Don't lose your head

I'm unpacked and starting to get acquainted with New York City, but I still have a little time before I have to get to work. This weekend I had some time to hang out with Katie and explore a few different neighborhoods. We found a great second hand store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; checked out some artists' galleries in Chelsea; and visited some historic sites in the East Village (although I had to explain what CBGB's was). We also went to young adult brunch in Central Park with Katie's church, which is on the Upper East Side maybe three blocks from the park, where we met several really cool people who are already established here but aren't too far out from the point Katie and I are at. Today, I got a chance to meet interns with other programs. Most of them have been here a little bit longer than me and have been at least through their orientation or started working for the year. Talking to people who also plan to survive in New York on a stipend was also reassuring as New York is notoriously expensive (in case you haven't heard) and I've gotten some less than comforting reactions from people I've been summarizing my plans for in the last few months. I've also gotten to know the public transportation in my neighborhood, and can get within a block of my front door on the bus.

So far, I'm mostly at a mental block of comparing New York to London, which I expected but I'm trying to get past. London is pretty much the only city I've spent enough time in to figure out, so I spend a lot of time going through the similarities and differences of the two cities and which of the two ways I prefer. It's understandable to put the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar, but I'm hoping to move past it in the next week or two and be able to understand New York on it's own terms. I feel like it's kind of like learning a new language. It's easier to translate in your head at first, but as time goes by that becomes cumbersome and time consuming, plus it limits understanding. "Me gusta manzanos" isn't quite the same as "I like apples," but it works. For a while. I'm looking forward to getting past that stage so I can be more present in my current surroundings.

In summary, I have taught Katie how to make loose leaf tea and pick a new kind of beer, and Katie has shown me how to figure out which exit to take at the subway and how to light gas burners. Seems like a fair trade.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to add pictures to this, but the one I have included is from the Cloisters, which is a branch of the Met in Fort Tyron Park that focuses on Medieval art and is designed to look like a castle so the pieces can be displayed in a setting kindasorta close to how they were intended to be in. I'll work on the pictures thing.

Be well. Do good work. Keep in touch. (GK)

Meghan