The World According To Me

Gallery: Halloween-Weekend

loslindos — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:47:00 GMT

and other stuff

Weekend No. 9 - Halloween

loslindos — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 07:16:00 GMT

I was lucky, that Halloween fell on a friday, because in the US first of November is no state holiday. On thursday Anna, Maria and me decided to buy a costume and thought, that we just go into a supermarket, where they had huge Halloween-Departments weeks before, and get something scary. Beside the fact that it was like going for christmas presents on the 24th of December, there was absolutely nothing left in the Halloween-Department. After the first shock we went to a shop, which seems to be specialized on "Bad-Taste-Parties" :-) and finally found our outfit. Our theme was "The Hot Chicks" from the movie "Dude, where is my car?", these girls are looking for the Continuum Transformator (a really bad phrase when you are drunk; it's impossible to say it without a mistake). After dressing up and drinking a bottle of wine, we finally got to the Halloween Parade, which was very impressing. I never saw costumes like these and got lots of ideas for the next 20 Faschings Parties :-) As you can imagine, the city was crowded and though it was quite cold, girls were running around with "nothing" on their bodies. After the parade was over we went to a small bar near Union Square to have a few drinks and on our way home (which led us through the Meatpacking) it was amusing to see how people desperately tried to get into the clubs.

On saturday we had a convenient day, with breakfast (at noon *gg*) in the West Village and enjoying the sun at the Hudson River. In the evening we just went for a drink into a small Gallery which is a cafe at the same time.

Sunday I watched the New York City Marathon with Maria. For me it was really facinating to see the participants 200 meters before the aim and to know that they were running since 4 hours. We spent some time there and drove to "The Cloisters" afterwards, which is in the north of Manhattan. Unfortunately we took the bus, who needed one hour and was very well heated, which made me so thired that I had to struggle with myself not to fall asleep during the trip. When we arrived, we found out, that the entry to the museum costs 20 Dollars (an amount we wouldn't pay). So we started asking ourselfs, what was the reason to drive up there? We needed 10 minutes to find something about cloisters in the travel guide, just to find out that there was absolutely nothing to see :-) So, after 15 minutes walking around and watching people sitting in their cars and watching the nature from inside, we went back into town with the subway (it took us 20 minutes *lol*)... In the evening nothing exciting happend and so another weekend in New York was over.

Weekend No.8 - NYC meets Boston

loslindos — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 01:42:00 GMT

The weekend started on friday morning with driving to work with my luggage (a VERY big bag, with enough clothes for at least one week) in rush hour. Oooh, the people weren't amuzed at all, when I steped into the subway :-) And because New York isn't a friendly city for people with heavy luggage or disabled people (they have no elevators in the subway-stations, but mostly escalators or stairs) I was sweating like hell when I arrived the office.

The same happend to me, when I drove from the office back to the bus stop. It was maybe either worse, because friday in the late afternoon the rush hour is horrible. So I had to let two subways pass, before I managed to get into one. Arrived the bus in the last minute, jumped in and the door closed. From NY to Boston you drive 4 hours which I spent with my IPod, watching the other passengers :-)

I arrived in Boston at 11pm, Lucas already waited for me and Oxana was going to be late. There was no time to eat in Manhattan, but I was sure that in Boston I will find something. Very disappointing, only McDonalds was opened, so I ate my first Fastfood-Burger since I am here in the States.

We spent the first evening at the campus, what was really funny. First we went to the Campus-Pub. At the entrance they have a cop standing who controls, that no unauthorised people enter the room. When you are a guest, a Bentley Student has to fill out a Guest-Card where you have to enter you Passport number and sign, that Bentley is not responsible for any deceases you could get from consuming alcohol. We were lucky, because though it took us long time to fill out these forms, we got the last 4 beers - the pub closes at half past 12. When we finished, we joined several student-parties on the campus, they are partying in several rooms :-) Grass is very popular and when I tought back to the pub-entrance, it was impossible not to think about the american society (alcohol No, drugs Yes).

On Saturday we made a trip to Salem, which is a outer district/town of Boston. The topic of this city is "witches" and one week before Halloween it was crowded. I felt like being in Prater, because there were so many people. But look at the photos, you will know what I mean :-)

In the evening we went to a mexican restaurant in Cambridge and after that we took the subway to Boston to go to a club. The music was strange, but danceable. Clever as we are, we left the club at 1:30 am (in Boston all Clubs and Pubs close at 2 am), to catch a cab without any troubles. What we didn't include into our plan, was the storm which was going on outside. It was terrible and it was impossible to get a cab (because, as in NY, as soon as it starts raining, everyone is taking a cab!). So we walked through the city for one and a half hours until we finally stopped in front of a hotel thinking, that if someone will come home, we could take his cab and go on. We waited 30 more minutes, but then we finally got one - good plan ;-)

On sunday, we were invited to a brunch in Harvard Business School. There were only Austrians (except Oxana *gg*) and it was really funny.

After the brunch, Oxana and me met with Filipe and he went with us to Boston, were we spent the afternoon at the harbour.

So, I actually didn't really see a lot from Boston, but it was a great trip and I'm happy I went there.

Gallery: NY meets Boston

loslindos — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:58:00 GMT

Partyweekend - Bentley University

Weekend No.7 - Parents visiting

loslindos — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:10:00 GMT

The last weekend was very convenient. I didn't go out on Friday or Saturday, because I had to get up early every day.

On Saturday we made a trip to Woodbury Common, a designer outlet (like Parndorf in Austria) which is about one bus-hour from New York. It was really fantastic, because we saw the beautiful countryside and the woods are so colourful at the moment (Indian Summer). The outlet wasn't that amazing and not really cheaper than Manhattan, but maybe this is only my opinion, because I already know where to go in the city :-) We spent the whole day in Woodbury and arrived back in New York at 8 pm. I was so tired from the day, that I didn't want to do something in the evening, but go to sleep.

On Sunday my dad booked a "Gospel Tour" in Harlem. First I wasn't really motivated to go there, because I don't like doing all this tourist-stuff in general, but I was lucky that we three were the whole tourist group. The woman organising the tour is running the office by her own, she was born in Harlem and spent the whole life there. So it was a very personal tour through the streets and one hour later we went to a church where they celebrated holy mass and had a gospel choir. Afterwards we went to have Brunch in a French-African-Bistro, which was also very good. In the afternoon we decided to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge (one thing I didn't do 4 years ago) and explore Brooklyn afterwards. The weather was fantastic and I enjoyed being outside the whole day (instead of sitting in the office *gg*).

The result of spending the whole day in the sun was, that I fell asleep quite early on sunday as well. So not a spectacular weekend, but I finanlly did some sightseeing (after being here for 8 weeks *lol*).

Gallery: Harlem & Brooklyn Bridge

loslindos — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:45:00 GMT

Weekend No.6 - Underground Minimal Electroparty in Brooklyn

loslindos — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:26:00 GMT

On Friday Kiki, a girl I met 2 weeks before at the Skaddan International Afterwork Drink, called me and said that I could go with her to a Minimal Party in Brooklyn. The location was an Industrial Loft, really cool!

Before going to Brooklyn I went to Washington Square with Therese, were we wanted to go to a few pubs, make a "Kneipentour". But after one Long Island in a pub called "Black Fat Pussy Cat" Therese got tired and wanted to go home. So I accepted her being an old woman ;-) and went to Brooklyn earlier.

The Party Loft was really cool. I would love having such locations in Vienna, because it seemed really like an underground party. As at the Minitek it was very off the wall with just a table for the DJ and another table for the bar, but they had couches, carpets and tables with Lava-Lamps there and that was really nice. As I'm used from going out in Vienna, there was nobody in the Loft at Midnight and I hoped people would come til 2 am. But when I left the loft at half past 3 there weren't much more people at the party. But that didn't disturb Kiki and me from dancing :-) The music was great, so we didn't care about no people being there. When I left, Kiki decided to stay and on the next day she called me and said, that the place was crowded at 5 o'clock in the morning...

Saturday at daytime I wanted to go to Central Park, because of the great weather. While Therese had a Skype Session I waited for lying on the roof top reading a book and started to ask myself, why to go to crowded central park when we have such a great roof top, with nearly nobody being there, ladiesrooms, food and drinks. So we decided to spend our time up there, lying in the sun, reading and sleeping. It was great and the sun was so hot, that it would have also been possible to go to the beach :-)

In the late afternoon we went for a little shopping tour. Were I live it is not really difficult to go for shopping, because the 34th Street and Harald Square are a great adress for shopping with having Macy's, Victoria's Secret and thousands of other shops.

In the evening I was invited to a Party. The apartment was in the 35th floor and the view was impressive. I met lots of people there, but at three o'clock in the morning I was so drunk that it was really hard to speak english and I decided to go home.

Sunday lying on the roof top again :-)

Fairytales from the Pussyprison - Update 14.11.

loslindos — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 13:44:00 GMT

Everyday when I walk through the Pussyprison (which is the Webster Apartments and the place I live) I am so amuzed and want to start a blog for you to imagine how life is in a house like this.

Heating Horror:

Since a few weeks temperatures are decreasing and the Pussy Prison startet to turn on the heating. At least I'm sure they tried to turn it on for the whole building. In my room the heater doesn't seem to work at all and although I told the nice ladies at the reception several times nothing happened. In the first few cold days I thought it may be the heating system, which could be still turned off. But when I entered the Pussy Prison one evening, it seemed to have about 50 degrees in the lobby and the dining room. So they proved: the heating is on. But still not in my room. The other girls told me, that when they once start to heat - they can only heat the whole floor (it's not possible to adjust the temperature in every single room)- the rooms get so hot in a few minutes, that a bikini is the best you can wear. Beside that, a symbol for the United States, I think that the building is heatet with oil - 13 floors, about 300 rooms... Eco-friendly like the rest of the country

My Neighbour:

Let me begin with my room-neighbour (just because it is nearly midnight and the roomwall is so thin, that I can hear everything she does in her room). My neighbour is a woman (oh wonder *gg*), I would suggest her to be around 40 and I think she belongs to the stuff. Every night she begins to hear a song from Seal at half past 11. Not a CD, no, only this one song. Additional this song sounds, like Seal is dying every minute and you also sould commit suicide within the next 5 minutes. After 30 minutes of listening to this one song, she starts watching TV. It seems, that she already took her Antidepressiva at this point in time, because she is always watching Comedy-Shows after Seal. And she has a VERY loud and characteristic lough. You have to imagine, that the wall is thinner than the one in my Viennese Apartment, where I can listen to nearly every word spoken on the other side of the wall. So my neighbour and the sound from the beginning Interstate (which is direcly in front of my window) made me addicted to Earopax :-)

The way to get food:

As in every prison, the cook here is never in love and seems to be bored or sleeping all the time, because noodles, rice, vegetables and so on could not be more cooked and softer than they are here and additionally he uses no salt on principle. At breakfast every day they have "A Special" (either french toast, bagels, muffins, pan cakes...) and then they have things you can (or should I better say, you could) get every day like yogurth, fruits and so on. BUT: there are certain rules and prohibitions you have to follow, as they are in every prison *gg* If you take something from the Specials, you aren't allowed to get yogurth additionally! If you take a cake or melon, you can't get any of the fruits. It is only allowed to choose ONE fruit and ONE yogurth, and you are only allowed to take 2 pieces of the special. Yes, it seems to be very complicated and if you imagine me on saturdays or sundays staying there with a bombastic hangover from going out, willing to choose everything or nothing (because I feel so sick *hehe*) it's easy to understand, that I make lots of mistakes with my choices even after this long time. And once you have choosen there is no way back, you won't get something else. But even harder is dinner... There are 2 or 3 different main choises and only one of them is allowed. They have plans hanging out in the first floor and when you enter the foodbank, but maybe I'm to stupid, I cannot read the handwriting and mostly I additionally don't understand the discription if I can read the text. So I choose everyday after the principle "how it looks like". Sometimes it's possible to ask what's inside the mysteriously looking things, but most of the time once you pointed at something with your finger it's on the plate and handed over to you :-) Yes, and of course the fruit/yogurth game is the same at dinner.

Gallery: Escada Sample Sale

loslindos — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 13:10:00 GMT

Weekend No.4 - Going out with Therese

loslindos — Wed, 1 Oct 2008 00:25:00 GMT

This weekend was great. On Friday Therese and I decided to go to a Cuban Restaurant, where I've been with Jonathan one week before. They have the best Mojito, I had since I'm here in New York.

I got a shortmessage from Julia before we left the Pussyprison, that she passed her exam, it was a really tough exam and she was studying hard to pass it. So I told Therese, that we have to drink one Mojito for that passed exam and the success of my hardworking sister. In return Therese had a Skype session with Tobi, a friend of her, who finished work at the time we left the building. That was 3 am in Europe. And he told Therese, that we should take a drink in his name :-) But the Mojito in this restaurant is really strong and we were not sure, if we would be able to drink three of them. When I was there with Jonathan, I drank only one and was drunk afterwards. But we were in cheerful spirits and motiviated enough to be sure, that we will drink at least two. So, the reason, why on the photos we took this evening stands "High the cup auf Julia & Tobi" is, that we startet taking the pictures during the second drink and stopped when the third one was finished. They had really good life music in this cuban restaurant and I we decided to have dinner there another day. Hopefully soon...

The daytime of Saturday was not very spectacular. I planned to make some sightseeing instead of the shopping-seeing i did on the last weekends, but the weather was to bad to take a walk with my guide book. So because of the bad weather, I was forced to go shopping. Really!! Therese an me went to Loehmann's, which is a Designer Outlet in Manhattan with 4 floors. It took us 4 hours to get through all the staff. You have to imagine all these expensive designer clothes hanging around like in a chinese cheap clothes market. I mean, if you think about the fact, that 95% (the rest is from "italy") really comes from china, it is just a matter of the brand how much these things cost. Ridiculous. Anyway, it is really hard to see things you like, because there are sooo many of them. Apart from this, going inside with a special wish of what you want to buy, comes close to suicide. But 4 hours later, I came out with my gorgeous bright yellow rain boots (they are also on the photos). And I love them.

Though we were really at the end after this shopping marathon, we brought our things home and left the pussyprison again to join the octoberfest. The pub was on "the other side of town" (which means one subway change and 15 minutes walk *hehe*), but we didn't care and the good thing in new york is, that subway is driving the all night long. You may wait 30 minutes *gg* but it comes.

At the Octoberfest first of all we ordered a Weisswurst and it was soooo good, that Therese started to feel like she would have been at home. Yes, the Wuaast was really delicious. Mhhh *yummie*. Combined with the music and the great beer, we forgot our tiredness in a second and felt highly motivated to party. After we finished our first beer, Oxana joined us. Oxana is a girl from Moscow, which studies in Krems .By the way I love her stories about Krems, because she has this russian point of view and as Julia told me, in Russia a small village has as much residents as a big city in Austria. So Krems must be a dunghill for Oxana. She went to the bar to get a small beer, as she told us. I don't want to know what a big beer is for her, because she came back with a Maas. So Therese and I were forced to order a Maas as well :-) We left our table to join the people on the "dance floor" and two of us started to jump around and sing to the german folk-ballermann music. It was great. Oxana was a little bit irritated at the beginning, because she didn't understand the text, but after a while she was also jumping around withouth knowing what the song is about. But we teached her "Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit", because they played it every 15 minutes and she should know why everybody is highing the cups and drinking in collective. The word "Gsuffa" with Russian accent is very funny. It was also funny to watch the American guests after one Maas of German beer. Everybody is drinking "Bud light" here, because of the shape (yes, also the men are taking care about their weight). So it isn't a wonder, that after one or two Maas the American were dancing on the tables and screaming around. The doorman was chilled about that. After he carried out the tabledancer a few times, he just carried out the table to finish the tabledancing. But because he left the chairs, people startet dancing on them.

At three o'clock in the morning Therese and I went home. It took us long because we were not walking straight, but in wavy line. But althogehter it was a great evening and a great weekend. (And I didn't even have a headache on the next day *gg*.)

Gallery: Weekend No.4 - The Octoberfest

loslindos — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:14:00 GMT

also being celebrated in NYC

Legal Alien in New York

loslindos — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:48:00 GMT

My first days are really over now and I got settled in the city, so I thought it might be also time to set up my travel-blog. I decided to write in english, because that's the reason I'm here and although it's not really good up to now I hope it will get better in the future.

In the early days I had mixed feeling about my trip. First time abroad and working in a foreign country. Having no friends, even not knowing anyone, but I was optimistic that in a huge city like this things will work out and now, after nealy a month, I can say: They did.

Work is going better every day and though I still don't have a clue of the american legal system and I'm afraid, I won't be an expert when I come back to Austria. But it is a great experience, if only because I improved my english.

I will see what the future brings, but so far I'm very happy in the present.

Linda

PS:It's just 3 weeks since I'm here, so please excuse all mistakes and wrong formulation in my texts ;-)

Gallery: chillin and thrillin

loslindos — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:00:00 GMT

everywhere

Gallery: Weekend No.2 - Minitek

loslindos — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Freaky

Gallery: September 11

loslindos — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:25:00 GMT

In advance I didn't know what will "happen" on september 11th. will people be crying all the time (you know how dramatic the american are) or will they act like on any other day?... Now I know, it was like every other day

Gallery: Friends Visiting

loslindos — Tue, 2 Sep 2008 02:00:00 GMT

it's always nice to meet friends from Vienna in New York

Gallery: Scurrilities we don't have in Europe

loslindos — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 01:15:00 GMT

America is known for everything being bigger, faster, louder... Can this be true??