Sunday, February 18, 2007
The Empire State 2.3
Happy New Year!
As you all know, the year of the Fire Pig has begun.
That means fortune and fertility for everyone!
To celebrate this event I decided to go to Flushing - the Asian neighborhood in Queens - to attend to the Lunar New Year Parade with some friends of mine (with the fundamental supervision of a Chinese girl).
Actually the parade was for both the Chinese and Korean community (but the Korean part sucks as compared with the Chinese one) but at a certain point they split and we followed the Chinese one going to a market place for more celebrations.
I had my rate of dragons and red lanterns, Pekin ducks and amazing fishes, harp music and green tea cakes...
I'm quite satisfied: here in the States I had the chance to know and learn something more about these eastern folks (I had also very good impressions about three Japanese people during my staying here) and they very fascinating.
And moreover the number of bad words I know in Chinese is increasing!
AND now I know what's the meaning of the spheres the white dragon grabs in the Bhutan flag (I know you all were wandering about that): it's the symbol of power and wealth...
What shall I ask more from the Fire Pig year?
probably more RAM...
and anyway, quoting the wise (Sun Tzu): "of the (Fire) Pig one doesn't throw anything away"
PS: I'm going to take a week off so see you in March from The Netherparts!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The Empire State 2.2
(aka: previously on lost)Here we are.
My long stay in The Empire State (and neighboring states) is on its way: the next week end I'll go to The Queens for the Chinese New Year Parade and after that I'm going to take a week off so this will be one of the last upgrades of The Empire State 2.
So its time for summarize and for draft a ranking of the cities I visited.
All four are of course American cities (huge and spread out urban areas, built for cars and without a city center) so they are very different from the cities in Europe; anyway: New York City is obviously the best. There are so many things to do and to see that you feel nearly to be in a real city. Its problem is that it's a (too) well known place, especially from movies, so when you see something interesting you live a sort of deja vu that makes you not to be able to appreciate it completely. But still...
Boston is also a nice place especially because it is the only (big) city in the US built before the car era. That means that the street and the districts are human and you can walk through the old city and see some other people around you (instead of yellow cabs). Cons: a huge Little Italy and a typical (New) English weather.
On the contrary the other two cities (Washington and Philadelphia) are a bit boring. Actually if you like federal buildings and war memorials (Washington) or "old" houses (200 years) and items from the US independence (Philly) they are full of those.
If you don't, then they have not so many thing to offer...
Anyway in Washington you can visit a Space Museum with the residues of the Soviet Union while in Philadelphia you can enjoy the Cheese-steak!!
In general also here it is true that the souther you go the better you eat (as everywhere).
I have still to prove that the souther you go the bidetter you find
see you
ps: picture here: http://picasaweb.google.com/keterelyon
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Italians & Dutch
Brief compendium of the Italian & Dutch way of life.... today I experienced both.
First of all, this morning I had to go to the Italian Consulat in Amsterdam, to get the passport stamp to go in the States. Going there it is like entering in a movie, from some point of view an horror movie, but for sure in a science fiction movie, because such things are not happening in real life.....
So, first of all I was in front of the Consulat at 9.55 (it opens at 10, from 10 to 12, you can take your time...) and there was already few people standing in queue. The funny thing is that when they opened, at 10.00, they let enter only 2 people per time, and everybody else was just standing below a sort of metal detector that was by all means a fake.
When I finally manage to enter there is a nice folkloristic guy giving you a random number to wait for your turn (Do you know the Tim Burton's movie Beetle Juice). And when I say random, I mean random, in fact sometimes he gives the same number several times to different people ("Eh, può succedere..."). Anyway the bright side is that you didn't need the number at all, because there are no screens or any other way to know who is being served or who is before you.
Served? Did I say served? Because actually there were three desks, but hardly one person behind them, doing whatever he wanted. He was eventually calling someone to serve him, but there was no order at all, and after he finished with one person (mean time 15minutes) he disappeared for like 10 minutes doing God knows what. Luckily I was like the third in the queue, so I had to wait only 50 minutes. When finally my turn arrived I went to the desk, and I asked for a stamp for the passport. He stared at me distrustfully and he asked me since when I was registered in Amsterdam. I told him 7 months and he looked satisfied... It's a proper amount of time to be considered by the Italian burocracy. He asked me 40.30€ and I gave him 50.30 (I didn't want to pay by pin-card because the italian consulat is the only place in The Netherlands where you have to pay 0.40€ of commission to use the card, everywhere else is free...) and he told me he would have be back in 5 minutes. On the spot I thought "What the hell, five minutes to get a stamp?!?". After almost 20 minutes I realised he has been quite optimistic. In the meanwhile few people has passed in front of me, of course, while a poor Dutch guy had the number just after mine but as he was slow in understanding numbers (of course, the "calls" were only in Italian) he has been overtaken by something like 5 people. When I finally get my stamp (the guy at the desk was kind enough to change also the residence location on my passport) and my money back, I pushed the Dutch guy in front, telling to the desk-man it was his turn and I left. I heard behind me few voices complaining and insulting the Dutch guy because he hasn't been fast enough. When the door closed behind me, I felt in a free country again.
Unlukily I didn't know that to complete the morning I had to experience also the Dutch life. So when I get back to my bike I found the front tire flat again. It is the third time in 4 days, and I was a bit annoyed, also considering that last Saturday I changed the whole inner tire, just to be sure. I pumped it (now I always ride around with a fietspump, and all the other stuff you need to repair a bike) and I get at Nikhef. There, Gordon has shown all his Dutchiness and he fixed my tire in a time record and in front of all the nikhef, having transported the bike inside. Now it seems ok again, hopefully it will last a little longer. That was fast, so Holland-Italy 1-0...
Monday, February 05, 2007
The Empire State 2.1
(aka weekly review on the physics we're onto; coming soon on PPT presentation)Here I am again, after the Potential Most Boring Week End in the History of Mankind.
At the moment I'm watching the XLI Super Bowl (Indianapolis Colt: 19 - Chicago Bears: 14 , six minutes to the end of third quarter) and yesterday I had my first Campbell's soup; so I can say my work here is finished, I'm quite satisfied.
Actually the condensed soup needed the addition of milk I didn't have so it turned to be a sort of watered-down condensed stuff smelling like fish but tasting like potatoes. Not so bad.
Especially because I cooled it down out of the window so that it regain a bit of its consistence (am I the only one in the world who likes the cool soups?).
I know: I'm ready to live under a bridge.
Speaking of bridges I have to note down the most stupid bridge of the known (by me) world: the Kosciuszko Bridge. It connects The Queens to Brooklyn (Interstate 278 or Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) and it's a ill-proportioned enormous bridge over a very small naked canal; it's really impressive also because while you're travelling on it you don't realize it's over some water.
However it offers the possibility of the complete view of Manhattan (it's quite far from that) and I think it's the best place for take a picture of the whole borough, even if it is not possible to walk on it (it's a bridge planned only for cars, as everything here after all) and you can't stop the car over there.
So here it comes its uselessness.
Cheers
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