Well, I’m in for the last month or so of my stay in NYC. Time does fly when having a good time – although I had figured that out after having spent 7 years in Prague while actually planning to stay only for 5 … somehow time just went by too fast. But at least this time I do have the feeling that I saw places, which unfortunately I cannot say about the Czech Republic, so that is something I have to make up for when I return. I hope those of you who are still in the Czech Republic will join me for my traveling 

Now, a terrible, terrible thing has happened…I have lost my diary!! That means that I’m gonna have to trace back two months of what I’ve done just using my memory – and as some of you know, my memory is not my strongest side. But I’ll give it a shot.

But before I get to that, I would like to share another incident I had with Karl – remember, he’s the shuttle driver. A few days ago, the shuttle was full, so I had to sit next to him. Now that is something that everybody fears, coz Karl is just something, you never know what theme of conversation he’s gonna come up with. So, I’m sitting there, pretending to read my newspaper and hoping he’ll just mind the road when he asks me: “You speak Czech, don’t you?”. I reply: “Yes, I do” and he goes “So, what does a Turkish taxi driver say when another car cuts him off?”. “I don’t know”, I say, and he replies, “But you do speak Czech, don’t you?” “Yes,” I say, and he goes, “So, what would a Turkish taxi driver say when another cars cuts him off?” “I really don’t know, I speak Czech, not Turkish” I say. “Isn’t that the same thing?” he asks….
So, I just found out that I speak one more language, and Filiz never figured out I understood everything she said ;-))

I have had some things to think about during the last few weeks, and had a pretty hard decision to make … I’m glad it has been all decided, but you know how whatever you decide you always regret your final decision a bit (or maybe that’s just me…). Anyhow, it turns out that I may be coming back to the US pretty soon, although it really isn’t sure yet, so no need to get all excited that you’ll get rid of me soon after I get back to Europe ;-))

OK… let’s see how good my memory is…

I believe that last time I left off at the time just before my parents arrived in NY. They got here on September 25th. We started off with a night of Vietnamese take out. Hey, they were in NYC and somehow they have fallen in love with Vietnamese food, so it’s not like I wasn’t about to be the perfect host and cook for them ;-)). Wednesday we went downtown to the WTC (I always feel weird writing about me going down there…it’s like cemetery tourism, but seeing it does make it all feel a lot more real. They were actually thinking about creating some kind of sightseeing platform in one of the buildings overlooking the rubble of the WTC… don’t know if they actually did.
Anyhow, Thursday I did my packing for my first real vacation since I came to the US. Funny, when I got here, I was complaining all the time about how ridiculous it is to have only 10 vacation days for 18 months – well, I ended up having 15 (got some compensation days) and now, one month before I’m leaving I still have 5 days left and don’t know what to do with them – since I am broke, as usual. So, basically, Kraft’s HR had perfectly estimated my ability to safe money for vacation.
So, Thursday was packing day, and Friday was party day! Our flight was Saturday morning at 7 am, but with all the new “safety” regulations in the US, we had to be at the airport 3-4 hours in advance!! So, I figured there was no use in going to bed…and took my parents and Anna to Brandy’s (that’s the “gay” piano bar). Now I wouldn’t have ever thought my dad would go there, although I was sure he’d have a good time, and he did!! I’ve been trying to convince the guys at work to go there, and have not been successful, which makes me very proud of how openminded my father is. At midnight everyone (except for me of course) was tired, so we went back home. Anna and my parents went to bed, and I spent a few hours not really knowing what to do (since it’s pretty hard to do anything in a studio when someone is sleeping in it ;-))
Anna drove us to the airport and there we started our vacation by standing in line for a few hours… although it’s totally beyond me what the point of it was. The new “safety” regulations seem quite redundant to me… It’s not like you have to wait for such a long time because they scan everyone’s check in luggage…no, they have a computer generate RANDOM numbers and if you happen to be the lucky one, someone comes and takes your luggage, puts in on a cart and takes it to a small room with an X-ray machine. My guess is they X-ray like 30% of all luggage that is put on the plane. Now, if that is increased safety regulations, I would love to know what was going on before Sept. 11th. When Gesine came to visit me a few weeks ago from Germany, they even took her pencil sharpener away from her, and here people are still boarding planes with knives. One TV channel actually did a test, having people trying to board planes with knives and scissors and stuff…and guess what, most of them got through. The only comment of the agency responsible for airplane safety was that they were lucky that they didn’t get arrested for pulling a stunt like that!!!
Anyhow, back to the more fun stuff – actually, no, the fun didn’t quite start yet after we boarded the plane, since we had to transfer in Miami and missed the transfer because of all those wonderful safety regulations. My advice is – feel free to fly into the US from Europe, you should be pretty safe, but plan to stay here ;-))
We finally got to our final destination on Grand Bahama in the late afternoon, but still in time for shopping. The place we were staying was a sharetime apartment complex. Anneliese, my manager, has bought sharetime a few years ago, and offered me a chance to use some of her time for my vacation. It is actually pretty nice to have your own apartment for vacation, and our place was wonderful. It’s a lot more cozy than staying in a hotel.
Darn, I’m only at Sept. 30th, and I filled up two pages.
So, we unpacked and went shopping (food shopping that is). Now the supermarket was full of Kraft products, which were twice as expensive as in NYC!! I don’t know how the people there get around, unless they have a job on Wall Street and have a darn long commute . Since I hadn’t slept at all for 36 hours, I fell asleep pretty early Saturday night. Sunday I believe we were just lazy … and had an orientation in the late afternoon, where Moses (who was something of the manager of the place) told us what there was to see and do. I just wanted to relax, so the beach and swimming pool sounded perfectly OK. Monday we went to the beach, which was lovely coz there was almost noone around, except for some ladies selling jewelry and braiding hair. I would have loved to have a braid done, but considering that I’d be going to work with it… it might have not been appreciated taking into account the businness dress code at Kraft…
Tuesday we went on a tour of the Freeport area of the island. We went to a lovely park, tried some local pastries, saw plenty of local houses (including the ghetto, which actually didn’t look like a ghetto at all), went to check out a wonderful beach (Lucaya beach), were introduced to a restaurant where they feed the sharks at night (wonder why those animals get attracted to the shore and bite people…), … simply got a pretty good idea of the island and where to go the next days. Wednesday we went for a beach party. Well, don’t think it was a wild thing (considering that I was way out the youngest one around there…although there was a couple that were probably just a bit older), but I had a wonderful time … First we were served some wonderful food, including the first version of mac and cheese that I actually liked, and then it was play time. And play time was fun!!!! OK, first we started out with throwing eggs … standing in the sea in pairs a few steps away from each other and trying to throw and catch an egg without it falling…then stepping further and further away from each other. I think we lost pretty fast (of course that was becoz I want’t wearing my lenses ;-)) The next game was even more fun: woman in one line behind each other and men in another. The first one in line was to run to the back, crawl between the legs of the ones in front of her, run forward to the beach, where there was a bottle put in the sand. Then she was to put a finger on the bottle and run around it 10 times, run back and then the next one was to go. Now, since most of us were not exactly skinny, had had a few Bahama Mamas (that’s a wonderful cocktail) the whole thing must have been a great thing to watch. And the guys won (but just because we let them win obviously – we didn’t wanna spent another couple of days with grumpy men ).
Hmm…OK… so that was the playing part. Thursday, I spent the whole day at the pool. My parents were a lot more active, going to check out a beach and going for shopping. I was just lazy at the pool (which was actually what I would have loved to have done the whole week ;-)) ) and read my book (or books, for the first time in ages I finished like 4 books in one week, great feeling). Friday my and my mom went to Lucaya beach…it’s so beautiful there…Oohhh..I’d love to go back right now. In the evening we went to the shark feeding restaurant. It is truly amazing to watch those animals in “free life”. They are so magestic…and darn scary!! There were like 20 or so of them, and not small ones… Saturday, it was my turn to go shopping. Had to get some presents and stuff … so got myself plenty of them ;-)) After lunch we had to get back to the airport and back to NYC. You know, it was so great to spent a whole week with my parents again, in peace (relatively that is ;-) ) and just the 3 of us. I don’t remember when was the last time that happened, but I do hope the next time is gonna come soon.
We got home pretty late, but had to wake up relatively early, coz we had a brunch appointment with Anneliese. She picked us up and we drove to Brooklyn (still my favorite place for brunch)
Because of all the security issues it took us for ages to get there (yup, the subway is definitely the fastest way of transportation – it took us like 2.5 hours instead of 30 min).
When driving back we past through a big part of Brooklyn (trying to find a bridge to Manhattan that wasn’t jammed), and during that ride I got to see parts of NY that I had never seen before. Like a part that is inhibited by strictly religious Jews … it felt like we were in Israel and not in NYC (at least I think so…). I was told that the women shave their hair of and wear wigs once they get married. I wanted to ask for directions for we had gotten a bit lost, but somehow I had the impression that they may not even speak English… I really have to spend a weekend discovering those parts of Brooklyn once. Maybe we can go on a tour with Anna once. But, I’m running out of time, so I better get a move on that plan.
In the evening my parents packed their luggage and then we said goodbye (I had been staying over at Anna’s place, since the three of us couldn’t fit into my studio). Monday I went to work and my parents left for Belgium. If I end up staying in NY I definitely have to be going home more often, which is easy to do, since this time I haven’t been home at all so going home more shouldn’t be a problem ;-))

The rest of the week I spent mostly at home after work, recovering from my vacation ;-)
Friday Martin, one of the Kraft trainees from Uruguay, celebrated his birthday party at Moonlighting. He and Rosalva (Kraft trainee from Mexico) stayed over at my place afterwards, and the next morning we went with Li Ping to have brunch in Chinatown. We went to a dim sum restaurant, which I learned is typical Chinese breakfast. And that was all the excitement for the weekend, since I spent the rest of it at home. Goodness, it seems like I’m getting a bit lazy!

Thursday, that was the big day. I had gotten tickets for a performance of the Blue Man group in May. The performance was supposed to be on Sept. 13th, but because of what happened it was postponed since the theater is in downtown. So, on October the 18th, we finally saw the performance we had been waiting for 5 months! And it was worth it. It is very hard to describe what the performance is about, but it’s a great experience. I don’t know if they perform in Europe, but if they do, you have to go see them, it’s something you won’t forget fast (or if I stay you could of course come visit me and see them in NYC).
For the next weekend another trip was planned. This time we went to Pennsylvania, the Amish county. But first we had another birthday celebration for Li Ping and Ari (Indonesian Kraft trainee). It was supposed to be a surprise party at Alena’s place, but somehow the surprise part didn’t work out. Still, we had a good time, considering that we were waking up the next morning at 6 am! We drove down to Lancaster where we first had to try to get together all the 20 or so people that joined on the trip.
Me and Alena were alone in her car, and when we got to the hotel, it turned out everyone had gone to this famous waffle place, famous indeed, and the wait was like 1 hour to get a waffle (and although I do am Belgian, I wasn’t about to spend an hour waiting for one). So we went to this Amish restaurant, where we got ourselves some cake and sat outside in the parking lot to have breakfast…talking about a get away from the city ;-)) OK…the Amish seem to have gotten the idea of tourism straight…
When we got back we collected everyone and went to an Amish farm for a tour. Now, that tour totally ruined my great admiration for the Amish. My idea was that they basically live the same way they did some 100 years ago: no cars, no electricity, no phones, no nothing. Wrong!!! They cannot use electricity (guess why…not because it is making life easier, but because it connects them to the rest of the world through the wiring and so they would be connected to the not chosen once and that might affect their chance of getting into heaven!). But, they have so called Amish electricity which they generate from fuel…so they have a fridge, a iron, even dishwashers!! And I’m sure it’s a very ecological way of producing energy!!! Also, they cannot have a phone in the house, but every Amish family has a wooden booth outside and unlike is the case with the cottages in the Czech republic, that is not a restroom but a phone boot! The way it is decided what is and isn’t allowed, is that the bishops of the 10 or so Amish societies in the US meet once a year and decide what is and isn’t allowed. This year’s major issue: should cell phones be allowed (well, they aren’t really connected to each other now are they…). Also, contrary to popular believe they do can be driven in a car, a bus, a train…but not in a plane – again something decided by the bishops. Why not planes…the only reason the guide could give us: ‘They have to be different in some ways’. The only thing that still is the way it was a hundred years ago is the way they dress. Hey, there are even Amish millionaires. No wonder, so many people are buying Amish furniture, thinking how it’s all hand made, no “electricity and stuff” involved….

After the Amish disillusion we went looking for a bike rental place. Somehow we kept on missing the place and had to turn around like 2 or 3 times, which is really fun when 5 cars are following each other  We finally found it, and started the procedure of having 20 people fighting over bikes… with Li Ping posing the biggest obstacle, since she doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Alena attempted to give her a crash course, but as I recall when trying to teach Evis, it is not something that can be done in a few minutes ;-) So, the solution: Li Ping and Ari on a tandem! Poor Ari though, he was dead after the ride (Li Ping’s argument: “ I didn’t have the feeling that my pedaling made a difference so I decided not to!”). The ride was lovely and long! I guess we were driving around for about 4 hours, but it was so beautiful. It wasn’t exactly foliage peak as we had been hoping for, but it was wonderful still. And all those carriages driving around…almost no cars at all. For dinner the group was bound to disagree. A bunch went to Applebees... for those of you not familiar with American restaurant chains…it’s one that you can find in NY and everywhere else. With some 8 people we decided to go for a typical Amish meal, and it was wonderful. No matter how my opinions about the Amish changed, they do still grow all the veggies and stuff in earth not in water…and the taste was amazing!!! It was very simple dishes, but definitely the best American food I have had since I came here. In the evening there was a “drinking” party in one of the rooms… well, it was an AIESEC type drinking party…those of you who have been in AIESEC probably know it…I was lost. Luckily there wasn’t too much alcohol, so except for Ari (who deserved it after the torture imposed on him by Li Ping) we all stayed pretty much sober.
Sunday, I was woken up by a phone call of Alena – she had gone out to make some pictures of the scenes we had seen along the biking trip … and had locked the keys into her car (seems she has a habit of doing that…that’s why she had left a spare key with me). Anyhow, when she found out, she actually called 911 (which is the emergency number in the US), and amazingly, they actually helped her. I cannot imagine calling 911 in NYC because of a minor problem with my car and not getting into trouble…
After breakfast we spent a long time deciding what to do…since the foliage was not what we had expected, and there wasn’t all that much to do around…so we decided to go for a renaissance fair that was not too far away. My second visit to one, this time without a costume…but it was lovely – maybe even nicer than the one in NY. There was this new trainee that seemed kinda interesting, so I spent most of the time walking around with him – btw…by now I did change my mind about how interesting he is ;-) But then, that is kinda the way it goes with me…

December 22nd, 2001

Hey, right now it’s actually almost Christmas, all though my diary is lagging behind seriously… Tonight I went shopping for some presents…and while walking around Broadway I was again surprised by the local obsession with TV – I walked passed a manicure place where they actually had the tables placed like in a class room, with the blackboard replaced with a huge TV. A few days ago I went out with Natalie to a jazz bar that’s really close to my apartment. On one side of the bar they had a really nice jazz band playing and on the other a large screen TV with basketball on… I guess it’s a question of serving everybody ;-)


Anyhow, to get back to the end of October – wow – that’s again almost two months ago…I’m never gonna finish this one. And I’m still not connected to the internet at home – just lazy once I get in, so I may write like 20 pages before this gets send out. But it’s kinda like a farewell letter from NYC, since I’ll be going home in a few weeks. Oh, at this moment we’re at the visa part of me staying here longer.

OK..during the week leading up to my birthday nothing much happened. Except for a Halloween party…I was a Vampireress (or whatever that is called) … and we danced with a nun without a skirt (no skirt, at all – and she was in her 40s…still pretty sexy though) …
Anyhow, the party was fun … I spent quite some time with Superman (Brian – he was really kinda cute that night ;-))

Then Tuesday I did my good act for the year ;-) I went to volunteer with the Red Cross at the WTC. It was amazing actually. To be honest the main reason I went, like most people that go for the first time, was more or less to see what it’s like down there. The place I was volunteering at was the Marriot Hotel – the have a respite center set up there. It’s basically a place where all the rescue workers come to eat, relax and sleep. They have everything there, starting from a “restaurant” that is catered by a really famous NY Chef (well, I don’t remember his name, but he has like 3 or 4 restaurants downtown), an “oasis” room, where they can relax, get massages, watch TV, check their mail and stuff like that. We were asked not to say too much about our experience their, to protect the privacy of the men and women coming there - so I’m just gonna keep this one short. I worked at the hot table…serving food, and all I can say is that I was stunned. Those men (and woman) spend all their time on a huge cemetery, but when they come into the respite center they are incredibly polite and nice. I kinda expected them to be grumpy, or rude … but it was the best experience I had in a long time. Just shows how a bad thing doesn’t necessarily make people behave badly. So, I worked there the whole night Tuesday, and went to work straight after that…OK, so I didn’t do a very god job that day at work. Anneliese actually sent me home around 2PM … But, when I got home I couldn’t sleep. So, I decided to meet up with some other trainees and check out the Halloween parade. We were way too late, so didn’t get to see too much of the parade, but the most amazing costumes are to been seen on the street anyhow, so I didn’t feel like I missed all that much (and by that time my feet were killing me, I’m not used to standing up the whole night…). After the parade finished I was totally awake, so went to have a drink and I got home around 11PM and went straight to bed! And I slept like a baby…

Friday I repeated the volunteering…figured since I went there to “check it out” the first time, I should really go again to make it worth while….


January 4, 2002


OK – I’m in Belgium already. It obviously took me a very long time to send the email, in part because I wasn’t connected to the web, but then Anna fixed that one, so the real reason is lack of time I guess…
Anyhow, I think this message has become so long no one is gonna finish reading it so it doesn’t really matter, does it?
Well, let’s see where I left off last time… I believe it was just before my birthday ;-)
For my birthday we went to the Red Lion (believe I mentioned it before – it’s this bar where they have life rock music, I picked something for my age this time ;-))
We sang some (well, I moved my lips…), we danced some and we drank some. All in all we had a good time, and I am another year older (well, 24 is not that bad, is it?).

Next Friday Gesine arrived and I was in for a very busy week – it was about time, since I had been pretty lazy (socially). That night we went to Brandy’s – and as always we had a great time. That is definitely a place you should visit when you come to NYC (but I think I mentioned that before). Saturday we went to Port Chester for an Indian Party (Dawali). Jitesh cooked for us (well, me and Gesine were assisting) and at the end about 25 people showed up. We had a swell time, and I met a guy again - Sunny (yup, I’m meeting lot’s of guys in NYC…but somehow I’m still single!). I drank too much (ohh god, I’m still embarrassed when I think of it), but it was a fun night (probably too much fun for one night). Anyhow, Sunday I slept till the middle of the day and went home in the evening after I had recovered from my hangover…shame on me!!! Monday night we went to see a movie, don’t even remember the name, was really bad. Then for Tuesday Gesine had picked a bar somewhere around the 20s on the West Side – Holland Bar I believe it was, and it was cheap as one would expect according to the name. But it wasn’t the most pleasant environment, so we moved to a Tex Mex restaurant. Wednesday was time for Aiesec Happy Hour – another cheap, but this time real fun place (Billy mark’s West). Lot’s of people showed up, but since I hadn’t been to an HH, I knew very few of them. But Marius, Emma, Gesine and some of the Kraft trainees were there, so we had a good time. For Thursday, Anna had managed to get us into some company presentation taking place at Mdme Toussaud’s…so we got to see the exhibition for free. Which is nice, coz the entrance fee is usually around $30!! Afterwards Anna went home, but me, Gesine, Jitesh and Sujit went to the Russian Samovar. I’m not sure what to think of that place, kinda snobby, but they have a wonderful piano player …
Friday I took a day off from work…and we went shopping. In the evening we were supposed to go to a singles party at Webster hall, but somehow we got there too late, so we ended up in a bar (how traditional). Saturday was time for culture, so we went to the Muzeum of African art, and then to our favorite diner in Brooklyn. We had some mussels, oh, how wonderful it is to have some Belgian food in the US ;-) Afterwards we head of for an off off Broadway play. It was a small performance, just two actors, but it was wonderful. I am so tired of musicals, and sometimes one forgets that NYC is not only about them, so it’s really refreshing to see a normal play!
Sunday we went to Brooklyn again, this time for brunch. It was really fun to have Gesine around and to do all the traditional things again… In the evening we went to see Harry Potter…am not sure what all the fuss is about, it’s just a silly fairy tail…anyhow, everyone is incredibly excited about it! Gesine left Monday…and then I really needed one day of relaxation…not used to all this activity in my life ;-)) Wednesday I had a date with Sunny…well, I ended up going to Queens and we watched a movie at this cousin’s place. He has this tiny studio but a HUGE screen (like for a projector!) on one wall – I’d say it’s pretty impressive, and so did his cousin, he was very proud of it… All in all…it was the same story all over again ;-))

OK – that ‘s it for this email…more to follow soon ;-))

Love,