November started with a nerve-wrecking week. It was time for the US elections. Not a lot happened during the week itself except for constantly watching the news and trying to concentrate on work somehow at the same time. Everyone expected there to be no clear results on Tuesday, but even by Friday evening there was no declared winner yet. Unfortunately, it was a very tight race. Also for distraction and since both of us really enjoyed the Smørrebrød we had at Smør a couple of days ago, we decided to give a self-made version a shot. It came out pretty close. A new favorite for a quick and healthy meal. Later in the week, we met with Fabi, Char, Marlene and Henrik for dinner at Nai Tapas on Friday. This was hands down the best Spanish food we ever had and we enjoyed every bite and sip of it.
Finally a decision in the US elections
On Saturday, we got up early to head back to New Jersey to pick up Alex´s motorcycle. It had to stay in the shop for service as the off-road riding caused some damage to the steering head (luckily everything was fixed under warranty). After picking it up, we met with Fabi at Rockaway Deli & Bagel in New Jersey. Before getting on the motorcycles to enjoy the beautiful warm weather, we treated ourselves with a small bagel and an iced coffee. Just as we got on the bikes, we got a push notification. Biden was the official winner of the elections! What a relieve!
In a good mood, we drove through some state parks, took the Seven Lakes Drive and then made our way back to the city. When we got back, the feeling in the city was quite electric. Everyone was out in the streets celebrating the election results and we participated in quite a few honking concerts to add to the fun. For the rest of the day, we just walked around to soak up this historic moment, watch street musicians and some (socially distanced) dance parties.
1-year friendsiversary with Mark & Elena
The next week we received a package with a bunch of German goodies – Alex was participating in a virtual „Celebrate the Fall“ event of the German-American Chamber of Commerce in the following week. Patrick, one of the Partners of our NYC office moved to the US decades ago and since then supports the GACC. Every year they do a couple of events to connect people and Patrick always tries to involved fellow Germans. We had to be patient to indulge in these, but this was a good reminder of home. On Sunday we invited Mark & Elena over for dinner. We made some Goulasch with Spätzle and red cabbage for them. Also we had some peanut butter ready for Waffles. He was over-excited in the beginning but quickly calmed down and let us pet his adorable paws – too cute!
After another work week, Friday was girls and boys night! Mark and Elena each invited us to join their get together’s. Franzi and the girls first went to Ofrenda for some Margaritas and Tacos. Later they moved on to another spot for drinks. Alex and the guys stayed at Mark´s place where he cooked a delicious Curry. Later, Elena and Franzi, headed back home to end the night in a merged boys and girls night.
On Saturday, we had a spontaneous dinner with Michael and Nuri. Michael is the owner of the garage where we park our motorcycles and Nuri is his wife. We went to The Smith and had a really lovely time. On Sunday, we headed over to Mark and Elena’s place again since we committed to babysit Waffles for a few hours. Time passed super quickly showing off how cute Waffles is on Facetime and going on a very energetic walk.
Thanksgiving
The next week was a short and quite work week since Thanksgiving was coming up. For Thanksgiving, we didn’t really have plans. Originally Lukas and Eileen were supposed to be in New York this week but for obvious reasons that didn’t happen. On Thanksgiving day itself we crossed off our list to clean our motorcycles and get them winter ready.
Since we kind of missed shopping for food, we decided to support local business instead of cooking and ordered some Indian food as our Thanksgiving dinner (it’s always good to find an excuse to order some food). On Friday, we were out on a Christmas present hunting mission and fetched some goods to bring back home for Christmas. Afterwards, we recharged with a little afternoon snack at Mud.
Saturday started off sporty with a run, Alex got a haircut later, and we had some dinner at Szechuan Mountain House right in our neighborhood.
For the last day of the long weekend, we visited the American Museum of Natural History. We were especially impressed with the different halls showing mammals from Africa, North America and Asia. It’s great that we’re still able to visit museums in this time – makes it feel at least a little bit like life is normal. Luckily NYC is very diligent with having stringent measures in place to still allow things like this. You never see someone walking around without a facemask. Afterwards we Facetimed Franzi´s parents in Central Park for a bit. Later we were off to Williamsburg where we met Jay for a coffee at Jane. Back home, we put up some minimal Christmas decorations and made cookies to celebrate the first advent and start getting into the Christmas mood.
