The Frydmans have taken New York by storm! yes thats right, mum and georgie are in town and we have been hitting the streets to take in every tourist gimmick on offer... the holiday started a little rocky.... yes georgia realised at 2am in the morning that the suitcase she bought home from the airport was not infact hers and was some other poor lady's.... but soon rectified the next morning we headed up to central park to see the last of the autumn leaves and a much needed Zabar's soup to warm up... yes the chill has arrived. it is bloody freezing. so cold.
After our day of frolicking in the leaves I was back at work and they boarded the red tourist buses for about 2 days taking in all the city sites... in true Frydman style they secured two free tickets on a water taxi tour on the hudson passing the lady and checking out the bridges... I've been catching up with them each night after work and showing them the real new york... we've seen my friend dani singing in a bar in brooklyn, had pizza from frankies, seen the ice hockey, enjoyed street meat, seen the rockettes in the christmas spectacular at radio city (recommended to all), hit Macy's and the lovely shops in Soho and its only been 4 days! Today they are museum hopping and tonight we are going Ice Skating at Rockerfeller Plaza... then I'm on holidays for the next week and a half... very exciting.. we are off to boston for a while and then back to celebrate Thanksgiving at the parade followed by an evening with Tina Turner.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods... we'll keep you updated on the Frydman girls adventures!
xx.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Obamarama - Yes He Can!
ok ok here it is.. the election post!
For 2 years America has been debating who should be there next president, and on Tuesday 4th of November, 2008 they spoke.. and made history! In their very passionate way, the streets of New York in the past couple of months have become flooded with pro Obama paraphenalia, from badges to mugs to hats and tshirts. There are posters of him all over the walls, unique grafitti in his honour, its almost like he is the messiah! Being such a democratic state where the majority are pro-Obama it is often difficult to get an equal understanding of what both sides are for... moreso on election day it is hard to fathom that there are people out there who aren't voting for Obama!
So election day started and the queues started forming down the streets... some people stood in lines for 2 hours before spending 30 seconds voting... thats one thing americans are good at.. standing in lines.. they love a good queue!
A few things confuse me about the american voting system.. first of all its not compulsory, so a lot of advertising and general chit chat is about whether you are voting or not, and not who you are voting for! I thought that was weird... then each state gets one vote for either candidate based on the majority of the votes from the people in that state. If the vote is only for president and not for seats in a senate then why isnt it 1 vote per person!? Thirdly, different voting places are open different hours, like some are opened more hours then others... im not sure what this impacts but it doesnt sound right... then they start counting and presenting votes on the tv before some polling booths have closed... another oddity... and finally... they predict who is going to win and announce it on TV before all the votes have been counted.. anyway its America, and thats just the way it is I guess!
So I spent the day at work, and spoke about the election which only 3 out of the 15 people in my office actually voted in! I find people who cant vote have a lot more opinions then those that can... Anyway after work I headed to an Election Party in a bar in Chelsea and watched anxiously at the big screen as the little states on the screen coloured in blue and red... it was a Jewish function and it was interesting to chat to people about there thoughts on the election.. suprisingly a lot of them voted McCain.. my superficial interpretation of this is because Obama wants to tax higher income earners more then they currently are being taxed and all the rich Jewish kids don't like that... again dont take my word for it just my analysis...
so as our eyes flicked from CNN to Fox News and back again, anxiousness growing at the discrepency of the numbers between each channel.. even though it was evident from early on Obama was winning in a landslide.. as he knocked over key republican states excitement grew, and all worries gone when McCain conceded in what I thought to be fairly early on in the race.. but he gave a good concession speech, probably the best speech his made all campaign... Then came Barack, the Might O... gave a wonderful speech everyone was cheering (except of course the McCain supporters...), and he has the cutest family, and he promised them a puppy in the whitehouse!!! how amazing for those kids.. the youngest so far to live in the whitehouse.. anyway we left the pub and headed home...
Jumping out of the taxi in my street i started seeing heaps of people gathering around and then all of the sudden the street at 1st Avenue and St Marks Place (my corner..) was packed full of people cheering and dancing, screaming out YES HE CAN... there goes the passionate americans again... it was crazy.. flags waving, bongos playing, heck (like my americanism) some guy was banging on his saucepan with a spoon!!! the entire intersection of quite a major road was full of people dancing.. cars couldnt get through, buses tried to inch their way without running anyone over...and then one guy jumped on the roof of the bus and starting running up and down it! ridiculous... at that point i headed up to my apartment and kept watching from my window.. it was so noisy and there was going to be no way i was going to get any sleep, so i went back down! made friends with people on the sidewalk and watched as throngs of police ran up and down the street trying to clear the road...eventually they succeeded and i went to bed..here are some pics.
The next day my friend had tickets to go and see The View. It is a panel of 5 famous women who chat for an hour about anything topical, have guests, give things away (unfortunately not cars...) and generally enertain the audience for 60 minutes... of course the hot topic was the election...the most poignant part of the whole show was when the black presenter (i think she is a famous comedian) broke down in tears as she told the story how she sat down next to her young son the night before and told him that the sky is the limit, he can now do whatever he wants with life... and this time she knew it was for real because tonight the USA had elected a black president...touching.
Since election day, the past week the country has been waking up and beginning to face reality and realise that they had actually elected a black president... and slowly slowly it began to sink in what that actually meant... the papaers wrote about martin luther king, the tv's blarred on about how today black and white are equal, and in schools black kids are running around now aspiring to be president of the USA... it is an exciting time for the country, one which noone knows what will happen, except the fact that they now have there first black president who won the election over a white man with overwhelming support, admiration and hope from his people.
lets see what he delivers.
A few interesting facts...Obama is not 100% black.. his mother was white... but the press kind of ignore that... and just on an ending note... America now has a Hawaiian President... bring on the luau...
For 2 years America has been debating who should be there next president, and on Tuesday 4th of November, 2008 they spoke.. and made history! In their very passionate way, the streets of New York in the past couple of months have become flooded with pro Obama paraphenalia, from badges to mugs to hats and tshirts. There are posters of him all over the walls, unique grafitti in his honour, its almost like he is the messiah! Being such a democratic state where the majority are pro-Obama it is often difficult to get an equal understanding of what both sides are for... moreso on election day it is hard to fathom that there are people out there who aren't voting for Obama!
So election day started and the queues started forming down the streets... some people stood in lines for 2 hours before spending 30 seconds voting... thats one thing americans are good at.. standing in lines.. they love a good queue!
A few things confuse me about the american voting system.. first of all its not compulsory, so a lot of advertising and general chit chat is about whether you are voting or not, and not who you are voting for! I thought that was weird... then each state gets one vote for either candidate based on the majority of the votes from the people in that state. If the vote is only for president and not for seats in a senate then why isnt it 1 vote per person!? Thirdly, different voting places are open different hours, like some are opened more hours then others... im not sure what this impacts but it doesnt sound right... then they start counting and presenting votes on the tv before some polling booths have closed... another oddity... and finally... they predict who is going to win and announce it on TV before all the votes have been counted.. anyway its America, and thats just the way it is I guess!
So I spent the day at work, and spoke about the election which only 3 out of the 15 people in my office actually voted in! I find people who cant vote have a lot more opinions then those that can... Anyway after work I headed to an Election Party in a bar in Chelsea and watched anxiously at the big screen as the little states on the screen coloured in blue and red... it was a Jewish function and it was interesting to chat to people about there thoughts on the election.. suprisingly a lot of them voted McCain.. my superficial interpretation of this is because Obama wants to tax higher income earners more then they currently are being taxed and all the rich Jewish kids don't like that... again dont take my word for it just my analysis...
so as our eyes flicked from CNN to Fox News and back again, anxiousness growing at the discrepency of the numbers between each channel.. even though it was evident from early on Obama was winning in a landslide.. as he knocked over key republican states excitement grew, and all worries gone when McCain conceded in what I thought to be fairly early on in the race.. but he gave a good concession speech, probably the best speech his made all campaign... Then came Barack, the Might O... gave a wonderful speech everyone was cheering (except of course the McCain supporters...), and he has the cutest family, and he promised them a puppy in the whitehouse!!! how amazing for those kids.. the youngest so far to live in the whitehouse.. anyway we left the pub and headed home...
Jumping out of the taxi in my street i started seeing heaps of people gathering around and then all of the sudden the street at 1st Avenue and St Marks Place (my corner..) was packed full of people cheering and dancing, screaming out YES HE CAN... there goes the passionate americans again... it was crazy.. flags waving, bongos playing, heck (like my americanism) some guy was banging on his saucepan with a spoon!!! the entire intersection of quite a major road was full of people dancing.. cars couldnt get through, buses tried to inch their way without running anyone over...and then one guy jumped on the roof of the bus and starting running up and down it! ridiculous... at that point i headed up to my apartment and kept watching from my window.. it was so noisy and there was going to be no way i was going to get any sleep, so i went back down! made friends with people on the sidewalk and watched as throngs of police ran up and down the street trying to clear the road...eventually they succeeded and i went to bed..here are some pics.
The next day my friend had tickets to go and see The View. It is a panel of 5 famous women who chat for an hour about anything topical, have guests, give things away (unfortunately not cars...) and generally enertain the audience for 60 minutes... of course the hot topic was the election...the most poignant part of the whole show was when the black presenter (i think she is a famous comedian) broke down in tears as she told the story how she sat down next to her young son the night before and told him that the sky is the limit, he can now do whatever he wants with life... and this time she knew it was for real because tonight the USA had elected a black president...touching.
Since election day, the past week the country has been waking up and beginning to face reality and realise that they had actually elected a black president... and slowly slowly it began to sink in what that actually meant... the papaers wrote about martin luther king, the tv's blarred on about how today black and white are equal, and in schools black kids are running around now aspiring to be president of the USA... it is an exciting time for the country, one which noone knows what will happen, except the fact that they now have there first black president who won the election over a white man with overwhelming support, admiration and hope from his people.
lets see what he delivers.
A few interesting facts...Obama is not 100% black.. his mother was white... but the press kind of ignore that... and just on an ending note... America now has a Hawaiian President... bring on the luau...
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Making a difference
In a city where where everyone is go go go, thinking about themselves, how they can make their next dollar and buy that fur coat in the prada window, few stop to think about those that have it a bit harder then them... yesterday I did my first volunteering project with New York Cares. People living in the city always talk about how they are so busy, and have so many social arrangements and things to do and cant find a spare second to themselves, well this weekend I made the time,... I spent 3 hours of my Saturday with 20 volunteers helping out an organisation called KEEN. It is a free service run by volunteers for families with kids with disabilities. We spent 2 hours with about 20 kids with disabilities ranging from autism to cerebal palsy. We ran around, did some bowling, skidded on scooters, played basketball, had wheelchair races, danced to music and my favourite the parachute! The kids had an awesome time and their parents got 2 hours to themselves to do what most of us take for granted all day every day, spent time for themselves doing what they wanted, a few hours of respite from their 24 hour a day carer role. It was fulfilling knowing i made some kind of difference in someones life.. looking forward to future volunteering projects as I make the time over the next few months.
Of course I did spend some time over indulging myself this weekend... Halloween! absolutely manic... i felt like manhattan turned in to dress up night on school camp! The streets were packed with people in costume just having a great time.. I saw many batmans and spidermans, tin men, a woopee cushion, a rubiks cube, pirates, loads of fairies and devils and vampires and so much more! I headed with some friends to the halloween parade, think the mardi gras times one thousand... loads of people in costume marching down 6th avenue and hundreds more lining the streets to watch.. the most amazing part I thought was the float with over 300 'dead' zombies doing the michael jackson thriller dance... was soo funny, and so well done! I dressed up a little, I looked kinda scary... after the parade we headed indoors for some warmth, red wine and pizza... the funniest part of halloween was the next morning when I was on the train at 11am and saw people still dressed up on their way home... sharing my carriage was a guy in a straight jacket, splatted all over with fake blood, brandishing a hacksaw... only in new york. I took a few pics, not to many cos it is hard in the dark, you can see them here.
the weekend continued to get better with a great night out celebrating jenny and ross's birthdays at a bar in my street, (got to love that!) and quite a night of celebration it was... today was also lovely.. headed uptown to watch the new york marathon with some aussie friends, cheered on those in the green and gold, and then headed to the famous carnegie deli for an obligatory pastrami on rye... and now im suffering because of it....
just a regular weekend in this amazing city!
With the elections on this week its sure to be a ripper... stay tuned!
Of course I did spend some time over indulging myself this weekend... Halloween! absolutely manic... i felt like manhattan turned in to dress up night on school camp! The streets were packed with people in costume just having a great time.. I saw many batmans and spidermans, tin men, a woopee cushion, a rubiks cube, pirates, loads of fairies and devils and vampires and so much more! I headed with some friends to the halloween parade, think the mardi gras times one thousand... loads of people in costume marching down 6th avenue and hundreds more lining the streets to watch.. the most amazing part I thought was the float with over 300 'dead' zombies doing the michael jackson thriller dance... was soo funny, and so well done! I dressed up a little, I looked kinda scary... after the parade we headed indoors for some warmth, red wine and pizza... the funniest part of halloween was the next morning when I was on the train at 11am and saw people still dressed up on their way home... sharing my carriage was a guy in a straight jacket, splatted all over with fake blood, brandishing a hacksaw... only in new york. I took a few pics, not to many cos it is hard in the dark, you can see them here.
the weekend continued to get better with a great night out celebrating jenny and ross's birthdays at a bar in my street, (got to love that!) and quite a night of celebration it was... today was also lovely.. headed uptown to watch the new york marathon with some aussie friends, cheered on those in the green and gold, and then headed to the famous carnegie deli for an obligatory pastrami on rye... and now im suffering because of it....
just a regular weekend in this amazing city!
With the elections on this week its sure to be a ripper... stay tuned!
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