Staying warm in frosty times
The Christmas week was dominated by snow and freezing cold weather. But even cold days can warm up the heart.
The first full week in New York was characterized by arctic cold and snow, which was perfect for Christmas, taking place this week. I’m not a big Christmas fan but with this weather and when it’s white outside, I get into the spirit and Christmas Eve had something special about it. Growing up with German Christmas traditions, December 24th is the Christmas Day and not the 25th like here in the USA.
Christmas mood in the Upper West Side
A Christmas Day run
I used this Christmas Day to go jogging in the morning. What was fascinating was how quiet the city was. Almost everything was closed, only a few small grocery stores were open and the streets were deserted. The number of joggers in Riverside Park was also unusually low. I ran my lap wrapped up thickly and fought against the icy headwind that blew along the Hudson.
Jogging at Riverside Park
New Jersey X-mas
The gray of the morning turned to blue in the afternoon and we took the train out to New Jersey to celebrate Christmas with the American part of the family for the first time in a long time. In a party atmosphere that had absolutely nothing to do with the Christmas celebrations in Switzerland and therefore fitted in perfectly with my idea of how I wanted to spend Christmas. But I still ate too much here as well.
Meanwhile in New Jersey
The bless of the distance
I was suddenly miles away from Basel that week. All my worries, all my burdens, everything fell away from me and Switzerland slipped into my consciousness somewhere behind the big ocean on the other side of the globe as one country among many. It always feels so good to have this distance. To free yourself for a while from what you love very much, but in which many things become habitual because they are part of everyday life. That’s what I love so much about my life, that it lets me live in two such different places and allows me to look at each other’s lives from a distance and from the outside. When I come back to the other side after a few weeks, everything seems new and fresh and I am full of enthusiasm and drive.
Deepest winter in Central Park
Hibernating
However, this week was still rather slow. The city is quite crowded due to the holidays and the queues in front of the museums are too long for my taste. Besides, you don’t really want to go out in the freezing cold. And the relaxation was really good. Setting up and organizing everything here in peace. Meeting friends for dinner. Using the long evenings to read the books I brought with me over a cup of tea and make plans for the coming weeks here. Days to just feel good.
Related posts
-
Snow in August
It’s an open secret that life gets interesting whenever you step out of your comfort zone. That’s what I did this week, going on a 6-day hike that brought an incredibly diverse August to an end and a fresh September to begin.
-
In between
A week in Basel between the time spent in the Swiss mountains and the big city, characterized by lots of tasks, preparations and very hot summer days.
-
Meeting Sophie Taeuber-Arp at MoMA
Like many things I did in my life, I also feel my artistic creation as a journey that I had started at some point because I felt something like wanderlust inside me. An emptiness, a gap that I didn’t know exactly how to fill. I just knew I had to fill it. With whatever.
-
Island Life
An entire week on Fire Island. Days that glide along carefree, like the ocean waves on the beach. And the rest of the world so far away. Switching off once more before the end of what could have stayed like this for a while longer.