De mudanca

E eis que eu, que sempre havia morado na mesma cidade, bairro e casa ate me mudar pra ca, ja estou partindo pra minha 2a mudanca de ape aqui.
A gente teve uns problemas com o ape onde estamo e alem disso o Al queria pq queria ir pra um de dois quartos, pra ele ter espaco pra fazer um escritorio em casa (um decente, nao um dentro armario, pra quem lembra hahaha) e tirar umas coisas dele que estao num deposito. Como o nosso contrato termina dia 1o de dezembro, temos que sair ate essa data pra nao ter que pagar mais um mes aqui. Eu estava morrendo de medo de ficar muito em cima, de nao dar tempo de olhar as coisas com calma e etc, e fora que o mercado imobiliario aqui eh simplesmente um loucura, totalmente desfavoravel ao inquilino. Ja tinha pesquisado no Craigslist (um site daqui onde se acha de tudo), mas nao tinha conseguido resultados muito animadores.

Hoje, depois de um brunch com o namorado da Denise (De, cuidamos dele direitinho viu! :D), sentamos numa Starbucks e fomos destrinchar os classificados no jornal. Conseguimos marcar uma visita em dois apes. O primeiro nao era grande coisa e eu ja imaginei que a procura ia ser longa. Por sorte, o segundo a que fomos era muito bom, e nos dois gostamos de tudo, o que eh raro! rs So que ja tem 18 pessoas que manifestaram interesse e o anuncio dele fica ate quarta no jornal. O cara pode escolher quem ele achar melhor, claro, entao torcam pra que ele escolha a gente!! Ainda vamos olhar outros amanha mas conhecendo as opcoes, o mercado e etc tenho ctz que esse eh um dos melhores que a gente poderia conseguir. Parece que ele simpatizou com a gente tambem...ai seria tao bom!!!
Casa, ao lado de saude, eh uma das maiores dores-de-cabeca que se pode ter neste pais e nesta regiao especificamente. Nem entro em detalhes pq tem muuuuutia coisa a ser dita a respeito. Nao quero ficar super entusiasmada pra nao correr o risco de quebrar a cara, mas confesso que fiquei animada agora com esse que a gente achou. Vamos ver...

Fim de semana - oba!

Apesar de no trabalho estar uma loucura, nao posso reclamar do final de semana. E melhor - ainda nao acabou! Amanha (segunda) ainda eh feriado (Columbus Day), e na terca terei folga pq vamos ao casamento de uma amiga.
Na sexta saimos com a Becky e o Rich, um casal super fofo e mais "da minha turma" (relembrando o post sobre amigos). Eu a conheci devido a uma pesquisa que ela ia fazer no Brasil sobre teologia da libertacao. Fomos comer hamburguer no Jackson Hole. Eu e o Al estamos numa cruzada para descobrir o melhor hamburguer de NY, ai todo mundo que a gente comenta tem o seu palpite, e la vamos nos checar. O Al gostou mais do que eu, era gigante o sanduiche e nao tinha opcao de pedir menor. O pao nao era mto bom. Nao vou entrar mto em detalhes, qq dia faco um post so sobre os hamburgueres, mas como ja falei aqui ha muito tempo, nenhum lugar ainda foi capaz de desbancar o Fatburger, que por incirvel que pareca fica em Jersey City (e eu acabei de descobrir que a Queen Latifah eh dona)!
O sabado foi bem sussa, de manha fui a Newark - a verdadeira Little Brazil - fazer progressiva (uma decepcao!) e aproveitei pra comprar varios produtos brasileiros no supermercado portugues de la: pao de queijo, pao de bata com requeijao, bolo bauduco, bolacha....Hum!!! Mais tarde cozinhamos juntos em casa e depois vimos um filme muito bom, John Q, com o Denzel Washignton, uma ficcao muito emocionante tendo como propulsor a questao do planos de saude nos EUA. otimo complemento para o documentario do Moore, Sicko (vao ver se ainda nao foram - e sentir do de mim!). .Eu amo esses momentos despretensiosos com o Al, eh tao bom tambem! :D
Hoje fomos ver um filme que ele queria e que eu nao fazia a menor questao (it's all about compromising), Resident Evil, mas fomos num dos meu lugares favoritos, a Union Square. Comprei mais um livros de um autor que adorei, Tariq Ali. Os que eu to lendo sao uma colecao de ficcoes historicas sobre a cultura islamica, altamente recomendaveis!
A caminho do filme passei por uma casa de cha moderninha, Tavalon, que tinha propaganda de um smoothie de acai, ai sai do filme e fui correndo la pra comprar, mas fiquei muito decepcionada qdo a mulher me entregou o copo e ja vi pela cor marrom chocolate que aquilo podia ser qq coisa menos acai. Nao tava ruim mas nao era o que eu tava esperando. No menu eles tb tinham um "brazilian hot chocolate". Falei pro Al perguntar o que exatamente era aquilo, e a moca respondeu que eh um chocolate quente com po de acai!! (estamos em voga, fazer o que...)
Amanha vou aproveitar o feriado para trabalhar num projeto que lancarei em breve - e para o qual vou precisar da ajuda de voces!! mais infomacaoes em breve.
Boa semana a todos!

Good news

Long time no post! sorry...but it was for a good reason! I finally finished one of the assignments for the newspaper, and on the meantime I had also been sending resumes to the stuff I really wanted to do. Turns out I got it! The first interview was last Friday, and I already started doing things as an administrative intern for an up and coming dance company.no, it doesn't even pay the bills, but I'm really excited! I still have another interview tomorrow for another place, let's see how it goes...(maybe I can even do both together).

Today was a looong day! I spent the morning in a much nicer side of Brooklyn, near Smith Street (lots of restaurants and boutiques), where the dance company's office is. Then I met Al at Columbus Circle (pic, from inside the mall) and we had lunch at Whole Foods, the trendiest New Yorkers' market hehehehe. It's really cool, it's an improved Pao de Acucar, where you can shop for products and also eat in a self-service setting. They had japanese, morrocan, indian, salads, some very good stuff. The eating area sits 1156 people and has a very modern design, with color-changing walls and all. Then we spent some time at the the Time Warner building mall, where I bought Thomas Pynchon's V., an author I discovered through Tonya's blog, and also hang out at the impressive Samsung store, where every product is simply for sampling, they don't sell anything (some are not even released in the US market). You can try everything from phones to laptops to huge plasma TVs sitting in comfortable couches, without being bothered with the pressure to buy anything. Gets you thinking how much money do they have so they can put up something like that.
From there to higlight of the day: ice skating in Central Park! We had soooo much fun! I was really scared to get in that rink, since it was my first time ever, but everything went fine and I only fell once! hahaha we got there when it was still daylight and only left after it was dark (photos on Flickr). It's expensive (12 for each adult, plus 5 for the skate rental and 3.75 for locker rental), but it's really worthy it! (pic: kids sliding on ice behind sax player @ Central Park). It was hard at first, but slowly I was able to slide by myself, and it feels so good. With the music on the background, feels like you're in a movie. In the end my body couldn't go anymore but I just kept going for "one last lap" (my ankle was destroyed but it's ok hehehe)
It was Sunday night, but we could still do some more window shopping at the city that never sleeps, so we headed to the famous 5th Ave. and the drool-worthy Mac Store, and some other fancy stores around. To wrap up the day, US' probably best hamburgers, Jersey City's Fatburger (nothing to do with your usual McDonalds, uh-uh), and that was it!

PS: People always tell you how nice it is to see snow for the first time but they fail to tell you how disgusting is to have to navigate trhough that dirty mess for several days after the actual storm. Ew! Ok, I've had my share of that, can we please go back to clean and walkable streets?

Where's the manual for adulthood?

I have to admit that this freelance for this newspaper totally depressed me. It's so NOT what I want to do it hurts. I accepted to do it cause I was really worried about not having a source of income, but I realized I'm just wasting my time. The time I had planned to work on it I started sending resumes to the things I'm really interested at (but are harder to get...you know why). I've decided to do just one of the things she briefed me and then talk to her about this situation.
And here's the thing. I have no idea how to manage my thoughts, and my time in consequence. I never worked as freelance, so I kindda only had to think about my job when it was time to work, and the rest of the day I could think about the other stuff, which wasn't that much anyway apart from my own personal interests. Now it's like, I have to think about the work (I don't have a fixed schedule, of course), about the things I have to do at home, about the things I have to do with Al, and about the other things that are of my own personal interest. And I start thinking about all of it at the same time, so I start doing things at the same time and don't complete any as I wanted, or I just waste my time thinking and don't do anything at all! I'm not even sure if I could explain that well, cause it's really confusing even to me. Arrrrghhhhhhhhhh
On another note, I met Alta (Al's sister) in person for the first time! She came to visit us. She's really great! :D And also we've been having a lot of fun with that couple I think I've mentioned before, Judy and Chris. I'm getting to know Jersey City better and I really like it, it's small and pretty (there must be some not-so-pretty neighbourhoods, but of course I don't need to go there! hehehe)

Random stuff

- As the days progress, things become better and better when it comes to the fine tuning between me and Al. It helps a lot that the apartment is finally free of unnecessary clutter and everything we got is on its place, tho it's still a work in progress. hehehe As you know what to expect (and what not to) from each other, the day-to-day life gets easier, and (much) nicer.

- Just to make you girls jealous, Al cooks divinely, and he's cooking dinner and doing the dishes every night! (not to mention the desserts he makes, like this heavenly nutty brownie from yesterday!) hey, pick your jaws off the floor, it's cold! (In exchange, I make the bed everyday and get to clean the bathroom - but he cleans the bathtub. That is, after I "hint" about it for several days in a row) .

- they're changing the name of my ballet class to "advanced begginer", it seems they just realized what it really is! hehehe Anyway, I went to my 2nd one today and it was awesome!
And also I'm getting to know lots of interesting people, if only for a brief moment.

- people here actually stand on the right on escalators and wait untill people get off the train to start getting in. As a heavy user of public transportation, I can only say that's a dream.

- I had an allergy all over my face that was making me look like a monster, and I was using so many new stuff that it was diffcult to figure out the cause, but I think I finally did, it was probably the make-up remover cloths....(I was used to liquid ones)

- I went to Newark today. I didn't like the city itself a bit.
But

- I finally got my nails done and also some waxing! Yay for Brazilian salons (one in every corner)! One thing, tho....while the nails and the underarm pricing can be equivalent (10 dollars each, or 8 dollars the underarm at a Boticario store) - meaning they will not always be, u can find it for waaaay more if you want - don't expect the same for your "bikini area". Cheapest I found, even on the brazilian salons, was 30 bucks!! :(

- Last and least, I got a freelance gig on a Brazilian newspaper (#1 reason I went to Newark). Unlike Al, I can't say I'm excited about it, cause I'm gonna be writing for the business desk, which is pretty close to what I did in Sao Paulo, only it's very far from what I really want to do. But it's something already... Also it's looking as a great opportunity to put Al in contact with some potential clients (which would be great!), so let's see...

Great Sunday =

double dating + brunch at IHOP + sunny day + Liberty State Park (pic) + finally assembling the bed frame* + Haagen Dazs ice cream for dessert. :)
Flickr really updated this time!

* there were three possible heights for the matress. He wanted it the higest possible and I wanted it the lowest (cause the matress is already high!) we settled for the medium height (in which my feet still don't touch the ground if I'm sitting on it!). The art of compromising....

Oh and it really snowed tonight!! It looked so beautiful this morning! I was moved to see our little yard covered in white! :D

The moment you've all been waiting for

I got soooooooo lost yesterday!!!!!!! oh my, it was really bad. I was going to meet Tonya in person for the first time and, of course, we set up to see a ballet performance. Well, in the morning, Al and I went to a home improvement store called Lowe's, and we got a little carried away (him more than me actually! hehehe) so I didn't have time to come back home and change, put on some make-up, nothing. That was to begin with. So I left her a message saying I was gonna be a little bit later than the 1:30 pm we had set, and went...I was supposed to get off the PATH train on 33rd st, the last stop, then get the D train then the 1 (that's how Al had told me). But I was kindda alseep in the train (that's always happening here!!) and I end up getting off two stations before, on 14th. I looked aroudn to see if I could catch the MTA (ny subway) from there, and I could...but when I got to the entrance there was no D train there...but there was the 1, so I figured it was the same that I'd have to catch later. The thing is that this NY subway is a maze, and there are a million platforms, a million lines coming in each platform, and a million different stairs that lead you to hundred different directions. So I waited for 15 mins untill the train came, only to realize I was in the wrong platform (I was trying to follow the signs but it didn't quite work!!! :S). Then I finally got to the right platform...and then comes a 3 train....and then a 2...and then a 3 again!!! I'm like "wait a minute, what's happenning here???" But I heard the voice on the speakers saying sth about "1", so I asked a guy "is this the 1?" He said "yes, it's going local". Hum...ok...what's that supposed to mean?!?!?! So the train marked 3 becomes 1 cause it's "going local"...Geez! At that point, I was so frustrated and so mad with myself cause I hate letting people waiting for me, that I just thought I should take the chance. Gladly, it did left me where I wanted...only I got there one hour later!!! and the performance began at 2! It took me some more minutes to figure out where the entrance to the theater was, then I got in and I must've looked so lost that the security people "recognized" me right away and asked if "my firend was supposed to have let something for me". Yes!!! thank goodness Tonya made the right decision and got in the performance (a little bit late tho), leaving me the ticket in the box office. I got upstairs and people were begining to get out for the intermission. I spotted her right away and I was almost crying with embarassment! I don't remember feeling that embarassed in years!!! Gladly she's very sweet and understandable, and it was great meeting her! I watched the second half of the program, then we ate at this cute french bistro nearby, Le Pain Quotidien. (in which, by the way, the tea bowl is twice as big as the soup bowl! hahaha go figure...). My huge embarrasment aside, I had a really good time, and we're definitely meeting again, right Tonya? ;-) This is a rushed pic of he beaaaaaaaautiful State Theater (cause the guy wouldn't let us take pics inside.)

Al and I were supposed to go to his friend's b-day at night, but we both were so tired that we just flicked it... :S We had been in the mall here in Jersey City to get my phone (which was serioulsy in demand!!). Turns out a guy at the T-Mobile kioske there found a way to "bypass" that 90-day rule. Yay!!! I'll email you guys my number so we can text each other. (I even got MSN on my phone!)


Yesterday we had dinner at Times Square and then we watched Babel there (higly recommended!) at AMC theater, this huge complex with 25 rooms! It had been the coldest day in two years here, and in the morning my limbs were almost falling off frozen. :S I'll update my flickr with pics of my paralized and miserable self waiting for the bus (and more!). Here are some pics of the Times Sq and the restaurant we ate.


Also the day before yesterday, I was cleaning the bathroom and there I was throwing water all over the place, when Al gets by the door and asks "what are you doing?" me: "cleaning?" he: "but you can't throw water like that, there's no drain (ralo) in there!". Wow!! how I was supposed to know, I've never seen a bathroom without a drain in my whole life!! One more lesson learned.

Impressions

I know I'm in huge debt with this blog, but there's just so many things to be done that it's difficult to stop to write.
Anyway, some random impressions so far:

- Every food item here is GIGANTIC! It upsets me so much! I wanna have a little something in the middle of the afternoon...impossible. I went to Starbucks on wednesday (my first!). To begin with, the smallest coffe you can get is the tall one! (copinho americano? esquece!). Then, I wanted sth like the size of a pao de queijo or a little salgado, but all you can get is those monster sandwiches or big slices of cake and etc. The bagel, one of the most popular breads here, one quarter of it gets me full. Even industrialized stuff that are the exact brand here and in Brazil, are bigger here...a package of Doritos is bigger than the biggest ones we have there, and even the Activia yogurt cup (by Dannon) is bigger!! No wonder obesity is one of the main public health problems here.

- It seems that for every 5 stores, 1 is a Starbucks and 1 is a Duane Reade (big pharmacy chain that's like a Brazilian supermarket without the food part - but they do also have snakcs!). They're everywhere. (I gotta admit Duane Reade's been a lifesaver. Every personal stuff I needed so far I bought there)

- The language mix - the conversations you hear in the streets can be divided as following: 1/4 English, 1/4 English with heavy accent from some place else, 1/4 Spanish and 1/4 random languages from all over the world.

- Sooo many things much more sense to me now! Hand moisturizers, for example. They're not just a "frescura", your hands get really dry and rough without them. It's a new must have item in my purse. Ballet legwarmers, pockets...everyday I figure out something new. It's a whole new world revealing itself for me! hehehehe

- Men wear lip balms and they're not shy to reapply them while they're in the train or in the streets. I found that so cool! I was suprised when I saw the first but now I've seen many more doing that.

- I feel tired and sleepy the whole day, and only today I realized why! It's not jet lag, it's because it's so cold you spend more energy trying to keep your normal body temperature. Now hybernation makes more sense too! hehehe

- Walking in the streets still feels like it's a dream or an hallucination. It feels like at any moment all the scenery will come apart and I'll be back in the streets and places I know. Also when people talk to me (expect Al), I get a weird feeling that their voice doesn't really belong to their body, and that at any moment they can switch form English to Portuguese. It also looks like anyone could be Brazilian, for their appeareance. (Or should I say that Brazilians can look like they're from anywhere, maybe that's more accurate. hehehe)

- I thought I'd feel more "out of place" here but I don't. I thought I'd feel too different, too short, too dumb...but I don't at all! that's a good thing! :D

- It's already Friday but it feels like it's still Monday. Since I don't have a routine to "tell me" that my day ended, I don't feel the time passing at all.


I'll try to post more often and take more pics.

First day

It's amazing how many things can happen in such a short amount of time! I'm gonna write in items so it's easier to get an overview of how things went/have been going. Oh thanks for the welcome, Tonya! :D

THE TRIP
- the ride itself was really smooth, no delays, ok service, etc.

- the suprise: I ran into a guy from my building (!) at the departure gate, and turned out he was gonna be at the same flight. And not only that, but we found out we were sitting next to each other! It was so good to have someone I knew, and that had so many experience travelling abroad. (He was gonna make a connection in NY to Indiannapolis). It helped aleviate the anxiety a bit, but I was still nervous the whole flight, I couldn't sleep straight for more than one hour and a half.

- airplane movie: Woody Allen's Scoop (don't waste your time, really). I didn't know they played such recent movies onboard.

- immigration service: we had to wait for the long Americans line to finish untill they started to call people ar the foreigners line. Tiago, the guy I knew, told me they're usually nicer and have some booths for Americans and some for foreigners. Despite the long wait, the "interview" itself was ridiculously quick. Officer (speaking fast and inwards): "u student?" me: "no, tourist" Officer grabs the stamp and prints my passport. That was it, exactly like this.


ARRIVAL


- and off I went! Al was waiting for me with extra scarf, gloves, hat and coat. Inside the airport was warm and I couldn't wait to feel how negative temperatures (in Celsius) felt like, a first! It was -3 (28o F) when I got here. We just waited outside for the (very fancy) cab a bit, so it wasn't really a schock. But everything was great and exciting!





- the cab had this cool navigation system that showed our Ukranian driver the directions instantly. For what they said it's pretty normal here but for me it was a first too to see one of those actually "in action".



DEVELOPMENT


- I got here, ate something, then rested for the most of the day. Al had a very nice surprise to me (and this time it was really a surprise! hehe), he printed a poster size of his favorite pic of us, framed it and hanged on the bedroom wall. It's beautiful and really sweet! :D



- At night he took me to dinner at Sarabeth's, on the Upper West Side a nice and cozy restaurant that served "typical American food that's not burguer", in Al's own words, hehhee. I loved it! Next, headed for dessert at Cafe Mozart. I had a tricolate mousse cake. (three chocolates. you get the picture. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm). All very nice and romantic. At the end of the day I was exhausted already (and still feeling a little headache from the jet lag and the cold wind). At least our house is really close to the train station, so we got back fast!


- And it snowed lightly!! Wo-hooo! (I know, I know, that's so tourist-y...but I can't help it!). Al said it was a "freezing drizzle". It was so cute, the tiny snowflackes coming down. :D But I still got to see some "real" snow, that one good to build snowmen! hehehe I'll count that as a preview.


- I think Northern Hemisphere's winter is my new favorite season. Because it's soooooooo dry, my hair looks like I just flat-ironed it (chapinha)! How cool is that?



2nd DAY


-Today we spend the morning looking for nightsands, then went to Bed Bath & Beyond to get things for the house (sooo many options! you go crazy!). Next, we had lunch at a very nice cuban restauran't in downtown JC called Hard Grove Cafe, then came back home, where I finally finished unpacking. WIth all the new stuff, the apartment is getting cozier and cozier, I really love it here and I couldn't been happier!! :D When I finally settle to a routine I'll be able to tell the stories with more detail, but I guess you can tell I'm loving it! ;-)