Sont fous ces Américains et autres trucs insolites

Pendant ces vacances, mesp'titscocos, j'avais l'oeil ouvert, la tête en l'air et l'appareil photo toujours à portée de main. Je voulais capter un maximum de choses, je voulais m'imprégner. Mais, évidemment, je gardais mon regard d'Européenne et de Française donc il y a des choses qui semblaient tout à fait normales là bas et qui m'ont semblé complètement insolites.Petits instantanés et à vous de juger !

Un petit coiffeur de quartier dans East Village. Traduction pour ceux qui ne parlent pas anglais : "Nous faisons tous les types de coupe de cheveux - 10$" !! Notez, dans la vitrine, le petit drapeau américain : le drapeau est partout, partout, partout, partout, même dans les églises et temples et, j'imagine, synagogues. Ca aussi, c'est un truc qui serait inconcevable en France, ce serait la révolution dans le 1/4 heure qui suit !J'avoue, je n'ai pas eu le courage d'aller essayer les différents "types de coupe de cheveux"...!Pour continuer avec les coupes de cheveux, cette dame marchant devant moi :

Notez la mèche de cheveux assortie au sac à main et aux tongs... Un registre où l'insolite est à tous les coins de rues à New York, ce sont les chiens.Déjà, truc pas incroyable mais qui nous peut nous paraître incroyable : il y a pas mal de chiens mais quasiment aucune crotte de chien sur les trottoirs : tout le monde ramasse et plutôt deux fois qu'une car il paraît que l'amende est énorme. Et ça, voyez vous, nous pourrions en prendre de la graine, car je suppose que dans les photos insolites des américains venant en France, on peut retrouver des dizaines de crottes de chien...Ce que l'on voit beaucoup à New York (et sûrement ailleurs aussi), ce sont les "dog walkers" (ou "promeneurs de chiens"), sorte de petit métier souvent exercé par des jeunes qui consiste à sortir et à balader les chiens dont les propriétaires travaillent. Ils ont souvent 3 ou 4 chiens au bout de leur laisse.Et quand les chiens sont fatigués ou veulent se faire une petite beauté :

Allez hop, un petit tour au spa pour chiens !! Ce genre de structure peut aussi garder votre chien à la journée ou pour des séjours plus longs ! Celui là était dans Chelsea mais, quand j'en ai parlé à des gens qui vivent là bas, ils n'étaient pas du tout étonnés, donc c'est peut être quelque chose d'assez courant... Comme ceci d'ailleurs :

A côté du Tompkins Park (juste à côté de notre appartement), un parc exclusivement réservé aux chiens !!! Tout à fait officiel, avec un règlement très précis :

En gros, pour les principales règles :- pas de chien non accompagné- pas de personne sans chien (!!!!)- pas de jouet pour chien : les jouets créent des bagarres (!!!!!!!!!)- pas de chien agressif - pas de chienne en chaleur- surveillez votre chien en permanence : s'il fait un trou, bouchez le (!!!!!!!!)- si votre chien est pris dans une bagarre, échanger vos coordonnées avec l'autre propriétaire et partez (!!!!)- amenez les infos à votre propre risque. les enfants douvent rester assis- tous les chiens doivent être tatoués et vaccinés- nettoyez après votre chienEt pour que les choses soient bien claires :

"Personnes accompagnées de chiens uniquement !"Et, forts de toutes ces règles, vous voyez tout ce petit monde s'amuser allègrement :

Notez la sculpture en forme d'os (à gauche) pour bien enfoncer le clou !!Sont fous ces Américains !Bientôt, d'autres images insolites...

Cute Guys in Central Park

Mylittlechicks, post especially made for ladies !
One of the things which much surprised me in NYC (wonderful surprise actually) was the incredible density of... cute (very cute, handsome, good looking, sexy) guys !
Between 25 and 40. Irresistible. But I did resist. Indeed.
French guys are not ugly, no, but, you know, despite their reputation, I was fed up to see them every day. They were not cute anymore for me.
Well, the truth is that I haven’t seen any French guy very close for a very long time because, as you know, monamericain, my big last love, was obviously... american !
But. All these New Yorkers were so ‘wriggling’... Looking at them every day, I was...sparkling ! My friend V too. And she can’t be accused to be a really sparkling girl.
Please note that we didn’t use our french accent to try to charm them. We were perfectly loyal with the New York girls.
I should anyway admit that New York girls aren’t less ‘wriggling’ with their short shorts and their mini mini skirts... So I’m not sure that we could have won the game. But we didn’t try, I promise.
I was wondering how this city could be so full of so cute guys though the probability that a lot of cute guys live in such crowded city was big. I know that I’m usually indulgent with American men as well. But, that IS the TRUTH : NYC is crowded of cuuuuuute guys !
Why ?
SPORT.
Sport, mylittlechicks.
SPORT.
They do sport. They (she-they) do sport.
Mylittlechicks, let’s do sport !
You know, there are sport clubs every corner of every block, in every basement or terrace of every building.
And there is... THE PARK... Central Park.
I swear that my friend V and I didn’t go to the Park on Saturday to see cute guys. I swear. Believe me. We just wanted to live our ‘New York Way of Life’ so we decided to eat seated on the grass (my white trousers passed away but war is war mylittlechicks) and to walk to find the bicyles rental area. Then, we rent a bicycle without any brake (american bicycles ???), 9$ per hour and we rode alongside, the whole loop, below a sunny sky, with a light breeze and... Riders, skaters, runners, rollermen... Naked chest.
Yes.
This was one of the more pleasant moments of a pleasant moments full vacations...
Because we were allowed to watch. To look at. To contemplate. To enjoy.
Help me, I feel sick !
We aren’t selfish V and I and we wanted that our French friends also enjoy whats we were discovering in this big and interesting country. (and we were also afraid that nobody wants to believe us when we’re back in France).
So, we, it was an idea of mine, but WE, took photos.
Yes.
Please note that the cutest were already gone when I had this wonderful idea. But I had these ones :
(Enjoy ladies !) :

New York City August 2007 - My loft !

I’m a little bit late but here is the following post about my trip in New York City.
Mylittlechicks, may I introduce you... ‘my’ loft ?!
As you know I decided to rent an apartment for my stay in New York. This was a great way of staying, offered by travel agencies or the Lonely Planet guide. I finally found an agency on the internet : www.urbanliving.net and found an apartment thanks to Fred-Alex’s advices (the man of the agency) who spoke fluently French : a 304 sq feet loft in East Village located in this building :

The apartment was at the 3rd floor, where you can see the curtains. It was very big and my friend V and I were really comfortable !
Urban living gave me (for an huge commission !!) e.mail and address of Mary Jo, the owner of the apartment and we had decided to meet each other at the apartment when we arrived from the airport. I was a little bit scared : if this organization was phoney ? If there wasn’t any apartment ? Well I hadn’t paid for the rent yet so it wouldn’t have been the end of the world but it was 10:30 pm (NYC’s time – 4:30 am Paris’ time), I had left home since 8:45 am (Paris’ time – 2:45 am NYC’s time), I didn’t want to walk all around New York to find an hotel !
Fortunately, I rang at the nr3 and Mary Jo appeared and opened the door : my first chance to show my new English speaking !!

Here is the entry of the building and the corridor. There was a little garden behind and an apartment in the basement. There were three of them in the whole building. The corridor was decorated with very ‘special’ paintings, with naked women together and such things !! Bizarre... !
Well, if I want to be honest, I have to say that this part of the building didn’t smell very good, something like vomit ?! Though I was very enthusiastic when I arrived, I was a little bit upset with this smell...
But it was ok inside the loft and V and I were very happy about what we were discovering : space, painted concrete flooring, air conditioning, huge screen TV, Music, big kitchen, huge fridge : our american way of life could start !

Ikea kitchen, huge fridge, air conditioning, weird details like bizarre paintings and a poodle below the closet, 2 huge rubish bins (one for usual garbage, one for packagings).

The 2 first doors were closets’s doors. We didn’t use these closets because they weren’t very clean...! The loft was actually less modern than I had thought watching the photos on the website and much less modern that V and me had imagined apartments in New York City ! Well, travelling is also that : realize than cities aren’t as modern and comfortable as we could imagine. On the left, the door of the restroom (same : not really modern...!!!). Owner’s stuffs were still in the closets, I suppose she lives here sometimes even though she said she lives in her husband’s appartment few blocks away (husband ??? With all these naked women paintings in her loft ???!).
On the left, are the bathroom and the washing machines.

The main room with different kinds of sofas, like a ‘bric à brac’ ! All was old and odd but funny anyway. And everywhere, pieces of ‘doubtful’ art !
Curtains were closed during the day because of the heat. We switched on the air conditioning as soon as we came in the apartment (air conditioning is very useful in New York in August : if you want to rent an apartment, choose one with air conditioning, believe me). Mary Jo asked us to switch it off when we left home to save energy (like an ‘help us to save the planet’ thing !).
Air conditioning was very convenient but very noisy because the machine was inside the apartment so it was very wearing out after a while.
There was a door on the right to go to my bedroom where I slept like a baby despite of outside noises.
V and I felt very free and good in this apartment : we almost felt like real new yorkers ! V told me : ‘you could do a lot of things to decorate such a place !’. It’s true that this loft had an unexploited potential...
We didn’t use the kitchen a lot because it was so easy to eat outside that we didn’t want to bother ourselves with cooking and washing up : minimum efforts ! We took our breakfast there (very pleasant not to have to get dressed to go to a Starbucks or to an hotel’s restaurant to have our breakfast). V brought her Nescafé from France and I brought my chocolate powder : Perfect !
We bought food at the Associated market downstairs. We bought delicious white bread (not like french bread, like ‘pain de mie’), pepsi max and delicious seltzer water.
To do the laundery, I studied these machines :

I didn’t want to spend all my time cleaning the apartment up (and Zu, the Brazilian cleaning lady came once) but I had to wash the sheets and towels (Mary Jo provided them) because my friend C came after V was left. And I really wanted to feel like home (New York home) and do the laundery like a very busy new yorker !!
I don’t know if you’re going to enjoy this ‘every day life’ post but this was exactly what I wanted to live when I came to NYC : every day life and not being a tourist.
Everything was almost perfect except... the bathroom.
V and I were really enthusiastic the first night when we arrived but when we saw the bathroom, we realized that it’d be unpleasant to take showers in such a place... I thought that American people really cared about cleanliness and hygiene... Then, I was really disappointed ! They can talk about French people ! We used the kitchen’s sink to brush our teeth ! And regarding the bath, after the first shower, water refused to disappear : the stuff was blocked up... We found a magic product in the closet and V found a suction pad !

I had to go to NYC to learn how to use a suction pad ! Unbelievable !
It worked. But we had the same problem the day after and we hadn’t product anymore and the suction pad didn’t work either. I didn’t want to call the plumber because I know it’s very complicated in my own language, so imagine in a foreign language !
The situation became worse when, after the big storm (tornado in Brooklyn), the water level rised : imagine : a tide in a new york’s bath ! I was scared of the flooding so I made a big decision : even though I was in NYC, I’d use the old ways : I emptied the bath with buckets !!

Here, you can see me in pyjamas, emptying the bath...
New York way of life you said ??!...

New York City August 2007 - East Village

Here it is, mylittlechicks, as I told you, this post is the first of my New York’s trip diary. (from 29th of July to 10th of August).
I hope it’ll make people who don’t know yet feeling like going there and I hope i won’t be too boring for others !
Anyway, your comments are welcome !
Obviously, I’m going to star with telling you about “my” neighborhood, which was East Village, east of Manhattan, as you can see on the map :

New York City (New York State) is composed of 5 borroughs : the bets known Manhattan (the “real New York” for Europeans), Brooklyn, the largest, below Manhattan, on the right, one of the most crowded city in US. The Queens, above Brooklyn, the Bronx, above the Queens and Staten Island, below Manhattan, on the left. Harlem is a part of Manhattan.
Manhattan is an island and is composed of a lot of neighborhoods (few are written on my map).
Manhattan is actually divided into (from up to down) Harlem (in the north), Central Park (or “The Park”), Upper West Side (west of Central Park), Upper East Side (east of Central Park), Midtown, just below Central Park where the most important and the tallest buildings are, Times Square etc and, Downtown.
Downtown is divided into several neighborhoods which have changed a lot for the last 20 years : Chelsea and the Meatpacking District (become very importants areas of galeries of art), Greenwich and the West Village, trendy and rich neighborhood (a lot of gays with a lot of money live there), Tribeca (just below West Village) where real estate has become very expensive since Movie Stars start to buy apartments there, Soho, neighborhood of artists ans shopping, Little Italy, very nice small part of Italy, step by step devoured by the octopus Chinatown, which extends now from Financial District to Soho and East Village. And, the Financial District with Wall Street and the World Trade Center become Ground Zero. And, then, East Village, where I stayed in the apartment I rent to a New Yorker.
There are no very tall buildings Downtown (except in the Financial Distric) as they can be Midtown : Towers are in the Financial District and, most of the time, they are offices buildings. Downtown’s neighborhoods are shopping and living areas (well, for people who can afford an apartment in Manhattan...).
East Village, “my” neighborhood looks like that :

And that :

East Village was known to be a drop out area and had been pretty dangerous until the end of the 80s. It’s become more and more “bourgeois” for 15 years (like the whole City) and it’s now pretty safe.
However, the “special spirit” of East Village can always be felt with tatoos and piercings shops (a lot of New Yorkers, even women, wear tatoos, – I even saw one with all his face covered by tatoos !), with drop out or “lost” people and homelesses. I saw a lost couple who was sleeping in the street, on the sidewalk or in the Tompkins Park. Homelesses are got away from the park at night by the NYPD. It’s sader than anywhere else because you feel than you can easily become a homeless in a city like NYC... That could happen and that could happen very quickly.
East Village is a very nice and very creative area. A lot of “Latinos” live there and spanish is spoken a lot.
People don’t hesitate to express themselves on the walls !

Very small shops (in the basements) are also very creative. I liked this cute dog very much !!

Everywhere in Downtown in the morning, you can see the metal plates opened. Very steeply stairs go to shops’s stocks or restaurants’ kitchens (not always very attractive !!). There are often floodings in these basements (it happened during the big storm last week).

What you can see in these basements is very different from what you can imagine a huge town like New York City. Europeans think that NYC is a very modern city : not at all ! Some stuffs are very old in this town and facilities are actually very often timeworn (big problems of plumbing, electricity etc).
For example, New York City is also that :

Mountains of garbage bags (here is a small sample) put down every night and taken away every morning. Which means that in summer, with heat and humidity, mylittlechicks, sorry to disappoint you, but it isn’t always smell good in NYC’s streets !!
But they have this splendid king of garbages trucks :

East Village is also known for its private little gardens cared by people of the neighborhood : These people are very creative to care of their small green areas !

And, then, as it was summertime, we could see everywhere children and teenagers playing soccer, basket ball or base ball on sports grounds which made me think of West Side Story !

Well, mylittlechicks, I hope you enjoyed the sighseeing tour !
Tomorrow I’ll show you my loft !

From the sky

I’m back, mylittlechicks.
Of course you can imagine that I don’t really know what time it is or if I need to sleep or not. Because I had an exhausted trip with connectiong flight in Madrid and my first plane left JFK in late. In Madrid I had to run to go to the right terminal.
As I was saying there, Dream vacations, really. Just because I felt good and free there. Very far from what it is so heavy in my “real life” here in Paris. In NYC, eyes look at the sky. And travelling means adventures.
I got back many things for you, especially photos, to try to show you new york way of life. Well, What I felt about it, actually. I have to file all this and I’ll show it in few days.
Now, I give you what I wrote in the plane, last night.
Be cool, I was tired and the lady seted next to me put her denture in and off every ten minutes !!

Wrote in the plane somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean, 9th of August night :

“There were these square designed grey concrete sidewalks. There were these blocks walked in, uptown, midtown. These avenues crossed always in the same order : Fifth Ave, the most beautiful, Ave of the Americas, Seventh Ave. There was the Empire State building with “cartoon motion cars” below. There were heat, humidity, sun, chilly air conditioning. And a cool breeze. And the Booklyn bridge.
There were these worldwide faces. Sure to be in the right place in the right time. These foreign languages, everywhere, mixed in each corner of each block.
There was the city, huge meeting place of the whole world.
We walk, we walk until our feet are hurt. We want to see everything, breathe every detail. We don’t want to miss the thing which makes us more than tourists.
We’re not really only tourists anymore. We’re home. Everybody is probably home sooner or later, in this city which gives chance to everyone.
We don’t dream about America : we ARE in America.
Buildings seem already less tall but they always have their own majesty.
We already have our favorite places and habits.
There isn’t something we don’t like yet. Except these people who speak so loudly in the restaurants. And these american “dolls”. Speaking loudly too and smiling all the time.
They’re good looking, slim and they wear shorts.
We’re told American people don’t really talk, they only chat. Everything is always sooooo “GREEEEAAAT”, “AMAAAAZING” or “TERRRRIFIC”. But we’re told there is nothing behind words.
They don’t always talk about the world, they don’t do “world’s makeovers” as French people do. Their government takes care of that for them. Not always with the best taste.
New Yorkers are polite and do sport. Not bad anyway.
I saw thousands of “monamericains” in New York City streets. Same look, maybe. Each time I feel plenty of tenderness. Once or twice I believe he’s in front of me. He’s not. Monamericain doesn’t go to NYC in August : too much farenheits and humidity.
I observe men in the streets, without any guilt. They are cute, most of the time. More than in Paris.
I say that because I’m in a plane, somewhere in the sky between New York City and Paris. And because this plane is bringing me back home.
The air hostess, eyes over blue made up, sees my Abercrombie t.shirt and says she likes this store very much. Me too. She offers me drink. And “chicken or beef ?”. Chicken.
I read “Hell” (Lolita Pille – French writer).
Home.
There I also felt like home. I was seriously wondering if I’d be able to live in the city when I was there. I mean, not like something you can talk about but like something you can really think about. I really that, except my family, I wouldn’t leave a lot of important things in my Paris’s everyday life. I feel weird when I realize that.
But this is an illusion. A “sky” illusion : there I could love someone and beloved by someone. That’s not true.
Life is hard there : work, competition, money, no vacation, no health insurance, 5 women for 1 man, wedding obsession...
But I was thinking of it.
At home, everything is always too small.
But this is only because of my eyes.”

I’m home now.
And I feel lucky.