When you cross one of the bridges leading into Brooklyn, there are road signs in the normal US green and white motorway colours, but with unusual messages:
Brooklyn: How Sweet It Is or Brooklyn: Believe the Hype
on entering. Or on leaving
Leaving Brooklyn: Fuhgeddaboudit! and Leaving Brooklyn: Oi Vey!
Since the beginning of the month, I've joined the very long line of people who have come from all over the world to become a Brooklynite. Brooklyn is the most populous borough in New York, and the second largest (after Queens). Its got a strong identity within New York; when the boroughs merged to become the present city in 1898, Brooklyn was the only one in which there was fierce resistance. Some still lament the occasion as The Great Mistake of 1898.
I haven't seen too much of my new home-borough yet, but what I have seen I really like. I live here on the edge of Prospect Park, Brooklyn's equivalent of Central Park (and created by the same team, Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux). It takes about an hour by train to get to Columbia, but that is about the only negative thing about the move. Brooklyn's suburbs, here and elsewhere, consist of row after row of fine brownstone houses; it has a vibrant music industry and a lot of good cafes. Sometimes it reminds me of San Francisco. The hectic of Manhattan is far reduced here, and where I live, there is a strong neighbourhood feeling.
I am sharing a flat with three others: Jessica is a student teacher, Nathe a neurologist (actually a blogger and photographer who does neurology on the side) and Darla an architect.
Moving to Brooklyn, I got to drive over the Brooklyn Bridge.
I have painted my room and gotten some of the furniture I need; slowly the pile of boxes in the middle of my room is getting smaller and the visible carpet is getting bigger.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Swamp Things
Coming out of the Everglades, without showering for three days, my hands were blistered and felt like claws from the paddling, I was feverish and aching all over.
But man, did we have an amazing time!
I spent three nights in the mango swamps there with friends from New York, Stacey and Jason. We were in a canoe and a kayak, and did a round trip of about 50 miles, the first part of which was on the ocean and the second in the 'backwaters', the complex waterways inland. The first night was on the beach, alone, where we built a huge bonfire. On the second day, we were paddling towards Shark River to get into the backwaters when suddenly behind us, a huge dark fin rose out of the water. Yeah! I thought. A shark. I'd wanted to see one. It went under. Then it came back up again, a lot closer.
"Stace!" I yelled. "Maybe we should hug the shore more!"
As it turned out later, they were not sharks but dolphins. And we saw a lot: playing around us in groups, or fishing in pairs.
After the night on the beach, we had booked space on 'chickees', simple wooden platforms on posts in the water which provide a campsite (its impossible to get out in the dense mangrove swamps). The second day, after the 'shark' sighting, we misjudged our speed and were a way away from the chickee as the sun was setting. It was a tense but beautiful experience to be paddling as the sun was setting: crazy colours in the sky and suddenly flocks of pelicans and other birds filling the skies. We ended up in the almost complete dark (no moon, and cloudy skys) navigating our ways by the stars. Luck was on our side: the group already in the chickee had tiki torches we could see through the mangroves, and we found it from their light. It was about 8pm when we arrived.
Most of the expected swamp things stayed away: we saw only one real shark, one alligator (and he was the show alligator to the side of the park's main camp) and were attacked by mosquitoes and gnats but not eaten alive by them as we'd feared, so the 10 dollars I'd spent on th bee-keeping hat were wasted, apart from this great fashion shot by Stacey.
But man, did we have an amazing time!
I spent three nights in the mango swamps there with friends from New York, Stacey and Jason. We were in a canoe and a kayak, and did a round trip of about 50 miles, the first part of which was on the ocean and the second in the 'backwaters', the complex waterways inland. The first night was on the beach, alone, where we built a huge bonfire. On the second day, we were paddling towards Shark River to get into the backwaters when suddenly behind us, a huge dark fin rose out of the water. Yeah! I thought. A shark. I'd wanted to see one. It went under. Then it came back up again, a lot closer.
"Stace!" I yelled. "Maybe we should hug the shore more!"
As it turned out later, they were not sharks but dolphins. And we saw a lot: playing around us in groups, or fishing in pairs.
After the night on the beach, we had booked space on 'chickees', simple wooden platforms on posts in the water which provide a campsite (its impossible to get out in the dense mangrove swamps). The second day, after the 'shark' sighting, we misjudged our speed and were a way away from the chickee as the sun was setting. It was a tense but beautiful experience to be paddling as the sun was setting: crazy colours in the sky and suddenly flocks of pelicans and other birds filling the skies. We ended up in the almost complete dark (no moon, and cloudy skys) navigating our ways by the stars. Luck was on our side: the group already in the chickee had tiki torches we could see through the mangroves, and we found it from their light. It was about 8pm when we arrived.
Most of the expected swamp things stayed away: we saw only one real shark, one alligator (and he was the show alligator to the side of the park's main camp) and were attacked by mosquitoes and gnats but not eaten alive by them as we'd feared, so the 10 dollars I'd spent on th bee-keeping hat were wasted, apart from this great fashion shot by Stacey.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Beach Life, Miami Style
South Beach, Miami at 8pm on a Sunday night in a stylish townhouse and I'm surrounded by snoring people who have made it through 36 hours before succumbing to sleep. Today is my friend Jason's birthday; we began the celebration at midnight, went out dancing until about 5am and then went skinny dipping in the tepid Atlantic, at which point I came back to sleep but the others stayed to watch the sunrise with a bottle of champagne and ended up spending the day on the beach. The weather was difficult to ignore: although it is the middle of winter, it was a gorgeous day - just warm enough for swimming, but further pleasantly mild.
Before I arrived, almost all of my knowledge of Miami came from the 80's TV series Miami Vice. I haven't seen much of the city itself, but South Beach could have come straight out of the series: a mixture of pretty beaches with clear blue water, white and pastel art deco architecture, elegant cafes, endless tattoo parlors, houses straight out of the pages of architecture magazines and porn parlours - and that all on one city block. The streets are populated by an amicable mix of tourists, bikers, skateboarders, cubanos and muscle men. South Beach itself is on an elongated island reachable from the mainland by a series of bridges; like Manhattan, it feels like the distance from the mainland USA is much further than the lengths of those bridges.
Tomorrow, Jason and I are meeting Stacey and heading into the Everglades for a three day kayak tour
Before I arrived, almost all of my knowledge of Miami came from the 80's TV series Miami Vice. I haven't seen much of the city itself, but South Beach could have come straight out of the series: a mixture of pretty beaches with clear blue water, white and pastel art deco architecture, elegant cafes, endless tattoo parlors, houses straight out of the pages of architecture magazines and porn parlours - and that all on one city block. The streets are populated by an amicable mix of tourists, bikers, skateboarders, cubanos and muscle men. South Beach itself is on an elongated island reachable from the mainland by a series of bridges; like Manhattan, it feels like the distance from the mainland USA is much further than the lengths of those bridges.
Tomorrow, Jason and I are meeting Stacey and heading into the Everglades for a three day kayak tour
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Two Thousand Grate
My resolution for 2008: do more blogging.
It has been a while since I had the chance to do a posting. My last academic semester was unbelievably hectic - and as it turns out - was not the last. I am staying on at Columbia, at least for another semester, to do research into database processes on modern multi-core architecture. This is a combination of an opportunity and me just being a sucker for punishment!
It has been a while since I had the chance to do a posting. My last academic semester was unbelievably hectic - and as it turns out - was not the last. I am staying on at Columbia, at least for another semester, to do research into database processes on modern multi-core architecture. This is a combination of an opportunity and me just being a sucker for punishment!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)