Surreal!

After a day like today, I won't even start wasting time with descriptions of the innumerable times our passports, tickets, belongings, clothes and intentions were checked, double-checked and re-checked again. After tonight, it just fades into a blur.
I think I'll just skip the whole plane-part.

So here's us .. stepping off the plane into what feels like steamy air. They announced 30 degrees centigrade - combine that with the about 125% humidity and you didn't even have to sweat. The moisture for your body was already there. What they didn't announce either was the fact that in this weird climate of steamy fog you couldn't see any farther than about 200 meters. So right after stepping off the plane, we were on an island consisting of the airport terminal, surrounded by a thick grey cloud all around. That alone was surreal.

After immigration, customs and baggage claim - which all went surprisingly smoothly - we were hit full breadth by America. Maybe I'm biased but I find US advertising wittier and more appealing most of the time, compared to what we have in Europe. And I wasn't disappointed this time either. Then, right after baggage claim, we were instantly targeted and approached by taxi drivers. While skriehma took the high road and ignored both of them, I couldn't resist my curiosity and had to ask what the fare would be with them. $48 for two passengers he said. When I asked what my other options were he smirked and didn't say much anymore. He knew he had lost. And he had. We went to the Ground Transportation Service Information who did provide more comprehensive info. $7 a piece for the subway, $28 for the two of us together using their shuttle service or $48 by cab. We chose the $28, since the "shuttle" (actually more of a group-taxi-thing) would bring us right to our doorstep. After a typically American chat with the African-American lady at the counter - typically American being that kind of "perfect" customer service mixed with some refreshing small-talk. Twenty minutes later the driver arrived and after a rather wild ride into and through the inner parts of New York, with some nicely shocked Bavarian tourists in the back, we stopped at 304 West 40th Street, our address for the next two and a half months.

The building was conveniently flanked by three adult video stores in the middle of what most people would probably call a slum-like area. It also featured several scattered bums on the street. Between the sleezy stores there was a little, elderly-seeming man, leaning against the fence around the entry of 304 West 40th from the inside.

(The entrance is right in the center of this picture.)

Wait a minute.

THIS was where we'd LIVE for the next two months?!

Ahem.

Leaving behind several speechless Bavarian tourists (to be delivered to their hotels), who after a few seconds of silent awe managed a "ummmm yeah .. thank you, we wish you a pleasant stay as well .. and have fun", we went on to greet Nick, our supervisor, a 74-year-old Greek speaking broken English who led us through unimaginable stairwells up to our apartment. We exchanged names and numbers and he gave us two pairs of keys. He also said it was OK for us to pay the rent the next day. The wastebasket was placed in the middle of the living area, where water had obviously been dripping from the ceiling for quite a while. Nick said that had been fixed the day before though. He had just left the basket there .. "in case". Other than that, the apartment is strange, looks like patchwork but it has its charms. One of them certainly is that it's huge. Naturally, we did NOT have internet access "just like that" (as promised on the phone), plugging the cable into this laptop didn't get us very far. We'll have to find a way to sort that out in the coming days.

Next .. of course .. was the obligatory stroll through the hood.
By now, there was no more sunlight whatsoever - but the streets around Times Square,didn't need or cared about the sun anyway. Any and all stores were naturally open and the streets crawling with people, proclaimers of Jesus "the one and only religion authorised to praise the Lord" (presumably with certificates signed by Himself), people trying to "give you stuff for free" (uh-huh). All the while this steamy-foggy-hot air that didn't allow for more than 200 meters of vision in any direction. The only description that comes to my mind is "surreal". So we did visit Times Square, found that even Starbucks charges 10ct per minute for their WLAN, ventured into some darker streets to get aquainted with them, bought a gallon of water each at one of the convenience stores to make up for losses and headed back "home", where I am sitting now, tonight's football game, Dolphins vs. Bears running in the background. It's 11:10pm here now, that's 5:10am biological time for us. Probably time to check out the shower.

Shouts out to Phèdre! "Everything's gonna be allright!"

Tomorrow we'll see about that internet thing .. and what this town looks like at daylight. Night.