The Days are Flying By

The days have flown by. I cannot believe we are leaving tomorrow.

Once again, I want to ask you all to wish us a safe and pleasant journey. Last time was a bit bumpy, so you’ve got to send more smoothing energy our way. Promise?

I have had a great time. Doing this trip with my son and daughter has been especially enjoyable. I have much admiration for their ability to enjoy new places and people and cope with strange settings.

For those of you interested in making collages with Photoshop, I’ve written my next posting. When I return to Luebeck and settle into to my routine again, I’ll fix up the layout somewhat. Then I have to work out how to make tutorials with Jing.

Completely Ridiculous

There is so much going on in our visit here, and just no time to write it all down. So, you will just have to take an occasional look at my son's photo slideshow.

What we have done often and well is find excellent restaurants to eat in. I am more the type of person that if I find a place I like, I'd go back nearly every day. My son, not. Each day is three new restaurants. There is such a fine selection of places in and around Greenwich Village, we have only had great food.

The two most ridiculous stores we did see sold: a) clothes for dogs, b) fur coats for Barbies. I kid you not. Can you imagine the bank managers' faces when they were presented the business plans for these shops?

Another highlight was meeting fellow blogger, Bindi, from Melbourne this morning for breakfast. She's here on a conference. She wrote a long account of her first day here, and then life got busy for her, and so, like me, she's been "living" the experience instead of writing about it.

Living Too Long In Germany

These last few days have been full of new ideas and impressions. That seems like a natural consequence of stepping into new territory. It is nice to occasionally test that tolerance bone; the one that has to cope with social change and behaviour.

I would be exaggerating if I said that my little tolerance brgan has only been a happy camper since arriving here. There are some forms of behaviour that really make me feel shocked, irate, or plum embarrassed. Here are a few that send tiny electrical shocks through me:

• Many cars, pedestrians, cyclists do not pull over and stop when an ambulance is trying to drive by. The ambulance has sirens, lights, and is honking its horn, and often the ambulances have to stop for the traffic to flow normally.
• Cars weave in-and-out and delivery trucks park in the BUS ONLY LANE. (Seems senseless to implement such a system and not enforce it.)
• The waitresses and waiters take your dishes off the table before the last person is finished eating. (Yesterday, my daughter got her dessert before he brother was finished with his main dish.)
• Many children do not act age-appropriately: 5-year-olds girls being carried around on the hips/waists of their fathers: 10-12-year-olds sucking their thumbs or pacifiers in public: 10-12-year-olds not able to use forks and knives when eating in restaurants (often using their fingers).

I’m not saying this sort of behaviour is wrong, just that my reaction tells me that I have been living in Germany too long. Before, such things wouldn’t have caused even a twitch. Now, they ensue a complex series of emotions that are hard to ignore. Not a good thing.

I don't want to leave the impression that everything his hunky dory back in Luebeck. That just isn't true. It is just other things that make me feel uncomfortable. And, for the most part, when I go somewhere new, I try to keep an open mind to the new culture and people. Which makes me wonder whether our tolerance bone needs more regular use with age. What do you think?

Life In The City

Since we are spending our days and evenings outdoors, I am astonished with the continual discourse going on; everywhere we go, people are talking. Am I wrong, or do people in New York talk alotalot? And, do many choose to talk loudly?

I have, willingly and unwillingly, overheard so many conversations these last days my mind is reeling. It is as if hearing these stories, out of context to the narrators’ lives, creates a kaleidoscope projection of “life in the city”. It is fascinating because each new conversational tidbit adds a new diamond-shaped coloured element to the image.

Where people’s looks here present an infinite variation of diversity, people’s conversation seems to be universally, uniformly concerned with existential worries and personal dramas.

NYC Slideshow

Easter Day Parade (no floats, but plenty of New Yorkers in funny hats)

Spent the early morning working on reformatting and selecting some of my son’s photos. Here is the slideshow. I’ll add new photos every day we are here.

Chris, if you want a gift from the Marzipan Fairy Godmother, please send me your mailing address at the email address in my sidebar. The offer only holds for the next few days.

Yesterday was spent on in the subway, on buses, on the Staten Island ferry, in a quaint café that has a WiFi hotspot, 42nd Ave., Empire State Building, but mostly just walking around … it is really getting all a bit much. My whole sensory input circuit is feeling somewhat overloaded.

Today is going to be spent around Bleecker’s Street and attending a podcast workshop at an Apple shop.

I miss reading your blogs. I took a peek at my Google reader list yesterday. Yeeks! I think I will have to just mark all as read and accept the fact that “gone on vacation” comes at a price.

Finally, A Free WiFi Hotspot

Aaahhhhh, ohhhh, phew, we’ve finally found a café with free WiFi services. So, if all goes well, I’ll start blogging daily. We are having such fantastic sunny weather; it's a true pleasure to be outdoors.

We are off to the Hudson River promenade down the way from where we are staying. Then we will try and find a bus going uptown (or do they say downtown here?). Maybe take the ferry over to Staten Island.

On a previous visit, my friend, B., and I got so involved in conversation; we sat on the ferry all afternoon going back and forth.

A dear friend came down to visit with us this last weekend. She and her daughters are making their way back along the east coastline at this moment.

I am not so good at sharing my attention between different focus points. Thus, I have the feeling that until now I have had a visit with my friend, but I’ve taken in practically nothing of the city as yet. This is now going to change.

My son has been taking photos, so I will select a few and set up an album soon.

My daughter is anxious to go shopping, but as her brother pointed out, “That’s something to do on a bad weather day”. She is the only one of our entourage who is hoping for rain.

Safe and Sound

The flight over was, as my father euphemistically referred to as, “bumpy”. My best guess is that we had at least three or four hours where we were not allowed out of our seats.

On the plus side, this was the first flight I’ve been on with my own entertainment center; watched Enchantment, August Rush, and Michael Clayton. Nothing to write home about, so why I’m writing about this here, can only the fact it is two in the morning and my mind and body are confused with the time change. I slept between seven and midnight. Don’t quite know what to do with the rest of the night.

Sightings

While sitting on the black plastic covered stools in Joe’s Pizza’s watching the flow of pedestrians rush by, I spotted three separate sightings of men with wooden plugs in their earlobes in the tradition of some of the African tribes. Strange because none of the fellows were of African origins. Didn’t any of these fellows see photos in National Geographic of old tribe people with their earlobes hanging down to their shoulders? Empty, because the skin tissue no longer was able to hold the ornamental rings or plugs.

Highlights

A sullen looking custom officer actually made a joke in our company.

The smile on the man’s face and the warmth of his thank you, when I went chasing after his baseball cap that had flown away in the wind and caught before it reached the street.

The look of puzzlement on the waitress’ face when my kids thanked her and said goodbye before leaving the café (a German custom).

Rudeness shocker

The boss woman of the café yelling into the phone four seconds after she picks up the receiver “Just cut to the chase. What are you selling me?" I know telemarketing is a plague over here, but I wondered how the job must erode away the soul to the people doing the job.

A customer comes into the café and orders a double shot of whiskey. He downs the drink before the waitress even has a chance to turn around to the cashier and get the customer his change. He makes a polite comment about the weather, the waitress responds in like. He leaves. The waitress and boss woman start making disparaging comments about him the moment he’s out the door.