ago, there were two people in my section using an apple notebook. And to be honest I didn't like them (the computers, not the guys!). During the course of the year, I saw more and more people switching. The latest converters were two good friends in North Carolina, who found that their budget are way too big after they realized a beer is 25 Cents. Even back in Solingen, my best friend switched to an Apple. Also my girlfriend was pressuring as she worked on one everyday. Well, I am not a trend setter, probably just a late follower. But the number of MacBooks you see around here is stunning! You can find at least as many Macs as PCs. In one of our computer labs, you can see 100 neatly lined up Macs, all shining in brand new white and waiting for you. Officially for Andrea, I bought one today. I am the proud co-owner of a MacBook now. And as an educational discount, I got an Ipod nano and a really cool priter/scanner/copier, too. Just the cable for the printer is missing (!). And probably the cardridges are already empty! But even better, I bought the whole stuff at 10 am, Sunday morning. And the exchange rate saved me another 400 Euro!!! I love America!

What to do...

... with all the time and money?? This is a very, very hard question in the lives of many New Yorkers. And apparently they come up with new stuff all the time to make their time here as interesting as possible. The latest seems to be the following: You just buy a Harley Davidson. Nothing new about that? Well, you not just buy it, but you take the loudest and biggest model and then you get a cool sound tuning. This makes you bike as loud as a 747 when starting. It is amazing, the ground is trembling and your ears are hurting. Still nothing groundbreaking? Well, then you can enjoy the following game. First you find a pal who invested the same crazy amount into his Harley. The you cruise down the Broadway. Not really quick, but accelerating every 20 metres just to brake again. YOu don't do that in the middle of the street but on one of the outer lines. To scare off pedestrians? Well, yes but thats not the main reason you do that! All the parked cars in New York have these fancy alarm systems reacting to trembling. See my point? I heard them quite often but yesterday I saw those two bikes coming down Broadway. And almost every car they passed had its alarm going off!! Those guys had lots of fun and were obviously competing on how many alarms each one could trigger. Nice game. And I guess the Hell's Angels membership comes for free! New Yorkers!

First day of classes...

... and again, many impressions, partly impressive but some also a bit disappointing. To start with the rather bad news, classes are a lot bigger than I expected. The counselor and international students girl told us that we should expect class sizes of 20 to 30 students but apparently the courses we chose are followed by 50 or more students. I guess still not a surprisingly high number if you take NYU's sheer size into consideration. I attended a Damodaran class, Corporate Finance, and guess what, 300(!) other students were enjoying his performance! (He is the real star of the university) A day earlier we already saw him but mistankenly thought he was some sort of technical assistant for his really young appearance. Gladly, we didn't tell him that! ;-) However, I will not be taking his class as I heard the topic before and apparently our professor (Chavez) did an excellent job having even a comparable style to Damodaran.

The other classes I had were impressive for both the quality of professors and students. I guess an exciting and also stressful semester lies ahead as the first readings remember me of the second term at IE. Participation is a lot less important :-(. Cold calling is done often (Sorry Karim, for you it would be the land of C's) and grades are curved comparably to IE!

Ah, one thing that really bothers e about NY, you never find a bar when you need one! If you decide to take a drink in Madrid, its 25 meters max to the next bar and here we walk for ages until we find a crappy little place selling a beer at 5$! Not good!

With the sun....

... came a room for me, too. On Saturday, a Lady whose room I turned down previously called me. She had another room available asap and I could take a look at it. I went there and found my little room which will hopefully give me shelter for the entire period I am here in NY. It is in walking distance to the university!!! And by walking distance I don't mean hiking for 4 hours but smoothly wandering for 12 minutes. I live on 15th street now in Chelsea. The room (see pics) has a mezzanine bed, a desk, drawer and closet and two relaxing leather chairs with a small table. I have a fridge and washing place within my room. No kitchen though. But as posted earlier, this will not give me huge problems. The bathroom is the only (big) compromise as I have to share this rather disgusting and plain thing with two other tenants of the house. I pay only 880 $!!! This is like finding a 2 bedroom apartment in Madrid for 600 € or a 3 Zimmer Wohnung in Solingen for 150 €! I am really happy now and started settling down. I can even steal an Internet connection at most times so that everything seems to be perfect.

When in Rome...

...do as the Romans do! According to this saying, we tried to adapt to the American way of living. This seems to be a very radical step which requires some of us to get rid of their cultural backrounds completely. But as you can see, the conversion was not so hard for all of us! Please do not report this to Mr Chirac or the French ministery in general but I think Ceddi and I are having a great time here. To not forget our cultural roots entirely, we burned some cars afterwards and read a couple of cases.

The city that never sleeps...

... seems to be only awake to see it raining cats and dogs! Since I got here, so basically for 7 days, it is raining constantly. Not that the New Yorker would care. The streets are always full and even if only half the crowd has umbrellas, everybody enjoys the time here! If the rain goes on like that, I guess we see fisherman coming to try their luck on Broadway. It could look like this guy here...

I went to the movies today together with Cedric. We saw The Illusionist which was entertaining and sometimes even confusing. Further, we bought a glass table and 4 chairs for appealing 90 Dollars. Less work than IKEA and probably a good deal! Two days left until classes start and sometimes it seems to be really hard to kill some time when it is raining like that. No Central Perking nor Empire State Building. I was soaked two thirds of the day and tea and cookies seems to be more in place than a cana and tapas!

Tomorrow I will show you some more pics of NY and of Cedric, the car-burning gourmet, making his first experience with the american cuisine. Also there are some news on the house searching front! Stay tuned!

Where to look for a room...

CRAIGSLIST is the answer everybody gave me. The "secret" tool for the wannabe New Yorker and general globeetrotter. Millions and millions of listings. Probably thousands of chances a day to find your dream accomodation. What a dirty lie! I came here believing that the house search will be hard and quite some work but what I had to face was ridiculous and really disappointing. Apparently is the house market in New York so tight that even hostels are booked out weeks in advance. I actually met some students planning to stay the entire semester in a hostel. When craigslist says it is a private listing, there is a 50% chance that actually you are talking to a broker. I f you meet him, the original flat is "just rented a minute ago". But guess what. For a tiny fee of 2000 $ he can provide you with an even better apartment or room. If you are "lucky" to mail the other 50 %, three fourths will never answer. The remainder actually gives you the chance to come and see the apartment in what is called an open house. These events only miss professional beer sellers and hot sausages! You will meet around 50 people all looking at the room. I learned fast that it is a stupid idea to say that you stay for only 4 months. But even if you are pretending to stay 25 years, there are other people waving with thousands of dollars (no joke!!!) just to get the apartment. Well, if those crazy Bill's and Lisa's are not there, the landlord requires an american guaranto who earns 80 times a months rent! Think about that! Here a short calculation:

You want to rent a studio (1 room) in Manhattan, old style and torn down: 2,200 $ a month
A years rent would be 26,400 $; 80 times a months rent would be 176,000 $ a year.

Besides me in 20 years, I know nobody who owns that money and has an american passport. (Trace, do you earn that money by any chance???)

Well, there is another categorie of landlords. The ones living in the apartment themselves. On average, we are talking about a 50 year old woman with 4 1/2 cats. I saw rooms where the bed was used as a cat toilet, rooms where cats were born and died and rooms where the old woman was not distinguishable from her cats. Purrrrrrrrr - Cats are ok??? Nope! Cats are fine, but I don't want to sleep in their toilet!

So how am I ever supposed to find an apartment?????

My Hostel....

During the first days, I stayed here in a hostel. I advertised with private rooms. Take a look at what that means! I know its not a sharp picture but what you see is the bed. And right behind and in front and on every side is a wall!!! The whole room is just the bed. They say that creates privacy. However, the rooms are open at the top so that generally when standing you can look into the next "private" room easily. And it is really loud there as everybody comes home at different times. Not a question that my room was next to the shower which was running 24/7.

First learning experiences...

Just coming home from a very discouraging and depressing activity.... My first grocery shopping tour! I felt quite happy when a friend told me that he knows a nice supermarket where I can buy average quality food at really good prices. So I went there and bought the following items (well, you know me, the itms were really the cheapest I could find!):

- a six pack Budweiser
- a Baguette
- 100 gr. Cheddar Cheese
- 100 Deutsche Leberwurst (cheap german wurst mmmmmm!)
- Honey mustard
- one tin of tuna in oil
- 226 gr. instant coffee

Take a guess what I paid! It was 26 $ !!!!! Unbelievable! If it wasn't crucial to survive I would stop eating. I don't know how New Yorker survive at these prices!!! I am sitting here now, sipping the beer and concluding for the day that the times I go shopping are probably not many during the next months. My HUGE (maybe even massive ;-)) shopping tour will not even saturate me for a weekend whereas I can eat out for that money for two days! Well, no gourmet restaurant but nice coffee and salad and pizza for sure. And food will never go stale in the fridge. Plus I will have nutritional variety. So no more grocery shoppig for me!

It seems as if all my friends opened their own blog by now. So again, I will just a follower willing to keep this platform to keep you all up to date and provide one more way to communicate with me. I will try to enable multiple users to create blog entries so that this blog becomes not just a collection of my views.