I LIFT MY LAMP BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR (Lazarus)

I left you all while I was still looking back on my time in London and looking forward to my time in faraway. Right now I am in between two places again: we are leaving New York City for the city of Buenos Aires.

First things first though! During my last week in The Netherlands I started to feel at ease again. My German ex-colleague and friend Annette came for a visit and among the many things we did, we visited a town up north, Groningen, which I enjoyed very much. I guess I just needed to get out of town.. After her visit time flew and I ran out of time to see all of my friends.I am really sorry and hope to make it up once I get back!

Of course, on the night before leaving I still had to finish and clean up many things, which meant not more than barely a couple of hours of sleep. The flight to Washington was a long one and sleeping is definitely a good idea, but unfortunately stayed a theoretical option, as I found it impossible. The film ' The Devil wears Prada' kept me entertained for a bit (Meryl Streep put down a mean character and the boyfriend of the main protagonist was v. cute, but all in all it was a rather predictable production).The journey from DC to NY was also a long one, thanks to the hour delay and my migraine attack, which made me hang above a paper back in order to spit out whatever I could dig up from an empty stomach.

First thing we noticed when we arrived, was that there were no small (or old) cars to be seen. Sandy, a girl who I had met at a wedding in London picked us up and drove us to Sybil, while stopping now and then and loudly ask people for the way in her thick Brooklyn accent.
Sybil, who I know from an international seminar in Sweden a summer ago (have report of that somewhere) welcomed us warmly with a nice meal. Exhausted we went to sleep at 11:30 pm, which to us was 05:30 in the morning!

We did the usual tourist thing in New York;
walked for hours through Manhattan, passing Fifth Avenue (too expensive), Chinatown (smelly), little Italy (not much to see), Harlem (very tranquil), Central Park, Rockefeller plaza, took the boat to see the Statue of Liberty close by and to visit Ellis Island (getting on the boat was almost as strict as going through customs!) and so on...We only had time for two museums, but these ones were huge and had an impressive collection of (European) art; The Metropolitan museum of art and the Museum of Modern Art.

There was also time for socialising with Sybil and her boyfriend (brunch with Klezmer music), and what was very special to us, we met relatives. They are directly related to my mother (cousin), but no one had had the opportunity to meet in the past. In spite of this, they have always loyally sent us new years´cards. They showed us great warmth and enthusiasm, we received a true royal treatment!

I had two meals in a Sukka, which is a record in my life...the first one was with the executive vice-president of the organisation where Sybil and me met and in the evening we had an event about, you guessed it ´identity´. The most interesting part for me there was, that I bumped into Julian. A German guy I had not seen in years, but have known for years, as we used to go to the same conferences, all over Europe; Budapest, Cracow, Belgrade, Holland...He had married a very nice New York lady..

I had been to New York before, about 7 years ago. I had not been impressed with the town and felt overwhelmed in a negative way. This has all turned the other way...suddenly it seems not as big and I can appreciate the vibe of a big city and its constant offer of activities (yes that is an easy sum, London has had its effect), which years back I labelled as 'impersonal' and 'superficial'.
I however still haven´t fallen in love with its high buildings and architecture...old Europe still beats that!