Last Saturday in The City

I started packing. It’s very sad. I started in the living room. I can’t believe I am leaving.

I was going to pack during the day but it was a crisp blue sky and I thought, why not pack later and enjoy a nice Saturday in the city. I had gone to the Yankee game last night and was nursing a slight hangover. I knew there was a street fair going on as I passed it on my way to staples to get packing supplies.

So I got dressed and hit the streets with my camera to enjoy my last weekend in the city. I started out at the street fair and bought a cute ring. Since the weekend before was very touristy I had seen just about all the street fair I needed to and got bored quickly as it was mostly filled with the same vendors from the weekend before.

I thought about going to time square but didn’t feel like walking that far west. I also hate the tourists there. Instead, I went to my favorite place in the city…Central Park.

I took pictures of various landscapes and then found myself at the Central Park Zoo. Since I had never been inside I figured I would pony up the $10 and see what the Zoo had to offer. It was quite small compared to the zoos in Florida but this is to be expected when land prices here are insane.

I hit the seals up first as I do enjoy them. The penguin exhibit smelled so bad and was packed so I left quickly. The polar bear station made very happy and I also realized that in my next life I might want to come back as one of them.

The monkey exhibit (one of my favorites) was awesome. A mom monkey had a little baby not that long ago and they were on a rock holding each other. When baby monkey acted up the mother would sit on it’s head until it calmed down. Then she would embrace baby monkey and touch its face. It was quite endearing.

After the zoo, I hit up FAO Schwartz. It’s another favorite place of mine. When I was younger and my grandmother was alive, she would take us here or Toys”R”Us and tell use we could have one thing, anything in the store. I of course took it upon myself to do the same as an adult. I hit up the candy area. They had a gummy bear display where you could pick individual flavors. I hit up the clear gummy bear as I believe it is the best.

I wrapped up my day there and headed home. I procrastinated for quite some time before starting the packing process and you could say by sitting here typing, I am once again putting it off. It just sucks. I love New York and the fact that I have 4 days left makes me sad.

Been There, Done That

Well....I made it in the NYC and now I'm going back home. August 1st is the move date. I can't believe I am coming back but it's for the better.

I don't think I have gotten everything out of New York that I was looking for but I did fill my dance card quite nicely and I have made some amazing new friends. Don't count me out just yet, if circumstances change you could find me back up here just as quickly as you can "Danielle flys by the seat of her pants in life".

The other awesome thing is my company has pretty much told me that I will be working 50% from Florida and roughly 50% from New York. This works out well because I will be getting to be in New York without the taxes and getting paid for living expenses. Pretty sweet deal I worked out.

I spent the weekend in VA for the 4th. We had a blast. Sad to leave but enjoyed every minute of my time there. Other then that, nothing is really new. I just have to figure out my moving plans. Thank God for Steve and John. My two moving men :)

Jessica and Damon came to visit this weekend. It was a nice relaxing one. Funny I spent more of my waking hours in Brooklyn then in the city. Today, I was supposed to meet them down in Chinatown. Now you would think a New Yorker would be able to navigate the subways better then out of towners but I am here to tell you that is not the case. I don’t do the public transportation that well. So, on my quest downtown, I wound up going uptown. It took two stops before realizing I was going in the opposite direction of my desired location. Of course, when I got to the right stop I had to wait twenty minutes for the next downtown train. Damn Subway karma!

There is talk of me moving back in August. I flip flop every day. We shall see what happens. I won’t know anything until June which just so happens to be right around the corner.

Owning something excites me but moving really doesn’t. At least I will have Maddox back : ) That make me happy.

It's Been Awhile

It’s been awhile. Since my last post many things have happened and though I would love to continue on about how my trip went and ended, life happened in-between.

I have these moments where I look out and say “I can’t believe I did it. I can’t believe I moved to New York.” The past 3 and a half months I have worked non-stop so to me it just seems like nothing has changed. New people, new work, but no time to actually enjoy this new place that people say is my “home”.

This weekend was the first nice weekend in a really long time. In fact, it was the first time I wore shorts in roughly six months. This might not be any big shakes in Florida but it’s awesome for New York.

I leave for Vegas on Thursday. I am excited but it is just another reminder that Socorro’s is moving and since she is my best friend up here it kinda sucks.

I spent the afternoon in CT celebrating Easter with Ana’s family and friends. I know you might be thinking that Easter was last weekend but in the Greek Orthodox religion they celebrate it the week after. Overall, it was a nice weekend.

It’s funny because growing up in South Florida you don’t get a lot of exposure to various cultures, unless of course they are Spanish. In New York, I am having a hard time finding a US born friend. I am known as the “Token White Chick” because none of my close friends are from America. In fact, when we all sit down for dinner we joke that it is like a United Nations conference. I am embracing it and now in the process of trying to learn Tagalog, Ilonggo, Russian, Bulgarian, and French. I would be nice to learn a language that is more useful like Spanish but I really just don’t have any desire. Ask me how to speak Filipino though and I can ramble off a lot of useless verbiage.

I am still wondering if moving up here was the right thing for me. I think I was excepting something to happen when I moved. I am not sure what I was looking for but I can say I don’t think I found it. Now don’t get me wrong, I love New York, and actually the thought of moving back home doesn’t sound that appealing. Clearly I’m searching for something…Just don’t know what that something is. I don’t think I’m going to find by working 80 hours a week either.

My parents have been giving me crap because I am turning 26 this week. I think they fear if I don’t meet someone soon I will up alone. I think they are crazy and their incessant nagging about it doesn’t motivate me to want to get out there and start picking up men.

My girlfriends up here threw me an impromptu bday celebration on Friday. It was half surprise have not. Lets just say, I drank a few too many sangrias but still had a blast.

So I signed up for a sprint Triathlon. It’s in September. Let’s see how I well I stick to the training program. I am excited about it. It’s down in Virginia Beach which is awesome because I will get a chance to visit with Socorro (she is moving very close to that destination).

I believe I have proven to myself that I don’t do well with lots of time on my hands so I working as much as I do, doesn’t bother me like it would most. In fact, I have every weekend book until July. Pretty crazy seeing as how most people couldn’t tell you what they were doing next weekend and I have the next 2 months planned out; but ya know what they say: “those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”

Hope all is well with everyone reading. Maybe now that I have more time I can actually stay more current with my posts. We shall see…

A bit delayed

I am not sure if you ever experience this but I often find a soundtrack for certain periods in my life. Anyway, I believe I have found mine for the trip. It is mostly because I only have a certain number of songs downloaded on my work computer but the works.

Today was our first day of actually training people. I loved it! It makes me want to be a teacher. Watch out Bar, I might be following in your footsteps. : )

The people here are extremely smart and eager to learn which makes my job easy. I will be happy when I leave here though. It is just an unnerving place to be. I have quite the story for my fellow readers but I will spare you for this evening as I am exhausted. I’ll write about it tomorrow, unless of course I'm once again moved to discuss the dictomy that is a third world country.

An Evening In India To Myself

Right now I am sitting outside on my balcony writing. I can hear the wild dogs in the distance barking as if they were silenced during the day. The temperature is a nice 75 degrees with little breeze and though the air is moist it is almost refreshing. Looking out I can see the lights from buildings but for the most part it is dark. There haze in the sky so the moon and stars are completely blocked from sight. I am almost use to the smell so it is no longer something that stands out when I walk outside.

I have to say, it is strange to be in a country where poverty and riches are right across the street from one another. It is also strange to be in a country where a war is going on and Americans seem to be the source of hate. Though there is heightened security at both the hotel and the office, I don’t feel safe. You never know who is against you and who is on your side.

The tone of the country is somber and you can feel that though Bangalore is far from Mumbai the people are affected. I wonder if those that live in tarp houses know what has happened in Mumbai. I am sure the only thing on there mind is where their next meal is coming from. I have to say, though our exposure is very limited, as again it is not safe to walk around the area, it is a life changing experience. I do hope I can come back during a safer time and really get to experience the culture and hopefully do something for those that have nothing (even if it is just buying them a pair of shoes).

This whole experience makes me very thankful for all that I have.

As I stated before, I am sitting outside and can hear all the sounds that are in the surrounding area and the dogs are getting very loud. It almost sounds like something bad is happening to them because the barking is becoming shrill. It breaks my heart (as you all know I am a huge dog lover). Now there is silence. Makes me wonder what just happened to those dogs.

What you have been told about cows being sacred is true. There are cows that just roam the streets. I feel strange staying in such a nice hotel when right outside there are people that haven’t eaten for days. Unfortunately now is not the time to be heroic and even if it was how do you go about doing that. Would you just show up with food and water? I wonder what the reaction would be. Would there be joy or would people resent the fact that you pity them?

I came on this trip for two reasons, one I wanted to go to India to see the Taj (which to my dismay will not be an option) and two to have a moving experience where I let the culture change me. I have been here for a day and luckily or unluckily, depending on how you want to look at it, I am getting the latter experience.

I should probably go to be though since it is 11:30 and my sleep schedule is all messed up. I know my last posted eluded to the fact that I would be writing tomorrow but I was having a moment and thought I would write down what I was experiencing at the present moment. Good night all.

First Day in India

Today I woke up at 2:00 AM thinking I was super late for work. I looked at my phone, which of course is set to US time, thought it was 4:00 AM, and was completely thrown off by this. We are 10 ½ hours ahead and 4 hours of sleep makes my brain a bit foggy. Needless to say, I woke up and wound up unable to fall back asleep.

I jumped on the phone with my parents, sat outside for a bit, watched TV, messed around online, and was able to talk to Sally. Since we had to cancel our travels around India due to the recent terror attacks we have a few extra days to fill with something else. We were going back and forth with plans (Rome, Barcelona, Bulgaria) and finally decided to go to Barcelona as it is the cheapest alternative and I get to spend an extra few days with Sally. YAY!

Anyway, around 6:00 AM I started to get ready for work. I ordered coffee (by the by the hotel treats us like queens), blasted my music, and started getting ready for my day. After showering, the natural thing to do is blow dry my hair, usually I set up my straightening iron before hand so it is nice and hot. Today I plugged it in and not only blew out my iron but also blew the electricity in my hotel room. It sucked, mostly because my iron was really expensive and I had already lost my hair dryer to Paris. Tear tear.

After getting power back, I continued to get ready for my day; of course, at this point, I was running a bit late. I avoided any other tragedies and was able to make it down stairs in time for our van to take us to the office. Now I really must set the scene for you; the hotel is literally a palace in the middle of a poor city.

It is quite the dichotomy. You literally walk/drive outside the compound (which is surrounded by gates) and you find yourself in an over crowded street (made of red clay) with men, women, and children of all classes walking the streets. Some have no shoes, some are carrying pots over their head, some children are in uniform on there way to school and others are wearing nothing but a cloth and playing in the dirt.

There are apartments across the street from shanty’s, there are cars on the street with three-wheeled open buggy’s. Wild dogs roam the streets and howl at night and I can’t forget to mention the very interesting smell that surrounds the entire place.

I will back track for a second and say that when we walked off the plane you are hit with hot air and a smell that you can’t quite put your finger on. It was like nothing I have ever smelt. I was warned it would smell, in fact on of my partners had played a practical joke on me by putting curry in my cube and told me he was just getting me ready for India. But the smell wasn’t that strong, it is more of a subtle smell that really can’t be described. Another interesting note was there were birds flying in the airport. Where there are birds, there is bird shit and let me tell you the whole airport was filled with it.

Ok back to describing Bangalore and my morning: There is a mist on the road as the clay gets kicked up into the air, which makes seeing a bit more difficult. It should be noted that India probably has the craziest drivers in the world. Since the country has a British influence they drive on the other side of the road, and of course all cars are manual. Anyway, there are not street lights. People use there horns as a form of communication when driving. Apparently, there aren’t many accidents, but wow, there were several times when we were driving into oncoming traffic and weaving in and out. Seatbelts are a MUST!

Anyway, I am off to bed and will update more tomorrow. xoxo