What a nightmare ...Originally Posted by brianac
No doubt that this story (with a few adjustments, i.c.: Mom dies) could find its way onto an episode of one of the "Law & Order" shows ...
Purchasing Travel Insurance, particularly after reaching a certain age and traveling outside of one's own country, can be very helpful if one gets ill while on a trip -- and seems to be a worthy investment (although the mother in this story at age 39 probably didn't give it much thought).
watched an interview with the mum and girls on english breakfast tv, they said the the british consulate should have been informed, the mum even got issued with a letter saying she was being reported for neglect and child abuse
the girls said the other children at the orphanage were really nice to them, the girls were asked would they go back to New York, yes was there reply
Wow, that's a crazy story! I'm glad the girls were treated kindly by the other children. They were probably so curious about the two British girls in their midst and had 1000 questions
I think they were covered by insurance, the problem was that because the mother was treated as an emergency, she was rushed off to hospital, so the insurance would have to be dealt with when she was feeling better.
It seems that once they were at hospital, no one knew, or bothered to find out, exactly who they were.
No one at the hospital cared who she was?
Really??
In the good old US of A
As one who has been pushed to the corner of an emergency room of a major NYC hospital (stay OUT of Beth Israel) and left for hours I find this woman's plight to be completely believeable.
That's awful; hope you *eventually* got the care you deserved.
Eventually, sort of ...
But only because a friend was there who raised a ruckus.
If I never again in my entire life go through the doors of Beth Israel Hospital it will be too soon.
I have a feeling that you have to make noise at a place like that Loft.
If you don't, the people figure you are either OK or Dead, either way it means you do not need to be looked at!
That is so ^ when one is healthy and able to stand up for oneself.
Not so when the body revolts or is assaulted and leaves one battered, exhausted and vulnerable.
Lesson: Whenever possible take an advocate along when going to the hospital.
Old Enemies Prop Up City's Memorial Day Weekend
Strong euro buoys holiday run; hotels, restaurants report brisk business
by Lysandra Ohrstrom | May 28, 2008
Geff Rossi via flickr
Traditionally, New Yorkers flee the city on Memorial Day weekend and visitors flood in, making it the ideal time to take the pulse of Manhattan's tourism sector. Based on domestic conditions, the summer season appears poised for a washout—gas prices are sky-rocketing, consumer spending is down, whispers about belt-tightening abound. Some vendors are indeed feeling the pinch, but overall it lookes like foreign currency has once again cushioned the city from the blows pummelling the rest of America.
“Things are pretty robust and the weak dollar is to thank for that,” said Chris Heywood, vice president of the city's official tourism wing, NYC & Co.
Based on preliminary hotel data, the city estimates that about 130,000 international and domestic overnight visitors per day came to the city over the weekend. The Marriot Marquis in Times Square was full all three nights, hosting a 1,400-person Spanish tour group, said spokeswoman Kathleen Duffy, and it was not alone. All Mariotts in the city were completely sold out on Saturday and the average vacancy rate was about 90 percent on Friday and Sunday.
Thanks to British tourists and, lately, Spanish and Italian ones, the hospitality sector has been nearly impervious to the economic slump—on average, hotels were 86 percent occupied in April and room rates averaged $305 nightly, according to NYC & Co.—so far, said Mr. Townsend.
Like with the Mariott, he expects the trend to continue into the summer.
Colin, a horse and carriage driver parked beside the fountain on 59th Street and Fifth Avenue on Tuesday morning, said that Memorial Day was like “a normal weekend, which is to say “busy,” but not sunny, holiday weekend busy.
“It must be the high gas prices,” he shrugged, while keeping a tight grip on the reins of his horse.
A lackluster Memorial Day weekend certainly brings the tourism sector’s woes into sharp relief, but the drop in U.S. consumer spending has been taking its toll all year, Colin said. “This is a luxury item and that’s the first thing to go when you’re in a crunch,” Colin said, stroking his horse. "The Europeans have really been keeping the business afloat all year."
Since Europeans don't celebrate Memorial Day weekend, it makes sense that business wouldn't get a boost from a three-day weekend. The Playwright Tavern on 51st and Broadway would seem particularly susceptible to the prevailing economic currents given its customer base.
The bar and restaurant is a popular pre-theater dinner spot for tourists and post-work watering hole for investment bankers from Lehman Brothers' headquarters across the street.
But manager Majella O’Shaughnessy said the restaurant was busier over this Memorial Day than last year.
“We had a lot of people from out of state,” she said during a brief mid-morning lull before the lunch rush on Tuesday. As if on cue a call from a client arranging a 50-person dinner party that night interrupted.
“We are still doing corporate parties and have guys from Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers drinking at the bar every night,” she said (and, no, she has not noticed more lugubrious happy-hour behavior on the part of the bankers).
At the Broadway Baby souvenir shop, business was “insane” and “crazy," according to Casey Paradies, who minded the store through Memorial Day weekend. “We had a lot of Europeans,” he said. “I heard a lot of French going on, but they could also be Québécoise."
The store has been open for a year, and Mr. Paradies has not seen much of a change in spending since things started picking up after the Broadway strike ended in December.
“Americans don’t spend as much as Europeans, but they still come in a lot,” he said.
But not all tourism-related businesses felt the euros trickle down over the holiday. Accessory vendor Salam Yousif agreed that Times Square was packed with American and international tourists over the weekend, but business was “slower than usual last week.”
“It was crowded but no one is buying anything,” he said. “Even when they do buy it's only one item at a time, like a pashmina. It’s not like it was last year.”
For others, the poor turnout on Memorial Day weekend merely underscores what has been in the works for months.
“I’ll tell you how the weekend was. Lousy, very lousy. There was more business during the week than the weekend,” said Liz, who has run a news kiosk at 50th Street and Seventh Avenue for 40 years. She declined to give her last name, saying “everyone knows me as Liz the newsstand lady.”
Things were so slow that Liz closed up at four in the afternoon on Saturday. On Sunday, she repeatedly left her kiosk unmanned while she chatted with employees at the Godiva shop on the same corner.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, throwing up her hands in dismay.
“I usually sell 10 cases of water a day, now I’m selling five cases a week.
I sold three T-shirts on Saturday. Normally, I’d sell dozens over a holiday weekend. This is one of the worst years ever.”
http://www.observer.com/2008/memoria...-total-washout
© 2008 Observer Media Group,
Liz does not know what is happening?
1. Like it was said, this weekend was no different than any other to foreign visitors.
2. A holiday weekend will most likely steimy any worker buisness (lunch, commuters, etc).
3. It is a RECESSION, so people are buying less T-Shirts.
4. Memorial Day is not usually a big "Go to the city" weekend. The beach was pretty crowded, despite the wind and cool beach temperatures!
Cultural Landmarks of a Different Kind
Jessica Zenger, left, and her sister Kelli Zenger of San Francisco conferring over jewelry. They said they were
disappointed by the quality of imitations.
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: August 19, 2008
Sure, she was awestruck by Broadway, Times Square and the Empire State Building.
But what really amazed Barbara Roth, a tailor from Stuttgart, Germany, about New York, New York?
“In the ladies’ toilets you can see people’s feet,” said Ms. Roth, 25, still incredulous outside Rockefeller Center last week. “It’s the first time I’ve seen something like that. Where I’m from we have full doors on the bathrooms.”
The nation’s top foreign tourist magnet, with nine million international visitors expected this year along with nearly 39 million Americans, New York is a city of surprises, but not always for reasons natives can see.
Christopher C. Heywood, a vice president of NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing and tourism arm, said visitors were drawn by the city’s “friendly nature, unparalleled energy level, low crime, cultural diversity and beauty and vibrancy of the five boroughs.”
But catch them at unguarded moments in line for a sightseeing bus or the Statue of Liberty and they might offer more idiosyncratic appraisals: New York in the eye (jaundiced or admiring) of the tourist beholder.
“There are a lot of men here that are really muscular,” said Ana Rosa Bermejo, from Burgos, Spain. Not that Ms. Bermejo, 28, was complaining. Where she came from, she said, “people go to the gym to stay healthy, but not to get huge.”
It was not just the men here who were bigger, Ms. Bermejo said. “The coffees here are so big,” she said. “In Spain we drink coffee in little cups.”
And, she added, back home, “nobody drinks coffee on the street, and you never drink out of plastic.”
The Spanish, a visitor said, never drink out of plastic.
But back to the bathrooms. Ms. Roth was not the only one with an issue. Karin Wagner, who works in human resources in Allmersbach, Germany, said she, too, found the stalls in New York’s restrooms insufficiently private.
“There is a space between the door and the wall, and someone can see you from the outside,” said Mrs. Wagner, 42, while in line for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. “In Germany you would never have that.”
Her husband, Markus, 41, a banker, had nothing particular to offer on that subject, but he expressed surprise at how much of New York was air-conditioned. “It’s everywhere, even in the subway,” he said. “In Germany there’s only air-conditioning in the airport.”
What was it with New Yorkers and flags? wondered Pavel Dvorak, a college student from Brno in the Czech Republic. “Everywhere there is an American flag or some other country’s flag,” said Mr. Dvorak, 21, standing under the flagpoles of Rockefeller Center. He said he had first noticed flags at the South Street Seaport and then realized they were everywhere.
“In my country, we only have flags on important buildings, like government buildings,” he said.
A tourist from the Czech Republic was surprised by an abundance of flags around New York, including Rockefeller
Center.
Elham Alnasir, visiting from Saudi Arabia with her daughters Hayfa and Lama Alibraheem, said she was surprised to see so many fellow Arabs in New York.
Lama, 10, keeping an eye peeled for the Jonas Brothers, noticed “a lot of garbages,” and Hayfa, gaping at the flashing signs of Broadway, seemed at a loss for words altogether. “I thought it would be more realistic,” she finally said.
New York’s detritus also drew the admiring attention of Steve and Rhona Ciolek, visiting from Orange County, Calif. “They pile it up in huge piles and take it away at night,” marveled Mrs. Ciolek, contrasting it with the modest disposal procedures at home. “We just put it in receptacles and leave it at the curb,” she said.
Anna Anderson, a dentist from Malmo, Sweden, thought New Yorkers must find their floors shameful, otherwise why would they be hiding them, as in the room she and her husband shared in the Hotel Pennsylvania. “There are carpets glued to the floor covering the whole room,” said Ms. Anderson, 36.
A fellow Swede, from Goteborg, Sven Karlson, a Phoenix builder who sailed to New York with his family from Bermuda in their own yacht, was surprised at the sorry state of the city’s waterfront.
“Honey, where is where we bought the clams?” he called out to his wife, Mary, who was perusing a vendor’s wares with their children, Lukas, 11, and Elizabeth, 4.
“Sheepshead Bay,” she said.
“Sheepshead Bay,” he repeated. “Everything is falling down.”
Louise Tazer, a retired credit manager, visiting from Seattle with her friend Dee Philip, a restaurant owner from Portland, Ore., was astounded to be bumped and jostled on the street: “So many people are as rude as they can be,” Ms. Tazer said.
But they were more surprised by the thinness of the pillows in their room at the Hotel Edison — so much so, she said, that they went to Macy’s to buy their own pillows, to the merriment of the hotel maid. “She just about died laughing,” Ms. Tazer said.
Two friends from Buffalo, Jennifer Stilson, a social services caseworker, and Stacy Baumgart, were prepared for colorful characters. But not quite, Ms. Stilson said, “the drag guy in the miniskirt and some guy with brains on his head” — evidently a walking ad for the show “Young Frankenstein.”
New York’s food culture accounted for much foreign bemusement.
“You get French fries with everything,” said Michael McIsaac, a middle-school teacher from London. He was watching his diet, avoiding temptations, said Mr. McIsaac, 37, and finally found a restaurant on Eighth Avenue that offered a plain turkey wrap. Of course, he said, “It came with a big plate of fries.”
But at least the New York coffee cup was bottomless, Mr. McIsaac said, lauding the unlimited refills. He marveled, too, that in New York “you can have food any way you want, with anything on the side, like eggs with no onions — the restaurant will cater to that.”
“In England, they would just give you a look,” he said. And New Yorkers, unlike Londoners, were not shy about speaking up, he said. “They will not tolerate bad service.”
But with England sending more visitors to New York than any other country (followed by Canada, Germany, France and Italy), the city’s obsession with caffeine could do with a bit of tweaking. Or so said Sarah Humpherson of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, who had barely arrived with her husband, Ian, and three sons before discovering Century 21 and other discount shopping meccas.
“I miss a cup of tea,” said Ms. Humpherson, who wondered why the hotel rooms all came with coffee makers but no kettles.
Jackie Tyler, 50, a professional cellist from Birmingham, England, said the abundance of food in New York’s supermarkets was astonishing. “In Birmingham there are supermarkets, but there’s not so much, there aren’t great heaps of strawberries or anything like here.”
Jose and Manuela Gracia, from Barcelona, Spain, said they were shocked to see so many people eating on the move from food carts on the street. “In Spain,” said Mr. Gracia , 63, “we like to sit down and eat a meal.”
Even slow food was faster in New York, said François Courtois, a film producer from Paris.
“You are always served very quickly here, even in a nice restaurant,” said Mr. Courtois, 35, in Battery Park while waiting for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. “Here it’s quicker, you don’t have time. In Paris you get a lot of time before your food comes.”
Susan Browning, who runs the theater desk for Continental Guest Services at the Westin New York hotel on West 43rd Street, and has been hit with questions like where to buy ninja throwing stars and where to find a prostitute, said, “Visitors are impressed by so many police around.”
“I tell them, ‘More than you know,’ ” Ms. Browning said, citing the numbers of plainclothes officers and security cameras.
Stella Pap, a civil engineer from Athens, said she could not understand why more New Yorkers were not on motorcycles, given the traffic congestion. “This seems like a good place to have one,” said Ms. Pap, 32.
Indeed, how New York drivers bore down on pedestrians with little regard for safety markings baffled many visitors. “They ask, ‘Don’t you use crosswalks?’ ” said Ms. Browning. “I say, ‘Noooooo.’ ”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
That Times piece seemed to be "Rubes amazed by normal activity of New York City". You can really tell it is the middle of August and nothing is happening.
I really liked that article. Like a lot of others in this city, I've had the experience of both being a visitor/tourist and a resident.
It's fun to think about how my views, attitudes, and habits have changed after being here for some time.
Things that were once so different now are so normal. It's also rally somewhat exciting when I leave the city and come back and feel like I'm actually back home. That feeling is indescribable but it's really amazing. (Atleast for me it was.)
I kind of liked it too.
Some things seemed a bit inexperienced (such as being able to see feet under a stall), but in the same vein 100% correct (the gap in the door you can see through. I have noticed and disliked that for YEARS).
People eating on the run is expected, but it seems like the people that are most surprised by that are coming from countries that are not used to a more, um, competitive work ethic. Although I think even the Japanese are a little suprised by some of the shortcuts we take in our day-to-day routines.
The fries comment was classic. And we keep producing news story after news story siting our growing corpulescent presence.
The one woman from Oregon complaining about being bumped? How much you want to bet she was standing in the middle of a sidewalk in Times Square during Rush Hour looking up?
As for food coming fast, um... If we are fast I wonder if I should bring a book with me if we ever vacation in France.....
I have no clue about the comments on the flags (I have few around here. Some at bars, but not many on the East Side here...). I will have to keep my eyes openon that one. I think he was just in the more touristy areas....
As for the garbage piling up? Irony. Most of that garbage is coming frmo the Red Lobster, Ruby Tuesdays and S'Barro restaurants that cater to a HEAVY tourist flow during the day. I guess they are jus not used to so many people in Cali. If NYC wasn't so crowded, maybe we would be able to just put things in the recepticals or "at the curb" (which is where the piles are, which confuses me...). I mean, I dont like the trash either, but where else are they going to keep it?
Most of the observances are kind of funny, telling more about the observer than the observed, but it makes for a good bit of perspective.
Taken with a few large grains of salt, that is!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks