Running the ING NYC Marathon

Last Sunday, November 1, it all came together. My training over the last 5 months, getting rest in the last week before the event and living like a saint, practically since the day after my birthday on October 1.

Getting up at 5.15am on marathon Sunday wasn't difficult, the excitement made it very easy and walking through mid town with my gear I already saw other participants on their way to Staten Island, where the marathon typically starts at the beginning of the Verrazano bridge from where the runners come into Brooklyn. In one of the many buses I was brought from Manhattan to the start village, this was it, I was going to run my first marathon!

After a long wait in the start village, nervously eating and drinking the necessary breakfast, the moment was there...surrounded by 43,000 other participants in 3 wave starts it was the time for wave start no. 2 to gather at the start. While 'New York, New York' by Frank Sinatra was blaring above us, we heard the big bang, the sign for us to start running, a moment I won't forget easily.

The rest is one big blur of the many, many great supporters screaming your name, live bands along every mile of the race, avoiding other runners surrounding me, concentrating on my pace and schedule, drinking enough, eating at the right time and fighting while walking and running on and off in the last 4 miles of the race...it all ended in Central Park after 3 hours, 57 minutes and 40 seconds. Passing the finish, I was overwhelmed by feelings of achievement, pain and happiness the race was over, tears came out of nowhere and I couldn't do anything about it. I had never gone so far and deep before to find every fibre of energy in my body to get there.

A friend emailed me before the race. He wrote: "If you are in pain, think about it this way. The pain is temporary, pride is forever!" And it's true, it was painful for one or two days after the race (I was limping around the city with my medal around my neck), but now I can only feel the pride of running the 26.2 miles in less than 4 hours!

A big THANKS to all who have supported me along the way and those who taught me how to prepare best for this adventure.

Coming up: My first marathon ever

In less than 2 weeks one of the world's most famous marathons will take place in the City. On Sunday November 1, the 40th ING New York City Marathon in which over 40.000 runners will participate and fill the streets of the 5 boroughs of New York. And I plan to be one of them, running my first ever marathon!

The last 5 months I have been training from scratch to where I'm now, feeling pretty fit and confident to make it, running the 26.2 miles or 42.195 kilometers. From the start on Staten Island through Brooklyn into Queens, than move onto Manhattan and via a loop in the Bronx coming back to Manhattan where Central Park will be part of the last miles until the finish at Tavern on the Green. I think this will be a day to remember with five bridges to cross supported by more than 100 live bands and thousands of New Yorkers along the course.

The training has been intense in the last 2 months building endurance with 3 to 4 'short' runs during the week and 1 long run every weekend. The climax was a 20 miles (32 km) long run some weeks ago which I completed in 2hr52mins. It gave me the confidence of setting a personal goal of 3hr45mins for the full marathon. It's not going to be easy, but I'm loving it, working towards my goal of running the marathon in a competitive 'first-time marathoner' pace.
In the coming couple of weeks I will be trying to get as fit and well-rested as I can by reducing the mileage per training run. And I will try to remain far from my biggest fear: getting injured...
At the moment I feel excited and nervous about the day I have been focusing on. Let the pasta party begin, I'm ready to go!

400 years Dutchies in NY

This year the Dutchies and Americans celebrate the discovery of Mannahatta and founding of New Amsterdam 400 years ago. As a Dutchie living in NY I had a great time to enjoy all the activities that are organised for this very special memorial!

This September, was precisely 400 years ago that Captain Henry Hudson sailed his ship the Halve Maen (Half Moon) up the river that now bears his name. On the banks of the Hudson, a trading post was later set up and called New Amsterdam, now New York City.

Few New Yorkers, let alone Americans in general, are aware of their city’s Dutch roots. Actually, many people think the British founded New York and the Dutch don’t have such a clear identity here — unlike the Irish, for example, who have their own St. Patrick’s Day.
Hopefully, the NY400 Week will have changed all that. New York and the Dutch hosted a great program of events, giving the Netherlands an opportunity to show its best side: from culture, theater, design and architecture to water management and finance.
One of the highlights during the NY400 week was the sold-out Dutch Dance Event on Governors Island with Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren. Everybody, including me, went totally crazy on the beats produced by this world famous, no. 1 DJ in the world, while overlooking NY Harbour and the skyline of Manhattan, a once in a lifetime experience!

The crowd was young, diverse and even Princess Máxima and Prince Willem-Alexander were grooving with Armin at the dance event. The surprise visit by Princess Máxima and Prince Willem-Alexander (who had had tea with the Obamas on the Friday before) was the icing on the cake.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg was also impressed. He is confident this campaign will help that more Americans will visit the Netherlands in the near future.

It was the time to be extra proud of being a Dutchie in NY!

Visitors - It runs in the family - Part 3

The latest of family that came to visit NYC brought some beautiful weather and great fun to the City. My brother Floris with his Danielle were in town for catching up, shopping, culture, good food and sports entertainment. I would say, the usual ingredients!
It all started on a Saturday morning with a nice walk in the park and some good brunch in Café Ronda, one of my favorite places to start the day in the weekend.

That day we wondered over fifth avenue and the first shops were checked out. So, thanks to Floris and Danielle we did one of the biggest tourist attractions: take the FREE Staten Island ferry. To be honest, I had never taken the ferry before and it was pretty cool to see the south tip of Manhattan from the water, the Statue of Liberty and turn around at the dock to grab the next ferry back to Manhattan! Another place Danielle wanted to go to, and I had never been, was The New Museum in Soho. It's design is modern, it looks like some stacked pile of big boxes, and it gives you a whole new museum experience, at least it gave me one.
So, one of the great advantages of having visitors is the fact that you will do things you would normally not!

That week the US Open tennis championships were in town, the world's top tennis players were competing for one of the few Grand Slam titles that are available during the year. We had tickets for an evening session at Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York. A 30 minute subway ride from Manhattan, these grounds hosted a fantastic evening with spectacular tennis by Raphael Nadal and Serena Williams. Both won their matches, but neither of them did win the tournament..!

Floris and Daan, it was very special having you guys! I had a great time, enjoying the good conversations, fun and having your company around for the days you were here!

Summer in the City

At this time of the year, New York warms up and transforms into a city with a tropical climate. It's hard to believe that it can be extremely cold and snowing in this city that is now hot and humid, with a regular shower or thunderstorm at the end of the day. That's why a lot of NY-ers try to escape the City during the weekends to enjoy a refreshing breeze at one of the beautiful beachy areas within a 2 - 4 hours driving reach. They will go to the Hamptons, the Jersey shore or go up north, all the way to Cape Cod.

For the ones who decide to stay, however, there is plenty of (free) stuff to do. Especially in Central Park where I saw the NY Philharmonic Orchestra perform Mozart and Beethoven during a 2 hour long concert at the Great Lawn. The crowds amazed me, according to an NYPD estimate almost 75,000 people joined this free event! There they were, sitting on their picnic blankets, some of them with balloons as a sign for their friends where to find them, accompanied by coolers with food and drinks for everybody!

And these days, every 'cool' city has a city beach. So does NYC, at Pier 17, which is located down town close to the Brooklyn Bridge overlooking the East River and Brooklyn. With real sand and fake palm trees, no possibility to swim equipped with a bar it's the typical city beach. Here's where the usual flirting and drinking takes place in the open air instead of one of the trendy places you would normally go to...that's about summer in the City...

Friends in the City

My last visitors of a great spring - summer period full of friends and family - were Ewout & Julie, longstanding friends who made their way across the Atlantic. Although their visit wasn't that full of great weather, June was a lousy month in that sense, it was full of fantastic and memorable moments. Almost immediately after their arrival I took them to the Netherlands club of NY where we joined the celebration of the newly arrived herring. Immediately, Julie & Ewout became part of the Dutch community here in NY. The next day was for discovering Downtown Manhattan with Battery Park, Ground Zero, Financial District, China town and Little Italy, before having a well deserved cold beer in 5 Ninth, a great spot in Meatpacking. We had our first nice moment of seriously catching up and sharing our stories from the last 6 months that we didn't see each other. The diner in Italian restaurant Nero D'Avola with real pure Italian dishes made it an evening to remember.
The next day while I was working, Ewout & Julie enjoyed breakfast at Wholefoods and planned to visit the Güggenheim museum...to their disappointment the museum appeared to be closed every Thursday...I will never forget to tell my future visitors..! Joining the happy couple in the evening, we were off to Spice Market, as you know one of my favorites in town, where we enjoyed the decor, atmosphere and good food while chatting along. To finish the evening in style we sipped some cocktails on the roof of Gansevoort Hotel on the other side of the street.

What would be better than to see a Broadway show in NYC? On Friday evening we saw 'In the Heights', about life in Washington Heights, a lively neighborhood in the upper west part of Manhattan, after a relaxing Friday afternoon at Pier 17 overlooking the East River and Brooklyn Bridge.
And what is a visit to the City without a visit to a club? So that's what we did Saturday night as we went to the Pink Elephant where we danced on the latest hits, beats and grooves until the early morning hours...
On Sunday afternoon, after recovering from the wild Saturday night and as a final NY experience for Julie & Ewout, we went to a NY Mets baseball game at CitiField in Flushing, Queens.
Raapjes, we had a wonderful time together, thanks for crossing the Atlantic to spend some time here with me as friends in the City!

Michael Jackson passed away...

On Thursday June 25th at around 6pm I was about to meet with some friends to enjoy a mild afternoon at Rockefeller Plaza with some after work drinks. What struck me is that people were pointing at the monitors of the NBC studios that are located right there. "Breaking News: King of Pop dies in LA hospital" they said and I was standing there for some time, realizing this was a moment in music history that nobody would easily forget. He was about to come back in London with 50(!) concerts, starting next month.

While I was standing there a car drove by, all windows down, playing Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' song loud and clear. I thought: "Wow, this is drama, this is America..." From that moment on, the death of Michael Jackson has dominated the news and daily life up until this moment.

On Saturday, while playing the regular soccer game in Central Park, it was mainly Michael Jackson's music that was coming out of the usual radios carried around. And one of my colleagues said: "I will never moonwalk the same again..."
For the latest gossip and celebrity updates, mainly about Jackson, go to http://www.tmz.com/, you will be amazed by the updates about everything in the case "King of Pop"! The cause for his dramatic death has still not been confirmed.

Tomorrow, there will be a memorial at The Apollo, the Harlem theater that helped launch Michael Jackson's career, there he won the Amateur Night with the Jackson 5 in 1969. It has been a hard, crazy and extravagant life that he has been living since, may he rest in peace.

Visitors - It runs in the family - Part 2

Next visitors in my amateur Bed & Breakfast were my brother Arnout and his wife, Marieke. For Arnout it was his first time NYC experience, for Marieke it had been quite a while ago. It was great to see that they felt at home and comfortable as soon as they arrived! The first evening we had some drinks at the Hudson Hotel around the corner and a nice diner before falling asleep.

The weekend we explored Soho and down town. We took the Water taxi from South Street Sea Port around the south end of Manhattan and jumped off at Pier 66. There we discovered the most cool place to have a Corona on a sunny afternoon: The Frying Pan. A live band played and we had a great time drinking a beer in the sun, watching and being watched.
On Sunday morning A & M went to a gospel church up in Harlem while I did some morning after recovering... We lunched together in Central Park and had a traditional Sunday afternoon in Felix.

During the day I worked and we did some great stuff together in the evenings. We went to Avenue Q, the 'puppets' musical and we had a super delicious diner in Buddakan. Arnout and I went to the Chart House restaurant for a brother bonding evening in Jersey, at the other side of the Hudson river with amazing views of Manhattan during sunset. A & M shopped till they dropped in the Premium Outlet village and in the City, we saw the TAO restaurant and we browsed through the Village with its street fair, Magnolia Bakery and a nice lunch at Le Pain Quotidien.

The last afternoon for A & M we spent again at the Frying Pan, our favorite late afternoon spot before putting them in a yellow cab, back to JFK for the ride home.

Ar & Jens, I enjoyed every minute of the time we spent together, super relaxed and great stuff!

Visitors - It runs in the family - Part 1

Returning from a 5 mile run in Central Park - I'm training for the NYC Marathon - this is my first blog in more than a month...
In the last couple of weeks I had quite a lot of visitors coming to see where and how I live here in the City. Mom and Dad were the first family to find out what I was up to and how I'm surviving up till now. It was great to pick them up at the airport and proudly show them NYC, a city they hadn't been to for decades. For them nothing really has changed, the noise, yellow cabs and (most of) the buildings are still there. At the same time a lot has changed, security alerts and the number of police force and therefore safety has increased, the WTC twin towers have disappeared and trends are a little different from the 80's...

We saw a great musical, Billy Elliot, which has won Tony awards in the mean time, watched a baseball game in Central Park and visited the wonderful Frick Collection. After some days in the City we went for a road trip along the north-east coast. We came through Mystic, Newport, Chatham and Cape Cod before arriving in the Massachusetts capital: Boston.

Newport is a picturesque small town at Rhode Island, known for its extravagant mansions that were built along the coast during the late 19th century by the very rich, industrial families like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. The Breakers mansion by the Vanderbilt family is pretty impressive, I must admit.

Next on our trip was Chatham, a village at the south-east edge of Cape Cod, a beautiful peninsula known for its beaches and second homes for New Yorkers and Bostonians. Cape Cod is also known for the whale watching trips out of Provincetown harbor. None of us had ever seen a whale at open sea before, so when we saw a dozen of them surrounding the boat and showing us their moves and tails, we were extremely excited and amazed by this special experience!
The weekend we spent in Boston, the city where most of America's history was founded, with a much more laid back atmosphere than NYC. I must admit I really loved it! We did the Duck tour, a must for Boston first time visitors as you will get a great overview of the city, both from the road and from the water...of course, we had diner in the Cheers cafe.

I had a super great time, both in the City and on our road trip. Many thanks for coming all the way and making it an unforgettable week with you, my good old folks!

Friends in the City!

Last Thursday two of my best friends arrived just five minutes before I did in my apartment building and from that moment their Power Trip to NYC had begun. I'm still exhausted while writing...
After a refreshing shower for Heiko and Luc, we started pretty simple with a nice lunch at Union Square, while a thunderstorm flew right over the city and people got soaking wet in no time. When things started to get better we did some first shopping, something that would be a pretty dominant theme during the 3,5 days of the visit.
Friday was for "Shopping@Fifth" after which we headed for a great diner at Sushi Samba in the West Village, we had some good conversations! After that the Buddakan bar and restaurant was the perfect place to have some cocktails among the hip and good looking Meatpacking crowd.
Saturday was another shopping day for the guys, now they had aimed for a premium outlet center an hour drive outside the city: Woodbury Common Premium Outlet Center... At first, I was against going there for cheap shopping. But once we arrived, I arrived some hours later as I had a small hangover, it was a nice somewhat overwhelming experience. Literally a small village in the hills north of NYC with only premium brand outlet shops. Unbelievable!

That night we had another very nice diner planned in Spice Market, one of my favorite restaurants as some of you must have noticed. Atmosphere, service and decor are great, the food is very good. Again I wasn't disappointed at all and we enjoyed every aspect of this Asian Latin fusion concept... After diner we headed to the Soho Play House where we saw a comedy show, a mix of stand-up comedy and improvisation theater. Obviously, American humor is not the same as Dutch humor. Simple jokes and, at some point in time, a naked comedian on stage were not the ingredients for a successful show to my opinion.
Gansevoort Hotel rooftop bar was next. Outside you can see the West Village, Hudson river, New Jersey and Meatpacking district, inside we enjoyed a nice view on some celebs like Dennis Rodman, a former top NBA player (who once was married to Carmen Electra for no more than a month) and Yfke Sturm, the Dutch super model. It was a super evening!

Sunday was a nice sunny day, taking a water taxi from the west side to the east side (Brooklyn Bridge) was a great opportunity to see the skyline of this impressive island called Manhattan.
It was an intensive but highly enjoyable weekend, guys. Come back soon!

Unemployment Olympics, Auto show and more...

New Yorkers are resilient people, in times of terrorist attacks as we know and in times of economic downturn. A funny example I read about are the Unemployment Olympics organised to bring a smile on the face of the many unemployed in this city.
The Unemployment Olympics are a four-event competition — Telephone toss, Payday piñata, Pin-the-Blame-on-the-Boss and the "You're Fired!" race — exclusively for the unemployed New Yorkers. Unemployment Olympians must show proof of their unemployment in the form of a New York State unemployment card, a termination letter or whatever evidence of job loss. With the city easing its way into spring, being outdoors under a blue sky is almost as refreshing as the chance to toss an old office phone with all the unemployment frustration you have inside.

Another example of persistence is the NY International Auto Show that was held despite all misery that the car industry is going through. Being kind of a car freak and full of expectations I took off to the Jacob Javits center in Midtown West. After a promising start with 3 or 4 pimped sports cars I got more and more disappointed. This wasn't getting close to the Amsterdam Auto Show I used to visit every 2 years!
Premium (sports) car brands like Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and Ferrari were lacking...no big US collection of V8 thunder cruisers, women in bikinis to demonstrate the latest models or futuristic concept cars...the best I could find were 3 Bentley's.

Anyway, spring has moved itself into the city this weekend, drawing an overwhelming and diverse crowd into Central Park. Riding a bike, hosting a picnic or just enjoying a stroll under the blossoming trees. It gave me a lot of fresh energy to start a new week of NY life!

Obama's European Tour - Charming Diplobamacy

President Barack Obama has finished his European charm offensive attending the three summits (G20, NATO, EU) and visiting Turkey as a last stop before heading back to the US.
It has been an impressive tour in which he addressed some important topics and how he wants to deal with them, like nuclear weapons and the relationship between the Muslim community and the US.

In a speech to the Turkish parliament Obama stated that "the US is not and will never be at war with Islam." From what I saw he delivered a great, charming performance, as he did in Prague on Sunday in front of mostly young Czechs listening to the President. There, Obama described a 21st century in which nuclear powers agreed to reduce arsenals, countries without nuclear weapons pledged not to acquire them and all countries enjoyed the right to civilian nuclear power.

Earlier in his tour, the President and the First Lady were in London. There was the economic rescue plan, but probably more entertaining were the "Michelle hugging the Queen"-incident and the question if the personalized iPod, a gift by the Obamas to the Queen, was or wasn't violating copyright laws, loading it with around 40 Broadway songs before giving it to the Queen...

The question now is: did Barack reach his goals on his first European tour? Well, time will tell, charming and full of courtesy it was, but isn't he coming from a fantasy world when proposing a nuclear free 21st century with only love, peace and Broadway songs?

Economy update - mixed feelings

In these special times, referring to the current economic challenging environment, I would like to give an update on the US economy on three themes that have been very dominant in the US news.

First of all, the US national unemployement rate rose to 8,5% with another 600.000+ job losses figure in March. In 2009, more than 2.000.000 jobs were cut which makes this year one of the worst years of job losses in economic history. An interesting tool, the "economy tracker" by CNN, can be found clicking here. By selecting the month you will be able to see the US national and state unemployment rates.

Another hot economic topic is the auto industry headquartered in Detroit. The 12% unemployment rate there is the highest in the nation, and with the Big Three automakers (GM, Ford and Chrysler) all needing multi-billion dollar government bailouts in an attempt to stay afloat, the future isn't that bright. The American government rejected turnaround plans submitted by General Motors and Chrysler as inadequate. Barack Obama made it clear that he thought controlled bankruptcy might be the best answer to the two carmakers’ troubles. It seems that only major restructuring and/or filing for bankruptcy can (partly) save these automobile giants. Their 'supporting' banks don't seem to do much better, so they are not really being able to help I'm afraid. Some related facts:
- the New York Auto Show is about to start this week (Yes, I will go there!)
- the semi finals and final of the very important College Football Play offs are being played this weekend in Detroit, which might bring some happiness to that city

Furthermore, there is the performance of the stock markets which seem to have found a frugal way up, Dow gained 21.5% in the last 4 weeks, although no one dares to say that we've hit the bottom. Let's see if it holds in the weeks to come with first quarter financial results coming up...hopefully the great spring weather helps to find some needed optimism?!

Visitor Rosario - 6 days full of fun!

The last 6 days were devoted to my latest visitor here in NYC. Coming over from Amsterdam to celebrate her birthday here, Rosario was looking for having fun combined with some serious exercising...
This meant having diner in great restaurants like Asia de Cuba, Rosa Mexicano, having brunch at Balthazar and discovering Ninth Avenue with its diverse cuisines along both sides between 42nd and 55th Streets. The diners made Rosario go running in Central Park every morning, I made it to join her on two of the 40 - 50 minute morning runs that she committed herself to. Great work out!!
And of course, Soho and Fifth were waiting to give Rosario a warm welcome in their seductive shops like Anthropology, Victoria's Secret and Juicy Couture...ooh what a temptation!

We celebrated Rosario's birthday by having a highly appreciated diner in Asia de Cuba on Madison Avenue, starting with some colorful cocktails. The concept of blending the warm Latin style with Asian food is still very popular and gives you the best of both worlds. Afterwards we danced the Salsa and more on the tunes of a live band in a typical Mexican place, hard work and big fun I must admit!

Together we discovered a lot of places in Manhattan, from the quite streets and small shops in the West Village to Alphabet city (East Village) and the more Bohemian Lower East side. We sat at Pier 17 watching the ferries go by, we bumped our way through the crowd at Canal Street, Chinatown, and we danced in a Meatpacking club on the latest dance and R&B hits. On our lazy Sunday afternoon, we went to the movies: we saw Duplicity and it wasn't that good...

We had a fun and fantastic time together!

St Patrick's Day - green is the color!

Yesterday the national holiday of Ireland was celebrated, not only in Ireland but also here in New York.
St. Paddy's Day is celebrated worldwide by the those of Irish descent and increasingly by non-Irish people who just call themselves "Irish for a day" for the sake of it. Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish, the colour green and attending parades.
Probably thanks to the huge Irish population in the Big Apple, the St. Patrick's Day Parade along 5th Avenue is the largest in the US, probably in the world...
Unfortunately, this day didn't provide me with a public holiday, but during lunch some colleagues and I walked to 5th Avenue and watched the Parade go by. Standing in the sun, we were surrounded by green wearing revelers enjoying the thousands of Irish participants march by. The atmosphere reminded me of the Dutch phenomena "Koninginnedag" or Queen's Day! People being happy and celebrating in the street and in the end getting extremely wasted in one of the many packed Irish pubs...

Dutchies upset Dominicans!

Tonight, in the World Baseball Classic, a big international baseball tournament the Dutch national team did what nobody expected: winning from the Dominican Republic, one of the favourite teams with some big Major League celebrities (like Pedro Martinez) in it!

For 10 innings, there was no score, every now and then it was close. In the 11th (!) inning we made it 2-1! The Dutchies are now going to the second round (quarter finals) in the tournament. The Dominicans are out.

Nobody in the US knew we play baseball in the Netherlands, now they do! To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of baseball, but the Major League (NY Yankees) is getting ready to start and I'm becoming a big fan already with these great results from our national team.

To be continued...

Working in the US - Bonus or no bonus?

In the last couple of months, I have learned more and more that this country has a transaction based way-of-working. Everything goes for a price, everything is a transaction. If you are negotiating about your salary for a new job or asking your handyman to hang your blinds in the living room. And that's how it works for the bonus, too, it's part of the deal.

This is the time for most bankers to have received their bonuses paid out by their banks, currently heavily under pressure and often bailed out one way or the other.
In the Netherlands, a bonus paid and working for a bank means you are being scutinized by the public opinion. At least, that's what I understand from reading articles about, for example, Dutch Finance Minister Bos who had to explain to the parliament why Dutch banks are paying bonuses while they are receiving tax payers money.
In the US, getting a bonus and working for a bank means you are seen as sucessfull, because (1) you are still working for a bank in these difficult times and (2) your performance was good enough to receive the recognition for it!
As the Netherlands and the US have different working cultures and compensation systems, don't forget in the US you can get laid off every day without getting paid anything and you don't receive a legal holiday allowance or 13th month payment, I think that you can't just say in general that bonuses should or should not be paid.

And trust me, in most banks bonus amounts have been slashed according to reality. Here in NY that's becoming crystal clear as the 'real economy' like cab drivers, retailers, restaurants and even hair dressers, suffer from those measures. Let's see when we start spending again...

A small disclaimer from my side: I state the above, apart from the excessive multimillion dollar bonuses that were paid in the recent past, which have completely lost touch with reality to my opinion.

CJ visiting his former 'home town'

This weekend, an old friend of mine came over to visit me ánd to come back to the town where he lived for a couple of months back in 2003. One of the good things is that he's not a stranger in this city, so there is no hard core tourguiding involved. The weekend, however, wasn't less intense!
CJ was going to be my first visitor in my 'new' apartment, so I was curious if my 'new' directions would work out. I was very happy to hear he smoothly made it from JFK to Manhattan, even with some strangers who he kindly helped getting there because they did not have a clue where to go!

Friday we went down town to see Battery Park, Pier 17, Financial District and Ground Zero and do some shopping in between. Lucky as we were, my employer's corporate tickets for the NY Knicks would not be used that day, so we could go and see the game from one of the best spots in Madison Square Garden, sitting right next to the field, where we almost could feel the sweat of the players coming at us. John McEnroe was there as well! A great, once in a lifetime, experience with traditional ingredients like the Knicks City Dancers, Budweiser and Hotdogs. The Knicks just lost, after an exciting, spectacular last quarter where they did everything in their power to walk away as the winning team, we cheered our ass of but it didn't help in the end. After the game, we continued the evening in style, some cocktails did the rest...
On Saturday, Soho was the place to be with a brunch in Félix, art hunting on West Broadway with China Town and Little Italy around the corner. We enjoyed walking around on this nice, sunny afternoon.

Of course, a visit to NY is pretty worthless if you haven't been in hip Meatpacking, so after a refreshing power nap at home, we were ready to go down Ninth Avenue and have diner in a favourite place for many: Spice Market. The food was delicious and our neightbours, a very entertaining couple from the Hamptons, dragged us into a very interesting conversation, we ended up having diner and a good chat about life, love and politics with the four of us. And this is exactly one of the reasons that I love this city!

CJ, it was great having you, thanks for the good times, the Starbucks Tall Capucinos and coming over all the way from Amsterdam, hope to see you soon in NYC!

Back home for the weekend...

Some time ago, I thought about going home to see my friends and family in the Netherlands. Combining a long weekend for President's Day with Valentine romance in Amsterdam sounded like a very good option to see Rosario, close family and friends in one weekend.
That's how I ended up in my home town this last Friday, having a great time with friends in Café Gambrinus. Many of them made it to this favorite place of mine in Amsterdam, because of the informal and friendly vibes this café and its inhabitants have. Thank you all for coming, I super enjoyed every minute of the evening!
See if you are in one of the pictures I made...

Saturday evening we had diner at the home of my brother and his wife. Everybody did their very best to make it a delicious diner, full of chatting, joking and catching up, all night long. As a desert, somehow, my favorite cheesecake made its way to Amsterdam, which was a big and obviously highly appreciated surprise. Thanks Ar, Jens, Leur, Daan, Rosario, Pa, Ma and Nicky!

On Sunday, Rosario and I had planned the day for ourselves to spend some good time together and add a Valentine touch to our days together. The Dutch weather didn't really inspire us to hurry ourselves outside, so we decided to have a very lazy Sunday morning with a healthy, anti hang-over brunch and a movie in the bed...how simple and good life can be.
Of course a romantic Valentine diner should be part of this Valentine weekend. This year we wanted to discover a new and trendy place in Amsterdam. Rosario choose restaurant MOMO, part of a hotel in the centre of Amsterdam and at least new to me.
The decor is warm and trendy, the bar and its cocktails (best one sounded like 'Strawberry Carpirossa') worth a visit. The food is good, part of the fun is the 'sharing' concept which means you are supposed to share your dishes with your friends around the table. We had a great evening...

Unfortunately, on Monday I had to return to my Life of a Dutchie in NY...will miss all but the weather!

Ski Sunday @ Hunter Mountain

Yesterday was a day that I will memorize as the first skiing experience in the States! I had been looking forward to it for a while, now the time was there to head for Hunter Mountain, up NY state. This meant an early wake up call and gathering at a Starbucks on the Upper West Side to depart for our adventure. The group consisted of mostly Dutchies that I had met before, during watching NFL games in a sportsbar called "Stout" or other social events...

This trip was my first time going out of New York City and the reason was going skiing, double excitement! After being pulled over by a bored police officer for speeding on our way and a 2 hour drive we arrived safely in the village of Hunter Mountain. I would say the hills (or small mountains) are comparable to the south of Germany skiing experience. The area is not too big with 11 lifts and over 50 different of finding your way down. But absolutely perfect for a day with a couple of Dutchies!

Circumstances were good, although a strong wind and some clouds prevented the day from being called perfect. As you can see in the photo album there was enough snow, we had a great day of skiing.
Everybody enjoyed being outside all day long, out of the big, noisy city, it was super!!

Featured - The start of NY400 celebrations

This year we celebrate 400 years of enduring friendship between the Netherlands and the United States. Four hundred years ago, a Dutch ship called the "De Halve Maen" (the Half Moon) guided to the shores of what is now New York City with Captain Henry Hudson at the helm. This lead to the establishment of New Amsterdam and the New Netherland colony. Some 167 years later, in 1776, the Dutch were the first to salute the flag of the United States of America. NY400 celebrates the free spirit, openness, entrepreneurship and tolerance of those Dutch pioneers.

The "Halve Maen" on the Hudson

Many festivities will be held during this year in light of founding New Amsterdam and 400 years of ties between New York City and the Netherlands. I will be keep a close eye on them and will keep you posted here on my blog!
Last Wednesday, on January 28, mayor Michael Bloomberg (NYC) and mayor Job Cohen (Amsterdam) kicked off the celebrations with a press conference and the unveiling of the model of The New Amsterdam Pavilion & Plein, a gift from the Netherlands which will be built at Battery Park, the spot where the first Dutch pioneers arrived in 1609.

Super Bowl Sunday - Steelers vs Cardinals

American football is BIG in this country. The ultimate battle of the two best teams of the season is called the Super Bowl, always played on a Super Bowl Sunday. The Super Bowl is officially the championship game of the National Football League (NFL). Over the years it has become the most-watched US television broadcast of the year. For the Europeans among you, it's like the Champions League final in soccer, or should I say football..?

Yesterday was that Sunday and in the final were the Pittsburgh Steelers against the the Arizona Cardinals (or 'Cards'), the game was played in Tampa, Florida. Nice weather, very exciting game!

There's two ways of watching 'the Game' (if you're not one of the very lucky few ones sitting in the stadium), at a friends' house or in a bar where they organise a Super Bowl party. My first Super Bowl game I choose the first option. A Dutch friend and I biked all the way downtown (East Village) and went to see the game at the home of one of his friends. We brought some beer and enjoyed the pre-game entertainment while discussing the favourites and the game rules. Together with 8 others we had a great night watching the game in a first row seat...

The Steelers were favourite, the Cards the underdog. I had chosen the Cardinals as my favourite team as they only won the Super Bowl once...the Steelers did it more than 5 times. After an extremely exciting 4th and last quarter, the score was 20 - 23 for the Cardinals. But with 35 seconds to go the Steelers made a fenomenal TOUCHDOWN which brought them the 43rd Super Bowl with a 27-23 score! No matter how disappointing this was, I had a great night with some Budweisers, Chicken Wings and Pizza, the main ingredients for a real American Football night.

This week - Walking on ice...

This week was a very exciting one as Obama got inaugurated, police found the missing engine of the crashed plane in the Hudson and the economic downturn got worse with billions of losses for almost any company reporting their 4th quarter and 2008 full year results...
It was a short working week thanks to Martin Luther King day (public holiday on Monday) and a couple of evening work outs in the gym, something I didn't do for quite some time thanks to having many other, nicer things to do.
And it was a cold but sunny week, after a weekend with inches of snow coming down on us. I must say I really love winter in NY. It can be freeeeezing cold out there, but the sun is almost always shining. That makes life much more easy and gives you more energy, although some people here disagree, I know. But for a Dutchie, who is used to the cold, grey, rainy days typical for Dutch winter, the difference of the sun being there makes it great!

Walking through Central Park on one of these winter days, I wondered if New Yorkers would be trying to stand, walk and maybe skate on the ice of the different ponds and lakes. I found out pretty fast, that is rarely the case. Standing next to a lake in the middle of the park I couldn't stop myself testing the ice by kicking it firmly to wait and see what would happen, according to Dutch tradition. The ice appeared to be strong enough, it didn't give a crack. I decided to stand on it, looking around for people that potentially could rescue me, if needed. The ice was snowed under, you couldn't see it, which is always tricky, that's another Dutch tradition...
Once standing on the ice it gave me the feeling of a small but glorious victory, I walked around a little bit and went back on main land again. What a great experience!

Walking a little more through the snow I was amazed by the number of people that are still running their rounds in these cold and slippery circumstances, although some changed their running shoes for cross country skis!?

Click here to see how beautiful Central Park can be in winter shape and the squirrel that posed for me...

Obama inaugurated - Change will come?

Today the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, was inaugurated as America's first black president. This means a lot to many Americans who have high expectations and hope he will bring the necessary change in these bad economic times.

I watched his inaugural speech at the office together with many of my colleagues and hundreds of people watched the ceremony at Times Square. Apart from taking the oath where he slightly stumbled being mislead or being nervous, which I don't blame him, Obama once again appeared to be an eloquent speaker with a strong message. I sincerely hope he can and will change the situation in this country indeed...
Millions of people, standing on Washington Mall in the freezing cold, attended the ceremony in Washington D.C. and all national TV channels were broadcasting live from very early in the morning and are still continuing to do so while I'm writing this.
At this moment the Obamas are attending 10 (!) different inauguration balls, starting at the Neightborhood Ball where they danced very close together while Beyonce sang for them. A lot of celebrities like Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill, Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder and Sting will be performing at the different balls across town.

After the party tonight, tomorrow will be the first full day of serious work in the White House for Obama, I wish him all the courage and wisdom in the coming years to come. And what happended to former president George W. Bush? This afternoon he headed back to his Texas ranch and began his post-presidential life, finally...

A miracle on the cold river...

This afternoon we got the news in the office that a plane had crashed just a few minutes ago in the Hudson river around 50th Street...close to the office and not far from my apartment buiding!
Immediately we started looking at the websites of the New York Times, MSNBC and CNN. And indeed, there it was on their pages: BREAKING NEWS: US AIRWAYS PLANE CRASHED IN HUDSON RIVER. The first pictures showed a floating plane in the middle of the river, surrounded by rescue boats and ferries that were there to take the passengers from the plane!

Unbelieve, some fear and curiosity were my first reactions, how did this happen and how fortunate this plane didn't crash into a building...and were the passengers surviving getting out of the plane in one of the coldest days of this winter season? It reminded everybody of 9-11 of course, but this seemed less harmfull as we saw the passengers getting out of the plane and onto the life rafts, the plane still intact. All broadcasted live on TV and internet, accompanied with a lot of excitement, I am in the US...

This picture shows how the situation was pretty soon after the plane made its emergency landing on the river. The passengers coming out and standing on the wings to be rescued.
Eventually all were saved and few were injured, at the end of the day the pilot is a heroe as he managed to get the plane landed onto the river with two (!) damaged engines, after it struck a flock of birds. He did a hell of a job! New York is relieved after this "miracle", and so am I.
And the plane? Still floating in the river along Battery Park City...

The full story on MSNBC

Finding a new NY apartment

Finding my more definite apartment wasn't that easy although the housing market has softened, "thanks to" the deteriorated economic circumstances in this country and especially this city, hit by financial turmoil as one of the financial centres of the world.
Manhattan consists of very different neighbourhoods with their own charm and characteristics. When searching for an apartment, it's important to know in which area you want to live and stick to what you think is important. And...NY apartments are well known for their little size and crappy maintenance... Anyway, to me the most important things were to be close to Central Park, to be able to walk to work and have daylight in the apartment. After looking into different possibilities I decided to live on the more west side, close to park and work: One Columbus Place, at the corner of 59th street and 9th Avenue, next to Columbus Circle which forms the South West corner of Central Park.
The apartment is part of a high rise building, 52 floors in total, and I'm on the 14th floor...facing south with a view on the Midtown skyline (towards 7th Avenue, Times Square).
It's a so-called 1BR (1 Bed Room) apartment with a separate kitchen and bedroom, apart from the living room. All three rooms have big windows facing south with a lot of light coming in during the day, one of the most important reasons for me to choose this one.

Here are some pictures to get a first impression, still unpacking as I moved in this week:

Living room

Sunny kitchen

'Spacious' bedroom

Happy New Year!

In New York, New Years Eve is a big happening and at the same time it's not a big happening, or at least it's different then I'm used to celebrating it. The major difference is made by the fireworks, which are simply illegal here. Compared to the Dutch way of celebrating the New Year, the American version is much more quite, thanks to this. I must say I missed the fire crackers and other great fireworks, including their smell and noise!
Here in Manhattan the "big thing" is to see the crystal ball drop at Times Square that is broadcasted on national television and includes the countdown of the last minute towards midnight. But you must be little crazy to see it happen with your own eyes...about 6 to 8 hours in advance you should be at Times Square, waiting there for the rest of the night in the freezing cold!! Amazing how many people still do that...

Rosario, in NY for this week, and I had decided that we were crazy, but not totally out of our minds, so instead of going to Times Square we made sure to go for a New Year's party in club Tenjune, one of the hotspots in Meatpacking these days. The party was a great way of starting the New Year 2009! With the traditional champagne, dancing and drinks we enjoyed this special evening super mucho!!

WE WISH YOU A HAPPY 2009!!

Christmas Break in Mexico

During the week of Christmas I've been on a break, a regular thing to do in the US around Christmas and New Years to celebrate the end of the year with family and friends.

In my case this was in Mexico, to spend some quality time with Rosario, in both Acapulco and Mexico City. Great to explore the land of Guacamole, Taco's and nice and warm weather! Acapulco is a holiday paradise on the west coast, that has developed over the years around a beautiful bay. If you are planning to go, we highly recommend the restaurant Becco al Mare, a fantastic Italian restaurant with stunning views over the bay and a wine list to dream of...

Acapulco

Mexico City is a monstrous big city with wonderful parts and darker sides, often right next to each other. Traffic is horrible, El Periferico is stuck almost every day, except on Christmas Day, so we took advantage to discover the city that day.

We had a wonderful Christmas diner with Rosario's family in La Hacienda de los Morales, an old Hacienda that wasn't part of the city when built, but is now almost in the middle of it, in the Palenco neighborhood, one of the more green and nicer areas in the city. Next to celebrating Christmas and sightseeing we met lots of Rosario's friends and family, a lot of times in combination with having lunch or diner. Getting together in Mexico means that there will be food, music and dance waiting for you around the corner, 3 important parts of Mexican culture...I super enjoyed!!

Christmas diner