He travelled... The day he travelled, there was no contact with him. I missed him!
I din't get up from bed the next day until my dad called up to say they arrived - for the fear that I would have to see the house empty.. Without him..
Days passed pretty soon and then it was time for me to travel! I cannot tell how excited I was.. Not for NYC, but to meet him :) This was the longest we were away from each other.. I was eager to meet him.. Though there are endless ways to see each other when you are far away - like skype, gtalk etc etc - but it cannot replace how you feel when the person is actually (not skype-ly or gtalk-ly) sitting next to you..
New York - JFK Airport
While going through immigration, the officer asked me 'Why did your husband come before you.. Dint he want to travel with you..?' I thought this was just a casual remark and laughed it away. He was serious and asked me again. So I had to tel him that this was my first time, and he wanted to set up things before I arrive.
Then was the customs. I was carrying food items with me like rice and wheat. So I was asked a few questions there as well. Security is pretty tight, but staff is very polite. If you dono something, they would tell you without hesitation or irritation. For example, I had lot of luggage but was unable to pull the trolley. So, some staff there told me that you need to put in some dollars and then the trolley would come out of the bunch. He told this to me - once - and then to each and every passenger who came after me - in the same polite tone as he had told me - I wonder how many people would he have helped out before me..
New York City - Manhattan
Finally after 19 hours of journey and all check-ins, check-outs and security checks, I was out... straight in his arms.. and felt so happy to see him. I was happy that he had come because the one hour taxi journey to the apartment would have seemed like 1 day, had he not come.
The city looked beautiful with all sky-scrapers. Our apartment is quite near to Times Square, and we pass by it everytime we have to go somewhere.
You would easily recognize the place - Times Square - even if you are seeing it for the first time. Its the most happening place I guess, and is buzzing with people and activities at all times, with lights flashing everywhere and all sorts of advertisements being displayed.
The city looks brighter during the night than during the day - with all the flashy lights!
It keeps snowing every other day in NYC.
And we experienced a blizzard, just 3 days after I landed. The blizzard had dumped nearly 20 inches of snow on the ground, and it was all over the news. It was after many years that this kind of blizzard was experienced in New York!
But, once the storm was over, the city looked even more fantastic. We went till Central Park and were amazed to see everything covered with snow... so much snow!! We roamed around for sometime. Though the snow looks good to see, its difficult to walk in snow. One has to be careful.
Because of the post-effects of snow-storm, most of the offices were closed. Anyway, people were in a holiday mood.. We started exploring the city slowly and found out places where we could go for shopping, and to eat. We found a Saravana Bhavan and few more Indian restaurants and shops near to it.
We once went walking till the Hudson river, and gasped with joy to see its beauty and serenity. We could also see New Jersey from the banks of the river.
First look from the apartment
Our apartment building is a 46 storey building and we stay in a studio at 31st floor. So, you can already guess how it would be to see outside the window - wow is it? Well, it is fantastic view, but when you look outside, you'd feel as if the 31st floor is the ground floor, since all other buildings are even taller than ours! A part of the hudson river is also seen from our apartment. It is especially beautiful on a sunny day, and at nights with the lights outside..
Food in New York
You'd guess that most people here are meat-eaters. So, every place you go, you'd find a restaurant which serves really mouth-watering dishes - all having chicken, lobsters, shrimps, meat etc. However, there is something for vegetarians too!
Both of us decided to try some American food. We had pancakes, waffles, panini. Those taste good. Panini is similar to sandwich, and contains lot of vegetables.
We once went to a restaurant named Baja Fresh (pronounced as BaHa fresh) - a mexican grill.
Visit Baja Fresh website
We had Burittos, and nachos with Salsa. True that if you are vegetarian, you'd have fewer options, like all we could eat at Baja Fresh is a Veg Buritto even though there are 100 things listed on the menu. But -- there are options..!
We have now decided that till we are in NYC, we are not going to have Indian food outside. If we eat outside, it would be something new, since this place is a mix of all cultures, you get to see a variety of cuisines - mexican, thai, egyptian, chinese, italian etc..
New York Public Library
I knew that I'd be alone for most of the day when he goes to office, so I had to figure out something to do. First thing I did was to join the public library. I usually get some dvds, books and cds from the library every week. The library is very neat and well-equipped. You'd feel like completing an academic course itself here, just after looking at the facilities at the library.
Visit New York Public Library website
There are lot of branches which are well-connected. For example, if you want to borrow a book, you can reserve it online, and mention the branch from which you'd want to take it (say the nearest to where you stay), it would be delivered to the specified branch, and you'd be notified about the same through email, so you can collect it on time! I find the staff very friendly, I go to them for my silliest questions and they are always ready to help, and their ever-smiling faces can certainly make your day!
My experiments with cooking
I used to hate cooking, mainly because I do not have the patience to wait for things to cook :) But now as I have lot of time, I find myself searching for recipes on web and I have started trying out different things just recently. My husband generally adjusts to anything. He doesn't have any preferences towards any type of food, which gives me more room for experiment. I don't create my own recipes yet, I make things that are already tried - but it’s new for me anyway, and considering my sudden interest towards cooking, I may start that as well soon ;). There is no feeling in this world which is as great as when you make something and your husband really likes it.. :) We also made Sakkarai pongal on the pongal eve. However the taste was, we had good time, and I felt happy just for doing it, and we celebrated in as traditional way as we could...
Some places we went..
First, we went to see the empire state building. It is the tallest in New York after the fall of WTC. None of us found it too amusing a place to see, considering the amount of time we spent waiting in the queue. We went upstairs to the 86th floor. It was too cold to enjoy anything and then it was almost dark by the time we crawled through all the queue and security checks, so we couldn't see much from the top.
The view is breath-taking though, if you visit in the morning hours or early afternoon when it’s bright.
NYC celebrates the New Year via a ball-dropping event, which happens to be a very big and famous event. Over 1 million people come every year from all around the world to watch this event and there are some performances as well, this time there were quite a few including a performance by backstreet boys. The crowd starts gathering near Times Square by 3pm even though the programme starts around 6pm! Though the ball dropping itself is not something very great, the excitement within the crowd is worth-seeing.. People welcome the new year with cheerful wishes and music and dance and hugs and kisses.. :)
There is this Wall Street downtown, which is mentioned in almost all the English movies. So, we went to check-out what was so special about it - nothing special, there is a bull which stands right at the center of a broadway.. its a good piece of art..
It was funny watching people take snaps giving creative poses at creative places of the sculpture..!
We then went to the battery park which is quite nearby from there and took the staten island ferry which goes to Staten Island,as the name says. On the way, you can get a spectacular view of the Statue of liberty..!
You can also get a nice view of the Manhattan skyline from the ferry on the way back from Staten Island. Its a free ferry since it is for regular travellers. We went on a Saturday and they had one ferry every 1/2 hr.
We went to see the Liberty island and Ellis island, both the places are extremely good, and one should not miss it! I have written a separate blog for that, here is the link - Liberty and Ellis Island tour
There are some nice shops at the Times Square, which are good to pass time. We started exploring one or two shops per day ;).. so that we can see what is there, and what are the options for shopping while going back to India.. we went to Toys'R'us and found the place pretty decent not just for kids, for adults too!
I had a delicious belgian chocolate shake as well there... yummy!
There are many others like Hershey's, m-n-m etc which are chocolate shops but they have other stuff as well like T-shirts, bags etc, which are nice to look at, though they are costly! There are malls like macy's which always has some or the other sale goin on, and you can get some really good items (from clothes to kitchenware to anything!) for a good price. Visit Macys website
Everything is not goody goody..
The city is so crowded - if you are not careful - you'll be lost. I lost my wallet few days back.. I dint even realise that I had lost it, until I wanted to take it out for buying a coffee.. I searched and searched.. but it was gone already. You cannot much hope to find things back once you've lost it - one, because its so crowded, you dono what kind of people are there all around you, second, because the workers keep collecting trash every 5 mins, you wont know which trash-truck your stuff went in!
I have been longing to join a classical music tutorial here, or a dance class, and am unable to find one still! If you want to do something useful, you need SSN. You need it for almost everything - to study, to get a job, even to apply for job in some cases. To work, you also need an EAD which takes around 3 months...
I am still looking for options in this vast city and I hope to find one soon..!
P.S. Keep checking for more updates, as I will keep updating certain sections of this blog day after day..!
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