I had a chance to go to Baltimore from New York/New Jersey. My brother works in both cities, so early today, we drove to the city, just to have a look.

Beautiful city. Particularly near the harbor.

I did a quick visit to NYC from my home base in Fort Lee, NJ (which is across the George Washington Bridge). I just wanted to scope out the place where I will be interviewing on Wednesday. Since I don’t know much about New York City, I wanted to make sure where it was, that I know how to get there so I wouldn’t be late – what subway I should take, and where should I hang out before going to the interview if I were early. They told me to be there 15 minutes before my interview, not more, not less.

It turned out that the place of interview is near Union Square – a historic district in Manhattan. It was a straightforward schlep from 175th st. where the bus from New Jersey stops. I was famished when I got there, so I went into the first cafe I saw out of the subway – The Coffee Shop – on 16th St. I had no idea what it was – but it turned to be – one of the best places to people watch. Especially if you are a Modelizer (which I am not). The staff here are models.

The food was ok (I ordered a burger), actually good, and relatively inexpensive. The herbed fries were terrific. The service, surprisingly, was also good, but according to many reviews, usually, it is unpleasant and attitudinal. But the guy who served me was very attentive, and even escorted me and opened the door for me (!) when I left to go to the building where the interview is going to happen. And he actually pointed me to the right direction, across the park. And they say New Yorkers are rude. NOT.

I took a few shots of the square, went to see the interview building, then took pictures of the art installation on the building where Best Buy is. I thought the installation was a countdown of the US debt, but it turned out to be a strange clock.

Then I went back to Fort Lee. The subway was just right there.

I am currently in New York City for a job interview with the NYC’s Department of Education on Wednesday. Since I am so poor (I have been unemployed for the past 1 1/2 years or so!), I decided to travel cheaply – by train – from Chicago to New York City. It’s a 20 hour ride, through Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. I expected to dread the ride, imagining cramped accommodations (for $78 bucks, what should I expect?), nasty toilets, unruly passengers … and, horrors of all horrors, no Internet!

But I was in for a surprise.

Train travel actually rocks! Even in couch! Amtrak has wide seats and ample leg room. You can recline your seat to an almost horizontal position so you can actually sleep, comfortably! The train left Chicago at 9:30 pm, which is basically my bedtime (sometimes), so about an hour and a half later after being seated, I was off to la-la land. It was dark outside anyway, so no photographing for me.

The Lake Shore Limited is one of the few trains that Amtrak has not installed wi-fi yet, but … cell towers line up near the train tracks, from here to eternity, so even in stretches of land where there were a few houses, cell phone signal was present – so I did not wont for Words with Friends nor Facebooking.

When I woke up, refreshed and ready for breakfast, we were already close to upstate New York. And since the train has wide bay windows, out came the camera to take photographs of the gorgeous, but also sometimes bleak, scenery outside. Because the tracks run through “the other side of town,” you will see a lot of abandoned and shuttered industrial buildings. It is sad, especially that the Lake Shore Limited services most of the industrial towns of the midwest – you can see with your own eyes the economic devastation of these towns. Also, since the midwest is also very agricultural, if you are into barns, especially dilapidated ones, there are lots of them to see along the route.

But once the train reached northern New York State, the route suddenly became scenic as it meandered along side the Hudson River on its way to New York City. The sunset at this time of the year is spectacular – so I shot with wild abandon. The pretty lady seated in front of me saw what I was doing, so she also whipped out her phone cam and proceeded to photograph.

Which delighted me to no end.

Uncommon Photographers are everywhere!

Have a look!

It is my tradition to organize a meet up at the Argyle St. Chinese New Year parade, in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, to photograph the lunar new year celebrations. The street is known as the “New Chinatown” as ethnic Chinese Southeast Asians (Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians etc.) settled in the area and formed a vibrant commercial district with restaurants, bakeries and shops. H

I like to go here for the Lunar New Year celebration (rather than in Chinatown) as the crowd is small and there is plenty of room for photographers.

This year, the celebration began with a massive fire crackers display across the El entrance. They ramped up the fire cracker display this year, more than last year’s I think. The parade then started – it was short and sweet. A lot of people went home after the parade … little did they know that the excitement occurs AFTER the parade.

This is when the two lions go door to door. I don’t understand the significance of the rite but it involves more firecrackers, the lions trying to catch/eat the vegetables which are hanging from the top of the door together with a red envelope that presumably contains money.

Happy Year of the Dragon, everyone!

One of the best and popular winter time activities in downtown Chicago is skating at Millennium Park. The breathtaking view of the skyline, the Bean and its proximity to Michigan Ave., is a plus … and also, it’s free! (Shoe rentals aren’t though.)