BROOKLYN

My friends came over a couple of weeks ago. It was great having them around. I think that helped so much for me to get acclimated to the city. I have to say, also, that sharing your everyday life with someone else can be very difficult sometimes, even if those are the people you love the most.

When they left, I spent a lot of time on my own. Except for some nights that I met some friends, I had a week almost for myself. I'd go to the swimming pool, to some still unknown areas, ice skating, to visit Andy Warhol's factory -or the gap there's left-. I did loads of things. For most of my visits, I took my bike and the rides have been actually crucial for my understanding of the city.

I drive a scooter in Barcelona, and I know very well a 2-wheels vehicle is the best way to get to know a place. It's much better than a car, cause' it allows you to drive through paths and ways you couldn't get in with a big 4 wheels vehicle. It is also much better than walking, since the speed factor allows you seeing more things in less time, which helps you constructing a mental map of a place. Brooklyn has been the site where I've ridden the most, and I think I am starting to have a light idea of it.

I've been reading quite a lot about the area, which helped me very much in my understanding. At its beginnings, New York -New Amsterdam then- used to be composed by 6 different towns. One of them was 'Breukelen', what today is known as Brooklyn. By the beginning of the 19th Century it became a city, and by the end of the same century it became part of the city of New York. Today Brooklyn is one of the 5 boroughs of New York, and it has more than 2.5 million habitants. If it was an independent city, it would be the 4th most populated in the whole United States, only with that, we can have an idea of its dimensions.

The community in Brooklyn is so, so diverse. Different communities, have settled down around the borough, and that made that now they cohabit in the same space. However, they are not mixed at all. Every few blocks is populated by a different community, and sometimes, the change is perfectly defined from one block to another. That is, actually, one of the most amazing things the area has. I can be walking or riding in through a Caribean American area, crossing the street after a few blocks, and find myself in the middle of an Orthodox Jewish zone. If you have ever had an acid, you could understand how it feels. There's some point where your brain does a 'click' and everythig feels different, without reason. That's exactly the feeling. How amazing is just going down Bedford Avenue from Williamsburg; or just following Eastern Parkway to the East from Prospect Park, and seeing a different community every 7 blocks: Caribean American, Jewish, Indian, African American, Latin American...it is just like doing the world tour, without leaving the same street...just magic.

NEW RELATIONS

It's been a while I haven't written on the blog. During these days many things happened, and my relation with the city became different. I became familiar with my house, with my neighborhood, with my job... Everything is becoming more and more comfortable day after day, and I will be leaving quite soon... too soon, I guess.

I really enjoyed my stay. Apart from learning a lot about many different things, it helped me a lot to think about my life, and about myself. I am meeting a person I didn't know.

THE URBAN FAUNA

One of the things that has surprised the most since I arrived, is the fauna in New York. Since I came, I think I have had more relation with bugs and other animals, than with human beings.


The other day, I was walking on my street in Brooklyn, and suddently I saw a light going on and off, just if front of me. I thought I was becoming mad, but I wasn't. It was a glow-worm, these bugs that fly and make light with the electricity they produce with the movement. I was so fascinated. I know the movement can produce energy, and also electricity, but how a bug can produce that? I just stopped for half an hour, trying to take pictures of them.


Unfortunately not all bugs are so beautiful as these ones, there are several others, that freak me out every time I have any type of contact with them. The first day, the mosquitos ate me when I was sleeping, and they haven't stopped doing it since. I had to buy desperately a spray anti-mosquitos which I use disproportionately every night.

Yesterday I was in the subway, coming back home from Williamsburg -very nice area, by the way. The station was quite empty, and at the end of the corridor of the platform (which are endless), I saw a huge rat, looking for food. Me and another girl kept on watching at it, just in case it came to us. Since I arrived, I have seen at least 10 rats, one of which walked on my feet when I went out with Mike the other night.

I could keep going, cats, fleas, beatles, cockroaches, bed bugs, huge centipides... Loads of different animals that habit in cities with us, and that we dismiss; want to forget; and get annoyed with, cause apparently, we think they don't have the right to cohabit with us. But in fact, if they are always around, is because of us. All of them live from us, from licking our blood; eating the food we don't want, or squoting our furiture. These parasits aren't anything else but another reflection of the city, and therefore, a reflection of ourselves.

THE EVERYDAY LIFE

The everyday life is nice in this neighbourhood. I wake up evey morning, and I walk to work, which takes me only 20 minutes. Now I got a lovely old bike, so I will ride there, it's gonna be so nice. On my way, I buy some fruit for during the day, and I get the New York Times. When I finish work, I go to visit stuff, or now that I met more people, we go to the park, to drink beer, or go for dinner. It is truly very nice. The life in Brooklyn is so different than in Manhattan. It is like a little village for young people. It is perfect. It is chilled out and nice, but if I need movement, I can take the subway, and be in Manhattan in 15 minutes.

Perhaps, the only thing that makes it a bit difficult is the fear. If you can put yourself in the skin of a 25 years old woman on her own, in a monstruous city such as New York,I think you'll understand me. Everything more intense than normally. I live my everyday much more aware and carefully that in other moments of my life. I am just so sensitive to anything. Any weird sound, individual, or movement makes me feel afraid. My place is nice, and my flatmates are lovely. But the endless corredor is a bit spooky, and it freaks me out everytime I get home. Especially now, that I am spending some days alone in the flat. It is a continuous tension, but I think that was part of the adventure, wasn't it?

MY PLACE

Did you know that google maps had street views? I think it only has it in certain places, and New York is one of them. Anyway, link it, and you will have an idea about what's my street like. My block is quite different from the rest of the area. All the surroundings are a residential area, full of 'very Brooklyn' brown-stones. My place is in the building with white fences and yellow flowers. My flat is on the 4th floor (the two windows at right). I have a basketball court in front of the building. If you move on the image (up, down, left & right), you'll see around. Also, if you click on the arrows, can moving forward on the street.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=es&geocode=&q=485+park+place&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.365962,65.742188&ie=UTF8&ll=40.679743,-73.960841&spn=0.008983,0.024376&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.675237,-73.961808&panoid=UTD9saRwaGclYMb0ayt-pw&cbp=2,323.1510817201297,,0,-11.932554237557214

UNDERSTANDING THE CITY

Understanding the city... is that possible?

Today I woke with a terrible hangover, and I had to go to work. It was pretty fun though, I think I am learning a lot. In the afternoon I went to see a nice 20s style bike I found on Craigslist quite cheap. I was at home, and I had to t to Greenpoint. It was such an adventure trying to get there.

The New York subway is so different than in other cities of the world. The different lines were made -and own- by private companies, and it wasn't until the 50' that the NYC government bought them. That's why it has this organic design, since the different lines were planned separately, whithout trying to find a unity. While other big cities the subway system is planned to establish connections all around the city. The NYC subway don't have many transfers. If you want to change the line, you'll have to get off the station, and walk until the nearest subway stop of the line you wanna take. For getting from my place to Greeenpoint, for example, I had to change 4 times the line, and walk on the street one or two times. It is just insane, a truly mistreat for the users, especially when these are new in the city. However, it is fascinating to see how there are other possible ways to plan the city. Without any doubt, the subway in NY -like the one in any other city- is just a reflection of the NY urbanity itself: organic, in motion... just insane.

THE CULTURE OF THE SPECTACLE

Lovely, lovely day!

I woke up quite late. Last night was the first one I could have a good sleep, without waking up at 6:00 am. During these days I've been having a terrible Jetlag. In the afternoon I went to what it used to be Little Italy, now an extension of China Town. The Italian community moved to the suburbs when they could afford it, to make their American dream come true. Now the Chinese community has spread their shops of mass production gadgets, and fake lable clothing all around the area. I think it is fascinating how cities can change so radically. And the most beautiful thing is that every one of these little local changes, is generally explaining a process within a global scale.

That kind of changes are perfect examples of how the way cities have been conceived is in a terrible crisis. Thought, planned and built under a Modern discourse, cities have been conceived as something solid that could remain estable forever. Howeverer, cities -and especially big metrpolis- are shaped by the ephemeral. That's the big disencounter bewteen the urban and its container. The city life is effervescent and in constant movement, and crashes with a hard, and made-of-concrete envelop, which is more concentrated in controling it, than in satysfying its necessities. What city planners don't seem to realise, is that trying to control the urban life in the city, is like trying to control a soluble aspirin when this is into water.

Anyway, as I was saying the only thing that remains from Little Italy is the architecture, which one can identify quickly if he/she has seen The Godfather. All the rest is just an amusement park for tourists. The attraction of the day was a pasta eaters contest... I think that's enough for getting an idea of what's the environment like. At night, I went to Greewich Village, and ended up at the Blue Note, listening to the best Jazz concert, ever. I love this city.