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(The pictures you see are pictures I took about two weeks ago of a Jewish community in upper Manhattan which intersects with the Dominican neighborhood I had the pleasure of getting to know.)
One month... Im still trying to settle myself down here in New York. I'm still at the hotel in Queens and I'm still working at the waffle place. I still see brother frank and the rest of the other guys I met that first week from time to time and I still don't know what to feel about this city. I know Im not writing nor traveling in a "touristy" way the way most bloggers do. My experiences do not abound in unique eateries and cafes around town, nor am I giving history and geography lessons like most average travel blogs do. What I am trying to do is to settle myself down in New York city with the very limited resources I came here with while I work and try to bring birth to a new chapter of my life I can share with any one who cares to read about it. I believe we all have interesting life's but fail in noticing the
unique and interesting aspects of it because of our familiarization with the routines we have accustomed to from day to day. Let me put it in this way; you've been living the way you live with the people you've been knowing all your life, thus feeling like nothing new or exiting happens or abounds around you. Let's say the very next day you move to a new city, perhaps college, or a new career opportunity are the causes-- all of a sudden life around you seems new and refreshing and you can imagine liking your new acquaintances, new places you now habituate and new lifestyle better than the old, bland one you had back home. Here is where you have failed to understand that this new and refreshing life of yours will perhaps not be too new nor refreshing in a couple of months, maybe years; for we always fail to appreciate what we have around us and how we wake up every morning in favorable conditions to be witnesses to the continuation of life. I've realized that we make the most of what we got, who we got and where we live. All my life I had heard that
saying but until now that I'm far away from any one I know or grew up with for the first time in my life that it makes complete sense to me. I remember weeks before I left Austin, I took my camera to the beautiful downtown Austin and took a variety of random shots all over town. When I got home and uploaded them to my laptop, once I had them on a larger screen I didn't make much of the pictures I had taken earlier that day, maybe subconsciously I figured they were just pictures of Austin; a city that I got to see every day, or at least id seen many times in the past, anyway. Well just earlier today I went to pick my electronics up from Frank's place, hence I'm now staying in a hotel room. I turned my camera on and checked out the pictures I had saved on the memory stick. The pictures I had taken in Austin were all there and I felt great joy at seeing Austin again through my eyes two months ago. All of a sudden all these pictures I took then are not all too bland nor familiar. They
are much more than a resigned familiarity, these pictures now represent a pleasant memory of a city I feel familiar with because it's a city I've come to estimate and appreciate even more.
A month has passed now and although it seems like all the unpredictability of my journey now seems quite avoidable, I feel like this was not what I was really looking for when I started this journey of mine. I didn't want my experience to just be a move to another state where I would just start all over again-- I wanted it to be a move that would help me learn and feel new things and help me move forward, but not start all over. Starting all over for me means you're in it for the long run-- that I will be trying to create not only a new chapter, but a whole new book here in New York. To me that notion goes against my ambitions of travel, which was my objective when I left every known person to me behind, but it seems like it's what I'm striving for every morning I wake up in that hotel room and I speak to my 'case manager'. But I have to remind myself that I got a time frame I've pre-determined for myself in this city, I cant start to pretend all of a sudden that my "case" is moving forward for my 'own betterment', which is the kind of mindset the men around me share in the shelter program, of course.
I'm getting to see more of New York, staying in Queens has been a factor to that matter. I take the E train bound for Manhattan every day on Jamaica center-- a neighborhood heavily populated by a Jamaican population, definitely another side of New York. I arrive on 34th street and eight ave in Manhattan and then walk a couple of blocks to work. I hope I start experiencing a bit more of the city's night life. Just the other day a co-worker invited me to go to a bar and chill around town before calling it a night, but I'm in a shelter program with a curfew, of course. This morning I met a pretty, tall, slim, freckled brunet who was wearing a sombrero, hence today is "cinco de mayo", and I pointed out her hat and mentioned to her that I'm Mexican American, after a little conversation ensued, an invitation to a party from her part was presented to me. But my situation right now does not allow me to assist to party's or bars. I don't get frustrated with the inconveniences I'm going through at the time, but I have got to hurry the process of getting myself a room for rent. The guy I share the hotel room with seems a bit grumpy and I don't think he's had many young friends since he got out of jail. He's a tall, black, slinky dude who seems in his 50's maybe. Dude gets up every morning at four to work out at a park situated right in front of the hotel. Dude works out with an old school, see-through Sony Walkman... Holy crap I wish I had brought my classic Game boy, which I was so close to bringing with me, so we could at least have something in common. But I'm definitely ready to move out of here and into a place I can pay for.
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John and Sylvia
John Wallace & Sylvia Bowman Wallace
Keep on keeping on
Jose Luis, please keep posting your blogs. I have never seen another like them. My wife, Sylvia, and I spent some time in Boston, MA, with people who were struggling to get their life organised. I find your postings challenging and confronting. Hope you struggle through your journey.