It’s sunday morning, and I am sitting in a coffee shop on Tompkin Square Park in New York’s East Village writing my first blog entry from abroad.

Actually, there’s not a lot to be said as of yet. Yesterday night, I drank my first beer out of a paper bag, in the middle of Williamsburg Brdige, with an amazing view on lower Manhatten and up the East River. Then there was this strange homeless person telling us for about 20 minutes about how he had figured the 911 events out – conspiracy theories are always funny. If I had a digital camera, I could regale you with his appearance, but I don’t, so you’ll have to wait. Drinking beer out of a bag was a must-do in the US, of course. I had not yet done that. I really wonder why I did not do that in 1998.

I haven’t been to Ground Zero yet, but I will certainly do that at some point. Life here seems so detached from the 911 events, I can hardly believe it. Two Australians I talked to yesterday told me they hardly noticed anything even last Wednesday. But there are tons of flags and postcards. All the street-painters now have cheesy WTC paintings on stock. All the fire vans feature a waving US flag now. But that’s it.