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.

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.