Welcome to New York City! I'm so psyched to be here for as long as even these short two and a half months. I'm going to try and pack everything I can into my time here... But that's already talking about a lot! I have a running list, I'll have to edit it frequently, but I'll post it here for myself and others soon. So much to do! I already love this city :).
Yesterday my Dad drove me up to NYC and we took it easy. We stopped at a very great trattoria called "Ornella" in Astoria, Queens, and I unknowingly chose their best dish - Buscatini, I think it was called - veal, chicken, California spinach, wild mushrooms, some cheeses all in one giant envelope-shaped pasta, like a giant ravioli. That and some Italian flan, several glasses of red wine and a complimentary shot of limoncello from Sergio, our caring waiter, and having the place unusually to ourselves made it a wonderful, extremely delicious experience! Go, if you can! Funnily I think I saw Sergio on the streets tonight...
Finally I arrived at Sophie's apartment in Astoria where I'll be staying for a week before I move into my real apartment (read: "dorm"), EHS, on the border of East Harlem ("El Barrio", Spanish Harlem) and the Upper East Side, 97th and 3rd. Sophie's place is small but pretty much all I would need! I have a small furnished room and the bed on which I currently am is very comfy. A shame I didn't know about it sooner, could have saved thousands on rent by living outside of Manhattan.. From here I walk 10 minutes to the N/R/W subways and the subway ride should be about the same as my ride on the 6 starting next week. (Hopefully that will be air conditioned!...) At EHS, I'll only walk two blocks to the subway, however.
Day 1 at Bloomberg was amazing. The building is beautiful and so well designed, filled with all kinds of art of various colors and shapes... A giant spiral of a couch to sit on, sculpture and light fixtures, and rainbows of color in large draperies and everywhere you look. Keystones of the principles Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who founded the company in 1981, set forth for the company are transparency - everyone can see what everyone is doing, and the same data - and a flat hierarchy, where no one really has a title over anyone else. Keeping that in mind, they designed the building with glass walls for every room, so everyone can see who is where.
Some cooler features of the building include a curved escalator - one of apparently 6 or 7 in the world - and a green room with polarized glass where you can see in but not see out. Film studios are right there in the building, and you can see the filming live. There are 22 evocative fishtanks, a koi pond among them, througout the building as well. And there are 3 "pantries" where you can walk up and get whatever you want to eat for free. It's truly comfortable and beautiful!
I'll be working the R&D department, under a project involved with "EMS Core Systems" or something... I have no idea what that is... But I will soon! For now, I'm in intern training until Tuesday. Today, we learned a lot about the Bloomberg proprietary software - which they call with narcissism "a Bloomberg," and I find that kind of odd... "Did you log into your Bloomberg?" Like saying, "Have you opened your Keleher lately?" But whatever, Mike's the mayor of NYC, and the founder of this company, and donator of probably a billion dollars to JHU for the building in which I have classes and a cappella concerts, so, I'm not complaining :).
Ah, I must sleep. I'm over my bedtime by a lot, but I wanted to write for posterity. Look for some pics soon. Also, I ran for a mile and a half this evening! Kudos to me. Looks like everything's turning around :).
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