Day 342-348: New York State of Mind

Tuesday, May 22 - Day 342
Last day in the office for a bit. Thank goodness I get to go to New York! I've missed it. Landed in one of the five boroughs by midnight.

Wednesday, May 23 - Day 343
Today brought many blessings! A morning run in Prospect Park, for one.

 Then there was lunch at Bierkraft with Emile.

 And catching up with Nadia G, Greta, and then having a delightful dinner in Long Island City with Jailee and Niko. The view wasn't bad - this city is one of the greatest places I know.

Thursday, May 24 - Day 344

 Today was another yummy lunch - BBQ chicken sandwich at Roots Cafe in Brooklyn. So good.

 One world, one unity! And an engaging dinner with my Arabic professor and his wife in Westchester.

Friday, May 25 - Day 345

 I made a new friend today. His name is Leander. I also got to hang out for real with his aunt, one of my bffs, Norah. It took us a few go-rounds to get the pictures right. I have been very blessed in my friendships!

 I'm so grateful to have visited old friends including Chris, Laura, Pam, Jahi and Emile tonight!





Saturday, May 26 - Day 346

 

This afternoon I went to the NMAI. It's a great museum and they had a fascinating exhibition on cultural artifacts so I nerded out a bit, which I always appreciate. Once I get my thoughts in order I'll post them over at SalonAnthro. 

Norah and I had dinner at Toby's Public House. Local, Brooklyn, wood-fired pizza - I savored every bite!

Sunday, May 27 - Day 347

 I've been hanging out with this little cutie, Turk, to help out Jailee and Niko. Adorable. Pets are the best!

 I don't even know where to start with this one! Queens is the most diverse city in the US. Proof is in the ...pudding. Or browni. I love the feeling of foreign ground - even if I'm still in the US!

Norah and I left Long Island City for Brooklyn, but first we stopped for a visit to MoMA's PS1. PS1 is one of the city's oldest contemporary art institutions, and cleverly housed in an old school (hence the PS, public school). I loved these beautiful, simple and elegant installations in the hallways/stairwells. Proof beauty can be anywhere.

I saw this great graffiti: no tengo $ pero tengo amor. If you have amor, aren't you really wealthy?

 We had a girl's night on Norah's patio - great to catch up with my girlfriends!

NY attitude - love it!

Monday, May 28 - Day 348
Today I'm grateful for safe travels to Seattle.

Days 170-174: An East Coast Blur

for Thursday, December 1 - Day 170
After three months away, I'm grateful to have two days in New York City. I miss this place, I really do. Now that I'm removed from it, I can separate what was burdening me emotionally from NYC - and what burdens were coming from elsewhere. Now if only I can work on that kind of clarity for my life here, now...

for Friday, December 2 - Day 171

I'm grateful for happy hour at Miriam's with Norah, just like old times (old times meaning when I lived in Brooklyn!). I am grateful that our friendship is still as lovely and strong as it was! She is so important to me, and it was such a blessing to sit and share with her.

for Saturday, December 3 - Day 172

Brunch with awesome ladies Laura, Katharine & Aubrey! At Freeman's!


for Sunday, December 4 - Day 173
Today I'm grateful for barely making it to IAD in time, after my presentation at MESA - but I did. Phew. Exhausting. I arrived back in LA to discover that Lucas was here, and was able to meet him for a delicious dinner in Santa Monica.


for Monday, December 5 - Day 174
After being gone Wed-Sun for Thanksgiving, and then Thurs-Sun for the MESA conference, I am grateful to spend a low-key night at home doing laundry, tidying up, and just relaxing!

Day 69: Moments of Truth

Today I had a moment - well, a period of time - where I felt the heartbeat of life. It sounds cheesy, but driving home from meeting my friend Jailee at Earl's, the night was so clear and I was skimming along the BQE southbound, listening to really upbeat music. There's this part where the road hugs the Brooklyn waterfront, north of the Atlantic St exit, and you're right over the piers and the park and all of lower Manhattan is just floating there. And I had this moment where I realized, I came here, I did this, this is a piece of me now - and I can be proud of that. Not everyone is able to up & move to one of the greatest cities in the world! It takes guts. I did it, though. And it will always be part of me; I am richer for these three years. I felt in these moments how I am taking New York with me, how this experience was at once bounded in these three years but also continuing, living on, in my heart and my memory and in who I am now. I am not the same girl who arrived here in August 2008 - I'm a better version of her. I can be proud of that, because I did the hard work of transforming and I let New York in, but I am also grateful to have lived here.

I heart NY.

Day 67: Malaysian food and Masters' friends

Tonight I had a lovely dinner at Nyonya, a Malaysian place in Chinatown. It was Nadia's going-away party - she's going to be spending at least the next year in Cairo. I got to eat completely delicious Malaysian food with a very dear friend (who happens to be one of the most brilliant thinkers and generous academics I've ever met!), and catch up with Melissa, Liam, Sarah M, Nadia K, and Tiffany, who I went to graduate school with at NYU in some form or another.

Things I will miss about New York: my NYU community and the incredible gastronomic delights of this city. Good thing airplanes come here and I can come gorge myself on food & friendship when I need to!

Day 66: Diane

for Friday, August 19, 2011

I'm grateful that my friend Diane was able to come down for one last visit before I leave NYC! It's been great having her in Boston, and being in NYC, as we've been able to see each other once a year or so while I've been here. Diane and I bonded in the most unlikely of circumstances (working as lowly admins at a commercial real estate firm) back in 2005 in Seattle. We have come a long way since then - both of us! And I'm so grateful that we have remained friends, and I continue to be in awe of my gorgeous friend, who's funny, brilliant (she's earning a doctorate!), politically savvy, and a fellow traveler, curious about the world and everything and everyone in it. Here's a photo timeline of our friendship - we'll be sure to add another link after this weekend, and I can't wait to see how our friendship continues to grow and the adventures we'll share together in the years to come.

August 2005, Vancouver, BC

October 2007, Boston

October 2008 (Halloween, obviously), NYC

August 2010, New York City

Lately...

I have been thinking about writing blogs, and not writing them. I haven't felt very inspired, and rather than "water down" the quality of my blog, I have elected to be silent. Here's a summary of the blog entries I contemplated:
Book review of Aravind Adiga's 2nd novel, in the wake of White Tiger, entitled Between the Assassinations. Verdict: it's no White Tiger, but an interesting novel nonetheless.
Book review of Leila Marouane's The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris. Verdict: meh....
Restaurant review: Sylvia's in Harlem. Soul Food. Deeeeelicious. See proof below!



This week I had the gift of seeing my city through fresh eyes, as E's Aussie friend visited us and America for the first time. Walking with a tourist, I felt authorized to take pictures and act like a tourist (except when it comes to knowing my way around the subway and walking like a New Yorker). It is easy to forget how imposing and beautiful and crazy New York is, how full of lives of all kinds, how deep this place is...
I also had the blessing of going places I don't usually go - like Yankee Stadium. I can't normally find an excuse to ride the train all the way to the Bronx, but now...I can say I've seen the stadium (the game's cheapest tickets were $135, though, so...I wasn't able to go inside said arena.


Later that night, we enjoyed the sumptious delights of Nyonya's Malaysian cuisine in Little Italy, wandering up through SoHo on a lazy warm summer night.


The next day, we tried Bonnie's Grill in Park Slope, sampling their delicious burgers.

I also tried watermelon beer, because hey, it's summer, and I love watermelon and beer. It was definitely a girly beer, with a bit of sticky sweet melony aftertaste. Not bad.
Today was the real tourist day, however: taking the (free!) Staten Island ferry so we could get a good look at Manhattan's gorgeous skyline, we then lunched at Arturo's in SoHo. Then up to Washington Square Park, where kids and adults alike took advantage of the fountain's water on a scorching July afternoon. Next, to Central Park, where tourists walked or rode in pedicabs, hustlers hollered, "Cold refreshing waters $1 only," hauling coolers on their backs, a group of Haitian drummers and trumpeteers entertained a crowd of spectators eager to document their performance, bikers and runners working out, newlyweds posing for photos near Bethesda Fountain, and...us.







It feels nice to be a traveler again, or to see with new eyes and appreciation...It makes me all the more excited for my upcoming travel to San Francisco, Yosemite, and Las Vegas. I am thrilled to be going on the road again, seeing new places, visiting friends along the way, and spending some time on the West Coast.

Exhibition Review: The High Line

Now that spring is here...the High Line is back!



(Top: Valerie Hegarty installation)



The High Line
http://www.thehighline.org/
Gansevoort St to 20th St, between 10th & 11th Aves

Exhibition Review: African Burial Ground

In the early 1990s, construction on a new federal building in lower Manhattan was halted due to the discovery of several graves. Further research and study revealed that the site, now the African Burial Ground National Park, was a cemetery used by Africans in New Amsterdam in the 1600s through 1794. Over 400 graves were excavated and the remains sent to Howard University for study; experts estimate that over 15,000 graves are buried at the site.

Widespread community protest forced the government to alter construction plans for the site. Now, the L-shaped federal building incorporates a visitor center, and the remaining plot of land has been turned into a outdoor monument, with a large black-granite spiral sculpture and burial mounds of the re-interred graves (replaced after their study at Howard University).

The visitor's center provides recreations of the lives of those who might have buried their loved ones at the site, including information about slavery laws and regulations at the time. During the cemetery's use up to 1794, the site was outside of New Amsterdam limits. Africans and/or slaves were not allowed out of their masters' houses without permission, after dark, or in groups of more than 4 at a time. Historical documents on display show the systemic racism of the time, that prevented escape and denied choice and freedom of movement to Africans who built the city of New Amsterdam.

The displays were educational and interesting, as was the video shown in the theater (twice an hour daily). Taken as a hole, the exhibition shows the importance of the site to Africans and African-Americans. This is a site that holds important information and significance for early African members of the New York community, and deserves to be honored and studied as such. The staff, park rangers and volunteers, were eager to discuss the site and the displays, as well as answer any questions we might have had.

The African Burial Ground offers a fruitful foil to the Weeksville Heritage Houses. These houses, recreated according to their historic uses and residents, show what life was like in the 1800-1900s in New York. New York freed slaves in 1827, and the founders of the Weeksville community build houses and worked, creating their own community as free men and women. In looking at these sites together, we can start to piece together a picture of African-American histories in New York and more fully understand the growth and evolution of this city.

The African Burial Ground is located at 290 Broadway, New York, NY.
The website for the African Burial Ground is here.