life and a cup of tea: October 2015

New York, New York!

"Don't you just love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies." ~~~You've Got Mail

As I have written earlier, like many others I love fall, so when we realized we could use award tickets to visit New York in October--and go with Sarah and Scott--we of course jumped at the chance. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bruce watching Yaminah (who had a great time, and even visited Kindergarten again!) we were away for a long weekend and we had a wonderful trip. NYC is a huge, international city; I heard a lot of Chinese spoken and spoke with a few vendors. One Chinese man I spoke with had lived in the US for 25 years, and he liked it, especially because the air in New York was so clean, he said, comparing it to his native city of Guangdong. He was so happy I spoke Chinese that he tried to refuse payment for the scarf I wanted to purchase. It did not seem that he had heard many non-Chinese people speak Chinese before. In fact, along with sightseeing, brief meetings with people from all walks of life are what form lasting impressions and memories of travels, in my experience. We spoke for just a few moments with several different people as we traveled through the city: there was the businessman on the crowded subway who came and gave me a package of tissues, and insisted I kept the whole package, when he saw that Leiah had spit up a little and Sarah and I could not find a tissue; on several occasions men and women--but more often men--paused to pay Leiah a compliment (one man said, "what a beautiful baby! God bless you all!") There were gorgeously dressed tourists and locals on Fifth Avenue, men and women in business suits, police officers (some posed for photos on the Brooklyn Bridge, another asked us how old Leiah was, and when we said she is 5 months old, exclaimed in his Brooklyn accent, "What are you feeding her?!" :) The very next day when we were there we also heard that a police officer in the city had been tragically shot and killed. We spoke a few moments with fellow passengers on the subway, shopkeepers, and waiters. I noticed one man loudly protesting Hillary in favor of Bernie, and a woman (with a small speaker and microphone) speaking to passersby about Jesus. Unfortunately there are also homeless in New York, although it feels like there are many more now in Sweden (not sure of any statistics on this, however). As in many other cities, there is a stark contrast between the obviously wealthier people and the poorest. All in all, it is a busy, bustling, interesting, international city.

Magnolia Bakery, famous for its cupcakes

Delicious NY pizza after a long day sightseeing

Sarah in NYC

Times Square

People ice skating at Rockerfeller Center (and why in the world was there a Santa and santa hats in October?!)

Making dumplings at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant

Eating here made me miss Hanoi!

We stayed at Astor on the Park, only because it was the cheapest hotel we could find in Manhatten. I would recommend it if you want to go to NYC and stay cheaply--and that is all. The bathrooms and beds felt clean and the staff is nice. Otherwise, I would definitely try to stay somewhere else if you can afford it.

However, I am not sure how New Yorkers get around if they are physically challenged or need to push a stroller, as we did. Getting down to the subway required Tomas and Scott carrying Leiah's stroller down, and we only saw elevators in very few places. Most shops did not have a button to push to open, which concerns me when I think of all the people who must need help opening the door and getting in with a wheelchair, for example. Without knowing the city better, it would have been impossible to get around alone with a stroller if I had been alone, at least when using public transportation.

We visited the popular American Museum of Natural History, featured in the movie Night at the Museum. We did not follow this, but for fans, the museum has outlined details for a self-guided "Night at the Museum Tour." The museum visit was an interesting thing to do on a cold day (the weather was unseasonably cold on our first few days, but we stayed warm through walking and stops at local cafés).

At the museum

Leiah was mostly interested in her own socks at the museum...

A visit to Central Park is of course a must on a trip to New York. Tomas also brought his running shoes and ran in the park twice. (He said he saw more dogs in one hour than in his whole life before). Central Park is a lovely oasis in the city; my favorite area is known as the Mall and Literary Walk. Horse-drawn carriages, all decked out in flowers, velvet, and decorations add color, as do the groups of people and animals who share the space.

At Central Park

My favorite part of Central Park: the Mall

Sarah and Scott in Central Park

One of my favorite areas of the city is the Village, Greenwich Village and East Village and West Village. Sarah and I were excited to find and photograph Carrie Bradshaw's stoop, and the apartment building shown on Friends. Tomas found Café Wha?, known for, among other things, being the venue for Bob Dylan's first concert in New York.

Carrie Bradshaw's stoop

Apt building from Friends

Café Wha?

Man playing guitar and singing like Jeff Buckley at Washington Square

Tomas and Scott went to a Off-broadway comedy show, "Newsical, the Musical," and Sarah and I attended the absolutely gorgeous "An American in Paris." I highly recommend it if you have a chance to go! We found last-minute tickets at the TKTS booth, and our seats were unbelievable, so close to the stage that the actors walked only a few feet in front of us when they exited from our side. Attending the musical, which features music by George and Ira Gershwin, felt like watching a ballet because of all of the dancing. We loved it!

Tomas and Sarah went up the Empire State Building for the view at night, and another time we walked on the Brooklyn Bridge. Tomas and I loved it--walking across the bridge and looking up at the bridge itself, and seeing the views of the city and water around, was Tomas's favorite NYC experience.

View from the Empire State Building

Brooklyn Bridge

We took the Staten Island Ferry because it was free, just to take a boat ride and see views of the city. Our boat was unfortunately much more closed than others, but the windows opened so we could take pictures and look out.

View of Manhattan from the Staten Island Ferry

Tomas and the Statue of Liberty in the background

When my friend Maria and I visited New York once before we went to visit the location of the World Trade Towers, but now there is a 9/11 memorial. To walk in the heart of the place of such tragedy, violence, and loss--on a bright sunny day--is heartwrenching and yet, somehow, I think there is a sense of hope there as well. The National September 11 Memorial is a must on a visit to NYC, in my opinion; seeing the names of the victims etched in the memorial is heartbreaking--especially when some were listed, for example, as "Diane Anderson and her unborn child," and yet seeing the individual names, and caring, feels like a way of paying respects to them.