New York

I spent the last week at head-quarters in New York, attending an orientation course for 'junior' professionals. The picture on the left shows the view from the ladies' bathroom!

The course was a great opportunity to meet other people and learn a bit more about the organisation. New York is as exciting and huge as I remember from my first visit last March. The main differences this time were the autumn colours in Central Park and the slightly warmer weather.

I used the trip as a chance to catch up on some shopping (slightly cheaper than Geveva) and go to a Broadway show. The show was called Movin' Out - a dance musical set to 24 of Billy Joel's songs. It was different to what I expected, in that there was no dialogue (just dancing and the band), but it was excellent.

Since my last visit the cost of rooms seems to have doubled so I decided to stay in the West Side YMCA. It was a great location (adjacent Central Park), but with a shared bathroom 2 kms down the hall and paint peeling from the walls, it was almost comfortable! At US$70 a night it was cheap for New York. See the photo on the right for my mini-view of Central Park.