Winter is here. Temperature out is 33 degrees, and low today is expected to be 27. Brrrr!! Soon it will snow.
The other day I was in the elevator in my dorm and this girl comes in still shuddering from the cold. She said: "it's cold, huh?" and I answered "uh-huh" even though I thought it wasn't really, since it was about 40 degrees out. So I asked the girl where she was from and she said: "from Trinidad." Of course, used to the Caribbean temperatures, the poor girl was having a hard time with the New York cold. And it's only just started... She's gonna have a hard time.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Black Friday
Today is Black Friday.
Given that Thanksgiving is usually about a month before Christmas, it becomes the start of the holiday shopping season. Since Thursday is a holiday for almost everybody, and most people have Friday off too, although technically is a workday, all stores are open, and it's become the day when everybody goes shopping. On my first year in America, I thought naively: "hey, today it's a workday, so stores will be open." So I went and I found the whole city in the mall where you couldn't even walk.
Why the name Black Friday is not clear. Wikipedia has two versions: first, that traffic cops in Philadelphia coined the word because of the traffic nightmare of that Friday; and second, that businesses had so much volume that day that they went from red numbers (loss) to black ones (profit). Be as it may, it is one of the days with most commercial activity of the year.
American stores offer great discounts today, many times to the early birds.Stores open at 5, or even at midnight. It's crazy. There are people who stand on a line in the November cold to save $100 on a laptop, for instance. It's ridiculous. One more example of American consumerism.
My friends Truman and Ripleyz mention in their blog an initiative by the three or four people who hate Black Friday, called Buy Nothing Day, where they urge people not to buy anything today. It was inconvenient for me to go shopping today, because I was on the train back from the lake, and later I stayed home to catch up with things (and I also wanted to avoid the crowds), but I didn't want them to think I was on their side, so I made an online purchase :-) Because hey, if you don't want to buy anything, fine, but why go against those of us who love going shopping? Leave us alone.
Given that Thanksgiving is usually about a month before Christmas, it becomes the start of the holiday shopping season. Since Thursday is a holiday for almost everybody, and most people have Friday off too, although technically is a workday, all stores are open, and it's become the day when everybody goes shopping. On my first year in America, I thought naively: "hey, today it's a workday, so stores will be open." So I went and I found the whole city in the mall where you couldn't even walk.
Why the name Black Friday is not clear. Wikipedia has two versions: first, that traffic cops in Philadelphia coined the word because of the traffic nightmare of that Friday; and second, that businesses had so much volume that day that they went from red numbers (loss) to black ones (profit). Be as it may, it is one of the days with most commercial activity of the year.
American stores offer great discounts today, many times to the early birds.Stores open at 5, or even at midnight. It's crazy. There are people who stand on a line in the November cold to save $100 on a laptop, for instance. It's ridiculous. One more example of American consumerism.
My friends Truman and Ripleyz mention in their blog an initiative by the three or four people who hate Black Friday, called Buy Nothing Day, where they urge people not to buy anything today. It was inconvenient for me to go shopping today, because I was on the train back from the lake, and later I stayed home to catch up with things (and I also wanted to avoid the crowds), but I didn't want them to think I was on their side, so I made an online purchase :-) Because hey, if you don't want to buy anything, fine, but why go against those of us who love going shopping? Leave us alone.
San Guivin
I always remember fondly how, when I lived in the US, I was subscribed to a mailing list of Spanish people in the Boston area, where people would send news related to Spain, etc. This was at the beginning of the internet, when the Web wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today, and the newsgroups and mailing lists were quite common methods to communicate to large groups of people with similar interests. The association still exists, and if you dig in their website you will find El racó d'en Pep [Pep's corner], a guide to Boston restaurants written by yours truly. It's from 1997, so it's quite outdated and half of the restaurants are closed by now, but it must still be of some use since they don't take it out.
With traditional Spanish witticism, Thanksgiving was called "San Guivin" [which would be something like St. Givin's Day], a bad Spanish-ification of the word "Thanksgiving," but which sounds like a legitimate Spanish holiday. The name "San Guivin" always brings fond memories, and yesterday I got an e-mail from my friend Aldo saying "Happy San Guivin," which brought a smile to my face and made me remember the good old times.
With traditional Spanish witticism, Thanksgiving was called "San Guivin" [which would be something like St. Givin's Day], a bad Spanish-ification of the word "Thanksgiving," but which sounds like a legitimate Spanish holiday. The name "San Guivin" always brings fond memories, and yesterday I got an e-mail from my friend Aldo saying "Happy San Guivin," which brought a smile to my face and made me remember the good old times.
Thanksgiving II
As you all know, on Thanksgiving people eat turkey. Turkey is original of America, And it's supposed that the pilgrims ate it during the first harvest celebration. To help the dryness of the turkey after four hours of oven baking, it's accompanied with cranberry sauce, an interestinc combination, to say the least. Also the stuffing of the turkey, made of bread, vegetables and spices, and gravy. For dessert, of course, pumpkin pie.
In the US Thanksgiving Day is the traditional day of family reunion. As in Spain families get together for Christmas, here they do on this long November weekend. Hence, Wednesday and Sunday are the days with more air traffic of the year, I have traveled in the past on these days and airports are really chaotic. Same for highway traffic, and trains (where they exist) are also pretty full. The train I took this morning was bursting with people.
I have spent Thanksgiving with Sean and Katherine at their lake house. With us there were a few siblings and cousins. We ate turkey and pumpkin pie, and we spent the evening playing cards. I learned a new game (hearts), not too hard to learn and interesting, and I even won a game :-) in hard competition with Meg (Katherine's sister), who is an expert. Little did they know that the game was really similar to a Catalan game I used to play when I was in high school, called the butifarra boja.
In the US Thanksgiving Day is the traditional day of family reunion. As in Spain families get together for Christmas, here they do on this long November weekend. Hence, Wednesday and Sunday are the days with more air traffic of the year, I have traveled in the past on these days and airports are really chaotic. Same for highway traffic, and trains (where they exist) are also pretty full. The train I took this morning was bursting with people.
I have spent Thanksgiving with Sean and Katherine at their lake house. With us there were a few siblings and cousins. We ate turkey and pumpkin pie, and we spent the evening playing cards. I learned a new game (hearts), not too hard to learn and interesting, and I even won a game :-) in hard competition with Meg (Katherine's sister), who is an expert. Little did they know that the game was really similar to a Catalan game I used to play when I was in high school, called the butifarra boja.
Thanksgiving
Tomorrow Thursday is Thanksgiving. As you know for the movies, it is one of the most important days of the American calendar, and the only four-day weekend of the year. It's celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, and most people also have Friday off. The University closes up for the four days, and in fact on Tuesday and Wednesday many students are already gone, off to spend the holiday with their families. Only us foreigners remain :-)
Thanksgiving Day remembers the first Fall spent here by the pilgrims arrived from England, who celebrated the first successful harvest, which ensured their survival for the upcoming Winter.
On Thanksgiving Day, people are supposed to give thanks for the good things they have in life. This holiday doesn't exist in Spain, and I believe this grateful feeling is not common among Spaniards, who many times are too busy coveting more and more things (more money, a vacation house, a better car, more sex), without stopping to think about the good things they already have and which are taken for granted (a job, enough money to live comfortably, a house, a family who loves them). I know some people who could use some thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Day remembers the first Fall spent here by the pilgrims arrived from England, who celebrated the first successful harvest, which ensured their survival for the upcoming Winter.
On Thanksgiving Day, people are supposed to give thanks for the good things they have in life. This holiday doesn't exist in Spain, and I believe this grateful feeling is not common among Spaniards, who many times are too busy coveting more and more things (more money, a vacation house, a better car, more sex), without stopping to think about the good things they already have and which are taken for granted (a job, enough money to live comfortably, a house, a family who loves them). I know some people who could use some thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
The Dakota building
The Dakota is one of the first luxury apartment building constructed in New York. It's located at the corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West (8th Avenue).
Like most buildings facing the Park, the Dakota is one of those buildings where really wealthy people live. People like Lauren Bacall, Roberta Flack, Judy Garland or Boris Karloff have lived in the Dakota. But nowadays the Dakota is famous worldwide as the building where John Lennon used to live, and in whose door Lennon was killed on December 8th, 1980, it will be 27 years ago soon. Yoko Ono still keeps the apartment in the Dakota.
As a memorial to Lennon, the Central Park area across the street from the Dakota is called Strawberry Fields. In it you can find the monument to Lennon, a round mosaic with a geometric motif around the word "Imagine". People go there every day to revere Lennon. As you can see, the day I went there were some plants making a peace symbol, and also a guitar and few white paper peace doves.
I would like to remember Lennon and these verses from Imagine, in my opinion one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Like most buildings facing the Park, the Dakota is one of those buildings where really wealthy people live. People like Lauren Bacall, Roberta Flack, Judy Garland or Boris Karloff have lived in the Dakota. But nowadays the Dakota is famous worldwide as the building where John Lennon used to live, and in whose door Lennon was killed on December 8th, 1980, it will be 27 years ago soon. Yoko Ono still keeps the apartment in the Dakota.
As a memorial to Lennon, the Central Park area across the street from the Dakota is called Strawberry Fields. In it you can find the monument to Lennon, a round mosaic with a geometric motif around the word "Imagine". People go there every day to revere Lennon. As you can see, the day I went there were some plants making a peace symbol, and also a guitar and few white paper peace doves.
I would like to remember Lennon and these verses from Imagine, in my opinion one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Monday, November 19, 2007
UN Headquarters
One of the visits we had planned was to the UN Headquarters, on 1st Avenue and 46th Street. The UN is in an area declared international territory, so for a few hours we were outside the United States. It has its own postage stamps and its own post office, so one of the favorite activities for visitors is sending themselves a postcard with stamp and postmark from the UN.
They have guided tours, and if you call in advance they will tell you the schedule of tours in different languages. In the tour they take you through several panels and expositions about the UN, its creation and its mission, and they show you the meeting halls. We couldn't see the Security Council because it was in session, but we saw the General Assembly, which we all have seen many times on TV.
They have guided tours, and if you call in advance they will tell you the schedule of tours in different languages. In the tour they take you through several panels and expositions about the UN, its creation and its mission, and they show you the meeting halls. We couldn't see the Security Council because it was in session, but we saw the General Assembly, which we all have seen many times on TV.
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