The river trip seems like a long time gone event. It's been already a week since the hurricane Sandy passed over New Jersey. No electricity, no heat. Everything dead. My friend didn't go to work the first few days, they told everyone to stay home. The roads were closed and the public transport not running. Plus very long line ups to get gas. It's in high demand since people started using generators.
 
Eventually, my friend went to work. So I have been stuck here, like in prison, in cold all day long. Then go to sleep, and the next day the same thing. After a fed days they opened the A&P food store, running from generators, so I stared buying cans of food for my lunch and dinner. They only sold non-perishable foods. The only entertainment I have is listening to the radio. Well, not really listening to music but news. I am so glad I have bought it...
 
It's getting really cold, my friend doesn't seem to handle the situation well, and overall I am questioning me coming here. Who could predict it though. I didn't expect the hurricane would have such an effect on lives here. And from what I hear on the radio, it's really bad in some other areas. The whole neighbourhoods are wiped out. The houses, roads, completely vanished from the face of the earth. I have seen many fallen trees around here. One tree fell on the shack in the backyard. Had it went the other way, I would had had landed on the house.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → A week after the hurricane Sandy. The last day pretty much the same as the first.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → Lucky the tree didn't fall on the house.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → It landed right on the shack in the backyard.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → Entrance to A&P.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → The whole sections with fresh or frozen foods are blocked from access.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → The fresh produce section.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → The meats section.

Photo:  Old Bridge, USA → More fallen trees just around the corner.

What can I say.. It's been a bad luck in a way, but also my choice to come here. So I am fine. No reason to complain. I have been through a lot of bad experiences in my life, in a lot of bad and seemingly hopless situations with people and circumstances. I've always made it, and I can handle it. No problem. I am able to take a step back and see how thigs are from a perspective. It's never the end of the world. And if it is, then there is nothing we can do about it. Why to get wrongly excited. Sometimes all there is to it is to sit tight, do what's necessary and available, and pull through. The bigger solutions will come with time.
 
From what I see and hear, a lot of people in the US are a bit different. They are used to the convenience in life, having everything they want at their finger tips, and they don't know how to handle the stress when they don't get deliverd what they want. Like children, in a sense. Something strays away from their rutine, and they don't know how to handle it. I don't think such 'extreme' edxperiences affect me so much. Perhaps what's extreme to them, is not extreme to me. I also see it in people whom I meet in the Latin countries. They are called the 'third world', but when it comes to maturity, they are way ahead of people the same age in the USA or Canada. It's not a rule, of course, but a generalization. It seems that the peopple here run after silly things trying to prove how cool they are, while in fact, the only edge the often have, is their money. And that's there is to it - just being lucky to live where they can make more money. Unfortunately, being able to pamper themselves and show off traveling to the 'poor' countries, doesn't prove much more than having a fat bank account. Sometimes I don't blame the locals in Central or South America, or somewehre in South East Asia, when they look at the 'farang' as a walking ATM machine.

More - Continued here.