take a look at my other view

desktopscan
Originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

the fun thing about getting a scanner (my very new, very sexy hp all-in-one psc 1350), is that you can create desktop images out of things that are actually on your desk, a picture of edie sedgewick of warhol's factory from pittsburgh's warhol museum, the always magnificent self-adhesive name badge, assorted coins and real gold, the occasional tea bag of art, and my shiny though largely empty compostion notebook.

different angle on my marvelous view

rncroadblock
Originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

another picture taken during the early days, the roadblock clearly visible. as the cops were the same ones everyday, i could see them getting to know the passersby, the drivers of the cars they kept stopping and checking, after a few days there were hugs and a lot of political conversations, the police were in the midst of renegotiating their contracts with the city. now the same street has been taken over with the usual suspects, men with their dogs, grandmas with ingenious shopping contraptions and a lot more bicycles than this arrogant little dutch boy was expecting.

finally online!

empireview1
Originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

now that i finally have internet access in my room, i can show everybody what my view looks like from this tiny airconditioned eleatorsized room of mine. this picture was taken on one of my first days here, the convention was still in full swing and the sun was still in summer mode (when i step outside today i'll notice that fall is closing in, the breeze and sudden rainstorms). the streets are a bit busier now, although never in full-on midtown gridlock mode, i finished my proust for the day and am looking forward to checking out some of the loftier thrift stores i've been passing on my way to 'school' (since it is called the new school i think i'll cal it that). i have two classes today, another one tomorrow, and then the reading/writing will begin again.

one of the pictures i took on my road trip: blue ridge parkway

one of the pictures i took on my road trip: blue ridge parkway
Originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

another interesting thing about these first days is the way i adapt. i
start mimcing gestures and americanised adjectives (Nice!), what's
especiaaly disturbing is the fact that, because i've been hanging out
with british and india residents, my previously flawless
neutro-american aacent is more and more drifting into a decidedly
cockney way of speech. i suddenly find myself ordering a bagel in
british, or switch accents at random within a sentence, very
disturbing.
my phone service is almost working, so i'll be able to call some
people soon (if only to say call me back..). in the meantime my days
pass quite languidly, hardly any planning in advance, which means that
i sudenly find myself in washington square park as night is falling,
watching the freshmen and their equally wide-eyed parents and siblings
crossing the square, probably looking out for their first sight of the
elusive olsen twins, all the while this band of musicians is
practicising behind me, invite members of the public to sing along to
songs of their choosing ('summertime', and finally a mass singalong to
the magnificent 'tiny dancer').
in the morning i was out to the salvation army store across the street
where bought some mugs, a bowl, a shirt and suit-jacket for that
strokesy new york 'harry potter in converses' look that went out of
fashion two years ago, still no sign of my laptop yet so i'm still
writing these missives from the severyly cold computerlab at school.
hope all of you are well and enjoying the occasional late night
park-walk, love en kus f.

second week, new friends and the final bureaucratic steps towards my renewed existence as a student

the past days of orientation have, as well as relieving a completely new sense of anxiety and a weird internal turmoil, fulfilled most of the ideals one can have of such events, my fellow students were very interesting and interested, mostly foreign but not acutely exotic (belgium, norway, england, canada), very fulbrighty (at least four of us in a group of 24) and the days have managed to fill themselves by the comfortable natural logic that seems to set in when you completely give yourself up to kafkaesque bureaucratic processes. i have now registered for classes, all very similar to the ones i took in maastricht (war and modernism, but i also got into a class about cultural criticism), my professor was really nice and talk of classes soon gave way to planning the first liberal studies party (we discussed music and assorted cocktails).
these are still the days were you answer the same basic questions more than twenty times a day (liberal studies at the graduate faculty, dutch, i learned it from tv) in the elevator, on the steps in front of the building, walking home after buying multi-coloured clotheshangers. you are constantly forgetting everybody's names or pronouncing them wrong, going out to dinner with a few people, others tag along, you meet people on the way, and end up getting home really late, because you were discussing the particular soothing qualities of certain hollywood blockbusters (or the inherent absurdities of the american political system versus the divine nature of holland and its so-called liberal tendencies).
I've also been walking around, trying to get my internal compass in order (east west, streets, avenues, blocks, subway lines, that nice bookstore and the cheap supermarket), realizing you are closer to home (not yet home to me now, more like bunk, or place) because the skyscrapers before you, are the same as the ones outside your window. embarassingly enough, i still haven't seen central park, and i missed the big march because i was moving all my stuff (and because i was stuck in chaotic demonstration traffic waiting for a cab to take my new tv/mind control device back up eight avenue).
i saw my first celebrity last week when i was at toys-r-us where fellow fulbrighter mark was buying a bike, it must have been a sign of hope because i saw the lead singer of the polyphonic spree, a particularly overhappy and megajoyous crew of about 27 bandmembers. i guess i'm doing fine (just got another email, saying that i have to re-inform big brother of my change of address, oh the joys of beingdependent on forms and signatures) and i hope you all are too, love en kus,
f.

first post (from the very quiet, except for the insistant hum of the ac, computerlab of new school university)

hi everybody, just a few days now before i move into manhattan for real, it has been quite a wild (at least for my meagre standards) ride up to now, 2600 miles through the us, seeing enormous amounts of trees, plus the added wild animal (bear, deer, raccoon, bobcat, squirrel, and all kinds of birds), in addition to the miraculous duplication of motels, chainstores and fast food restaurants. new york has been very kind to me, as i've seen some nice films (the ever wonderful donnie darko now in its dc, the charming garden state, and today i hope to follow these up mean creek).
tomorrow will feature my first concert, albeit a classical one (oh the merry bonuses of being a 'fulbrighter'), on a barge by brooklyn bridge oevrlooking the, for me, still magical skyline of ny. my fulltime occupation of wideeyed newcomer has so far prevented me from enjoying more than a little of the other cultural life available here: i've bought but not quite finished the new daniel clowes comic about a smoking superhero, and am still reading the same very thin vonnegut i started by a manmade lake/golfing resort in georgia last week. i hope to show you a couple of shots of my new room soon, but that will have to wait until things have settled down, as next week will bring the republican convention, just a few blocks from my new place of residence, as well as orientation, registration, an english test, and the other crazy activities one normally would associate with the first weeks of class, love en kus,
f.