Friday, April 18, 2003

 
so, we have arrived in New York !

The flight touched down 10 minutes earlier that planned... I did not get too much sleep on this flight, but Ritsu slept all the way ... did I mention how crappy airline food has become? On a 6 hour flight .. we only got a very lousy "snack" meal .. which was a hot turkey / cheese sandwich (salty and fatty) with a mini bag of mini carrots, a bag of chips and a cookie .... years ago you would have had a nice dinner and a breakfast just before arrival ... but ok .. if that is what it takes to keep the airlines going, I am game ..

The temperature upon arrival was just above freezing ... coming from Fiji surely a weird thing .. glad I changed into "men in black" New York style clothing ... we took a cab and just 30 minutes later we were at the appartment that would be our home for the next weeks ... great place .. on the 14th floor .. view of the east river, very close to were Ritsu has to go once the working week starts, and best of all .. cable internet connection .. I am in heaven ...

My first fun and duty was to go grocery shopping for the breakfasts to come .. oh man, I forgot about the selection of stuff one has in New York (compared to Fiji) ... we then took the subway downtown .. I just needed to buy a new laptop, since I sold my iMac and I got myself a very nice 15" PowerBook at the apple store in SoHo ...





Ritsu got herself a pair of funky dark red sneakers (more comfy to walk around in, and they look great) .. and we headed home since I did not feel comfortable lugging around such a special piece of computer equipment ... once home we went out again for lunch ... a nearby thai place .. I had some spicey shrimp / pinapple curry and Ritsu went with a nice seafood noodle dish .... It is amazing how quickly the New York way of life came back up in us .. calculating tip (twice the tax), hearing car alarms (ignoring them), riding subway, hail a cab ... you can leave a bag of chips open and it will not be taken over by ants right away or turn stale by humidity in a flash (like it happens in Fiji), the NY service mentality, strangers starting talking to you in the supermarket ... We were wondering before we came how different it must feel .. and we were actually surprised how easily and quickly it felt like home again .. as if the city itself welcomed us back ... what is really weird is seeing bars from outside (have not been to one yet) and no one is smoking (it has been outlawed a while ago) ... it is strange ..

For dinner we went to one of our all time favourites .. "Tsuki" (need to scroll down a bit on that site) and it was great !!! .. Interestingly it was very crowded .. something we had never experienced in this secret neighbourhood place .. but it seems some NYtimes reviewer discovered the place and wrote a very nice review, back in January already (1/29)(link requires free sign up) ... but still, the people are coming and waiting in line... it was VERY nice that the restaurant people remembered us .. and they used us for a benchmark test, if the food is still as good as half a year ago ...

Another "long time no see" occurance happened passing my old liquor store .. even now with longer hair .. the guy in the shop waved (actually more "saluted") me ... seems I have been there a wee bit too often ... but it is a fuzzy feeling somehow :)

Unlike our old Gristedes supermarket where we did some shopping .. no one recalled us ... but it was fun to see that huge display of Fiji Water in a NY supermarket ... the price is actually pretty much the same .. 1.99 ... only here it is US $ .. which makes it about double of what it costs in Fiji .. but hey .. as long as people pay ... the other waters are not much cheaper ..

we took a cab back .. so this day we did 4 of the main NYC forms of transportation: Plane, Bus, Taxi and Subway ... now we just need to add Ferry and Helicopter (and does Tunnel and Bridge count ?? )

posted by Peter 11:07 PM