The Art of Living

Wow.

Words can hardly describe what a vivid and intense time I have spent in New York the past few days.

Have you ever taken any drugs before? Well, mine is life...

After three years living either in the past or in the future, I almost forgot how it was to live in the present time. Memories of lost moments and worries about my future kept me occupied and imprisoned. No day would pass without an obnoxious alarm clock pulling me out of bed, sleep deprival during the day and a lot of work work work... My deadlines and my to-do lists were my ubiquitous fellows. Efficiency was my attempt to make the most out of life *laugh* and ironically it made me quiet into the opposite- a coffee fuelled work machine.

I came back to New York after my interview rounds in Germany and intended to finish off my thesis as well as prepare myself for more upcoming interviews here. Then, one simple afternoon changed everything.

I thought 'What the heck, I should enjoy my last few days in New York!' and man...indeed was this a wise decision!

How good it felt to abandon my calendar, to throw my watch into a corner and forget about deadlines and to-dos for once. How good it felt to keep the Internet and email usage to a minimum and instead spend 80% of my time outside, enjoying some gorgeous hot weather, (with the other 20% spent on partying, going to shows, eating and sleeping hehe!). How fulfilling and happy it made me to spend my days with awesome and inspiring people without worrying about anything but what next we could do. -how good it felt to have those luxury problems :)

Hungarian Pastry Shop

In the past 10 days I filled my life with walking through Manhattan with only but my dear lovely camera capturing over 2000 pictures and leaving my usual thesis notes at home. I went for coffee in the Hungarian Pastry Shop, the coolest coffee place on the Upper West Side with endless coffee refills (beware of a hard pounding heart afterwards!), and checked out even more awesome coffee places (e.g. Grounded Coffee and Tiny Cup) in Greenwich Village and Brooklyn with friends while talking about life, travels and dreams :)

I took a nap in Morningside Park one afternoon, before taking the blanket, wrapping it around me and rolling down the hill with it (try it out, it is soo much fun!) and walked down the Cherry Walk next to the Hudson River, only stopping to climb on trees or to take pictures of the surrounding... - when was the last time you felt like a kid?

sigh.

Blip Blip Bleep

I look back on relaxing guitar and singing jams and saw two freaking good and talented music bands in Lower East Side. My friend plays the drums in one of the bands -how it made me feel happy seeing him play. He is so extremely good at playing drums (check out his band Blip blip bleep)!

- Oh and have you heard of Axis of Awesome? Damn good comedy rock band we checked out in Chelsea. They are famous for their 4 chord song which, as you probably have guessed, consists of 4 chords, but you have to listen to this song yourself to understand how awesome they are:

In the last few days I travelled quiet a bit to the outskirts of New York and got very good Chinese food in Flushing and went to the amusement park and beach at Coney Island.

Flushing struck me.

If you already thought Chinatown on Canal str is like China -or, if you are like me, thinking it is a weird clash between American influence and Chinese traditions then Flushing is like really crazy, being teleported to China. Except for the bully, yellow NYC cabs rushing down the streets once in a while, one could also be standing somewhere in China - indeed people only talked Chinese to us. The craziest thing and I guess also the beauty of it is that it is a completely different side of New York. Take a 45-minute subway ride and BAM you are in China, cool huh?

P.S. Next time I'd prefer to eat Sichuan food rather than the crabs we ordered in a Canton restaurant...the fur on those animals just freaked me out completely!

Coney Island is yet another completely different side of New York. It has this romantic, old-school amusement park - one of those retro parks you would maybe see in films like 'the fabulous world of Amelie Poulain'.

Coney Island Amusement Park

Coney Island

The beach was so overcrowded. I think we went there during a holiday, so the beach was a colorful rug made of people and parasols. However, we still managed to find a pretty calm spot far away from the loud and noisy amusement park and food booths. The water was freezing cold and yet it was refreshingly nice in an almost 100% humid, 36 degrees celsius hot weather. Coney island felt like going on a brief vacation -loved it!

Apart from that, simply strolling through the city was part of those lively 10 days:

Highline

Going to St. Marks for Sushi, eating Korean food in Korea town, taking the aerial tram to Roosevelt island and back, sleeping on the Highline, visiting Grand Cental Terminal and last but not least walking down the never sleeping Time Square...you truly appreciate what an amazing city New York is, when you just walk through the city!

Of course, I could not leave the country without going back to the Moma and the Met. The current exhibition of fashion designer Alexander McQueens is insane... He was crazy in a very jaw dropping way, his creations were full of passion and creativity. He totally inspired me.

Although a bit fuzzy and vague in my mind, I shouldn't forget to mention the night-outs we had, like going to Griffin Club in Meatpacking, wandering through Chinatown at 4 a.m. to look unsuccessfully for an opened bar and then returning to I-house instead, drinking wine in the common room until it gets light again outside, haha I could not have had a better night!

Despite too much beer, tequila shots and cocktails and the ever so often returning resolution of 'i'm never drinking again', these night-outs will become very good memories (though I have to admit, that the later the night became the more my memories faded away (how did we get home?)).

But in the end, I had the most joy with spending my time with the people regardless of what we did. I enjoyed some French Crêpes-Pineapple, old-school video game soirées, cracked up with some Germans and Co. in Hangover 2, fell asleep with people during Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (horrible movie!) haha, and loved chilling and eating with bunch of other people on different occasions.

"In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away"

Funny, reflecting over the activities I was able to squeeze into 10 days, I think I got even more sleep deprived than usual, drank three times more coffee than my usual work coffee ration and ironically was most efficient with respect to making the most out of my time!

Right now, I am pretty crushed, sitting in the airplane back to Germany. Despite that my body feels very exhausted, my mind is lucidly awake.

I guess, when you live in the moment, you hardly need any sleep...

These 10 days have been one of the best experiences in my life. 

From feeling dull and jaded, working and rushing through life, I now feel inspired, revived, colorful and light, having rediscovered the joy of the very moment.

Yes, I will go back to my old life, with my thesis and interviews awaiting for me, but I go back with a smile, refreshed and eager to encounter new challenges.

I profoundly appreciate my time in New York, absorbed every moment I had. I may be going back to the old working mode, from a current coffee infused functioning, life-injected human being to a somewhat more relaxed and balanced workaholic (sorry i can't help but being a workaholic!).

Yet, something has changed inside of me...

I carry in my heart, a vivid and glowing light...

Big Thanks!

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