Changing it up

First of all, I appreciate that both Caitlin and Sophia mentioned me in their posts!!!! Now, when we decided to start blogging we agreed that the blog would be used to talk about field trips, class readings, class discussions, class assignments, and other interesting occurrences happening in the city. It seems like we have done a great job of covering all of those bases so good job everyone! I just wanted to remind you again of the open nature of this blog. That being said, I am going to discuss a New York City experience that I had this weekend. Since our syllabus is overloaded with more than enough work, I don't think we can add it but I suggest that we head there one weekend just for a fun time!!!!

On Saturday night, after visiting the Chelsea Galleries, I went to Buschwick to visit Mimo. Previously, I had been to what I believe was the very southern end of it nead Bed Sty and had a pretty bad experience in that it was terrifying to be there at that time of night. However, my experience with this area which is near the L train stop at Dekalb was anything but a bad experience. The streets seemed to be bustling with people till well into the night. Everyone seemed to be smiling and social and having a good time and I would have felt perfectly safe going up to any of them and asking for directions. That night we went to a restaurant to eat tacos and a burger king and I was shocked at how many families and young couples I saw. In Burger King I even talked to one of the families. The little girl kept asking her mother where Burger King french fries came from which is a topic and the mom kept saying she didn't know. Then out loud the mom asked if anyone did know to which I responded that "Hungry Jack's which is a chain in Australia owned by Burger King gets thier fries from Lamb Weston Canada but McDonald's gets thiers from Idaho. Since Burger king and McDonalds use the same processing plant for thier fries they could get thier fries from either of those two locations but since they don't make it public where exactly their fries come from its impossible to know for sure." I knew this information thanks to my intense love of French Fries and my desire to find out how to make french fries that taste just as good as Burger Kings myself. This dream was of course terminated when I almost burned down Third North and decided I wouldn't ever try to make French Fries again. But, none of this is relevant to the post.

There were deli's everywhere! I counted three on one block on one side of the street. But, they were all different which shows how diverse this area is. There was an Italian deli and pastry shop, one thats name was written in spanish so I am assuming it had traditional food from a South American country, and one that was simpled named American-style deli. Also, the general layout of this area seemed very strange and another good word for it would be extreme. One block would be packed while one or two blocks away it would be empty warehouse covered in graffitti and would look like an absolutely terrifying place to be. Then a block away from that it would be a block of super nice apartment buildings followed by a block of run down looking apartments. But, if you went inside of these apartments they would be furnished with the nicest furniture and kitchen appliances. Even on the crowded blocks there would be abandoned buildings and empty lots with barbed wire around them next to very elegant stores and run down little restaurants.

The word I used earlier, diverse, is probably the best way to describe this area because amidst the large amount of multicultured families there were also many different kinds of people present. I saw kids who clearly looked like they were in gangs, 50 year old poets, college students, and an old man filling his coffee mug with vodka before getting in his car to drive somewhere.

Basically, this is absolutely a place to visit. If anything it is worth it just to get out of Manhattan. The air felt fresh in a way it never feels in Manhattan and the lower buildings and quiet streets were most definitely a nice change for a peaceful Friday night.

Also, as a sidenote to Sophia's post, the name of the second gallery we went to was the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery and the artist was Haim Steinbach and it was AMAZING!!!!! SCOTT YOU MUST GO SEE THIS GALLERY!!!!!!!!! I will absolutely be going there again!!!