I’m fine.

Everything is good.

But two days on the road took their toll, in a good way, though.

Because where else would you get a “STRESS TEST” like that?

And I wouldn’t have met these lovely people, which is why I like being on the road so much, although arriving/closure is fine, too.

Who I met?

ℹ

It was 3.58 p.m. Eastern, here in the State of New York when I started writing to you.

On Dec 19th, 2022 with -1 degrees Celsius (-1 degree colder compared to last week when I was still in Berlin, Germany)

hi, i’m building my dream Voiceover YouTube channel as a milestone to my dream storytelling company, Susé Patrola. when done, i’ll move to singapore.

🥥 making money with voiceover is the only 1 thing i care about right now uga uga 🐒

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But first, the timeline from Thursday (Dec 15) to Friday:

Travel time: 16h5m

Travel time: 39h15m

While 18 hours waiting at the airport were unexpected–Greyhound decided to cancel their buses going further North towards Canada because of a heavy snow storm there–I had the chance to chill.

As much as you can hate waiting and call it “dead time”, I actually quite like when I can sit, wait, watch other people pass by, have a quick interaction here and there, but overall being the silent observer and seeing how people act and react. People are interesting creatures.

Greyhound had canceled my 6.30pm bus (Dec 15), then they canceled the 6am bus (Dec 16), and then they canceled the 10.30am bus and actually all the other buses that followed.

The curious thing was: the other bus company (Ourbus) that I had taken was going North with no problem, and the road was actually fine.

Anyway.

Jumping back to my unexpected time in NYC, I was sitting next to a couple that turned out to be from Ukraine. They had been traveling for 3 days coming from the West of Ukraine, via Poland and Frankfurt towards to New York. And they were easily in their mid-70s or so. Her English was pretty good, but I told her that her bus was canceled, she was close to tears and desperate. So around 10am or so, I booked a bus ticket for them–they had no credit card or smartphone with them–and they gave me cash, plus a little hand money. I assisted them going from the Greyhound bus station to where Flixbus departs via one metro stop, then we printed out the ticket, and I guided them to the right bus, where they said, “God bless you,” with a hug and kiss on the cheek, which was fun. A lovely couple, that’s for sure.

Around 12.30pm I took the subway myself toward Uptown Manhattan and then at George Washington Bridge I got off and began waiting. An interesting woman was having a conversation with herself, clearly entertaining and partly annoying the people around her with a story that was roughly about empowerment, or something like that. The U.S. is so funny because all these interestingly strange character talking to themselves walk around in the open, and I’m thinking, “Some of them probably need some help from a doctor, and in Germany, they would probably be housed in a mental institution,” although we do have our fair share of self-talkers in Germany too, on a different scale, though.

That, and the pungent smell coming from the bathroom were the main attraction.

Oh, and I encountered two African-American men who signaled to me a need for food, a request I kindly rejected because I had none myself. I mean, these next weeks are going to be tough with only €1,000 left on my bank account.

Don’t worry, I’m not being cavalier about my money situation. Cavalier is my word of the week. It’s an adjective and pronounced: kav-uh-LEER. Cavalier means “having or showing no concern for important or serious matters.”

Besides my little travel adventure from Thursday early morning to Friday late night, the 102nd startup week felt productive and enriching.

But I gotta admit that I didn’t accomplish my daily show-up of posting a new YouTube video ad every day. That was probably what I meant when I said “took their toll” earlier.

But here’s what I got:

Tuesday, December 13

🇺🇸 Ad 36: Woman Life Freedom | Jin Jiyan Azadi 5/5

🇩🇪 Ad 36: Frau Leben Freiheit | Jin Jiyan Azadi 5/5

Monday, December 12

🇺🇸 Ad 35: Woman Life Freedom | Jin Jiyan Azadi 4/5

🇩🇪 Ad 35: Frau Leben Freiheit | Jin Jiyan Azadi 4/5

That’s it.

I only managed to write and voice-act ad no. 37 and 38, but I didn’t get to produce and publish them on Wednesday and Thursday respectively because my mind was occupied with the preparatory steps for my trip to New York, as you can imagine.

Oh, and just about Friday night and the weekend because I don’t wanna neglect that.

Friday evening around 9pm is when I had arrived at the house of my Airbnb host Fred, who happens to be a professor at Syracuse University, where she is studying as well.

I went to bed at midnight, slept a lot until noontime, helped her with the editing of one of her uni assignments, and interacted with Fred, met his SU professor friend Richard, worked on Fred’s website (he had shown it to me earlier asking for feedback and I gave him feedback which he appreciated, and I felt I could do even more to help make his website better).

At 7.30am I went to bed–jet lag, maybe?–had interactions with her and Fred, and went to Trader Joe’s for the first time (with Fred), and I enjoyed it there. It’s good food. But eighty dollars for what I bought seemed like a lot. It’s good food, though, and paying for good food is what I do and enjoy doing.

We ended the day with ping-pong at Richard’s and some Shakshuka (Shakshouka), which is spicy tomato-pepper sauce with sunny-side eggs and bread. Have learned!

On a last note: when I was talking to Fred and Richard about her and her desire to end our relationship, Fred’s conclusion was: she loves you! (I do believe that, too. We’ll see.)

Maybe some diamonds and pearls from a prince will help, too.

…

(I don’t have any diamonds and pearls at hand, and I’m not a prince. But hey, at least I’m an angel, and isn’t that something?)

Lots of ping-pong angelic love to you,

Bye bye,

- Alex (you can hire me)