New York Week [1]
Jurek Becker
Translated by xia23
Day two
I am strongly advised by people who know America not to carry more than $20 with me and give it immediately to each robber when being asked for. But in my pocket I still put $45 and the key to the hotel safe. There I have the rest of my money, my GDR [2] passport and also a valuable item.
The first problem, as I step out onto the street in the morning: I know nothing about the conversion formula from Fahrenheit to Calcius. It is cold, but I don’t know how cold it is. I don’t know how cold I could be freezing, I’m not kidding. I suspect that one is frozen to the same extent by the thermometer, just as one is hungry by the clock; an opportunism for sensations.
A second piece of advice is, that in New York I should walk. So, I walk and already feel well advised in front of the first intersection. I do not ask for direction, because I want to go in every direction.
The desolation of the city does not catch me unprepared. Nevertheless, I still have the feeling of seeing a record: the outmost, what can be done for getting rid of desolation. I wonder first what will be in each of neighborhoods I have been warned…
In bed for a long time I still don’t know, what New York means. I talk to myself: is that normal, you are not in Jena [3] here. I find it a bit ridiculous, to be so lost.
[1]. p. 378. New York Woche. Stationen. Ein Kursbuch für die Mittelstufe. 3rd Edition. Prisca Augustyn & Nikolaus Euba. Cengage Learning. USA. 2015
[2]. GDR. The former German Democratic Republic (east Germany).
[3]. Jena. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena
Jena is a German city known for the Optical Museum, displaying vintage Zeiss microscopes and a spectacles collection. Planetary projections and musical laser shows take place at the Zeiss Planetarium. Nearby, the Botanical Garden has a tropical greenhouse and medicinal plants. The Karmelitenklosterruine is the remains of a 15th-century monastery. The Saaleradweg cycle path follows the Saale River through the city. ― Google
The following map is from Britannica
