Off to a good start

I am sitting behind my laptop in my new apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York. Yes you read it well, my new apartment! After having spend one week in a cheap but decent hotel in the Upper West Side I have found the perfect place to live in for the next six months. My new roommate, Tom, is out to work so I have the place all to myself right now. I picked up the keys yesterday and took a cab to my new address about an hour ago. I have just unpacked my suitcase in my new room and I thought it was a good time to finally start with my first weblog story. Besides, I have no place to go today because it is pouring rain outside.

Let me start at the beginning. I arrived monday last week in New York after a normal flight from Amsterdam. I was a bit anxious about the increased security measures at the airports as a result of the failed suicide bomb attack on the plane to Detriot a few weeks ago. If you think of it I do fit the profile (male, in his twenties, of African descent,  travelling alone etc.). I thought I would be asked a lot questions at customs and that I would be strip searched very thoroughly. I also expected to go through the infamous body scan machine or better said the 'naked' body scan machine. But none of that. I was asked some questions and  it took a bit longer than normal but they did not get to see me naked. I believe that it also helps a lot when you have a UN visa  stamp in your passport...

On my drive from the airport to my hotel I got to see the first glimpses of this impressive city. We drove past Times Squares with all the lights and dozens of people and it then finally hit me. At that moment I realized how fortunate I am that I will be living and working in this great city for half a year! I immediately felt that thrilling energy that everyone had told me about before I left the Netherlands. Indeed, I have travelled to many places in recent years but this is something different. Since my arrival I have just  been walking, walking and walking through Manhattan. I have been exploring all the different neighbourhoods and I have gotten a pretty good sense of the people here. In general, people seem to be kind, open and very helpfull. I have already had some nice conversations with some people in shops and restaurants. It is also fascinating to see that  the majority  of people never take their eyes of their I-phones, blackberries and books in the subway and buses. I have even seen people reading a book while walking on the street.

While exploring the city I have also been looking at rooms in many different neighbourhoods. This was really an interesting experience. On wednesday I saw five different rooms. That day I also got a reaction from a women from Kenya who has lived in New York for more than fifteen years. She works for Unicef and lives in Queens. She invited me over to Unicef building and we had a little chat. She works at the IT department and turned out to be really nice. She then invited me to go see the room that she was offering in her house in Flushing, Queens. We took the train and I got to see her place which was really nice. After that she drove me to another address in Queens where I had another appointment for a room. How nice of her. In the end I did not take the room because the commute to my work would be too long. All the other rooms  that I saw were either too expensive, too small, too far etc. I had another interesting encounter with a middle aged man who lives in an apartment in the Upper East Side. He just got divorced and he literally  'hates' women. In case I was thinking about bringing women over to the apartment  he said that it would be fine, but added: "I do not want to see them, hear them and talk to them. I want to be able to walk in my boxershorts whenever I feel like it." His actual words... I told him about my girlfriend back home who will  come and visit me and he repeated the exact same words. I do not know what his ex-wife did to him but whatever it was, it must have been really bad...

Thank God Tom reacted to my posting as well last wednesday. He already sounded very nice on the phone and when I walked into the building last friday I felt immediately that this would become my new home. The  building is beautiful (see picture left) and the location is perfect. Only five subway stops from the UN. The apartment on the 4th floor turned out to be small (like all apartments on Manhattan) but modern and cosy. Very important too is that it has a kitchen. Or at least something that looks like an actual kitchen. Tom has an eighteen year old son who has just moved out of the house. He told me that he was not looking for a roommate for the money but just for the company. He showed me his son's room (see picture below) and then we negociated about the rent. After that I told him I would take the room and the deal was made. Tom is, I  guess, in his beginning forties and he is the senior vice president of a public relations company called Rubenstein Communications, INC. See the website: www.rubenstein.com  The UN is actually one of their clients. He also told me that he is a writer in his free time and that he was almost chosen as Michelle Obama's speech writer in the White House. Yes Westwingers I know what you are thinking! He said that if I need any help I just needed to ask him as he knows many people and places in and outside NY. Therefore, from now on I will call him Tom Tom. My roommate Jennifer back home in the Netherlands came up with this brilliant name.

So yes, I am definitely off to a good start! Now I can relax and settle into my new apartment and enjoy New York for another full week untill I start working at GPF.

You will be hearing more from me... 

Paulo