Nyc - Julio Merino (jmmv.dev)

Introducing 'Dirt and the City'

A friend of mine recently started a blog called Dirt and the City and, because he has invited me to contribute to it, I feel like posting a reference here ;-)

Dirt and the City is a blog that intends to show you the "ugly" (literally) side of NYC. The blog is named after a famous TV show filmed in this same city; I haven't watched the show myself, but I bet that there is no dirt to be seen in it. If you are wondering what the city really looks like, this blog is your place.

But, before visiting the blog, be sure to take it as it is meant to be: just a fun collection of photos! If you ever want to visit NYC, don't let the contents of the blog change your plans. You will definitely enjoy your visit regardless.

Without further ado, and just in case you missed the link above, click here to visit Dirt and the City.

September 4, 2011 · Tags: nyc, photos
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Not any more

That's it. Two days ago I landed in Barcelona and my stay in NYC finished. I was happy to see family and friends again, but I'm missing NYC and, in special, the people there a lot.

I'm actually considering moving to NYC as soon as I find a decent job there and postponing the acquisition of a Ph.D. Many people says I should just do that, but some friends say that my feelings will eventually go away and I'll feel comfortable here again. I know that this second thing is true, but why should I accept that if there is a chance for a change? Why can't I try to go and live there? Why do I have to hurt the people I met there? I can think of some reasons to stay in Barcelona for, but I can also think of more interesting reasons to leave.

Anyway... don't worry, this is not the common post you'll find in this blog! I think I'll just go back to blogging about technical stuff. I know I still have to prepare a summary post for the stay and probably a relatively small selection of photos, but I think that will come later. If you ever can go to NYC, don't doubt: just do it.

December 17, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Coming to an end

That's it. My internship at Google finished this past Thursday (that is one day and a half ago) and I'm going back to Spain on December 2nd. A week and a half to go and my time at NYC is over. Quick summary: the internship has been great, working at Google is amazing and my project was more or less finished.

I'll provide more details about the whole experience later when I'm back to my country, but now is vacations time. I really need to relax a bit; haven't had vacations for more than a year and a half! And, when I get back, I'll have to start working on my Ph.D. immediately.

So what am I going to do? I'm leaving to San Francisco tomorrow morning and I'll spend four days there by myself, exploring that other nice city. I'll be back to NYC for thanksgiving and then use the rest of the days to visit a couple of museums, buy presents and, if time permits, visit Washington DC.

Next post will probably be from San Francisco ;) C ya.

November 22, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: ... or not; now in MTV!

I've landed this morning in San Francisco at 9.00am (which means I left NYC at 6.00am!) and went straight down to the Google Headquarters in Mountain View. No sleep at all except for a little bit of pseudo-sleep in the plane. The Google campus is really nice. It puts the NYC offices in an inferior level than I thought :P But the only problem is that the area surrounding the campus is basically empty. Very small houses and lots of space between them, which is not bad per se... but means that there really is not much to do.

Anyway. What am I doing here? I am attending the Google Summer of Code 2008 Mentors Summit this weekend, but came a bit earlier to be able to do a couple of meetings with coworkers in the Mountain View office. Pretty exhausting day, and it is not close to over yet!

Just enjoy the few photos I've taken so far.

PS: Been playing mini-golf on-board until I got an unasked segmentation fault.

October 24, 2008 · Tags: google, nyc, soc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Prospect Park

Yesterday night, we went to a techno club — Webster Hall — which had Carl Cox as an invited DJ. Some of my friends around here enjoy this music and said this was a great DJ, so we couldn't miss it. He indeed was good.

Today, after few hours of sleep, I have been doing quite a bit of housework: basically, huge cleaning, reordering and some DIY — had to fix some drawers. Resolving the extremely loud and annoying hissing caused by the heating system will have to wait, though.

What I have enjoyed today, though, is spending the evening walking around Brooklyn and, more specifically, in Prospect Park. Central Park is very nice, you know, but this other park is too! Not to mention that the borough (Brooklyn) seems awesome... or at least the few neighborhoods I've visited so far. Much more relaxed than Manhattan and, I've been told, cheaper for living. Anyway, enjoy the photos :-)

I guess tomorrow will be, finally, a museum day. Not going out tonight (I'm extremely tired and can't meet my friends) so I guess I'll be able to wake up early and seize the day. We'll see.

Note to self: never, never, never again, buy batteries from a crappy deli. They last for a few photos only! Who knows for how long they have been in the shop shelves.

October 18, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 2 minutes)

Live@NYC: 2 months and a half

Wow, I haven't blogged for a long time (a month since last post) and I'm already counting down my days in NYC... less than a month and a half left here :-( I certainly miss some things from home, such as the nice little (non-fancy) bars, my bike, the gym, a nice house and, of course, friends and family, but I'm not in a real hurry to go back.

So what have been the recent happenings? There are lots of things to tell I guess.

First of all, almost all interns are gone. Of all I knew, probably 15-20, only 2 are left, 3 if you count me. This probably means we'll have to look for new friends to grow our partying group a little bit.

On another topic, I don't have roommates any more. The ones I had moved to a bigger place and I haven't yet found anyone who wants to share this apartment. The major problem is that the room to be rented is, actually, the living room, so it is hard to convince someone to live here. Lack of privacy is an issue for most even if they don't say so right away.

As regards working out, I'm getting way too lazy. It has already been more than a week since I last went running. Will try to force myself to go tomorrow morning again; the food is already starting to accumulate in the wrong places. Somewhat related to this, I've got an iPod Nano 4th generation which, when put together the Nike+ kit, is amazing.

And we have got a "new" addiction at work: Guitar Hero. This game is really nice and we are already playing it on the expert level. However, I wonder if it is any good to spend time learning how to play a fake guitar. I'd rather go and buy a real one, and instead spend my time playing real songs. Let's hope Guitar Rising keeps up with the expectations and is published soon; whenever that happens, I'll definitely get it.

About more recent happenings, I've been in NYCBSDCon 2008 this weekend giving a presentation on ATF. We'll have the video recordings posted out soon, so be sure to check them to learn some interesting new stuff. It was also a good way to meet well-known people in the BSD world such as, for example, Matt Dillon and Dru Lavigne.

As regards work at Google, my project is starting to have decent shape, which means that it actually works! During the next month, I'll have to extend it to some new areas, and that's a bit scary because they'll involve processing vast amounts of data in an efficient manner. (At the moment, the data set is not big enough to really require tuning the code.)

Oh, and one last thing about mini-golf. I have played, I think, 4 times already and lost in all of them. This game sucks. Will keep trying, though.

I'm missing lots of stuff here, but I don't know how to add more random notes and not end with a completely disconnected post. All the paragraphs are already too independent as they are now. So just wait for the next one to know more :P

October 14, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 3 minutes)

Live@NYC: Almost 2 months

I just realized that today makes two months since I left my home in Barcelona and headed first to Italy and then to NYC. This means I only have two more months and a week to stay at Google. Ew, time flies so fast...

But so far, things are going great. They could certainly be a little bit better, but not by much!

Today, two friends from Spain just left my apartment. They had been here for 10 days doing tourism around the city and visiting lots of stuff. I wish I could also take some vacations like that.

And tomorrow it's time for another race: Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It is just 5Km in Central Park, so it will be pretty easy but, hopefully, fun enough. The only "problem" is that it is at 9am, and today is Saturday... so I need to hang go out (with some restrictions)!

September 13, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Month 1

Wow, I realized yesterday that I have already been in NYC for a full month! That means that I only have three left before leaving... time flies :-(

I also apologize (to those who have noted!) for not writing for the past week, but I have lost "interest". All posts were starting to be similar to each other because there aren't that many new things to explain every day. Or, put it another way: I now usually have better things to do in the evenings rather than blogging :-P

As regards work, I have spent the past two weeks trying to code something, but all my attempts were worthless. Yesterday, though, my manager and I found a trivial way to resolve the problem at hand. It is not the nicest solution, but does the trick for now. Ew, two weeks of "wasted" coding efforts! But, as he put it, these efforts have been a good way to introduce myself into big projects within Google.

Now I have been assigned another coding task and it seems pretty darn cool to me. This is not related to my real project, though, but it should be possible to finish it in one week and will be useful to give me more exposure to other Google technologies. In special, MapReduce. Yeah, I can say that; after all, what MapReduce is is disclosed ;-)

Before finishing, let me point out something else that has caught my attention here in the city. There are lots of places to get your nails done, and all the people in these places is visible from the street. Curious, at the very least.

Oh! Be sure to listen to the "Gettysburg trilogy" (the three songs in the second disc) in The Glorious Burden album from Iced Earth. Have been quite addicted to it for the last days.

August 20, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 2 minutes)

Live@NYC: Days 21, 22 and 23

Day 21 (August 8th): Some work at Google and went out later with a friend from work and the friends that are visiting from Barcelona. We went to a bar called Spice Market: quite fancy but also expensive and not that fun.

Day 22 (August 9th): Stayed at home for most of the day, which was pretty nice because I had not done this since I left Barcelona four weeks ago. In the morning, I went to a barber though. At night, went out with my roommate and some of her friends to a party. This was also an excuse to celebrate my birthday, which happened today (in day 23rd, I mean).

Day 23 (August 10th): Turned 24. Went shopping for a fast external hard disk and ended up buying a Lacie D2 Quadra 500GB. Did some tests using the FW800 connection and the results are quite impressive. I spent part of the evening at Google doing some personal work, then went running and then drank cava at home to "celebrate" my birthday.

OK, and now that I remember, here is another thing that has caught my attention in NYC. There are a lot of places to cut your nails... and what's "interesting" is that, from the street, you can see all the people sitting there while they are being served.

August 11, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 2 minutes)

Live@NYC: Day 20

Another regular day at work, except that I have finally been assigned some coding work. Yay! Haven't coded for a rather long while, and I need to do something. Aside that, got some Google gear that I was supposed to get on the first day but didn't. This includes a water bottle, a towel, yet another t-shirt and a notebook.

Somewhat related: I also ate way too much, which makes my stomach hurt and feel incredibly tired. Or maybe I am tired due to the run this evening, in which I pushed myself too hard. But I must run the Human Race (10Km) in less than 45 minutes! Yes, personal goal.

August 7, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Day 17, 18 and 19

I should have posted this yesterday at most... but anyway, here it comes so that I do not forget about recent happenings. What I mean is that day 19th was yesterday (August 6th), not today!

Day 17: Some more learning work at Google. The interesting thing of that day was that a friend from Barcelona arrived to the city at 10pm approximately, so we went to have a beer to a place in the lower East River. Very touristic but pretty nice. Also, he was riding a hired car, so I was able to see the city from another "perspective".

Day 18: Again, some more learning. At midday, I registered for the Nike Human Race, a 10Km race that will take place on August 31st in 25 cities around the world. The nice thing is that for the low registration fee, I got a pair of shiny new sneakers and the Nike+ Sportsband. Now I have Nike shoes, the iPod+Nike kit at home (a present from another race)... so I am now only missing a real iPod! At night I went out with a Spanish colleague from work and two other Spanish guys, friends of him, that are also visiting the city.

Day 19: Tried the new sneakers and the Sportsband. Both are pretty amazing! Comfortable shoes and the measures taken by the sensors seem to be quite accurate. Plus you can get a nice history of your runs on the website. At work, I finally did some coding. And, in the evening, we had a Google Boat Cruise for interns (photos available) followed by beers at a couple of bars.

Bah, I should get back to posting once per day to avoid such telegraphic descriptions...

August 7, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 2 minutes)

Live@NYC: Day 16

Wow... two weeks have passed already. Time flies :-(

Today I got up late after yesterday's hang out and then went to have lunch with my new roommate and his brother. After lunch, my roommate had to got back to work, and his brother and I walked downtown to take a look at the World Trade Center. After seeing that, we walked by the southern coast and saw the Statue of Liberty in the distance. I guess I'll have to take the ferry one day and see it from a closer distance, but better wait until there are not too many tourists and for colder weather. At last, we returned to visit Google going all along Broadway, while visiting some shops.

I'm really exhausted. Google Earth says that we walked for almost 11Km non-stop! Check out the photos!

Edit (22:50): Just finished watching Season 1 of The Big Bang Theory. Hilarious! I'm eager to see more episodes, but that'll have to wait until Season 2 is aired.

August 3, 2008 · Tags: nyc, series
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Days 13, 14 and 15

Day 13: Not much to comment, other than I finally got my welcome Google t-shirt!

Day 14: Moved to the new apartment. It was pretty annoying to have to move all my stuff using the subway, basically due to the incredible heat in the streets and inside the subway. But finally, I have a relatively decent place to stay for the four months. Shared with another person, cheaper than the older apartment and... just one block away from Google! Oh, and at night I went to one of these ultra-classy clubs (230 Fifth Avenue) with several other interns and later to a couple of bars. Wasted way too much money.

Day 15: Properly installed in the apartment by emptying the bags and filling the closet and drawers. Finally! I had had all my stuff in the bag for three weeks already and it was pretty annoying to find stuff this way. Also walked around the neighborhood and checked several book shops. I saw many interesting books that I would like to buy one day (in special, one about Haskell!), but just before leaving the last shop I was visiting (Barnes & Noble), I passed by a set of books that were discounted 50% of the price. And one of them immediately caught my eye: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. At the ridiculous price it was selling, I couldn't resist buying it! Let's hope it is useful :) Now... maybe it's time to go out again, but this time with my new roommate and his brother.

August 2, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 2 minutes)

Live@NYC: Day 12

At last, my new apartment is... OMG confirmed! Will be moving on August 1st and will stay there for four months. The location is good because it is just one block away from Google and is also very close to lots and lots of pubs and restaurants.

Haven't done much work today though. I spent all the morning applying for a SSN number, and then I spent part of the evening opening a bank account and getting used to its online services.

Hope that tomorrow will be more productive.

July 30, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

ATF talk at NYCBSDCon 2008

NYCBSDCon 2008 will take place in New York City on October 11th and 12th. Given that I am already in NYC and will still be by that time, I submitted a presentation proposal about ATF. I have just been notified that my proposal has been accepted and, therefore, I will be giving a talk on ATF itself and how it relates to NetBSD on one of those two days. The conference program and schedule have not been published yet, though, so keep tuned. Hope to see you there! :)

July 30, 2008 · Tags: atf, netbsd, nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Day 11

One more day and nothing special to say. Just that I tried to open a bank account and they require two different IDs, which I was not carrying. Any idea about why is that?

Let's hope I can open the account tomorrow... but even then, the transfer of the money I have in Spain to this account will not happen on the same day, so I'm not sure about how I'll deal with the housing payment...

Edit (23:10): Oh, and just finished watching Dexter Season 1. Highly recommended!

July 29, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Day 10

Not much to say today other than I was lazy to go running in the morning and that I have finally settled on an apartment. Will move in on Friday as long as I can figure out how to do the payment! (Probably need to deal with money orders, because I can't really get enough cash.)

Also, I think the time when I'm assigned a project at Google is approaching. Hope it will be soon.

July 28, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Photos

I've started uploading the photos of my stay in NYC to the Picasa Web Albums. Feel free to take a look in my page!

July 28, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Day 9

Yet another exhausting day. After breakfast (which was pretty late today because I woke up late), I headed to the Apple Store in 5th Avenue. Instead of taking the subway, I walked all the way down through Central Park which accounts for 40 streets and a couple of avenues. Doing so was pretty nice, as the views in Central Park are amazing — and which is the reason why my camera had 93 photos when I got home. Lots of tourists along the way, though, and a rather funny sign along the way:

Once in the Apple Store, I went downstairs. Wow. The place is big and really nice. But it was crowded. Stayed there for quite a while, trying their gadgets... and I think I want a real iPod. You know, the Shuffle I now have is OK for running... but not for other "styles" of listening to music (e.g. at work, on the plane...). Even though, I'm not sure which one I should get: the Nano is cool for running (no hard disk), but the Classic can perfectly hold all my music library. Even though, getting the Touch is stupid; I'd rather get an iPhone 3G for that price and size.

Out of the store, I felt hungry so I tried one of these typical hot dogs shown in virtually all movies and/or TV series recorded in NYC. Rather disappointing, though, because they are way too small... so when I got home I had to have real lunch.

After the hot dog, I walked to Rockefeller plaza to see what was it and then entered the NBC Experience Store. I saw a couple of nice t-shirts from Friends: one said "We were on a break!" and the other "How YOU doin'?". I think I'll eventually get one of those. But I should hold on the compulsive-buying feeling I'm experiencing...

And then I went to Times Square again to take a some (many) photos. Unfortunately, my journey ended there because it started to rain. So I entered a shop, bought a NY t-shirt and returned home much earlier than I wanted. It was only 4pm. Should I have waited for half an hour or so, the rain would likely have stopped.

As mentioned before, when I got home I had some more lunch, surfed the internet a bit and went running through Central Park taking a different route than the other days. Very, very nice. This is something I will miss a lot when moving to another apartment downtown :(

After the running session, I had dinner and... I can't stay here! So... I went out for a walk to see if I could find any nice bar to have a drink. Nothing. What a crappy neighborhood! Well, in fact I saw a couple of bars that seemed promising, but they were rather empty. Will try again another day.

And finally, time to relax. Will now watch some Dexter and sleep.

July 27, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 3 minutes)

Live@NYC: Day 8

Exhausting. Yes, that's the best word to describe today. I woke up early due to an unexpected phone call and went to have breakfast to some random place close to my current house. Then, and for the first time ever, I went to do the laundry. What a waste of time. Sure, I'd have returned home while the washing machine and the dryer were working but, taking 30 minutes each, it's difficult to do anything productive in these separate periods of time. I think that next time I'll just bring my clothes and let the people there do everything by themselves so that I can pick up the clean clothes in the evening... sure, you have to pay for that service, but it's worth the time savings!

Then I paid for this week's rent and, after that, headed downtown to deal with housing. I had to see a room at 4pm, so I went a couple of hours in advance to walk by the neighborhood and have lunch somewhere. It took a while to settle the lunch place, and I ended up in a, I guess, mexican restaurant, where I ate a burrito. The place was very touristic (aka, not cheap) but the food was really, really good.

Immediately after lunch, I went to see the room. This was in a 3-bedroom apartment located in Greenwich Village. Sincerely, the flat was quite disappointing (but most of them seem to be here in Manhattan), but the surroundings were, I think, excellent. Lots of bars and restaurants around which certainly warrants cool nightlife! If I take that place, I would shared it with a couple of guys in their mid-twenties too, so they'd have been good party-mates I guess.

Later, I walked to Google to see how long it took from the apartment to get there. I didn't take the most optimal route, but it was a 20-minute walk only; with some experience, I'm sure it'd transform into a 15-minute walk only. Why did I go to Google, you say? Well, to check the email and keep browsing Craigslist. (Side note: people here has a problem with air conditioning... it was so damn cold inside the building!)

Anyway, from there I called another person that was offering a room (I already exchanged some emails yesterday, so this was planned) and settled that I'd see it today but late in the evening. OK, so I went for a walk to make time and stopped by a supermarket to buy some food for breakfast. Then I walked back to Google because I had not heard from the girl (she was supposed to call me just an hour after I called her) and it was pretty late. From there I called again and, well, I had to wait until almost 10pm to be able to see the apartment because she got out of work late and still had to have dinner.

Buuuut, the good thing is that I was able to see this other apartment, which is just one block away from Google and pretty close to 5th avenue. I met the girl, a 28-year old mexican, and I think I finally have a place to stay. Quite cheaper than the other option, cool roommate, and a lot closer to work! She will confirm tomorrow, but I guess (well, hope!) I'm done looking.

And at last, headed back home and ate something for dinner. And here I am now, blogging and "enjoying" one of those alcohol-free beers.

So why was the day exhausting? I tracked my walk path on Google Earth and it was almost 10km-long! All day walking and carrying my laptop on the back... so it's time for a good sleep. Finally, the jet lag is going away.

July 26, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 3 minutes)

Live@NYC: Days 6 and 7

Wow. I got some complaints today for not publishing day 6 on time! Sorry, was too tired to write something yesterday evening.

So what did I do yesterday? It was a pretty regular day, with probably two things worth to note. First, I have not been able to find housing yet, so I asked my current tenant if I could stay one more week in the place where I am now; fortunately, it worked, so now I have one more week to look for something else. And, second, when I got home I went for a (very) short walk to find a decent bar in the neighborhood. Nothing! I really want to move to some other place with more nightlife to explore...

And what about today, you say? Well, some more work and, in the evening, I went for dinner plus a couple of drinks with several other interns. Finally tried one of these drinks with fancy names, colors and glasses — a daiquiri with strawberry — but it was pretty good indeed! I think I was the oldest of the group, given that most of the interns around here are still in undergraduate college courses... and it is really annoying to have to show one's ID in every single bar to get a drink served.

Tomorrow I have to go to see a couple of apartments and also to do the laundry in one of these ugly places... never done it so I will have to ask someone how the machines work and what the procedure is. I can't understand why most people don't have a washing machine at home! Lack of space?

And one last thing: if I keep up with the current reading "speed", I'll probably have a project assigned by next Wednesday. Really looking forward to it, as I want to start doing something cool and useful but... I don't know what I'll be able to tell you...

July 25, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 2 minutes)

Live@NYC: Day 5

Today was a pretty cool day. Everything was like usual, which means running by Central Park in the morning and then going to work... but then, in the evening, several interns met to go for some beers at some random bar in downtown. Had a pretty nice time there and met several people at Google!

Not much else to say, other than it´s already late and I need to sleep quite a bit. Oh, yes, I´m noticing that the English keyboard that I have at work is now confusing me while writing with my Spanish one!

Ah, and I can´t forget saying that living alone is soooo cool... nobody is watching around what I do. Can get at home at any time I want without giving any explanations at all. Sure, I have to do some work by myself, such as cleaning or the laundry, but those are a bearable enough compared to the feeling of complete freedom. Really.

July 24, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Day 4

Got up early (I'm still jet lagged so this is not difficult at all) and went running to Central Park. What a nice jogging track around the lake! Also surprising was the amount of people running at that hour of the day (7.30). Then I headed to Google early enough to have breakfast there and started to do some work. I'm starting to understand stuff, and it looks like that my work will be exciting! Can't wait until tomorrow to get there again and continue learning. I really wanted to experience this feeling again.

Then the typical stuff: had lunch, worked some more and even had dinner there. Having dinner early was good because then I went on foot up to Times Square. Just WOW. This place is small but amazing; it seems a completely different city on its own. Will need to go back again with my camera, which I wasn't carrying today. At last, done some shopping at CVS and went home. Now it's time for blogging and watching yet another episode of Dexter while enjoying a beer. (Well, how do I dare to call it a beer? It's alcohol-free. I picked it up incorrectly at the super market.)

So, finally today, I think I'm starting to really understand the subway system. A colleague at work, Patrick, explained me the rationale behind the local and express trains, which in fact seems a pretty good idea. I'll try tomorrow to pick the 4th or 5th to get to Google to see how long it takes. Let's hope the extra train switch doesn't make the trip last for more than the 6th on its own, or otherwise I'll probably miss breakfast.

Also, at Google today, I was trying to figure out how the expresso coffee machine worked and asked a guy that was using it. While he was explaining to me the details of how to use it, I quickly noticed that special English accent that Spanish people have (I do too for sure). Guess I'll have someone to go partying this weekend!

And at last I'm trying to figure out housing once again. I visited three different flats today. Let's hope I get an answer by tomorrow...

Phew, this blog is starting to look like a diary... well, will be good to remember this nice experience in the future.

July 22, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 2 minutes)

Live@NYC: Day 3

Today I spent most part of the day at Google. I took a tour through the offices, dealt with paperwork and chatted with my boss. I don't know what things I can say about what I saw, so I will only mention one thing: the place is great. Looks like it'll be hard to leave when the internship finishes!

Later this evening, I went shopping to Whole Foods per a suggestion from my boss. Everything in there seems pretty darn expensive but also of good quality. And the place was incredibly crowded.

Ah, and one more thing that surprised me about the city and that I forgot to mention yesterday: almost everyone who rides bikes wears a helmet. That's "hard" (not uncommon, just not typical) to see in Barcelona.

Last random note: my annoying journey to look for housing continues...

July 21, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 1 minute)

Live@NYC: Days 1 and 2

Finally, my adventure in NYC started yesterday. I had to pick up the flight at 14.50 but it got delayed by an hour. In the end, the plane landed at around 19.15 local time (which means a damn lot of hours inside the plane). Going through immigration and customs was boring but easy.

Getting into Manhattan was quite a mess though. Instead of picking a taxi, I decided to try to make my way through the subway system. So I first picked up the AirTrain and, instead of getting to the E train, which is the one I needed, I ended up in the A train. OK, looking at the map it was clear that A could take much more time to get to the destination than E, but it could bring me there anyway; so I waited for that train instead of going back. Going through Brooklyn took quite a bit, and when the train got to Manhattan, something happened (it was spoken out loud, but I couldn't understand it) and the train changed its way through another line. So I couldn't get to the station I planned and decided to get down in another one to later take the 6 line. However, to pick the 6 line in the correct direction, I had to go out of the metro system and reenter again at some other place. At this point I was so bored (due to carrying all luggage) and stressed that I stopped a taxi.

The thing is that I had to be at the apartment between 9pm and 10pm so that the tenant could give me the keys. As I was certainly going to be late, I attempted to call her when the plane landed, but she didn't pick the phone. As a result, when I got to the apartment, nobody was there. Uhh... scam? No. Fortunately, I could check my email through the mobile phone and saw a mail that told me to go to another direction to pick up the keys. This mail also had her mobile number, and I noticed that I had written it down incorrectly... hence why nobody picked it up before. So taxi to downtown again, pick up the keys, and another taxi uptown. Expensive, yes, but I was not going to attempt the subway again carrying all my stuff.

At around 11pm I got to the apartment, made the Internet connection work on my laptop and went to sleep. 30-hour long day finished. (Note to self: I had wished multiple times to have longer days. Don't say that again!)

As regards today, I have read the New York Times (pretty darn expensive), explored the surroundings of the apartment (located at the Upper East Side), checked the way to get to Google using the Subway (not that difficult, now that I wasn't stressed), had lunch downtown, bought a local SIM card for my cell phone and went running in Central Park. Yay!

Now, some things that have surprised me from the city so far.

It is amazing how widespread and easy is the use of credit cards to pay for virtually anything and everywhere (even inside the taxis!). Of course, it's also frightening the fact that there is no ID check for the use of the credit card, so losing it is... uh... scary. Also frightening is the way you spend money... virtual money is much easier to give away than physical one!

Tipping is annoying. Come on, just tell me how much I owe and don't make me figure out how much to add to make it right. You know, taxi drivers, waiters... everyone expects tips and there are some guidelines on how much you are supposed to leave. I guess some taxi drivers got angry yesterday...

The subway system is quite... "interesting". Everything seems very old, and the way it works is not too clear. Some stations don't open all day as others do, in some you have to change the direction by going outside, some trains don't have any clear indication of what is the next station... so far I think Barcelona's system is much nicer. Maybe except for the MetroCard.

Water is free. What do I mean with this, you say? This morning I sat down in a bar to get a coffee and, before I even ordered, the waiter served me a big glass with water and ice. Similarly, when having lunch, I also got water without having ordered it. And what's more, the waiter refilled the glass as it emptied.

Speaking of glasses... mixed drinks seem to be common here. The lunch menu included one mixed drink (some with champagne and some with vodka), and I saw several bars in which the happy hour started as early as 4pm. Oh, and the names for these drinks are quite "funny". Guess I'll have to learn them and what they are composed of.

I don't know which language to use to talk to people. Many of them seem to understand both English and Spanish.

The blocks in Manhattan are not as big as some people made me think. You can, in fact, do trips that span multiple blocks on foot.

And, at last, the weather is unbearably hot and humid. Not good for sweat.

July 20, 2008 · Tags: nyc
Continue reading (about 5 minutes)

Posts: Nyc