Here in NYC... finally!
I have resolved to enter a blog atleast once a week. So here I am, with my news from NYC.
First the apartment. Its a tiny one-bedroom apartment in midtown west, a couple of blocks from central park. The apartment building is a co-op and most of the residents are actually owners (or shareholders as our landlady pointed out). It was built in the 1920s. In NY, this is fashionably called a pre-war apartment. The place is old. The hardwood floors are uneven, cracked and sometimes almost worn out, the sink shows rust that no amount of clorox bleach ink can get rid of and the plumbing is questionable. Despite all this, Animesh and I manage to find it kind of cute. We've setup shelves everywhere... in the kitchen, in the bathroom and the bedroom will have a large wardrobe (this has yet to arrive). The living room is large enough to hold up to four people. The bedroom can take two persons (on very good terms with each other) and the kitchen will hold one person who can be neither clumsy nor overweight. There are plenty of windows for our plants. These windows turned into a great source of contention between Animesh and me. The one in the bathroom, for instance, opens to the apartment on the left, and were the residents so inclined, they could watch us go about our business. I don't believe anyone in NYC is so perverse and I think we should forget about it. The poor old apartment has no ventilation to speak of and keeping that window open was a matter of hygiene. Animesh disagrees. Apparently people in NYC are JUST that perverse and are lining up to watch us with our pants down. He closed the window and sealed it shut with all the packing tape left over from IL. Man, did we have a row! In the end the window stays open, but is artfully covered with shelves, baskets of shampoos and lotion and even my trusty african violet. Hah!
The other big issue we had was with Valentino. Valentino is the Super, a mild looking italian fellow. Well, mild he is not. He has yelled at Animesh on numerous occasions until Animesh finally decided that I should be the one to deal with him and get things fixed. Here is an actual conversation...
"Hi, I'm nayantara, I moved into 5B yesterday and my husband moved in earlier. He has been trying to set up the phone line but...."
Valentino: "I talked to your husband. He not understand me. He not hear me. He need to give me 2 days notice. The interface card is in the basement of another building and that building have another super! I TELL him!"
I: "Oh i'm SO sorry. He probably misunderstood. Do you know where the interface card is. Because the telephone company says we SHOULD have service but we do not have a dial tone"
V: "Are you in the building? When you come home tonight? 7pm? you call me, I come up and take a look"
I (almost falling over with pretended gratitude): "Thank you. Thats great. I'll see you tonight. "
V (overwhelmed by me? very gruffly): "ok. bye. "
Because of my apparent success, I have become the one that talks to Valentino henceforth. I have even looked up the internet and found that the appropriate gift to give a super is a local (grocery) store gift card. I will buy one promptly and make peace with the man.
And now work: The biggest issue is getting to work and back. The commute in is from 6.40am to 8.15am. The commute out is 4.50pm to 7.10pm. I take the subway to port authority and the bus to whippany. The commute is long but predictable, and I manage to get a lot of reading done. So far, I only had problems when it rained and the subway was messed up. I missed my bus and had to wait an hour for the next one. Whippany is a lonely place (for me). I have a huge office all to myself (its seriously the size of our living room!) and no one to talk to. I've had lunch at my desk every single day and my few attempts to make friends have not been reciprocated. I think people here are generally not into non-work chat. They certainly do not go off shopping at lunchtime or do a diversity event at the local baseball game. Nothing like that at all. So I write this blog to entertain my good friends in IL :-) I also joined the local Gym. That was good because the facilities are both adequate and clean and it offers me a much needed diversion.
And finally life in NYC: Aaaah! This is the good part. I think we live in a great area. There are restaurants all over and the closest startbucks is less than a block away. There is a very cute mom 'n pop cafe that serves bread, pastries and coffee all night. And a jazz club. And a health food store. And even a little farmers market. Lincoln center in a ten minute walk and we went there after dinner one night. They have a lot of shows and concerts this winter where we can get tickets cheap. I fully expect to do that. The village in 15 mins away by train and Animesh and I ate there every day the first week. We had kati roll (Egg-roll to indians) and indian stuffed bread (aloo paratha type of thing) one day. The whole meal cost us less than $20. They usually have happy hour in the bars till 8pm with cocktails at $3. All these good deals had us coming back for more, until this week when we really wanted some good old daal-chavel. So Animesh inaugurated the kitchen with daal, chaval and baigan sabji. We've tried to cook dinners at home since. I went out with Animesh's school friends a few times. The parties are all great and the company very interesting. I will certainly not be bored here.
Thats a long blog, I think. More next week. I'll have to make a few notes about my problems with shoes and clothes and such. But thats for next week.
First the apartment. Its a tiny one-bedroom apartment in midtown west, a couple of blocks from central park. The apartment building is a co-op and most of the residents are actually owners (or shareholders as our landlady pointed out). It was built in the 1920s. In NY, this is fashionably called a pre-war apartment. The place is old. The hardwood floors are uneven, cracked and sometimes almost worn out, the sink shows rust that no amount of clorox bleach ink can get rid of and the plumbing is questionable. Despite all this, Animesh and I manage to find it kind of cute. We've setup shelves everywhere... in the kitchen, in the bathroom and the bedroom will have a large wardrobe (this has yet to arrive). The living room is large enough to hold up to four people. The bedroom can take two persons (on very good terms with each other) and the kitchen will hold one person who can be neither clumsy nor overweight. There are plenty of windows for our plants. These windows turned into a great source of contention between Animesh and me. The one in the bathroom, for instance, opens to the apartment on the left, and were the residents so inclined, they could watch us go about our business. I don't believe anyone in NYC is so perverse and I think we should forget about it. The poor old apartment has no ventilation to speak of and keeping that window open was a matter of hygiene. Animesh disagrees. Apparently people in NYC are JUST that perverse and are lining up to watch us with our pants down. He closed the window and sealed it shut with all the packing tape left over from IL. Man, did we have a row! In the end the window stays open, but is artfully covered with shelves, baskets of shampoos and lotion and even my trusty african violet. Hah!
The other big issue we had was with Valentino. Valentino is the Super, a mild looking italian fellow. Well, mild he is not. He has yelled at Animesh on numerous occasions until Animesh finally decided that I should be the one to deal with him and get things fixed. Here is an actual conversation...
"Hi, I'm nayantara, I moved into 5B yesterday and my husband moved in earlier. He has been trying to set up the phone line but...."
I: "Oh i'm SO sorry. He probably misunderstood. Do you know where the interface card is. Because the telephone company says we SHOULD have service but we do not have a dial tone"
I (almost falling over with pretended gratitude): "Thank you. Thats great. I'll see you tonight. "
Because of my apparent success, I have become the one that talks to Valentino henceforth. I have even looked up the internet and found that the appropriate gift to give a super is a local (grocery) store gift card. I will buy one promptly and make peace with the man.
And now work: The biggest issue is getting to work and back. The commute in is from 6.40am to 8.15am. The commute out is 4.50pm to 7.10pm. I take the subway to port authority and the bus to whippany. The commute is long but predictable, and I manage to get a lot of reading done. So far, I only had problems when it rained and the subway was messed up. I missed my bus and had to wait an hour for the next one. Whippany is a lonely place (for me). I have a huge office all to myself (its seriously the size of our living room!) and no one to talk to. I've had lunch at my desk every single day and my few attempts to make friends have not been reciprocated. I think people here are generally not into non-work chat. They certainly do not go off shopping at lunchtime or do a diversity event at the local baseball game. Nothing like that at all. So I write this blog to entertain my good friends in IL :-) I also joined the local Gym. That was good because the facilities are both adequate and clean and it offers me a much needed diversion.
And finally life in NYC: Aaaah! This is the good part. I think we live in a great area. There are restaurants all over and the closest startbucks is less than a block away. There is a very cute mom 'n pop cafe that serves bread, pastries and coffee all night. And a jazz club. And a health food store. And even a little farmers market. Lincoln center in a ten minute walk and we went there after dinner one night. They have a lot of shows and concerts this winter where we can get tickets cheap. I fully expect to do that. The village in 15 mins away by train and Animesh and I ate there every day the first week. We had kati roll (Egg-roll to indians) and indian stuffed bread (aloo paratha type of thing) one day. The whole meal cost us less than $20. They usually have happy hour in the bars till 8pm with cocktails at $3. All these good deals had us coming back for more, until this week when we really wanted some good old daal-chavel. So Animesh inaugurated the kitchen with daal, chaval and baigan sabji. We've tried to cook dinners at home since. I went out with Animesh's school friends a few times. The parties are all great and the company very interesting. I will certainly not be bored here.
Thats a long blog, I think. More next week. I'll have to make a few notes about my problems with shoes and clothes and such. But thats for next week.
posted by Nayantara | 12:20 PM
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