coming back to new york city is not the same as coming back to america

there are so many wonderful things that just scream new york city and it's insane uniqueness. it really operates on its own planet (and seems to be quite content to do just that). my flight from berlin landed at jfk earlier this evening, and just in the few hours of being home all these idiosyncratic delicacies of the city have jumped out and greeted me again after nearly 3 months away...

fast talking street vendors, loud dominican music, harlem cat calls, ubiquitous notices of subway service changes, old men playing dominoes on cardboard boxes, jazzy latin hair salons, the mr. softee tune...

noise noise noise... that constant background noise of the city that never ever ever goes away, adding to the general buzz/hum/energy/freneticism of the place...

and just plain and simple multiculturalism... (berlin is surprisingly homogeneous) new york is really unlike anywhere else in terms of world representation (maybe london?) - each subway train is filled with chinese, arab, bangladeshi, dominican, african, palestinian, puerto rican, anglo-saxon, micronesian, visigothic etc etc etc people of all shape and size..... it's remarkable.... what brings everyone here?

in any and all cases i am back. manhattan is a glorious and absolutely mad place to return to... it will never get old, and i admit that i am quite content to be here at the moment - knowing that i'll be back in berlin again before too too long - berlin is also a fantastically interesting place that has endeared to me a great deal by now, and that i will truly truly miss...

and also... i can be content (and not cry too much) knowing that toni will be here before too too long as well... :)

and so p.s... everyone call me! i have an american cell phone again! let's chat! for real! huzzah!

AND everyone excuse the fragmentary nature of all sentences in this post. i am fighting major jetlag tiredness right now, having been awake for nearly 24 hours, and having spent my 9 hour flight from europe squashed between loud increasingly drunk russians...

grammar and coherent verbalization are not my priorities at the moment :)