Saturday October 14: Arrival in NYC

Hello all,

I've finally arrived, be it 2 weeks later than anticipated, but I'm here to stay [for the next 6 months]!!!

After what looked like a tremendously long flight [by the way, never fly SN/American Airlines economy class -> the meal is horrible, the movies are crap & the seats very uncomfortable] I finally landed at JFK on Saturday afternoon. Getting through immigration proved to be quite though. It took me approximately 2.5h to be 'accepted' on US territory, which is far worse than what I experienced in Moscow last year.

But enough bad news: sunny weather and temperature around 9°C (~ 48° Fahrenheit) welcomed me once I got outside the airport building. The taxi ride from JFK to Manhattan takes about 45 minutes. Most taxi drivers seem to be extremely talkative and this one proved not to be different; Amongst many other interesting facts, I've learnt that he is a Romanian engineer who came to the states after Ceaucescu's fall and who drives his cab as a second job to finance the refurbishment of his home...

Below a picture of my first view on Manhattan from the taxi (with on the left the Empire State Building)



Tipping people seems to be the national sport: Let's see who I had to tip to get my stuff to my room:
* The cab driver when getting out of the taxi
* The guy who took the luggage from the taxi to the reception
* The guy who stored the luggage (my room was not ready yet; to be honest, I didn't tip this guy)
* The guy who took my luggage from the storage room to my room
New York hotels (in my case the W hotel on Times Square) are bastards in stealing your money but fair is fair: the hotel is top class & when I entered my room I discovered this great view on Times Square:





Anyway, I'll be in this hotel until Wednesday when I can finally move into my appartment in Battery Park.