Back to the city once again

From another jungle no less!

It has now been almost 2 months since I finished my contract in Timor-Leste. It was an amazing adventure and I met a lot of wonderful people but it is nice to be home (if you missed your opportunity to follow my posts you can find them on www.electionsbicyclesandcrocodiles.blogspot.com). It would be nicer of course if I had a new job to start in this great city but alas, the job market seems to be tough for everyone, even when you think you have a pretty good cv to stand on…

The summer has been wonderful, and New York always seems more fantastic during these hot, humid days. Sometimes a bit too humid and muggy for my taste but the possibilities are endless! A walk in the park, cinema in the open air, opera in central park with cheese and crackers and good friends, the list is endless… Clothing comes off and so do people’s inhibitions, you have more fun in the summer, you can stay out late and never worry about needing that jacket…It never seems to get late with the sun staying out as late as ever so you can actually enjoy the sunset outside of your office! I know, I’m writing for a lot of people, not just my experiences of the city. And at the moment I’m actually a bit too bummed to actually be enjoying all these experiences I could be having in this amazing city but looking for a job is tough, it’s frustrating and sometimes seems never ending. I always thought it would be easy, you know, you get a good education, you get good grades, you get a great first job that gives you a lot of experience and you figure it just keeps going on from there, but after sending out 20 resumes and 20 cover letters (which I know is not nearly enough!) and never getting an answer - well, I got one but it was negative but even just getting an answer felt good for once - it just gets frustrating and you kind of feel like what is the point! Yes, I know, you have to treat job searching like a real job and it can take up to 6 months to find something, but seriously, 6 months?! What do I do until then, go back to waiting tables? Not that I minded it, you actually get to meet pretty interesting people doing it but c’mon! I just wish there was a job tree that just keeps on giving…or maybe that companies just stopped posting job offers that are already taken, they could save me a lot of hassle!

Sorry, probably not the post you (yes, you, my faithful readers) were expecting to get after two months of literary absence but there you have it, I’m back in the empire city from yet another jungle and somehow missing the jungle because it actually meant I had a job! Even though there are a lot of free activities to enjoy in this city, you can’t really kid yourself, you can’t live in New York without a paycheck, you might as well just stay home!

But enough of the negativism…I have a couple of ideas for future posts, hopefully not depressing! And did I mention I went on a three week road trip across the USA?? I guess that’s something to talk about in the next one ;)

A brief hiatus...

I recently remembered that for those that have been following my blogs on tumblr/blogspot but do not follow via facebook you may not be aware that I am currently in Timor Leste and not in the Big Apple as previously foreseen!

So, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you see my change of situation, this blog will suffer a ‘brief’ hiatus of roughly 6 months while I’m in Timor Leste working for the UN as electoral officer to help Timor Leste implement their presidential and parliamentary elections! You can follow my adventure (and it has been quite an adventure so far!) onwww.electionsbicyclesandcrocodiles.blogspot.com

Look forward to seeing you there, otherwise, you’ll hear more from me here in 6 months ;D

A day for giving thanks

This past Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving, one of the major holidays of the US. For some families it’s even more important than Christmas because it’s a holiday when families come together to carve the turkey and give thanks for all the wonderful things in their lives.

According to Wikipedia, the event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated to give thanks to God for guiding them safely to the New World. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, providing enough food for 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. Of course, we all know that the Native Americans were slaughtered after but it’s still a great holiday for stuffing your face and giving thanks!

And on that note, I would like to give thanks to our 6 wonderful friends that turned this Thanksgiving into a lovely ‘Friendsgiving’ (the new name given to the occasion when you spend it with friends instead of family) and also for helping us christen our apartment. 

Tom, the turkey, went in at noon and after champagne, wine and cheese we started eating at 5pm, by the end of the night we were stuffed, drunk and very thankful -  a great holiday indeed :D

Black Friday 'marred by violence'

Seriously?!

This morning I woke up and looked at the BBC news headlines as I often do to find the following headline “Violence mars US retail bonanza”! Now, for those that don’t know, which was me up to a year ago as well, Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving when all retail stores open their store hours earlier than usual (some even at midnight) with amazing discounts thus beginning the holiday shopping craze…

I avoided it by staying home, my wallet has been hit hard enough as it is with the move, it did not need any more unnecessary temptations! However, for some people, the financial crisis has really brought out their inner rage in bargain hunting:

According to the BBC “The start of the US holiday shopping season was marred by shootings and pepper-sprayings as bargain-hunters stampeded stores”. Stampeded, seriously!? One of the incidents involved a woman who pepper-sprayed fellow shoppers that were trying to get their hands on new Xbox 360s… that just gives a whole new meaning to crazy. Another incident involved a man being shot because he didn’t want to hand over his purchases to a robber that was waiting for shoppers outside a Walmart in California! Coincidentally, both incidents occurred at a Walmart…bad rap for them I’m afraid… or maybe just a bad rap for shopping!

How about this Christmas we go back to basics with gift-giving! My mom nowadays, for example, is only interested in three kinds of gifts: beauty products, food products or charity gifts…all three of which can be consumed without filling up the house with more unnecessary rubbish that we don’t need! How about making your own gift or Secret Santa with a limit on spending…this crisis has hit everybody hard, there’s no need to bring further violence into it just because your son must have the new Xbox 360, people!

Some of the neighborhood art

Halloween in New York!

This past weekend was, as most of you know, Halloween, the wackiest holiday that Americans adore!

Kids love it, grown-ups love it, candy and fake blood everywhere not to mention some of the craziest costumes you’ll ever see, what’s not to love??

It’s just a great holiday! I remember when I was younger my mom would make my costumes and I would go trick or treating in the neighborhood and then my mom would turn our garage into a haunted house and have crazy Halloween parties, where once she even managed to get the Portuguese ambassador to dress like a girl! (Oops, probably shouldn’t mention that, oh well, he’s retired anyways!) It was a lot of fun so I was very happy to get a chance to relive Halloween in the US all over again!

But if you’re in New York for Halloween you cannot miss the West Village parade! Granted, it’s crowded and it’s super hard to get a great viewing place but luckily our friend got there early and we had one of the best ‘seats’ in the house, here are some of the crazy costumes we saw:

Patrick Bateman - American Psycho ~ this guy was so committed he even created his own Patrick Bateman business cards (I know this because he gave me one!), his photo even made it to the newspaper the next day!! 

Crazy eyeball guys ~ there were a lot of those circling around…

It’s Beetlejuice and his ‘bride’ Lydia!!!

It’s “Occupy Sesame Street”!! Get it? It’s a play on the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Movement that’s going on at the moment, I thought this was absolutely brilliant!

It’s Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinski and the stain!!!! LOVE it! 

It's stuff like this that just makes me think I'm definitely not creative or imaginative enough! Honestly, I wish I could post all the crazy costumes up here but there just isn't enough space!

The parade did bring back memories though...more than 10 years ago, my mom decided that she wanted to walk in the parade so she bought herself a Wicked Queen costume and I borrowed a Snow White costume from a friend (mind you though that she was 12 when she wore it and I was 17 at the time I was wearing it, not creepy at all!) but off we went to join the parade, it was cold and we had to wait for ages to get started but it turned out to be a lot of fun!

Thanks New York, just keep it coming!

Apartment hunting!

For the first 2 weeks after we arrived we went apartment hunting, neighborhood hunting and furniture hunting…I guess the one I hate the most is the furniture part, probably because it seems to be never-ending! Probably also because it hurts to know that we HAVE furniture and pots and pans and books and cups and bed sheets and all that in an attic in Brussels instead of here with us and knowing that we have to buy all that stuff that we already have because we can’t ship it really really sucks! Yes, it’s fun to decorate and start all over again but not when your rent is so ridiculously expensive…it really takes all the fun out of doing that stuff!

Honestly, why oh why is New York so expensive???

Yes, I love that I can go to the theather and the cinema, museums and gallery openings, Broadway shows and great restaurants but damn does that stuff add up! Since J is working already I get to spend my time (other than scouring the net for jobs that is!) in coffee shops and furniture shops and simultaneously in coffee shops looking at furniture shops (online) and most of the times I've been in coffee shops I hear at least one person complain about how much rent they have to pay and how much they have to sacrifice just to live in New York! Tell me again why this is the greatest city on earth ‘cause my wallet begs to differ!

Yes, I know, shouldn't complain, really shouldn't but I can’t help but grip that’s all…

I started attending these spouse workshops that are provided by J’s institution, it’s been helpful but when I hear that some of them have been here for months even years and they still don’t have a job, well, you can imagine what that does to one’s nervous system!

Right so, now that we’re done with apartment hunting, I need to get on the job hunting train! Until then, I guess I’ll just keep looking at furniture…