Blog/November 2017/Nov 10th

November 10th

Welcome to America!

The first leg of the Aaron World Tour commenced this week, as Esther and I flew to the US to visit Daniela and Jeremy, who live near NYC. They retrieved us from the airport, and immediately took us to a restaurant. Not that we were hungry at all, but it was early evening, and they were. So our first real experience in The City was “fusion Asian-Mexican kosher food”. It was a bit unusual: I would never have considered putting kimchi in a Mexican (inspired?) dish.

By the way: the “kids” are fine, and we were really happy to see them after such a long stretch.

Back to the story…

The next day, my lovely wife and I woke up at 3am. We decided that was too early, so we “slept-in” until 6am. We got up, made our customary ablutions and devotions and gourmandizations, and left the house around 8am for the train. We walked to the train, and sat for an hour until it came into “Grand Central Station”. Once there, we took a self-guided audio-tour of that impressive structure. No, really: it’s very impressive, and if you get a chance to take a tour of it, it’s well worth it.

We continued on to lunch after our GCS tour, where I immediately felt at-home because the background music was almost identical to what I hear from my neighbors, unfortunately. On the bright side, the food was not too outré, though the price was.

After lunch, we went to Rockefeller Center and signed up for both the tour of the facility, and entrance to the “Top of the Rock”. The tour was actually really interesting. The guide took us to all the different buildings comprising the RC, and pointed out the architectural oddities, the unique Art Deco pieces, and lots more besides. That is another tour I would recommend, if you have the time and inclination and are in NYC. After the tour, we went to the “Top of the Rock”… essentially, the very top of “30 Rockefeller Center”. While the view from there is spectacular, I don’t think it’s worth the price of admission. Sorry, Big Apple.

We proceeded to meet up with Jeremy and realized that Esther and I haven’t got the slightest clue how to get around the Big Apple — so it was good he was there! Esther had a dinner engagement with some friends of hers, and Jeremy and I went off to dinner on our own. Manly discussions, you wouldn’t understand.

Afterwards, we all made our way back to their house, where we more or less collapsed. After many hours of walking, my feet were done-in.

Today we were tasked with picking up groceries for shabbat. We only mostly didn’t fail, forgetting only two things from the list which we inadvertently forgot. That’s what happens when you ask jet-laggers to do chores. I’m talking to you, Daniela.

We’re looking forward to a peaceful but very cold shabbat. Temperatures will be below freezing, which is punitively cold by my standards. I didn’t sign-on for that!

Daniela kindly requested her mother make the shabbat food, so we’re going to have (some subset of):
homemade ḥallah, roasted eggplant, ḥummus, green salad, coleslaw, veggie stir-fry, rice, breaded tilapia, oven-roasted chicken drumsticks, garlicky green-beans, cauliflower kugel, fruit, and ice-cream.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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