So, I took an extremely last-minute trip to New York this week.
I had a chance to meet with someone about an interesting job opportunity - he was in from out of the country and only in the States for a few days, so I had to take a chance offered in a very narrow time-frame and a totally different U.S. locale. I made the decision to go to NYC on Tuesday afternoon and my flight left O'Hare at 7:00PM on Wednesday. Busy!
I worked until a little after 4:00PM on Wednesday and then caught the Blue Line over to the airport. Completely uneventful flight - you know that thing in the movies where the really handsome stranger you meet in security ends up on your flight, seated next to you? Yeah, doesn't happen like that in real life (alas, handsome stranger was off to Tuscan). I got to my Laguardia-area hotel around 11PM and was too tired to even take advantage of free-HBO. (I hate you, real world).
My meeting happened the next morning over breakfast (goat cheese omelet, toast, lots of coffee) at a hotel in SoHo. It went great - looks like I am going to have some next-steps options in non-Chicago cities. Very exciting, just waiting to see how a few other possibilities play out.
I left myself a several-hour window after my meeting to explore NYC (having never been there before, something which amazes me, considering the fact that I have been to the much more distant Rome, Paris, London, Prague, etc.). I tried with a complete and total lack of success to penny-pinch by taking the subway up to Central Park. The New York subway was by far the most complicated public transportation system I've ever encountered. I managed to easily navigate the metros in at least five non-English speaking countries while abroad, but New York left me utterly perplexed. Nothing is marked in a way that makes sense - so, eventually embarrassed by the fact that I looked like such a lost, confused tourist and not the sleek, confident, city-dweller that I wanted to- I gave up and took the $15 cab. I spent 2 hours at the Met (loved it) and another half hour walking around Central Park (also loved it). Then it was back to the airport for a 4:10PM flight, and in the office again yesterday for my last day at Dig.
I'm not sure that I was really there for long enough to give a solid opinion on New York City. But I liked the sliver I saw (except the "L" wins over the subway, hands down), and hope to make it back sooner than later.
Finally, during my two days of travel, I read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. It is a heart-breaking Holocaust story set in Paris in both 1942 and 2002. The premise: ten-year old Sarah is about to be taken away with her parents by the French police and delivered to Auschwitz. She locks her four-year old brother in a secret cupboard - to protect him - promising to return. Sixty years later, Julia, an American journalist and ex-pat, is investigating Sarah's fate. Intense, but a page-turner. Definitely recommend it.
I had a chance to meet with someone about an interesting job opportunity - he was in from out of the country and only in the States for a few days, so I had to take a chance offered in a very narrow time-frame and a totally different U.S. locale. I made the decision to go to NYC on Tuesday afternoon and my flight left O'Hare at 7:00PM on Wednesday. Busy!
I worked until a little after 4:00PM on Wednesday and then caught the Blue Line over to the airport. Completely uneventful flight - you know that thing in the movies where the really handsome stranger you meet in security ends up on your flight, seated next to you? Yeah, doesn't happen like that in real life (alas, handsome stranger was off to Tuscan). I got to my Laguardia-area hotel around 11PM and was too tired to even take advantage of free-HBO. (I hate you, real world).
My meeting happened the next morning over breakfast (goat cheese omelet, toast, lots of coffee) at a hotel in SoHo. It went great - looks like I am going to have some next-steps options in non-Chicago cities. Very exciting, just waiting to see how a few other possibilities play out.
I left myself a several-hour window after my meeting to explore NYC (having never been there before, something which amazes me, considering the fact that I have been to the much more distant Rome, Paris, London, Prague, etc.). I tried with a complete and total lack of success to penny-pinch by taking the subway up to Central Park. The New York subway was by far the most complicated public transportation system I've ever encountered. I managed to easily navigate the metros in at least five non-English speaking countries while abroad, but New York left me utterly perplexed. Nothing is marked in a way that makes sense - so, eventually embarrassed by the fact that I looked like such a lost, confused tourist and not the sleek, confident, city-dweller that I wanted to- I gave up and took the $15 cab. I spent 2 hours at the Met (loved it) and another half hour walking around Central Park (also loved it). Then it was back to the airport for a 4:10PM flight, and in the office again yesterday for my last day at Dig.
I'm not sure that I was really there for long enough to give a solid opinion on New York City. But I liked the sliver I saw (except the "L" wins over the subway, hands down), and hope to make it back sooner than later.
Finally, during my two days of travel, I read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. It is a heart-breaking Holocaust story set in Paris in both 1942 and 2002. The premise: ten-year old Sarah is about to be taken away with her parents by the French police and delivered to Auschwitz. She locks her four-year old brother in a secret cupboard - to protect him - promising to return. Sixty years later, Julia, an American journalist and ex-pat, is investigating Sarah's fate. Intense, but a page-turner. Definitely recommend it.
