A story

"You should choose the braised beef ribs. You can share it. Mashed or baked potato? And have the house vegetables with it. Very good choice. You'll have a coffee? You got it.
Where are you from? I'm from Germany. My family is from Stettin, but that's now Poland. After the war they went to Eastern Germany, about an hour from Berlin. I went to Berlin often, I like this city a lot. Then came the Communists, and you know, you couldn't own anything. We were expropriated four times. Then my family escaped through the tunnels to the west. We went to Stuttgart. My mother was an interpreter there for the American army. In the seventies we emigrated to America. But I would like to go back. I like Europe better. And in Germany, all is very orderly. That's the only system that works, the orderly system... here nothing works anymore.
Cheesecake? Oh yes we have cheesecake, the best in town. More coffee?
You have to say hello from me to your mother and your grandmother. And tell them I'm from Stettin... remember I'm from Stettin, they will want to know."

Waitress at the Courthouse Diner, Queens, NYC

Brookly, Lisa and Wistlepig

Brookly is elected as our district while staying in New York City. Lisa is our host together with Wistlepig, a young dog. The aparment on the ground-foor of Carol Gardens neighbourhood is nice and full of things. Lisa, even though she works as a nanny and in a kindergarten, she likes handcrafts and does crochet, paints, clays. The entrance of the apartment is to the kitchen which has a small toilet on the side. To the left there is an arch going to the living room with a corner table, a sofa-bed and books, sewing table, etc. A second arch from the living room goes to the storing area. The apartment belongs to someone that makes a cheap rent in exchange that he keeps his storage in the house. A door from that storage are goes to Lisa's room where there was the bathroom. We are feel comfortable and we cook once and we take breakfast at home. The nearby supermarket was simple but good (even with portuguese bread). On the last day something happens with Lisa's family and neither her or the dog sleep at home and we could not say goodbye.

The Law

"We're not allowed to do it" - "That's the law" - "You cannot be here"
Phrases I'm getting so tired of, because we hear them all the time in the US. Isn't this a "free" country?....

We took a train in the evening for a trip that would last about 24 hours. Sleeping cars are very expensive here so we just have to sleep on the seats. When we got on, there was a lot of space in the train so we each took a double seat. Conductor (big black guy) comes. "You together? Then you have to sit together." Me: "The train's half empty." Conductor: "But it's gonna be VERY FULL." Me: "Aha, but I can move during the night if you need the seats, no problem." Conductor: "Huh?" I repeat what I've just been saying, but apparently I've hurt his personal feelings or something as he just walks away while I'm still talking to him. We sleep each on a double seat and when we wake up in the morning the train is still half empty (as we expected).

The only way to get public internet in this country is at the library. Usually one has to sign up, show a passport, and gets an hour of free internet. At the Chicago library, we got 2 computers, my session starting 15 minutes earlier than Miguel's, so when I was done I went over to him as we needed to do something together. Security guy comes: "You can't be on this chair." Thinking that he didn't want me to sit on the chair intended for the computer next to the one we were using, I just stand up and continue typing the e-mail I'm writing. Security guy: "No, you can't be 2 at the same time on one computer." We: "We're not making any noise and we just need to do this together." He: "You need permission from the front desk to do this."
AAAAHHHHH This is too much for me. I'm done with my e-mail so I tell Miguel to stop talking to that stupid guy, sit down and I'll go somewhere else and read a newspaper.

Chicago, I need new contact lenses. I go into a big optician's store and ask if they sell them. "Only if you have a prescription from a doctor or an eye test from us." I say something like "please, I'm just travelling, I've had my eyes checked less than a year ago, I just need some new contact lenses" but it's "No, we don't have the right to sell you contact lenses."
Oh yeah, I could have a problem with my eyes in 2 years and then come back and sue them for having sold me contact lenses without a prescription. Argh, I should just have bought them in Singapore....

USA experiences...

Black woman in NY subway wearing a hat with the inscription: "God is my Boss".
Three black men singing gospels in a NY underpass.
Lots of people walking their dogs in the streets (the dogs are the new children).
The Chicago wind - so icy that it's painful.
Families going out for Sunday lunch in a hamburger restaurant in a small town in New Mexico.
People so fat you could never imagine it.
The ubiquitous question: "How are you today?"

In the streets of Chicago, Boston, New York....

... there's a Swiss-Portuguese couple desperately looking for a nice cafe, selling coffee in real cups instead of paper or styrofoam cups....

Americans are obsessed with organic, whole-food, vegetarian, vegan, non-dairy, non-fat, and generally good-for-your-health food.... but it usually comes in plastic plates and paper cups and you eat it with disposable forks.... all this producing a HUGE amount of waste.

Is this really good for our health?

...

Boston, Alda

In Boston is almost a last minute couch. The morning we are leaving Chicago we send few more requests for Cambridge as there was no reponse for Boston. Alda immediatly answers. She is Portuguese doing PhD in airports and studying temporarly at MIT. She shares apartment with Baris and his girlfriend at the top of the stairs of the two storey building. There is a kitchen/living room where we sleep the first night in a futon, a bathroom which sink did not work well, Alda's room quite empty where we sleep the second night and Baris couple's room. Alda kept offering soup and tea but we only taste the latter. Her apartment is near MassAv.

Chicago, Hannah

Hannah would not stop to talk from the moment she met us until we say goodbye. She had finished nurse education and was looking for a job. Meanwhile she is volunteer for a poors people clinic and teacher at hebrew school. She is Jewish but not very involved - she works on shabbat. Her apartment in Northwest Chicago is old and full of things. At home she has four bicycles plus two at the cellar. It was a one bedroom ("messy, don't enter") apartment, with a living and dining room together, plus a bathroom and a kitchen. In is a first floor with a small porch. We have an air matress to sleep on, which developed a hole after the first night and, after spending the second night pumping air time to time, we patched with a bicycle patch. Hannah cycles everywhere and likes second hand things. She shows us a huge second hand clothes shop where we buy things for the American winter and also she offers pairs of gloves and a jacket.

Silence is not on purpose

Sorry for not writing more, there are no paid internet places. The library is free but time limited and usually with a queue. We take long time on Couch Surf searches, not enough left for blog. We'll be back as soon as we can.

US Prices

Appetizer (starter) - 4usd
Entree (main) - 6usd
Drink - 2usd
+tax (10%)
+gratuity/tip (15-20%)

You pay at least 15usd.

The gratuity in the usa is not a choice (unless you have an horrible experience), but a mandatory part to add to the bill (before taxes). The waiters are taxed on their salary plus expected 15% taxes! So if you don't pay gratuity they will be taxes anyway, their salaries are very low already counting they will receive good part of it in tips.

But usually, here in the usa, only the waiter for your table will be nice to you (hey, how are you today?/everything alright? three times during the meal). When you leave the restaurant no other waiter will say 'goodbye' or 'thanks' to you. You don't see either team work. Also you see that waiters share the tables among them, so that each gets same amount of costumers. Discussions continue and continue about the advantages or not of tipping system, but I just feel there are none. In my opinion (knowing it is not easy) they should fight for correct base salaries and having tips just as an extra and purely in discretion of the client. More, it is much nicer when any other waiter thanks you for coming, no matter if he received your tip or not.

Well, not necessary the simultaneous 'thank you' by every single waiter and cook that you have in Japan or South Korea (quite amazing). :-)

Police raid in Tucson

Our host in Tucson - Sarah - was preparing dinner for us when her invited friend and neighbor arrived saying that there is police everywhere outside.

We go out to check things and there are three police cars with roof lights on in different parts of the street. One of them as they see us point a strong focus at us, we ignore. Minute later a undercover police car pass slowly by us, then stops and reverses, open the window and says: 'we are looking for a stabber around here with dogs, please go inside as the dogs don't make distinctions'.

We keep inside but we lack bread for dinner. Sarah's friend goes by car to the shop near by. Thirty minutes later he's not back yet. We wonder what is going on. He doesn't answer the phone either. We start thinking what might have happen, if police would not have let him pass, but at least he could answer the phone. We get a bit scared until he finally appears saying there are two policeman going into Sarah backyard.

By the kitchen window we peer and see them, one armed with a dog and other with a good sized gun. We prefer not to look for long before become suspicious. Dinner was ready long time ago.

While on the table a new sound comes by - helicopter is flying over the house and the street. The stabber should not be far. But when we finally end dinner all the action was over. And we will never know if they catch him or now.