happy new york

welcome back present from holland

been back in the city for 2 days now after 2 weeks' worth of vacation back home in the philippines. still have bouts of jetlag but the easing back to new york life is going very well. no highly philosophical good-for-publishing in the newspaper thoughts on coming home this time. but the city's quite more welcoming this year than last.

just as last year, i got my welcome back to the city present from il cone (best buddy in the city who's no longer based in the city). a nice can of dutch beer, only an emailed image of it this time though but nonetheless much appreciated.

nice brunch at cafe esperanto

after welcomed back by doug the neighbor and frank the landlord and after unpacking a bit and deciding to escape from the 2 weeks worth of mess in the apartment, i headed straight to manhattan. strangely, new yorkers seem to have grown nicer this time. walking out the subway station, a stranger offers to help a grandmother lifting up her grocery bags. wow. and once out the station, i bump into officemate sid in union square. apparently he's taking an extended lunch break, killing time, and picking up a dvd nearby which he ordered online. nice nice. i headed straight to cafe esperanto, favorite cafe, next only to starbucks at the square (not that starbucks are cafes really). had a nice solid sandwich lunch with a cup of mocha to wake me up. brought my laptop only to realize it's out of batteries. BUT once again, the rare generous new york spirit was there—a girl offered her charger. did i fly back to rough and tough new york? or was i transported to somewhere else?

got some exercise at the nyu sports center to wake me up (and lose some of the holiday weight i gained in manila which ive completely lost after 2 days now, nice). headed to some empty thai tea shop afterwards and was greeted by some friendly thai hospitality. the owner was there and she gave me a quick course on thai food and geography (pad thai is really a street food and traditionally doesnt come with meat; chiang mai is up north and the food there isnt as curry-rich and consists mostly of veggies). she likewise shared how flying back to thailand and returning here makes her depressed for a week. the tom yum koong soup she served and her stories surely staved off any chance of sadness or homesickness. i promised id be back again soon to taste their curry.

aside from the thai encounter, been getting a healthy dose of different people/cultures since the start of the year actually. which is great coz making a conscious effort to immerse myself in other worlds is one of this year's chosen goals. on the plane from manila to japan, was seated next to an israeli son and dad, who are jewish bible teachers. yoel, the son, gave me a great overview of jerusalem and jewish culture and their mission of teaching the old testament with regards to its actual historical context (they came from the netherlands and northern ireland prior to hitting baguio and the mountain province in the philippines). surprisingly, though about religion, it was the least uncomfortable conversation. the stranger was even eating my leftover rice at the end of it. amazing how differences in culture, religion, color and all that shit are really mere superficial differences really.

speaking of different culture, ill be having a pair of dutch strangers stay over monday night, elvira and barbara. well, they're not complete complete strangers coz we've been introduced through email already. they're studying in the city til june and it should be good to have some dutch blood and energy in the city again. hopefully they're not part of some terrorist organization otherwise im punked. but considering they're il cone's referrals, i wouldnt be surprised if they are.

but anyway, enough of this blogging. got to get back to work. wait, what work? it's been rather slow here in the office this first week. which is good coz ive been able to spend time catching up with officemates. and with renewed energy, sharing stories of the trip and having nice lunch outs. well one lunch out. might need to spend 2 days in chicago next week. should be good. although im not too excited about riding the plane again. but if its an opportunity to be elsewhere again, im not complaining.

anyway, if the first week of the year is an indication of things to come, looks like 2006 is going to be a spanking new year. wait, did i just say spanking? fair enough, let's stick with the traditional happy new year. i dont think im that readjusted to the new york language of yet.