USA

NY Waterfront and High Rises

Our trip to the US was a last minute decision in reaction to the theft of our laptops in Ecuador in November 2004. After trying with little success in internet cafes to change account numbers and passwords to protect our identity, we decided that the only wise course was to come back to the US to be able to talk to people face-to-face if necessary to ensure that our nest-egg was protected.

We shamelessly exploited the warm welcome our friends Moshe and Cris gave us when we arrived in December 2004 by staying on with them through January, 2005. We had a fine time helping their son Uri celebrate his first birthday and wishing him luck in learning to walk. Most of our time in the first month was spent either on the phone or on the internet setting up new passwords, ensuring old account numbers were removed, getting replacement credit and debit cards. In short, that bit wasn't very pleasant. But we also spent lots of time looking for a computer for Gerry and finally settling on a Hitachi from J&R Computer. And we researched MP3 players for Jan and ended up buying her a Creative ZEN. She fell in love with it immediately, not for playing music but for her Russian-language audio books. How she wished she had owned one in her student days.

We returned for a week to our old haunts in Middletown when we house-sat for Ron and Virginia while they were off on a family vacation. While there we helped our neighbor Harold upgrade his computer from a hand-me-down 386 (honestly!) to a brand new desktop with all of the mod cons. We helped him sign up for email but were unable to convince him to use it. All of you friends who we got to visit know who you are; we really enjoyed it and wished we'd done more. We also took time out to see Gerry's 90+-year-old cousin Yosif in Brooklyn. A real pleasure for Jan who got to practice her Russian some.

Ultimately, we finished up all of the essential tasks and turned our minds to where to go next. We already had a commitment to go to Paris at the end of March and after a search of Craig's List found ourselves an apartment in Berlin for February and March. Not the warmest of months to be in northern Europe, but we didn't mind.