New York

A little bit about what's going on in my life before New York...after all it's been almost 4 months since my last post, and trust me, that's a lot. Well, wrote CFA level 1, cleared it; gave a job interview at Deutsche Bank, cleared it; and another few classified but significant things.(yea, i know insignifican things are not classified). And now all that is history and I am in New York.Now, the trip. arrived on 9th, with 2 other guys from the office, and another joined us during the week. have been put up very near to the wall street, the mecca of i-bankers and very near to the wtc site. went to times square a couple of times during the week; nice place; looks awesome with all the lights; walking down broadway was a good experience. then went shopping for some groceries.On Monday, 10th, joined office. Even though i knew that i would be working here from 7 in the morning, to quite often, 10 in the night; the first hand experience was overwhelming. At the end of first day, we were exhausted like if we had just finished a mental marathon; plus everything being so new and different was a little intimidating. One friend had already started looking forward to the flight back home!!! But as the week progressed, we got to know the ways of New York and the people in our respective teams and it became a lot easier. One big difference in the office culture from Mumbai is that here people get their meals on their desks and eat while working. Also, the food here is quite different and I am still not comfortably aware of the way a typical meal is structured here. But thanks to my teammates, I am getting to learn a little bit; have tasted quite different variety of dishes - mexican, japanese, typical american sandwich, and different types of meat.This weekend; saturday was spent electronic shopping, though the end result was just one laptop for me and a few things for the others. On Sunday, went on a ferry ride around Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. One needs a pre-booked time pass for entering the statue of liberty and hence we had to be content with alighting on the liberty island and taking a stroll there. The weather was nice, and the view of manhattan was awesome. Will make sure to get the time pass next time I visit the place. Next stop on the ferry ride was Ellis Island, where immigrants in the 19th and early 20th century used to come before entering US. They have made quite a good museum out of the place and the trip is recommended to anybody interested in history. Though I have no connection with the immigration saga, the visit to the place was great.In the evening, walked across the brooklyn bridge and went to the other side of the east river, a borough called Brooklyn. The view of Manhattan, all lighted up, from Brooklyn Bridge and then from the other side, from a dock near olden days' warehouses (the whole area is interestingly called DUMBO for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Passover; Manhattan Bridge being another bridge that connects Manhattan and Brooklyn and both bridges have their Brooklyn ends close to each other), was terrfic. Had always seen the view in wallpapers; first time got a taste of it in reality. We had planned to go to the Empire State Building; but was quite late by the time we came back from DUMBO and hence had to dump the plan. Let's see if we can do it this weekend.
A word on NY at the end. It is great; no doubts; with all the different background people living here; with all the activity and what not. But apna ghar apna hi hota hai. I am sure, most of those who come down and settle here would take a lot of time in really getting used to it.