Life and its little pleasures

Champion!

My previous post must have brought them extra luck yesterday, cause our football team was crowned the champion in our league! After winning the semi-final with 6-1, we beat the other finalists with 4-1! Congratulations to everyone!

PS: @Kris The t-shirts are yellow because the sponsor is the Flemish House... 

 

Photo courtesy of Pieter Dom from mess.be

Belgians in the big city

During living in Indianapolis for a year and then London for 2 years, I never really got involved in the local Belgian or Flemish societies and organizations. In Indianapolis, there just wasn't any close by (I believe Chicago was the closest) and in London there were just too many Belgians, I guess... I also figured that if I wanted to hang out with Belgians all the time, then I might as well have stayed in Belgium instead of going out and see the world.

I did try to join some events in London, organized by the Young Chamber, but I honestly thought they were a bunch of stuck-up little boys, who thought that anyone pursuing a career outside of financial services was beneath them. And on top of that, it seems to be impossible to get off their mailing list even after having begged them to get my email address removed. So even today, while I live thousands of miles away from London, I still get invited to Young chamber black tie events and Sinterklaas happenings.

In New York, I accidentally stumbled upon the website of NY Prietpraat and joined their mailing list. I got asked whether I would be interested in joining a co-ed football team (as in soccer). I thought it would be fun and 3 seasons later, my husband is a trusted goalie (and 1 of only 2 Americans on the team) and some of the other players have become great friends. Besides playing football once a week, we get together once a month for drinks and these events have turned into somewhat "deboucherous" nights. Well, no alcohol for me though the last 7 months... and no football either, come to think of it, so I'll call myself their number one supporter.

I'm glad I got over the initial negative thoughts I had about these Belgians abroad groups. This is a pretty awesome group of people...

Home

I'm being a Pietel copycat today... (and for a lot of days to come...)

Making time

This seems the big problem with my blog... Making time for it... I really do want to try and come here more often and write some more of what is happening in New York and my life. So I'm making a (very) early New Year's resolution to spend more time on my blog.

As you could read in my previous post, a lot has been happening around here. Mike and I got married on the 26th of August at City Hall in New York City, which was quite an experience. Mutti and papa came over from Belgium for the occasion, so did Mike's mom and dad and their significant others. Some of the pictures of the day are online on Flickr. You can see them by clicking here.

I'm now more than 6 months pregnant and growing... and growing... and growing... Although I'm very happy and excited about the future, the nine months leading up to this wonder are anything but pleasant. I can't complain of anything being wrong, but this being pregnant thing is just not really my thing. Extreme tiredness, legs and feet that hurt after a 10 minute walk, hands and ankles that are swollen, difficulties with sleeping, humongous boobs (Mike doesn't really mind this part), 15 to 20 trips to the bathroom every day, back aches etc... Let's just say that I'll be very happy when this is over (and the real changes commence)!

According to our doctor (who is fabulous), everything is ok. The only thing that they have to monitor is that I had placenta previa during my 20 week scan. This means that the placenta is too low in my uterus. Usually it moves up by week 30, but if this doesn't happen, then I will have to deliver this baby via a caesarian section. In a couple of weeks I will get a new sonogram to see if anything changed.

The apartment is almost completely ready for the new addition, the only thing we still have to do is paint the mural in the baby room. Although I say we, I actually mean Mike as he is the creative in this house. I'll surely put up some pictures of the result, once the room is ready.

After a week in Belgium in October, I'm now going to be in New York until next summer. The week at "home" was really great and thanks to my sister, I now have everything you could possibly need for a newborn, including a car seat, bouncer, play mat and clothes to dress a full nursery.

Last week I participated in a survey for a stroller brand, launching a new buggy in the US. The reward for participating in a 1.5 hour interview was a brand new Teutonia stroller system, which I'm very happy with of course! I did the interview on Monday and it was pretty straight forward, giving my opinion on the stroller, the competition and the communication brochures that they are planning. They are calling me later this week so I can customize my own model and have it delivered to my home. I'm quite curious and I will definitely let you know what I think of the stroller!

More to follow soon.

New York holiday

If you are looking for a recession proof holiday in New York, look no further! I'm subletting my apartment until the end of August, so if you are interested, give me a shout.
150 USD/night or if you take it for longer than a week, the price goes down to 3,500 USD/month.
More info of the apartment here, but if you contact me directly, there is no agency fee!

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Aldo, how to deal with unsatisfied customers

A few days ago I posted a rant on this blog after a horrible experience at the local Aldo store in Queens (about 3 minutes walk from my new home). Yesterday I received an email via my Facebook account from Mr. M. V., district sales manager for Aldo in Queens. I quote from his mail:

I just read your blog post about your experience there on Sunday.
I'm really embarrassed.
...
I work really hard to train and motivate people to offer a great shopping experience.
Your feedback was really disappointing to read - especially since in a crowded store - you weren't the only customer poorly serviced on that Sunday.
The experience you had in the store is totally ridiculous and I'd like to be able to make it up to you - if you'll let me.

He continues his mail by offering me a 50% discount on the shoes I bought and a plea to let me have him personally restore my image of the Aldo store. (Not sure what he means by that!)

I have to say that at first I was a little bit shocked that my rant made it to someone in Aldo (and then I was a little bit proud that it did...).

Mr. V, thank you for your kind response. You could have chosen to simple ignore it, but you didn't. I appreciate that you find it important enough to try and change my opinion of the brand you work for, especially since I am just one of many, many customers worldwide. I have to say that it worked. I will not stop shopping at your store and every time I go there, I will think of the how you went out of your way to try and make up for my bad experience.

I did buy the shoes back then and I love them (even though they hurt like hell, like all gorgeous shoes). Thank you for offering to pay me back 50% of them, but I cannot accept your offer. I didn't start this rant in the hope of getting something out of it. I'm just really glad it might prevent another customer from experiencing the same.

Have a nice holiday weekend everyone.

Whirl

My drum teacher has a band... check them out. Can't wait to start my lessons again as soon as I figure out the job situation...

Aldo, how not to deal with customers

I always liked shoe-shopping at Aldo. It is one of those trendy shoe shops with lots of modern, hip, cool looking shoes at decent prices. Not the world's best quality, but that's ok if the style is nice and the price is affordable. 

I changed my mind today...

At the Elmhurst shopping mall in Queens (it's huge!), there is an Aldo, just like in all the nice malls in the United States. Like all hip stores, the staff on the weekend exists mostly of youngsters, probably still in college/school trying to make an extra buck. That's all fine with me as long as they do their job. In a shoe store that means finding the shoes you want in your size and taking away the boxes of shoes that people don't want. With all respect to shoe shop staff, it's really not that difficult.

While walking into the Aldo today, we noticed immediately that the store was a complete mess. Boxes and shoes everywhere on the benches and on the floor. There were quite some people in the store, but it was not extremely busy at all. I could tell, because four of the sales clerks were having a laugh in the corner with each other while taping a discount sign on the back of one of their colleagues without him noticing. I'm all about having some fun with your co-workers but there were at least 3 customers trying to get help from them.

Finally I found someone willing to help me find the shoes I liked. It turned out she was the manager. While literally dumping the boxes in front of me, she started yelling at the other staff to clean up their mess of shoes, but nobody even looked her way. Everybody was still snickering over the dude with the sign on his back.

I started trying on the shoes I liked and the one pair I really wanted only had the left shoe in the box. So I beckoned someone over asking him to get me the other shoe but all he answered was: "Who was helping you!" Now, when I say asking, I actually mean biting my nose off...

I almost answered: "You are, you dick head", but the manager saw my face and came to the rescue.

After loving both shoes on my feet, I went to the cash register to pay and the girl behind the counter asked me who was helping me. I pointed to the manager and said: "She was the one... she was actually the only one in the whole store helping anyone!" The girl laughed and said: "Well, she IS the manager!" 

I think it was one of those rare moments where even I didn't know what to answer.

We finally left and on the way out I saw that the manager finally figured out why her complete staff was having fun and not helping anyone. She moved behind the dude with the sign, read it and buckled over laughing...

I still like the shoes at Aldo, but I don't think I'll be going to any of their stores any time soon. I don't mind paying a little bit more if I get a friendly service and a clean store. Otherwise, I might as well do all my shopping online.

Cake

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a cake decorating class at the famous French Culinary Institute in New York. Every Saturday (for 5 weeks) we get trained for five hours on making a great cake (and lots of chocolate buttercream of course). The teacher, Chef Cynthia, has her own cake decorating business and from looking at her website, she is quite good at it too. 

Although it's difficult for me to adapt to the classroom situation again (with the apparently prerequisite teacher's pets, suck-ups and being treated like a kid), I'm really enjoying the tips and tricks of how to make these beautiful cakes. Even though the demos are quite long, we do get a lot of time to try everything out ourselves. And being in the Institute means that we have all the professional equipment (and funny outfits) we need to do the baking, mixing, whisking etc. (that does require some creative thinking when doing it at home...) 

Cake decorating is pretty much without limits. The more tools you have, the crazier you can go. That's why I love the guys from the TV show Ace of Cakes, where they really make every cake into something special.

The goal in my class is to make a 3-tier cake by the end of the 25 hours, fully decorated. The first tier is real cake, the 2 other tiers are dummies, but decorated with fondant and icing. Our designs were due last week and although most of my classmates went for the traditional piping and flowers, I decided to make a birthday cake for Mike. And let's just say he is not the flowers kind of guy. So, my influence for the design was his love for drumming and hard core metal music... Below the design and in two weeks I'll show you what the end result looks like! 

11373

In a few weeks/months (depending on the contractor!) my official new zip code will be 11373. Here are some interesting bits about my new neighborhood:

- 105,723 people live here (measured in 2000) in 34,219 homes 

- Of all people over 15 years old, 50% is married

- 17.6% of the population in 11373 have an income below the poverty line but the estimated median house/condo value in 2007 was 518,893 USD

- On average, if you are a white family household, your house is worth 465,567 USD, if you are Hispanic, your house is worth 503,373 USD, if you are Asian, it's 480,827 USD and if you are African American, it's 502,741 USD.

- The average income is 47,049 USD/year

- The median age is 33.6 years (New York State = 35.9)

- 59% takes the subway to work, 17% takes a car alone and 7% walks

- 70.6% (!) is born outside of the US of which 15% are born in China

- 355 people are in a home for the mentally ill

- 11373 is the most diverse zip code in the USA. Some of the first ancestries reported are:

Other Groups: 78061

Italian: 3303

Irish: 2129

USA: 1492

German: 988

West-Indian: 883

Arab: 671

Greek: 604

Haitian: 497

English: 323

French: 300

... (skipping a few)

Dutch: 79

African: 73

European: 64

... (skipping a few again)

Maltese: 7

Other Subsaharan African: 7

And last but not least: BELGIAN! : 8

I'm gonna feel right at home here.