When you sleep and do NOT hear the fire-alarm in a 26-story building and you are on the twentieth floor, you are, well, not extremely well off, to put it nicely.

Last week was a week of fire alarms. The first one was, I think the weekend before the beginning of last week. I was sleeping heavily (it was 2pm), and I heard a strange bell. I disregarded in my sleep until, I think, 5 minutes later when another alarm (POWER ALARM) went off (I want an alarm clock like that), which woke me up instantly. I realized it was the fire alarm and I quickly got dressed. I admit, I stood for 30 seconds with my clothes on, wondering whether I should bring my newly purchased computer with me (with all my photographs on) and my camera (also with photographs in it), but no, I went down twenty stories by stairs.

6 fire trucks came, and they found, after some time, a guy had been cocking and that the heavy smoke development had set off the fire alarm. Now we know that it works.

Two other fire alarms went off, but they were drills (we did not know beforehand), but could quickly enter the buildings again (not as above…. all the firemen had to check the building). One was at school, another one here at the dorm.

(And, yes, I know that I promised you stuff on Monday, but I am very very very very very busy… I have to hand in two problem sets tomorrow, so you’ll have to wait a little more for crisp pictures from museums, the Yankees - you name it - cause that’s what comin’ at ya.

My parents arrived yesterday on September 11 to visit me here in New York.

And here we are, the three of us (well guess who’s behind the camera; it’s my Frappucione in the lower right corner - UHM) drinking a GrandeJavachipFrappucinoWhippedCream (to be said very fast!). After one of those you’ve really had a drink! But it fits well with the warm, nice weather we have right now in NYC. Jealous, anyone?

Hi mom and dad!

PS>
Actually, my dad took a picture of me at the same place - you can see the Starbucks cup in the bottom of the picture. Of course, this has been through my PS CS.

I was trying to find a more attractive title to this entry - but I don’t think I would able to capture all the emotions, the atmosphere, the despair (and at the same time) resolve, which characterize this day, and, subsequent to 9/11 01, Americans.

September 11 started with 4 minutes of silence at Ground Zero, the place where the Twin Towers collapsed - at the time of the two impacts and at the time of the two collapses. Family to the victims and many other people gathered during the day, and the names of the thousands of victims were read out loud. The relatives of the victims were allowed to enter Ground Zero (which is fenced off for the public), and lay flowers in the footprints of the Towers.As the evening came closer, A Tribute In Light started (as the other years), which is two projected light beams (consisting of several smaller beams) vertical into the sky, symbolizing the Twin Towers.

All over Manhattan, flags were half pulled, and there were different kinds of memoralia in stores such as pictures, cards etc - everyone telling their own story. All New Yorkers, it seems, has a story to tell about 9/11.

It is hard to believe that two of the world’s largest buildings stood just where I was taking these pictures. New York is moving on as smoothly as haven’t they been there at all, but they will never forget. Rising from the tragedy, next year the construction of the two Freedom Towers will begin at the WTC site. They will be 1776 feet tall, symbolizing the year the United States gained their independence.

Thanks to the subway system of New York it is relatively easy to get across town (with emphasis on relatively) - which is one of the good things to say about the NYC metro. On the flipside is the overall attractiveness of the metro; something is obviously left for improvement.

However, the subway makes way for some excellent motives - and I couldn’t help myself when I saw the above, and I shot a series of photos. This one turned out OK and with a little editing it’s not bad at all.

We came from the subway. It’s great. It takes you were you want to go - cheaply. But it’s very hot on the stops (not in the trains - great air conditioning), no info on when the next train comes - and it doesn’t smell too good. That aside, people are friendly, you easily fall into conversation with people in the subway, which is a characteristic we do not see in Denmark that often - in that sense I guess New Yorkers are rather friendly.

Below, you’ll find another edit of the subway phone. Let me hear whichever you like best. Ciao.

I guess all of you know this, and so do I, but let’s just recap for a second. Digital Images knock 35mm film off the field.

I have for several years loved to edit images of every kind (both photographs and other graphics) - but it’s a little more fun with a good digital camera. The above photo is taken with my Digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) on Hudson River, while I was taking a boat tour around the entire of Manhattan.

The bridge you see in the picture is the George Washington bridge and is a main route of traffic between New Jersey and Manhattan - I don’t know how many lanes of traffic that is on that bridge; MANY. Anyhow, I think it is a nice picture, but I could not help myself from playing a little with my software. The result is below.

Recall the trip to Yankee Stadium the other day, where we, well, missed a game, because of the Florida team could not make it in time. As I already mentioned, there was plenty of time to photograph the nice stadium - and some portraits of my three roommates.

Below, you’ll find some black/white edited photos I took of Paolo, Erik, and Mark, respectively, at the Yankee Stadium. I think that the portraits make out for some great photography and image editing (or what do you think ;-))

Well - you haven’t been to school, if you haven’t been to school in the US. It’s as simple as that.

OK, maybe it is an overstatement, but US universities (both mine and the other ones having Danish exchange students) have so many facets compared to the Danish ones, that you are actually prepared to pack your bags and study here for good. For instance, NYU has two enormous sports centers that would make any Danish commercial center go home crying. As soon as I get some pictures from there I’ll post them. And that’s just one example of what they can do better (and bigger).

What is unusual from a Danish university is the amount of “young” people I see in the hallways and on-campus in general. I’m not sure at which age they start college; my Italian-American roommate says they start at 18. If that’s the case, I would say that most 18 year-olds (and 19 and 20) are relatively less mature than their Danish pendants. However, I will try to dig into it, and check whether they really start at 18 or before, because they really don’t look 18 (that is, the “young” people I see…. I of course also see people, who could be in my Danish class, which is the vast majority).

Above, a picture of the place where I have all my classes, and, if you can call it that, the headquarters of the Leonard N Stern School of Business.

…had to be something special of course, so my roommates and I went to the Bronx to watch, what you might call America’s national sport, baseball. We had bought tickets a long time ago, so we were pretty excited. We came to the stadium way ahead of schedule, but it allowed us to eat before the game, and to walk inside the stadium without being disturbed too much; and ample time for photo ops, which, you know, I love.

(I didn’t take the picture of myself - my roommate A. Mark Rosso did. Thanks Mark.)

Anyway.. at 1pm we learned that the game was postponed until 3pm, and slowly we learned that the opponing team had not flown out of Florida yet. So we decided to head back home around 3pm, because we (a) could get our tickets exchanged for another home game, and (b) we did not want the delayed game to get in conflict with our tennis game at the US Open.

But as we got home, we learned that our US Open game (with R. Federer) was cancelled. Whaaaaaaat! So, I haven’t got any tennis pictures for you - but maybe we’ll catch a game during the week, but hey: school starts, and the tickets are not getting any cheaper. But hopefully, I will be able to catch the baseball game sometime soon, and then report back to you as regards to how it actually feels to be in a baseball stadium at game time (and not outside game time, as is the case with the picture above).

If you didn’t read my first entry on Blimps, read it here. Moving on: As I had another picture of a Zeppelin over NYC, I felt I could update you a little more on the subject.

Blimps are used a lot to cover sporting events - it is from these you get the nice overview pictures when watching SuperBowl (American Football), Tennis, Baseball etc. According to TimeOut NY, the captain of the FujiFilm Blimp, which is featured in my earlier entry, prefers to cover NASCAR races (car racing), because it is easier to follow from the blimp than tennis - no wonder.

Also, when the Empire State Building was built, it was actually prepared to receive passenger travel via Zeppelins, but, as we all know, airship traffic has never commercialized. Maybe because a blimp can only carry around 11 passengers; and it takes several days to cross the US in a blimp - at huge costs compared to other means of transportation.

Returning to the FujiFilm Blimp, I read in TimeOut NY that the “balloon”, or envelope as it is called, on the Fuji Blimp is only as thick as a shirt collar! Also, the same place, it said, that the gondola is made up of a material called Kevlar. This material is supposed to be stronger and lighter than steel. Wow.

There is no 13th floor in any of the buildings I have been in so far - so I’m beginning to think that what I hear is true; that no building in Manhattan has a 13th floor. I will be sure to let you know if I find one.

What is also apparent from the photograph is the raised dots, which helps blind people to navigate - you find these dots everywhere - in taxis, on buildings. The effort put into helping disabled surpasses my expectations, and, in my opinion, it sure surpasses the efforts put into the same cause in Denmark.

I was walking towards Times Square from Pier 83 (around where the USS Intrepid is, cf. prior entry), when I saw a crazy man kicking a guy seriously in the crutch. I reported it to the Police, and he is, fortunately, behind bars now thanks to my continuous shooting of the incident.

Nah, just kidding. This is a setup scene - but you must admit - it is a little funny.

Finally, here’s your “City by Night” picture, albeit it is not the view from Brooklyn, but from the top of the Empire State Building. You will get views from Brooklyn later, don’t worry… on those you will also be able to actually see the Empire State Building, which is one of the flaws by taking a picture from the Empire State; but hey, you can’t have it all.

As I mentioned before, the view is from the top of the Empire State Building when looking South. On the far left, you can see Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge close to each other (recall the picture of Manhattan Bridge from the other day). The road starting in the bottom of the photograph turning left and crossing Manhattan is Broadway. Once upon a time you would have seen the Twin Towers in this picture.

If there is something that has always fascinated me, it must be hangar ships. They are enormous - populated by app. 6,000 people when at sea. Even though these ships seem very long when you walk on their deck, they are very short to land a jet plane on, but somehow the pilots manage.

Yesterday I was on board the USS Intrepid (pictures above and below), a hangar ship, which served just before and during WWII, during the Vietnam War, and during the Space Race. During WWII, the USS Intrepid was attacked numerous times by Japanese Kamikaze pilots, but survived all attacks, however, at casualties.

Today it is an Air Space museum complex, consisting of the hangar ship itself, the USS Intrepid, another military ship, a submarine, numerous aircrafts on the deck of the Intrepid and the Concorde (below).

I made some remarks on 9-11 before, in conjunction with the picture of the New York Stock Exchange. 9-11 comes to the surface again, when you are on board the USS Intrepid; on the ship, a (short) film about 9-11 and the aftermath is running every half-hour. The main focus of the film is the US Forces stationed abroad, and what they do to defend freedom and America, which, to some extent anyway, tells us something about how much this event still represents in the mind of an American - which, by the way, is also reflected in the Presidential Campaign.

As mentioned before, New York is much more than just Manhattan, and yesterday was my second time off of the skyscraper island. Me and two friends went to the Museum of Modern Art, which temporarily has moved to Queens, while their premises on Manhattan are being renovated. This meant that their enormous collection had been down-sized considerably, however, it was very interesting with both a very, very, very modern art exhibition - I cannot show you pictures, because we were not allowed to take pictures in that exhibition. Neither could we take pictures of the very fascinating “Tall Buildings” exhibition. But, we were allowed to take pictures from the remaining exhibitions (which amounts to exactly one), and below you can see a photograph from where we allowed to photograph.

MoMa, as they call themselves, will reopen on Manhattan end-September, if any of you should be interested ;-)

It is almost midnight - I have watched President Bush’s speech at the Republican National Convention (see one of my prior posts to learn more about the conventions). It was a good speech - it is going to be even more exciting when we get closer to the elections - I am looking forward to establishing the difference between the candidates even more firmly, and I’ll try to pass my knowledge on to you (as objectively as possible), when I know more.

What I really wanted to say was that, actually, I find that New York is more quiet than, for instance, Copenhagen, when it comes to sirens. I hear sirens much more often in Copenhagen than I do here in New York. I think, but this is my own theory, that they have a “minimum siren policy” - because when they turn it on, they quickly turn it off again - and sometimes this results in a siren “rap”, when they turn it on and off quickly in a row - but, still, in minimizes the use of sirens.

Just a note. Good night.

I would have liked to entitle this entry “New York City by Night”, but my camera ran out of battery before I got to the other side of the East River (I was walking on Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn)…so I didn’t get any city pictures - another time then. Anyway, my camera ran out of battery, but luckily I got a picture of Manhattan Bridge, below, which, like Brooklin Bridge, connects Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Manhattan and Brooklyn are both part of New York City, as are Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens. So New York is much more than just tall buildings; at my earliest convenience I will try to visit some of the outer boroughs and give you an impression of the state of the city.

One of the first nights in New York, when I was staying in the Financial District, we walked a lot around downtown. Below, is a picture of the New York Stock Exchange. What is not apparent from the picture, is the rather heavy security in that area, and that building in particular. On Wall Street we were told not to photograph certain buildings.

The large flag covering the entire front of the New York Stock Exchange was put up after September 11, and has been there ever since, which is quite symbolic. I have yet to find out more about how New Yorkers feel about September 11, now three years after. I will get back to you on that one.

While I have been in NYC, not a single day has passed by without a Zeppelin hanging above the city - well, if one can do it. The one you have a snapshot of here below, even has an NYPD (the police) ad on it (albeit a small one, just underneath the FUJIFILM sign).

For those of you who want to know more about these airships or Blimps as they’re also called, go to HowStuffWorks.

Well, I do not know whether my headline is entirely correct, still, Lonely Planet calls crime figures historically low, whereas other guidebooks say that they are the lowest in 30 years. One of the drivers behind these low crime rates was former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (you may know him from the press around September 11, biography), who, according to nyc.gov, reduced crime by 57 pct and murder by 65 pct. In fact, also according to nyc.gov, the past five years, FBI has called NYC the safest largest city in the US.

Also, in the Sunday edition (August 29) of the New York Times, it says that of the 230 cities with more than 100,000 residents, NYC ranks 211th in crime rates; having 2,000 murders a year - the same as Chicago……. but Chicago has less than half the inhabitants that NYC has.

Today was the day, when I had to move out of the very nice Hilton on the Southern tip of Manhattan - going uptown to Midtown - where my dorm is situated. Below, you can see a picture of it from the outside.

I live on the 20th floor in a two room apartment (small apartment) with four guys - two from Bocconi University in Milan (probably among the best 10 business schools in Europe) and one Swede, which studies in Manchester. The dorm is filled with “normal” NYU (New York University) students, and it is very fun to chat with them in the common areas. New Yorkers are very friendly indeed, and I think I will make another post later today or tomorrow coming up with numerous examples of how friendly New Yorkers are. Back to the subject matter; me moving. So, to give you an impression of my room, I have attached two pictures below, which is from the inside of my room.

From my room I have a terrific view. I can see the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.

I have about 20-25 minutes to school from here (by foot and by bus) - but maybe it will get worse, when I travel in rush hour. The neighborhood in which I live does not really have a name - and all the taxidrivers and locals I have spoken to thus far have not been able to help me out, but it is North of the East Village (which is the most criminal part of town; however, there is not much crime in this town - I’ll make another post on this later), East of Chelsea and the Flatiron district, and South of Midtown. Maybe these names do not make much sense to you, but it gives you an impression of the fact that New York is composed of many small cities within the city. Put more down to Earth, I have a 10 minute walk to the water on the East side.

I will talk to you later - feel free to comment or ask through this website. If you need my address, just e-mail, as I’m not super inclined toward posting it online ;-)