Still Sightseeing

Heh, life’s a blur at the moment. Everything feels a little surreal.

Did a little sightseeing on Saturday afternoon. Went down to lower Manhattan to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Arrived at the shoreline and started looking around for the statue. When I finally spotted her I was quite underwhelmed! She looks a lot shorter in person than in pictures I’ve seen.

The queue to the ferry was rather long and you could see people packed on the ferry. Wasn’t too keen to wrestle with the other tourists so I continued along my way. Made my way north to the financial district and came to the famous Wall Street. Saw the New York Stock Exchange and it was barricaded all round. Since 9/11, the world feels a little less safe as borders don’t mean much anymore. Attacks can happen anywhere at anytime. Only yesterday there was a foiled plot to bomb JFK airport. It is quite senseless, why anyone would want to do these things at all.

nyse

The NYSE.

gw

This is a statue of George Washington just around the corner.

Walked a little more and found my way to Ground Zero, where the World Trade Centre once stood. It felt kind of eerie, to stand so close to where it all happened. I still recall watching it unfold on the news back in 2001, and I was just shocked at it all happening.

Continued walking further up to City Hall, and bought myself an iron. Yes, an iron for my work clothes because I showed up at work on the first day with a really crinkly shirt and my boss commented. Heh, that’s all fixed now. Was near the Brooklyn Bridge and my colleague had recommended walking on it. There is a wooden pathway on the mostly metal bridge in the centre. I got on and it is very old, built in 1870 I think. Took most of my better photos here (as posted) and the lighting was just right at the moment. It’s a fair stretch to walk, connecting Manhattan all the way to Brooklyn. It’s a nice change, to be able to see the coastline.

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It’s raining now which is typical of summer weather here. Somehow find the rain soothing. Still missing familiar things very much.

Starting June

It’s the half year mark, and what a half year it’s been.

Heh, just looked back at what I wrote last year and it’s almost exactly the same thing, recognising the half year milestone. It’s good to have these posts to just check back and see what I’ve been doing. I do recall that period, with Vyanne making her Bak Zhang, and everyone who tried it loved it. The weather was also getting colder too, in contrast to it getting warmer over here. I don’t prefer either very much, as I tend to hibernate a little more during the initial stages of the cold as my body adapts to the lower temperatures. Then again, when it’s hot I just focus too much on the heat and not concentrate on my stuff. So it’s kind of like a Goldilocks scenario where you want it just right.

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It’s already nearly 3 weeks I’ve been in NYC, and the excitement has died down quite a bit. I’m just a little weary of things these days. There’s been a rush of emotions and none of that has done me too much good. Personally feel that I’m standing on lofty grounds on how I’m progressing with my stay here. On the one hand, I find the experience very refreshing (even if it is terrifying at times). There is so much to explore here in NYC, so much to learn. Everyday as I take in the city, the more I learn about the place, it’s history and culture. It has such a rich background that you do wonder about its past and there’s just so much to read about. Heh, can’t say I felt the same way about Melbourne when I was first there. It wasn’t much of a place, so I looked up Australian history instead. I was younger back then, so probably held less of an interest of these things.

My current role in my job is also an eye opener in the world of finance. Sure it feels like my colleagues are talking a foreign language when they discuss their stuff, but out of all that jargon, you manage to pick up little pieces that you start stringing together to make a more coherent whole. My current role allows me to see what I’ve been following up on the past 2 years since I started this job, and things are starting to make a little more sense. It can be quite exhilarating learning new things.

Then again, all the above seem to mean very little at times, especially after work when I go home. Exploring NYC alone gets tiring after a while, especially in such a big city when you have no direction of where you are going. I miss hanging out with friends, or just idle social chatting to keep the brain going. Communicating online just doesn’t feel the same, eventhough you can do it in real time now. There will always be the technological glitch where you miss something or when you are multitasking and things just slip through.

There is a tremendous amount of energy required to just keep oneself going. I do get that support at times from friends, family and prayer. It’s just that no one has any idea how it’s like to be far away from everyone and everything you know and trying to keep up with it. Sometimes, I just seem to fall short and trip myself over. It is hard to relax most of the time, when you have to watch over yourself every step of the way, to make sure that you are taking care of yourself. On my own, sometimes there’s just so much to handle it feels so daunting.

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I’m just giving myself a good go now, to see how things work out and by the end of this month, I’d know how I feel towards this new city, which is a little less foreign now, but still capable of swallowing me whole anytime if I’m not careful. Heh. Just need to be honest with myself, as this is not one of those things that I can ride out and hope it will sort itself out.