Almost everything we’re doing in these last weekes & days are last things. The last time we eat at this restaurant, the last time we get a coffee here, the last time we cycle by this corner, etc. etc. It feels strange.

Last weekend we had our last guests. Mark & Chiara arrived on Thursday for a long weekend. We started off by walking around our neighborhood and having dinner at Mole, our favorite Mexican restaurant. We’ve been here often enough to be recognized and welcomed by the owner and some of the waiters (Saskia has a secret crush on one of them).

By the end of dinner, both our guests were almost falling asleep, so we took them to their apartment. The next day, I had to work and so did Saskia, but we met up with them after work. Actually, I met up with Dawn, another ex-colleague from Amsterdam at the end of the day, who also happened to be in New York. Then Mark and Chiara joined us, after which I went back to the office with Mark to introduce him to Angela. Who knows, User Intelligence might be able to help her in the future. We went out for dinner (pizza!) and called it a day!

On Saturday, we slept quite long, and then went to get some breakfast and run some errands. We found a new, large bag, and Mark & Chiara had offered to bring some of our stuff back! That will save us at least one excess bag on our trip back…

For dinner, we decided to check out the meatpacking district. Strolling around was not an option, as it was pouring with rain. So we just ran out of the taxi and into Spice Market. A big restaurant with an Asian theme. It looked very nice, but we might have to wait for an hour. We found a place at the bar to drink cocktails, order starters and wait for our table. After about 45 minutes a table was available, and we had a wonderful dinner. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food!

After that, it was dry outside, and Mark & Chiara were up for some drinks, so we took a taxi to the East Village. We first tried Angel Share, another speakeasy. No mention is made of the bar outside, but instead you need to go into a japanese restaurant. There is an inconspicuous door within th erestaurant that leads to the bar. However, the bar turned out quite full, and not lively enough for our guests, so we decided to find another place. The next choice was a lively bar, where we had some drinks. I think we could have been parents to most of the other people there, but the music was definitely more from our time than from theirs! After another bar it was time to go home.

On Sunday I sold my bike! Nicole, a colleague, decided to buy it and came to the city to pick it up. After that, we rolled our extra suitcase to Mark & Chiara’s apartment, and then had a last drink with them at the German beergarden. After we said our goodbyes, we had to run to be in time for “Arias with a twist”, a show at the HERE theatre, that Saskia wanted to see. It really was an amazing show, I’m sure Saskia will write about it at some point…

After that show, we had a quick dinner at a Cuban place in SoHo, after which we walked to Bleecker Street. Just off of Bleecker, in MacDougal Street, we found “The Rabbit Club”. This is where Julia Haltigan would be playing an acoustic set. The place did not look like a live music venue, and it wasn’t. According to the owner/barman, this would be the first live music in his bar. Julia arrived with her Dad, sat at the bar and started playing.

Her voice is amazing, and with dad playing mandoline and blues harp, the performance was quite an experience. There were about 10 people at the bar, watching the show. After the show, we bought her CD and went home.

That was our last weekend! This Friday, we’ll be leaving New York. <sigh>

Sunday was going to be Museum day but first we had breakfast at the Pink Pony, a lovely French cafe with dreamy French waitresses which gave the place an over relaxed atmosphere. Yvon and I had yoghurt with granola and fruit (we had eggs and toast yesterday) and Jacco had strawberry pancakes which were very good! Then Jacco wanted to see if the guitar shop next door had a dobro guitar which he could check out. They had one but he was immediately warned by a blond long haired sales guy that it wasn’t a good one (very honest). Jacco tried it and the guy was right, it wasn’t good, for 400 dollars you expect a honky tonk sound you want to yodel too…or at least Jacco wants to.

We left and as we walked back to Rivington Street where a band was playing we came past a hairdresser where Jacco went in to ask if they, by any chance, had time to give him a haircut. They did and and while Jacco tried to explain about his desired rock and roll ‘kuif’ (Roland, what is that in English?) Yvon and I suddenly heard the owner say ‘warm weer vandaag he!’…turned out to be a man from Crooswijk, Rotterdam who left Holland 37 years ago and now lived with his wife in NY and owned this salon. He still had a Rotterdam accent and it was nice chatting with him. After a about 20 minutes Jacco was finished and very happy with having less hair (this weather makes you want to go bald!). We then decided we would finally go uptown to go to the Metropolitan Museum. I don’t know how we did it but when we arrived we had about an hour so we decided we would only see the Turner exposition and the roof top with the Jeff Koons sculptures and of course the amazing view. When the museum closed we left for a shady space in Cental Parkand Jacco offered to run to a deli and get us some drinks and chips. You know how you sometimes end up somewhere close to perfect for that moment? Well, this was the spot, just on the outside of the park, thick grass, beautiful trees, quiet with still a lot to see and a cool breeze to lighten the hot and sticky day. We lay and sat there for about two hours…mmmm. But we had another goal for that day…before you think that’s all we did that day, we wanted to show Yvon some more live music! So Yvon hailed her first cab home, we changed and left for the Living Room, one of the live music venues in Lower East Side. Unfortunately the band hadn’t started yet so we just drank a Margarita (Yvon’s first one!). We then decided we would first get some dinner before going to another live venue and ended up at a fusion/mexican place Jacco and I had been before. Despite the fact the place was almost empty (last time it was completely packed) we had a nice dinner and a another (bad) Margarita. Finally we were ready for live music and we went to Rockwood, a cosy venue where about 8 bands per night perform. We saw two completely different acts. The first was a girl on electric guitar with a bass player, drummer and another guy on electric guitar. Her music and voice were nice but it was hard to understand her lyrics and we wondered why she didn’t use an acoustic guitar. That would have given it the warm sound we missed (as if we know anything about it…). The last act was a guy solo on guitar who sang Bob Dylan like songs. He looked quite shy but at that time he was playing before an almost empty bar and thanked us several times for staying and listen to him. Tired but satisfied with our ‘cultural’ day we walked home where Yvon now had the whole apartment to hearself.

Monday we started the day with a skype call with my mother and Teun. They found it very special to see both of us on the NY web cam now. Because I had to prepare for an interview I had that afternoon we went to the Orchard cafe for breakfast and wifi. At two I went to my interview in Chelsea and Yvon went to buy new sunglasses (hers kept dropping a glas) but after half an hour we met up again because due to some misunderstanding the two managers I had a meeting with weren’t in the office. At the Apple store I send an email to arrange for another meeting (so easy being able to do that at the Mac’s there) and Yvon and I went to the Bus Stop Cafe for lunch and to 11th Street Cafe for coffee. We then wanted to go to the river and took a subway near to Pier 17. There we boarded a free ferry to IKEA. I know, it sounds weird but it’s a nice ride to the south of Brooklyn and upon arrival you can immediately take a ferry back,..and again it breaks the heat because we were still in the middle of our heatwave. We then strolled along Pier 17 a bit and went for a drink at a cafe next to Fulton Market where Jacco joined us. We wandered what to do that evening and decided we would like to check out the Hard Rock Karaoke near our place. After a wine at the Marshall stack and noodles at ?? we went to the karaoke bar. They had just started and it was already completely packed. It seemed quite similar to the one in Amsterdam, relaxed atmosphere, extremely good band, mixed crowd, with one apparent difference,…every act was good! No way one of us thought we could go up there, they were all professional singers or very, very good amateurs. So we enjoyed another night of fun live music.

Tuesday we took the the subway downtown and went on a one hour boat trip along the south side of Manhattan. A very good start of the day. It was a bit foggy but we still had the nice views. After that we strolled along Wall Street and visited the Trinity Church. Out on Wall Street again we got a bit nervous of the huge amount of fire trucks and policemen in bomb suites. Yvon asked what was wrong and apparantly there had been a fire in one of the sky skraper’s elevetors, but it was under control. Relieved, we walked to the west waterfront where we had lunch at cafe alongside a small harbour. The spot was lovely with beautifull view on Jersey and in the shade,…so we thought because when we got up Yvon was heavily sunburned. We bought soem Aloevera and tried to take a cab home but this time it wasn’t that easy. We finally got on and this was one of those suicidal trips again. When he dropped us of about half a mile from our place and said that we could walk from here I didn’t know what i was hearing. I told him that I wanted him to drop us off where we had aske him too but he looked at me with a ‘couldn’t care less’face and said he already turned the meter off. Yvon gave him the tipp less money and left his cab when we saw a girl approaching with a large suitcase. We had been dumped for a airport ride! Up till Yvon’s apartment I was fuming and coming up with thing we should have said. To late of course but at least I know what to do next time. At the apartment Yvon covered herself up so she wouldn’t be exposed to the sun anymore and decided she wanted to go to the movie (Tell no one, a mystery drama) while I had to go to my writing course in the West Village. We met up again at her place and luckily her skin felt not too bad. After a quick shat we called it an early night.

Wednesday, after breakfast at Orchard Cafe (of course) we took the subway to Bryant Park to search for a theater book shop we found on the internet. It was just 10 minutes walk from the park and what a perfect shop! I think we spend around an hour there and Yvon looked like a little girl in a candy store! With a full bag we bought a juice at Jamba Juice and sat in the park still gleeming over our purchases. Well, mine was just a ‘boring’ book about ‘the new rules of marketing’ but Yvon bought plays of Becket, a book with monoloques for women and a guide how to study for an American accent! We then briefly visited the old Library where Yvon took some arty pictures of me before we had to run to the subway to be in time for one of the Summer Play Festival plays. It turned out we had the last two tickets to see ‘Future me’, a very impressive play about a guy convicted for pedophilia. Because we didn’t know what the play was going to be about it took us a bit off guard and it got me thinking about it for quite a while. The strenght of the play was that the play was written from the man’s perspective, which it very honest and trouble some. Although Yvon and I could have used a drink after seeing this I didn’t have time because I had to go to a training at the Fringe Festival, where I will be working as a Box Office Manager from August 8th until the 24th.
The training was more an introduction to the box office system during the festival but it made me very enthousiastic! After the training I met Jacco and Yvon at a bar near the restaurant ‘One if by land, two if by sea’ where we had dinner reservations. For a description of that evening; read Jacco’s blog entry.

Thursday, Yvon’s last day! Because I had a n early morning appointment at the doctor to check my B12 level I met with a very fresh and non hang over Yvon at 11:30 at the New Museum of Modern Art. The week before we didn’t see everything so we wanted to see the remaining exhibition. We then walked met up with Jacco on Grand Street for lunch and goodbye and afterwards I showed Yvon the Pearl River, a huge Chinese shop with many affordable gifts. Because Yvon had already packed her bags we had time left to have our last drink at the Orchard Cafe where we briefly wrote down what we did during the past week took (a lot!) and where Yvon showed me some Photoshop tricks. At 18:30 it was time to get goning and Yvon hailed her last cab. Turned out to be rush hour so it took a little bit longer than expected but she still had enough time to check in her bags and prepare for the flight home. We said goodbye at customs, looking back on a wonderful time together in NY!

Our fourth guest arrived last Wednesday, my sister! Despite the fact that she is not too fond of flying (understatement) she got on the plain, crossed the ocean and arrived safe and sound at JFK airport. It was very good seeing her come through customs and to be able to hug her again! We took a cab to the Lower East Side where Yvon got to see her apartment for the next week. She was able to rent a room in a apartment of a Swedish girl. This girl has two bedrooms but because she was going on a holiday to Sweden she rented out both of her rooms, one to Yvon, the other to two Austrian girls. The latter departed on Sunday so for the rest of her stay Yvon had the apartment all for herself. After she left her bags in the apartment we walked one block (!) to our home where Jacco was. By that time it was already 22:00 so after a small half hour I took Yvon back to her apartment where she could finally go to sleep.

The next day was the first of a NY heatwave but Yvon seemed to deal with it quite well. She had a good night rest and looked very energetic. I took her to my favorite breakfast cafe and afterwards she had a haircut at my very weird hairdresser. She was already warned through my stories about him so when we entered and he, without saying hello, asked her if she was married, she loudly said ‘Yes I am!’. I stood behind her, wandering if he really said that when I heard him, a little of guard now, asking her again; ‘No,…are you Mary? Hahaha! This seemed more logical but when he told Yvon that Mary was a colleague we lost him again. I think he’s one of the the weirdest men I have ever met but a very good hairdresser. Yvon looked good and much more suited to the hot weather for the next couple of days. We then went walking through Soho, had some lunch on the sidewalk, went to The Strand, a book store that resembles De Slegte and took a subway back. In the evening we met Jacco and went to Lombardi’s, supposedly the oldest pizza place in town, where we shared a mega pizza. We ended the evening with a 23:30 coffee at Think Coffee at Bleecker Street and a stroll home.

Friday started with a subway ride to Brooklyn where Yvon came with me to the Arabic American Family Center where I help women with their understanding of the English language. We were assigned to two girls who were studying for their immigration exams. Amazing to hear how good their English was considering the fact that one of them had arrived 8 months ago (Iman) and the other just 5 months ago (Marocco)! You could tell they were educated girls and they were (again) very motivated to learn. It was nice having Yvon next to me in this class and she had some good teaching tips. Especially about asking if they know certain words they read. This gets you in the difficult situation where you have to explain words like ‘politics’ and the difference between ‘President’, ‘represent’ and ‘House of representatives’. By the time I get back I will know the whole political system in the USA.

After class we bought some lunch and went to Prospect Park, a beautiful big park with large trees that give you plenty of shade. By then it was 95 degrees Fahrenheit so we had to take it slow. At about 16:00 we went home, changed clothes and the three of us went to Brooklyn again. This time to see a film which was part of a festival. Althought they call it the Roof Top Film Festival they arrange spaces out side on whatever level so this Friday it was on a lawn next to a Automotive School. We sat on one of the folding chairs but there were also people picknicking on blankets. The evening started with a band who will probably sound a lot better when they are not drunk. Then the films started. There were about 6 short films about the country side of the US, some of which the writer or director was present. I will take too long to explain them all but they were very entertaining although the last film was mostly gross. It was sort of a documentary about an elderly lady that had a lavatory outside the house and for 10 minutes she only talked about…shitting. The term she used several times was ‘deliver the ashole baby’ while gleeming over her last toilet visit. Very ‘ehw’ but funny. Having seen that we could use a good drink and luckily for us the evening was sponsered by a liqour company called ‘Cabana Cachacha’ so Yvon had her first cocktail at Bar Matchless. A very nice and local evening that ended with a cab ride home over the Willamsburg Bridge.

Saturday started with laundry and breakfast at Olympia, our Greek diner. At midday we went to the Meatpacking District where we showed Yvon the Apple Store, Chelsea Market, some Meatpacking streets and the building of our first NY home. At the beginning of the evening we went to 42 Street where we saw a performance of Studio 52, the project that makes theater with children. The evening was called ‘Act your own age’ and plays were written specifically for each child by a professional actor. Then the performances were rehearsed one on one during a week outside NY and tonight we could see the result. There were eight very funny and crafted plays. Some children were too shy to really act but most of them did a very good job. It certainly served it’s purpose of placing the children in the spotlight. Again a very local evening which we all enjoyed very much. At the end of the plays we took a cab (death ride this time) to the East Village where we had Italian cuisine at Frank’s. Jacco and I had been there the week before and the food was as good as the first time. Another late night stroll home. This is so nice about NY, you walk home at 2:00 and it’s as busy as the same time during the day.

Rest of the week will follow…

How is that for a change? A weekend update on the Monday, right after the weekend!

This Friday, Saskia had secured tickets for a special show on the Upper West Side. It was a tapdance & song show, the final night of Tap City, an 8-day tap dance festival. I have to be honest and state that, after a week of working, this would not have been my first choice. But we took the subway to 95th Street. Turns out that there were many people still trying to get tickets for this show, so something quite special must be happening here!

We got an extra cup of coffee to make sure I wouldn’t fall asleep, and went inside. It turns out I wouldn’t have needed the cup of coffee! The whole thing was very entertaining. I’m still not a huge fan of tapdancing, but have learned that there are styles that I prefer over others (the whole ad-lib thing with tapping is not my cup of tea). The cool thing was that most of the audience was very much into everything, shouting and clapping after particularly complex moves and stuff.

Another cool thing was that we saw Ruth again. We met this girl while waiting for the flight to the US back in May. We then met her again when we were having lunch with Sjuul and Roland, and it turned out she would be living on the same street we did. However, after that, we didn’t see her again. And now she was on stage, performing in a tapdance show. Very funny!

As this was the last night of the festival, a number of awards were awarded (? - handed out? given?). There apparently is a Tapdance Hall of Fame, and several performers were inducted. And most of these were very old, but appeared on stage, still very energetic, although not able to dance anymore. All in all a lot more fun than I expected! Thanks to Sas for making me see more!

We hadn’t had dinner yet, so decided to travel down to the West Village to find a place to eat. But by the time we were looking for a place, it was 23:45. A little late, even for New York standards. And if one chance encounter (Ruth) wasn’t enough, Saskia bumped into Steven, an actor that was part of the Clockwork Orange production. Incredible how small the world can be sometimes. We were invited to come and have a drink with him and his wife on their roof terrace in the West Village one of these days!

After that we managed to find a bar that still served food (and had no music, quite nice for a change), and after that took a taxi home. Not quite the early night I was hoping for, but we did have a lot of fun!

On Saturday, we needed to get up relatively early (I think we got up around 9:30), because we had a morning program! We got tickets from MediaCatalyst to do a boat tour around lower Manhattan. We cycled down to Pier 16, got a coffee and picked up the tickets. Then we had to stand in line for quite a while to board the boat., with a lot of grey-haired people around us. Luckily, we found a place in the shae on the side of the boat, and had a perfect view of Manhattan as we sailed around it. Very cool to see the waterfalls from this vantage point.

We probably haven’t mentioned these waterfalls before. It is an art project by Olafur Eliasson, consisting of four waterfalls. Pretty cool!

The tour took us up over the East River to the Manhattan bridge, and then back around Manhattan on to the Hudson River, where we could just make out our first apartment. From there we went on to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (the first time I saw this up close, and actually quite cool!). And then back to South Street Seaport. All in all about an hour’s worth of boating, and I would recommend anyone to do this trip. It was a very nice and relaxing way to start the day. Pictures will be up soon.

After that, it was definitely tim efor breakfast! We found a cool little place just off of the touristy South Street Sea Port, and I had an amazing spinahc, tomato and feta omelet. Saskia went for a French Toast and fresh fruit combination, looked very good as well.

We did some shopping, and made it back to our place for a refreshing shower. We then decided we needed to sit in a nice and cool space for a while, so we selected a movie theatre close to our home and choose a movie. Wall-E. Again, on our bikes and up to East 12th street. A very cool, old movie theater, with the air conditioning cranked up (down?) all the way to minus 10 degrees. Brrr. Fun movie though.

We were getting a little hungry. We first stopped at a place right next to the theatre to have a drink and a look in our trusty Time Out New York - Eat & Drink. The place we walked in, Bar Veloce, was weird, in a very interesting way. Great selection of wines, some very good looking sandwiches and bruschetta (we tried the latter) in a cool looking bar. There were two guys behind the bar, one serving the wines (in an italian suit, with tie) and one making the food (in a grey overcoat, also waering a tie). Strange but good!

We then went on to Frank’s, an Italian restaurant. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a table, so we had another drink somewhere else, and then returned to find our outside table on 2nd Avenue. A simple menu, with very affordable food. Their wine list was a little bigger, and contained many less affordable wines. After struggling with the 50-page (!?) wine list for a bit, we decided to get some help from the waiter. We mentioned our price range, and he suggested a very nice red Sicilian wine. The food was really very good as well, maybe a little too much yet again. But I managed to finish both my plates, and Saskia tried very hard. Her pasta (with shrimp, radicchio and almonds) was the best-tasting of all of our dishes. When we were done (around 1:00 am), people were still wlaking in and getting a table, and food. I love New York!

We didn’t get up until about 11:00 on Sunday. Very nice to be able to sleep a little late for a change! We first went to see Yvonne’s apartment and hand over money for the keys. Then we bought ourselves a picnic blanket, and cycled all the way up to Central Park, along the Hudson River. It was very cool to see the city from this side. Lots of people on bikes (somehow, more people wearing helmets on this cycle path then we see in the city itself) and rollerblades. We cycled all the way up to 72nd street, where we entered the city again. Got some picnic stuff (fruit, water, chips) and then found a spot in Central Park to lie down and do some reading. I actually fell asleep again for about an hour. It was busy, but we got a relatively safe spot on a little hill, and Saskia was only hit once by a stray ball.

By 17:30 we made our way to the area where we would go and see ‘A Midsummer Night’s dream‘. Saskia had already met the director, a contact established through Nancy. I had heard of the story, but the quick summary that Fanneke and Saskia provided, helped me greatly in understanding the three seperate stories unfolding during the play. It was being performed in the park, but not in a theatre setting. It started on a rocky outcrop, but during the play, we moved around, following the actors and sitting down close to them. The whole concept of this ‘promenade play’ was new for me, as was the play itself. But I enjoyed it thouroughly. Sometimes the actors were hard to understand, both because there was a lot of noise in the park (music, trumpets, helicopters) and the usage of the old English. However, that did not influence the overall understanding of the play.

I really liked how they used the park as the stage, some of it worked really well, especially with the sun setting, creating some very nice lighting. Again, something I wouldn’t have found myself, so Saskia is really showing me some interesting stuff!

After the play we walked Fanneke back to the Eastside of the park, where she got on a Subway. And we cycled all the way down 5th Avenue. It took a little over half an hour, and it is a great feeling to cycle along one of the most famous streets in the world, passing the Apple store (still, open at 22:30 on a Sunday night, and actually a line of about 50 people!), the Chrysler building, the Empire State Building and mroe of those landmarks. It is still a little exciting, cycling along with all the other traffic, but we made it home in one piece, and were quite exhausted from the whole weekend.

Tonight I will put up some pictures of this weekend!

Before one of us gives you an update on the weekend I should tell you about the theater performance we or I have seen.

Through a discount website for theater lovers under 36 (just!) I got a matinee ticket for 15 dollars for the musical ‘A Sunday in the park with George‘ on Wednesday 18th. The music and lyrics are from Stephen Sondheim, the book by James Lapine and it’s Broadway premiere was in 1984. Since then it has traveled around and is now back on Broadway with Daniel Evans and Jenna Russel as lead characters. The story is inspired by the painting ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte‘ by Georges Seurat. This is a bit confusing since the musical is about the life of George and his passion for painting, but it’s not biographical, it’s all made up. It won’t work to tell the story but for the interested ones you can read it by clicking the link above. The perfomance was in Studio 54, unlike the name a beautiful grand old theater with large ornaments and old uncomfortable chairs,…just as it should be. I was about 15 minutes early so I had enough time to look around.

As expected this was a bit of an old fashioned musical with big costumes and grand gestures but the technical trics were amazing! The decor was made up of white walls and a few props on which they projected moving images. In this way you could see the painting becoming alive with the people in it replaced by the actors (I hope this makes sence). A bit deformed by my work I couldn’t help but think of the timing that goes into getting that right! Really impressive! The story and the songs were o.k. I guess I’m just not a big musical fan anymore but it was nice to have seen this.

Later that week we went to ‘Body Awareness‘ by Annie Baker, a young talented playmaker. I wanted to see this because from what I read it seemed to be similar to the plays Maria Goos writes, family drama’s with witty, ironic, sometimes black humor. First of all the theater in which it was held is called the Atlantic Stage 2, a small (about 90 seats) theatre which already gave it a cosy feel. The decor was a bit too much for my taste, a fully furnished kitchen and an upstairs bedroom, but it served it’s purpose of getting into the cosy homelike feel of a house in a small Vermont colllege town. The play kicks of with a mother and a son arguing about whether he does or doesn’t have Asperger’s Syndrome. The son is clever enough to rebut all the arguments for this case which is very funny and a bit freaky at the same time. Throughout the play it remains unclear if he’s got the syndrome or not but it’s a nice touch to let the character itself comment on this. Again, it won’t work to tell the story but here is a review of the play. Although I really liked this play and would like to see more of Annie Baker, I missed the ‘drama’. I was never really touched when I think I should have been. This is were the comparison with Maria Goos ends because in her plays you laugh and cry, sometimes both at the same time. Maybe that’s also because her families are so real you can easily identify with the characters. Because I couldn’t identify with the characters of Body Awareness you remain an outsider viewing the play…which is nice but not nice enough.

Coming up: Macbeth in the park (hopefully next week) and Stitching (this week).

It’s still hard to keep up a regular update process on this blog. I’m more and more impressed by the way Nicky and Viktor did that when they were in Munchen (and they’re still keeping it up, good work!). Anyway, this is just a summary of some stuff we did over the last couple of days…

Monday was a pretty cool evening in the theater. We went to see a project from 52nd Street - the project that Saskia is doing volunteer work for. This was the evening that the kids who wrote plays would be seeing exerpts of their plays performed by real actors. As each play was introduced, the child was first asked a couple of questions about the play, and then one or more scenes from the play would be ‘read’. It was amazing to see how inventive some of these kids are, and hilarious how some of the actors interpreted the plays!

On Tuesday we went for Birthday drink all the way up to 110th street - Spanish Harlem. This is where Fanneke lives, and she was going to celebrate her birthday in a bar called Amor Cubano. After a long train ride we arrived safely in Harlem, made our way to the bar where live music was creating a very nice atmosphere. We order their Mojito’s and sat at the bar, until Fanneke walked in. We then found a table, had more drinks and some of Fanneke’s New York friends. It was a pity the music ended so soo, but one of her friends had a great idea. His second job is limousine driver, and he had the company car with him. He still needed to drop that off somewhere in the East Village, so he took all of us (6 in total) down to the East Village, and dropped us at a bar there. I made my way home at that point (work to do!), but the rest staed there for more drinks and dancing…

I do not remember any eventful things for the rest of the week, except for our first home-cooked meal on Thursday! Saskia made some yummy pasta with spinach and mascarpone. On Saturday we slept in a little bit, and then went out for breakfast. We had already decided to go for the Atlantic Diner, with our Greek friend. Way too much food, of course, but a good start of the day. Then we went to buy some orange clothing, as we would be watching the quarter finals of the Euro 2008 tournament. We got some cheap shirts and went home to get dressed for the occasion. We had already decided to go and watch the game at Loreley, a GermanBiergarten not far from where we live.

We met Fanneke there, and Sara, a colleague of mine from MediaCatalyst who will soon be moving to Amsterdam. I had asked Viktor (with his 3-year expertise on German/Bavarian culinary culture) what to drink and eat. The beers were wonderful, but sadly the KaseSpatzle were not on the lunch menu. And then we lost. It was fun to watch the game, but I can’t help feeling a little responsible for the loss. The first three games (which we all won), I spent in the office, working on my computer, with Radio 1 in my ears. The first game I actually see, we lose. Coincidence? Let’s hope so!

We then went to the theater again, as Saskia had bought us tickets to go and see a play. ‘Body Awareness‘ is written by Annie Baker, and deals with a family in Vermont (two lesbian mothers, a son with Asperger’s Syndrom and a visiting photographer) during the school’s Body Awareness week. I will not write a full review here, but it was a lot of fun! After the play, we walked back to our place, and had a relatively early night.

Sunday was spent doing some shopping (clothes!) and watching a movie (War Inc. - a must-see!). We then went back to our ‘hood, had some drinks and brought home a pizza (for 4 people, I think).

And now it’s Wednesday night, I really need to stop being in the office (it’s 19:00) and get out more! So I’ll pick up Sas from a subway station, as she’s teaching some elderly Brooklyners how to sing musical songs(!) right now. And then we’ll grab a bite to eat, and hope to go and see Tony Joe White play at Joe’s Pub! After that, I think we’ll have one drink with Ap, who’s scheduled to arrive in New York tonight, and then call it a night. The rest of the week & weekend might be quite busy, with Ap around. Looking forward to it!

A bit late (again) but here an update about last week. You can say that I have seen quite some different worlds.
First of all I had a meeting with Greg Taubmann, a young director and founder of Extant Arts, a theater company with many Princeton actors. We met at Waverly Restaurant, a diner where they have regular coffee (no ‘fancy’ espresso or macchiato) and delicious bagels with salmon and cream cheese (lox bagel). Anyway, we talked about his next summer project; Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Central Park. His plan is to have the scenes at different locations (close to each other) and let people walk from one to another. It’s for an audience of about 20 at a time so very small. You are not allowed to ask entree fee in Central Park so people will be asked to donate a suggested amount of 20 dollars.

Amazing how he does this without funding! He explained that in the USA there are only three categories eligible for funding: activities of religious, scientifical or educational nature. The arts is not one of them! That’s why many art institutes offer educational projects. So does Greg, he has a theatre school project. When his company exists one year he can apply for funding. Another way to obtain money is sponsoring, a very difficult way if your business is still that young but many of the larger theatre companies and especially the museums would not be able to survive without sponsoring.

I told him about my work in Amsterdam and that I would love to use my time in NY to see and experience as much of the theatre world as possible. He invited me to attend some rehearsals and suggested I talk to his publicity agent to discuss what he does to promote the play. NICE! They start rehearsing in June, the play will start in the second week of July. I’ll keep you posted.

Then I had my first encounter with the kids of 52 Project. A whole different experience….
I was invited to come at 15:30 so I could meet the kids and play with them until 16:00 when homework class would start. Liz, the educational project leader was not there so I felt a little bit lost in the beginning. I said hello to some of the kids and thought it would be best to first watch ‘the cat from the tree’. These kids see so many different people that you’re not the one they’re waiting for. But after about 15 minutes one of the boys asked me if I knew how to play table tennis. His name is Ismail, a tough but sweet kid of about 11 that asked me if he could call me ‘S’ because my full name was too difficult. Then a very loud and small kid came in wanted to play as wel but within 5 seconds the balls where smashed around the room and we all had to cover our heads in defence. The energy some of these kids have is amazing. That’s why they come in at 15:00, so they can release all that (also negative) energy and have some rest to actually do their homework at 16:00. The super active kid really sat down and started cutting ‘things’ for his school. Of course he didn’t need any help and was finished within 15 minutes. The good thing is that the staff is really strict about home work hour and if you are finished you have to go. So with a big smile he got dragged outside by Reg, the founder of the project. They all do this with a lot of respect for the kids, no patronizing, nothing.

To be continued….

A bit late but here’s my update of last week. To begin with, it was a bit weird not to be on my bike on my way to work. I mean, the previous week was fun, like a holiday, but it felt like free time was up and work week began. Especially when I said goodbye to Jacco I had to redefine my time.

But I had a few very important goals which included; apply for a work permit, find voluntary organizations and look for an affordable supermarket and hair salon in the neighbourhood. Not minor goals I woulds say! First of all I went to get information on how to apply for a work permit at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Servcies (USCIS) on Broadway (downtown,..not the theatre area). Well, not that easy. Because the visitor door was blocked I tried the employee entrance where I was stopped by a man in a KGB outfit. He began to adres me in a manner suitable to his outfit which means that he began to shout that I could not enter unless I had an appointment. When I said I didn’t have an appointment but that I would love to make one he got even more angry and shouted something which sounded like ‘closed, no, closed (again), tomorrow, three!’. I nodded and walked away, thinking this would be my best option right now.

Recovering with a macchioto at Starbuck’s I thought he probably meant, in his lovely shouting way, that the office was closed for visitors without appointments and that I could try tomorrow before three. o’clock. So I tried the next day and this time the visitor entrance was open (a good sign!). But oh no, I got stopped again! This time by a friendlier looking lady who wasn’t KGB dressed. She asked what my visit was for and if she could have a look in my bag. Of course she could. Inside me and my bag had to go through a scan where after I could finally pursue my quest for information on a work permit. I found the correct desk where I was told by a bored looking woman, to fill in form I-765, mail that with copies of our visa’s, passports, 2 foto’s and a written statement that my earnings are not to support the J-1, pay 320 dollars and wait 3 months for an answer. That was that… Nothing I could’nt have found on the internet. Anyway, my permit is in the mail and all I can do is hope for a fast and positive answer.

What else did I do? On Monday I went to St. Paul’s Chapel to listen to a classical concert. Every Monday they organize concerts (classical and Jazz) which you can attend for free. It was a beautiful concert by a cellist and pianist with work of Janacek, Mendelssohn and Barber. While I was listening my eyes wondered around the church and I saw it was completely packed with memorial notes and photographs. Then it hit me that this was the amazingly unharmed church closest to the World Trade Centre. After the attack the church was transformed into a refuge for people searching for there family and friends and where many firefighters found shelter, food and people to talk to before they had to go out to the rubble again. After the concert I walked past the exhibits with foto’s and little notes. Very, very silencing impressive.

Wednesday I went to see a play reading by graduate students of the New School for Drama. The play was called ‘For the love of the father’ and was written by another student. Although it was just a reading it was in a proper theatre setting (vlakke vloer zaal) with all students (about 14) facing the audience and afterwards it felt like I had just seen a proper play with costumes, decor…everything. Amazing what they were able to invoke.

Then ( I can’t remeber the day) I went to a NY Cares introduction meeting at St. Bartholomew’s church. This is a large voluntary organization that is active in many areas like education, children with special needs, the elderly, environment, health and welness and food facilities for the homeless. I signed my self in and now I can look for appropriate projects in their database. Some of them are just an afternoon, others can involve a few weeks. A good system where everybody can find something that fits in their schedule. I was amazed that the introduction meeting was attended by about 30 young people and they have introductions every day! It felt nice and weird to attend this ‘NY thing’ with only New Yorkers present. I wonder how it feels to participate in voluntary work. I’ll keep you posted!

In between these activities I did’nt find an affordable supermarket (except for Trader Joe’s on the east side which Jacco and I found in the previous weekend) nor did I come across a haircut under 50 dollars (Jacco and are desperate for a haircut). I did find a blow dry shop though, called Blow, where you can dry and style your hair for a trizillian dollars. I should’nt be surprised since they also have salons for… dogs! Yes, the New Yorkers love their, usually petite, dogs. So much even that they can be manicured, pedicured and styled. Any way, I found an Aveda school where they teach students how to cut and style. This will cost you 20 dollars. If I have enough nerve I will go and check that out this week. If it turns out badly I will not use my webcam for a few weeks, so that you know.

Okay, I probably left out a few things but otherwise this update will get to elaborate…if it isn’t already. Later on I’ll write an update of this week.

Just one question though; at what time does it get dark in Holland at the moment? Here it is 20:20 and it’s starting to get dark already. It seems earlier than back home.

Bye!