So here I am. 'Here' being New York, or more specifically Brooklyn, or even more specifically Park Slope. I am still jetlagged and getting used to stuff, so please forgive typos and blathering for the time being.
I arrived here last night (which I *think* was Tuesday) after an extended flight due to adverse weather conditions. The extra hour in the air did nothing to help my hidden fear of flying, nor did the turbulent, stormy conditions that caused the extra flying/panicking time. Anyway, after sweaty-palming my way through Immigration (they have my fingerprints - I can never get away with 90 1/2 days now) I caught a taxi into the city. As I was going from JFK to Brooklyn, I didn't actually see anything that was New York 101 - no bridges, or skyscrapers, or ladies holding torches. I did see a Drive-Thru MacDonald's proudly proclaiming 'Over 99 billion served'. I sincerely hope that was worldwide, and not just that particular Long Island branch. But basically, I got the back end of Long Island and Brooklyn.
The apartment I am staying in is really quite lovely. My room looks like this:
and the living room is like this:
I even have a proper American iron fire escape outside my window, as demonstrated in this fuzzy picture:
The apartment is on 5th Avenue, a main street of bars and shops in Park Slope, the yummy mummy annexe of Brooklyn. The bars have dog bowls outside them, due to all the canine companions about. This is the Brooklyn my inner middle-classedness (and my mother) was hoping for.
My 'roommate' (no, no, no, people - she's my *flatmate*, dammit) is a Hungarian nanny called Judy. She's an ex-professional gymnast, a gym bunny and, by all accounts, a little bit strange. But fun. The first thing she did when I got here, after showing me around, was to take me for a very strong gin and tonic at a lovely bar up the road. The handsome barman at Slow Dive on 5th was very generous with the gin, and put The Clash on for me when he heard my accent. We'll be going back there. We then went on to a party of a friend of Judy's who is moving to Australia. The people there were very nice, but, I felt, were very studied in their hipness - lots of wilfully obscure bands on the stereo to accompany the intellectual/nerdy chat. I shouldn't be too mean, as they welcomed (the frankly bedgraggled and faintly smelly) me into their home and gave me pizza and nice wine. We left when my long day caught up with me and I went a bit cross-eyed.
This morning I went to get groceries, which is probably a whole other blog post in itself - suffice to say that, if I lived here permanently, I'd either get scurvy or be broke, with fruit and vegetables comparitively *really* expensive. This places oozes Type II diabetes. I think I'll mostly be living on air while I'm here.
I then set off into Manhattan, trying to get my bearings by walking there through Downtown Brooklyn. It was quite the walk in the heat and humidity, with sporadic thunderstorms punctuating the walk. At one point I stopped at a Starbucks, mostly to use the 'restrooms' (see, I'm learning) but felt I should order my usual Americano with milk to make up for using their conveniences. I don't know whether the lady misunderstood me (my accent *is* pretty thick) or if my order got mixed up with someone else, but instead of my 10 calorie coffee (yes, they have they tell you the nutritional information on the menu) I got something with lots of milk, sugar, cocoa and possibly vanilla. My teeth almost immediately fell out.
Aaanyway, I rounded a corner and caught a glimpse of this:
which made everything ok.
I then wandered around Chinatown, took some photos of some dragon fruit, much to the consternation of the lady selling them and ambled back, in the process accidentally walking past Beacon's Closet, a rather wonderful vintage/second-hand shop that was recommended to me by the lovely Jenn. I shall have to return there when I have my full rummaging strength.
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