Mostly about me, too boring?

Hi all.

I know. I've been really really lazy. I thought often to write about my Christmas holidays in New York City, but until they will create an interface from my brain to my computer, thinking about it won't be enough.

So now I'm here, two weeks later, writing about NYC. I loved the city.
I left Milan the 26th of December and I came back the 6th of January. So about 10 days. I had a very good time there and it's hard to explain what I liked the most.

I think the greatest thing of NYC has been how nice it was to stay at a friend's place. Melanie, a friend I met in Turkey in 2005, hosted me during this holiday. During my project in Istanbul I used to walk back and forth on Istiklal Caddesi looking for people to hook up with. And then I saw these two girls sitting on their own, chatting in English. I went there, I introduced myself and I asked if I could have a drink with them. They accepted and this is how it started. We had quite a good time together, discovering nice restaurants and playing Backgammon. Melanie was supposed to be a backgammon champion, but somehow I managed to win after just a couple of days playing with her... ;-)

After Turkey we tried to keep in touch, and when Paola (an Italian friend) invited me to spend Christmas holidays in NYC, I was very happy thinking about the chance to meet Melanie and Baris. Baris is an old friend (we know each other since more than five years now) that I was very close to back in Finland in 2000. He then moved to live in New York.

So much about the background story. Let's talk about the trip. Of course I did everything that a respectable tourist in NYC has to do. Central Park, Broadway, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, ...

But most than everything, what I will always remember about the trip was Mel's life. Chatting with Lisa, the next door neighborhood, or having xxx coming down from his flat to smoke in Mel's apartment (sorry for the missing name... I'm bad with names). The dinner at the pool bar (it's weird, I know, but this was NYC!!!!), playing a crazy table soccer match against two asian guys while one of them was just shouting, whatever happened: a goal done, a goal taken, a fast ball, a slow ball, everything. The dinner in Jersey city talking about how hot was Lisa's butt with that particular pair of jeans while eating a very good spaghetti and meat balls...

Most than everything, I saw what kind of life I'd like to have, and I saw how far it is from my own. Probably this is why I didn't want to write this blog entry. ;-)

What else? I really have to mention two more things: my incredible camera, that costed me about two salaries, but I really love playing with it and the junk in the box (if you don't know what I'm talking about, YOU HAVE TO SEE IT):

1) Cut a hole in a box
2) Put your junk in that box
3) Let her open the box, this is how you do it!

By the way... 10 days after my return to Helsinki I was sent to Mexico... But this is an other blog entry...

One last thing: shower is not a sin. ;-)

Ciao,

alfonso