I just want to share the sight out of my window right now.

But first, think its important to mention that I moved .. in december.. so I’m not living in that shit hole anymore and my view is a little bit  better than what it was:

Right into the kitchen of the people living in the building across the… hm.. gap?

But as I said it changed, right now its this:

Better right? And the funniest thing? I pay less than I did before :D

Thats it for now. I promise to write an actual update and show some photos when I have more time. That will be back in good old Switzerland at the end of may.. probably.

So far.. lets just say, I’m looking forward to come back and have some rest.

cheers

Arriving at Newark, I had plenty of time to check in and getting through security check. So no problems at all… but it turned out, that I forgot my knife in my bag which was supposed to be my hand baggage. No big deal, I just couldn’t pass security check with this knife, so either they would throw it away and I could pass without it or a had to check it in. Meant buying a new bag put everything into the new one and check in my normal bag, now empty except of the knife. This would just cost me $55 to check in a second luggage and $10 for the new bag. Note to myself: Remove this knife from hand baggage next time.

Okay, after this, there wasn’t so much time left, but still enough to eat duty free breakfast… I think I saved 3 cent.
12:58 pm my plane took off to Atlanta. Nice Airport they have. With life jazz music from a lady on a piano in the middle of the crowded waiting hall. There isn’t a lot more to tell. I ate a duty free piece of pizza (saved again 2 cent), but there is nothing to do in those halls except of eating. After two and a half hours (at 16:30) I could board the next plane which would bring me to Zurich. I even remembered to get rid of this piece of paper which I carried around in my passport for one month called I-94 departure acknowledgement or something like that.
After about on and a half hours flight the captain told us to look to our left, where we could see New York now… really funny. I just started down there five hours ago.

During the flight to Zurich time sped up and suddenly it was October the 9th at 07:48am when we arrived. The sunrise was amazing! While the back of the plane still was at night, the front already hit daylight and because we where landing we could observe the passing of the day/night border in realtime over France. With this sight mind and an actually really good breakfast on plane. I arrived back in good old Switzerland :) From here it was easy, everything seemed to be exactly as it has been before. Only the really strange feeling by thinking about the previous evening in NYC stayed and everything got this little surreal touch. I finally arrived in Burgdorf at about 1000am and went to my friends house for a little 4 hour nap.

1530 finally the big moment for which I came back: The party to celebrate my fathers fifties birthday with all his friends. I stood behind a door and listened to my father, guessing who would be the guest he didn’t expect. He had no clue :) Everything had worked out perfectly and it was a really great surprise for all who didn’t know, but especially for my father. It was just perfect!
The day went on and kept its surreal touch or even increased it, because there where a lot of people I remember from the past and a lot of them had known me as a little baby or a little boy. To see them all again after so long was a really special feeling and there where many things I learned about our family, my fathers past and also about my own past.
We talked and ate till late in the night and surprisingly I didn’t get tired! Well not that surprisingly, because for me it was NY time so there was no reason to go to bed at 8 o’clock even with a really short night behind.

The next day, after getting up, which was definitely harder, I met my best friends for a really great and cosy sunday afternoon. We really managed to talk the whole night and without a minute sleep (at least some of us) I accompanied them to the train station and wished them good bye (this time for a little longer).
I myself went back to my parents house, took a shower and prepared everything for my journey back. Together with my mother we traveled to Zurich where my plane took of at 13.58pm. The journey was eventless, the 3 hours waiting time in Amsterdam really boring and I slept a lot of the time, with this really great travel pillow I got from my mom :) And when I wasn’t sleeping, I was eating. Not only on the ground in Amsterdam but also on plane, because the dutch airline company KLM provides a huge amount of food. About every 30 minutes they come along and serve the next dutch speciality. Most of them really delicious but with the time, almost to much :).

We arrived sharp on time and I got back in to the United States without problems. At 07.40pm this didn’t even take me that long and also my backpack arrived with me – Although it was the last item which came out of that hole in the wall. Walking towards the exit of the Terminal and seeing an obviously male person all dressed up in women clothes running and jumping toward some guy that arrived with me, I knew: I’m back in New York.


Some more pictures here.

This is the fourth place I live in, while being in New York, so I’m pretty much used to move my stuff. Though this time was harder than the others, because for two weeks I had the small but very comfortable apartment of my uncle all for myself, while I’m now sharing a apartment with two three (there came up another one :)) other guys. Anyways, after cleaning up my new room it became pretty comfortable as well and after I renewed all the light bulbs I even have light in there (isn’t that great :)). Well, that must sound really bad now, but it isn’t. Did I mention that I can sleep now till 10min before school starts :) No? Well its true, because Cooper is just 5min away! And the roommates seem to be cool and easy going as well.
This really is some kind of jackpot, because housing in NYC is not that easy.

If you search a place to stay, or a Car, or a Girlfriend or whatever you might want (or not want) to find in NYC you go to craigslist.org and you’ll find it. Well that sounds easy now, but you literally find everything there, from the really nice room at the end of the world, to the little Harry Potter broom chamber underneath the stairways for 800$ a month, to a free room where you would work as private whore instead of paying rent, to some nice places which are gone at a glimpse and everything mixed with a lot of fake offers which only try to get some money from you.

So thats about what you can find on craigslist.org (with focus of shared apartments). And there was me, sitting in a Hostel and I wrote my mail to all of them. Not. The more I saw the less emails I wrote. I became really choosy by answering to posts. While at the beginning I wrote to all offers where I wouldn’t have to sell myself, I quickly learned which offers are not to be trusted: Those who seem perfect. The problem with this is: How do you get the perfect place if you don’t trust people who offer them? Thats kind of tricky. But the one big credo is: Meet people personally. If you can get a meeting and talk to them, its almost done. Four of five people to which I spoke personally would have given me their room for rent.

But there is another problem… you will not pay 700$ per month for a room in a bad location, with a window facing a wall which is that close that you can touch it by leaning out of the window. You also want to make sure that you’re not living in somebodies living room and it should have some connection to public transport which brings you to whatever place you need to be during day (in my case Cooper)… ah yeah and your roommate shouldn’t be a whore who works at home. These considerations led me to refuse those first offers.

You see, it’s not easy and a kind of adventure to get a flat in New York. Especially if your male and wanna stay only for short term. Because I heard that it’s much easier for females. While I got back maybe one mail out of 10, a fellow (female) exchange student got back every second mail she wrote… so far about equality :).

Anyway, here’s a map with some places in NYC:

And this is where the taxi brought me (after crossing Times Square, just to have mentioned it). My room at Chelsea International Hostel.

After sleeping 12 hours to get rid of my jetlag (which was not accomplished by then) I tried to get to Cooper Square 41, where I had to be at two o’clock this afternoon. I knew where I was and I knew where Cooper is… on the map. After walking one time around the block I had to confess to myself, that I have no chance at all to get there without further information about the subway system and where to find it. Not that I wanted to walk all the way to cooper, but I thought that I would be able to find a subway station without a map. Not. Well, I went back to my room, consulted the internet for where EXACTLY this subway station is and where EXACTLY the school would be after arriving at the subway station “Astor Place” (Actually I paid 2$ for internet there, so it was good to use it again :)). So… with the KickMap and the NewYork2go App on my iPod Touch (which is one of my survival tools in NYC) I dared to go back to the street and actually managed to find my way on the first try.
It was 12am so had two hours left till the “Mandatory Orientation Meeting” at Cooper, so I walked to Union Square, where I found a “Best Buy Mobile Shop”. 88$ later, I had a new cellphone with 53$ balance and my new US cellphone number, which is 646 301 0588 (Which unfortunately is not available for swiss people – I don’t know why).
At Cooper they offered us a little fruit buffet and we got to know our fellow exchange students a little. And after listening to some administrative stuff, we got a tour through the Cooper buildings.
Let’s say: I didn’t find anything they don’t have (except a pool on the roof – but this has nothing to do with graphic design or art :)).
After this meeting, my duties at Cooper where done until September 8th when the first class would start. So it was time for me to consult craigslist.org to find a place to stay. But that’s another (long) story ;)

PS.: Some impressions of NYC:

Auch ihre anderen Kurzfilme (wie zum Beispiel “Love Hurts“)sind sehenswert – und die Plattform openfilm.com also solche übrigens auch ;).

Zum Konzept: Meine Piktogramme sind alle aus einer einzigen Linie aufgebaut. Diese Linie beginnt und endet mit einem Punkt und berührt oder kreuzt sich nie.
Durch dieses einfache Konzept ist es möglich, jedes beliebige Motiv umzusetzen, ohne dass es aus der Reihe fällt. (Das es einfach ist, einen Gegenstand mit nur einer Linie darzustellen, hab ich nie behauptet ;))

The irony that Wired, a magazine founded to chronicle the digital revolution, has traditionally come to you each month on the smooshed atoms of dead trees is not lost on us. Let’s just say the medium is not always the message.

Except that now it is. I’m delighted to announce that Wired’s first digital edition is now available for the iPad and soon for nearly all other tablets. We have always made our stories accessible online at Wired.com, but as successful as the site is, it is not a magazine…

Hier ein kleiner Vorgeschmack, was alles möglich ist:


Auch wenn man sich über die 500 MB Grösse des Files streiten kann, die Interaktion mit dem Content ist einfach genial. Und das ist im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes erst der Anfang.

Hier der Artikel: www.wired.com

Und hier kann man das WIRED Magazine für 4.99 $ kaufen.