Expat in New York

As I'm in the market for a new notebook computer and my first digital camera, I have been using my son, daughter-in-law, and one of their friends as consultants. I had already learned the hard way that offers at the Dell site come and go, including one that was perfect for me. The trio answered a lot of questions about technology, then after I investigated in more detail on the internet I went with Jon and Jay to Best Buys to look at the items in question.

I have struggled with adding accents when I type a Spanish name but at Best Buy I found out--after a persistent search for someone who could answer my question with something other than "you need to change the whole physical keyboard (WRONG)-- that accenting a word is now much easier in Windows XP than it was in Windows Millenium.

I'm excited about getting a digital camera so I can liven up my Chopper articles and my blogs, also keep in better touch with my family. Glad to be buying it in New York.

Thanks to my sister-in-law, I had a ticket for this concert, just what Guanajuato life has adapted me for. For the first half of the concert, I was near the back but was able to move up after intermission to the second row left. I heard some of the finest wind and string players around performing Debussy's last three sonatas and three contemporary sonatas written to complete the set he had in mind. Alice Tully Hall is about 60% of the size of our State Auditorium but sloped and shaped so it is perfect for listening to small ensembles.

New York is full of people who speak our English but are just as at home in Spanish. I keep meeting them. In the elevator of the building where I'm staying, the other person, a young man, looked as if he could have been Mexican. I asked if he spoke was bilingual. He answered in English, then on the way out volunteered, "I'm from Puerto Rico."

In line at a used book sale at one of the branch libraries, I heard Spanish used intermittently with English behind me. After five minutes I turned around and said something in Spanish. Got in a conversation with the couple in English. Turned out she has been in NYC for 22 years, her partner (Iranian) for "much longer." We talked about Mexico for a long time (the line was slow in moving). The man especially was very uptodate. I enjoyed being able to talk with people who knew something about the country! When we got onto the topic of migration, the man said the reason for the loss of jobs in the Midwest is not Mexicans but the competition from China. I brought up the number of imprisoned or dead journalists in Mexico. He said, Mexico isn't the worst in Latin America. I asked who was. He said Cuba.

The superintendent of the apartment building where I live speaks Spanish with his family but idiomatic unaccented English with the workmen he knows.

Yesterday I came back on the train from Princeton, was sitting across from a darkskinned young man who turned out to have come from Peru when he was twelve, the adopted son of missionary parents. He goes back every four or five years. When I said I'd heard Peruvians speak the purest Spanish in the Western hemisphere, he looked surprised, said he'd never met "anyone else" who knew that. His English was perfect, his courtesy Latin American in style.

I'm deciding New York is an island of polylingualism in our mostly monolingual country. I hear many people speaking languages I don't understand as I walk down the street.

Labels: bilingualism, New York City, NYC street talk, polylingualism, Spanish

I woke up this morning to a horrendous clanking in the hall. Mindless movers? I wasn't wearing anything but hastily put on a jacket, was moving to the door when three firemen burst in. What the ???? That clanking had been them hammering in my door. I could not have been less appreciative but later realized that if I had passed out from smoke would have been glad of the intrusion. Don't know yet where the fire originated,the apt just below or in the ground floor upscale restaurant open evenings.

Called my son to report what had happened and find out whether to call the building management to fix the lock as I had plans to be out of town for the weekend. As I am a "guest" in his rent-controlled apartment, he called the office himself. Very prompt action, just 21/2 hrs later, the locksmith has been and put in a new temporary lock higher on the door. In a few minutes, I'll be at Penn Station to catch the train.

A third cloudy cool day here. Yesterday I was c-o-l-d for the first time while I was out despite what I thought was a warm jacket. Warmed up internally with an Indian vegearian platter. Later went over to Lord & Taylor's on an errand which I immediately forgot to do, the vast ground floor was so beautifully decorated with tiny lights and greens. Last time I was there (maybe 20 years ago) I had a fever, decided to take a taxi to where I was staying on the West Side, the traffic just crawled along as snowflakes fell. Turned out to be a thicket of traffic near the Dakota Hotel where John Lennon had just been shot.

I'm missing bumping into friends along the Guanajuato sidewalks. Speaking of bumping though, here people always say politely Excuse Me if it happens. The body contact wouldn't be worth mentioning in Gto.

It's Monday, after the Veteran's Day weekend when my computer base for 45 minutes a day was closed. Yesterday, a cloudy day, I took the long subway ride to the Brooklyn Museum to see the "pre-Columbian" Inca textiles. They were exhibited in a darkened large hall with 20 foot ceilings, not an ideal way to see them, but what a syncopation of tones and designs. They shared the lofty hall with a wooden whale by a 19th century Northwest tribal carver.I don't know why but I felt unhappy, as if I were seeing a beached animal. Maybe because I've been to Neah Bay where the Makah have their own museum with a context instead of the paradoxical uprooting that is the basis of what we see in a "universal" museum like the Brooklyn Museum.

On the other hand, their Ground Zero photo exhibit was very interesting, lots of photos and some drawings from earlier development of that part of the city. Now I want to go to see the docks along the East River.

The Brooklyn Museum has a huge collection with only selected fine examples on display. I soaked in Mideast calligraphy, Chinese Buddhist sculpture, a Japanese contemporary ceramic piece as well as the Annie Liebowitz photo exhibit, where the viewers were right out of a Woody Allen movie. I would have given up the ghost sooner but hard rain kept me in the museum an extra hour.

On impulse, I broke up the return subway trip by getting out at Brooklyn Heights, easy to do as I have a prepaid month long fare card. I headed through the drizzle toward a theater marquee, in hopes of finding something to eat nearby. I struck gold at a dim Moroccan carryout with a few tables. The meat pie (lamb&beef mixed) in a tender crust, a cup of strong sweet mint-green tea, and a juicy baklava revived me. I thanked the waiter twice for the good food.

New Yorkers are unbelievably courteous and helpful about answering questions like the best route from here to there or where the subway stop is. Once the question is answered, that's all, they end the interaction promptly.

Whew. I voted absentee, still don't know what happened out in Oregon but imagine my vote helped keep the incumbent House member in. No Senate race this year. The radio commentators and their guests on Pacifica understandably kept talking about the changes in committee chairmen.

Here in NYC, I bought an umbrella a day ahead of the rain which is colder here than in my Mexican city of Guanajuato. Still wearing sandals with socks, need to buy a second pair of shoes. Today's the day I take the subway down to Chinatown to see my son's inlaws at their jewelry store on Bowery Street. They lent me warm clothes including the vest I'm wearing.

Seems as if I'm still spending a lot of my time hear buying food to prepare in the apartment or eating out. Last night I sauteed tofu with chard after a light lunch of an onion kulcha and lassi (onion bread, yoghurt drink) in an Indian restaurant. It's light here at 7 and dark by 5pm, although today looks like a grey day from start to finish.

Bought my first cell phone, talked to older son yesterday. Thought I'd called younger son but apparently the call didn't go through. I'll send him an email with my number. Also picked up my "open fit" hearing aid yesterday. Didn't know what this type was called while I was in Gto although two people showed theirs to me.

Planning on going to a violin/piano concert honoring Shostakovich tomorrow, reminding me of the Cervantino. The canvas Cervantino bag I received in the press room turns out to be just right for carrying groceries. I'm doing lots of walking, about 2 miles a day, enjoying the quick passage through the short blocks north and south. Haven't settled into any other exercise pattern yet.

I'm finding New Yorkers helpful and polite. Have only seen one graffiti (graffito?) so far and that tastefully done.

Labels: 2006 elections, cell phone, NYC courtesy, walking

Arrived Halloween night. My son Jon was waiting to welcome me to his apartment. He had an olive green sweat suit for me to put on. After a few minutes of talk he took everything I brought down to the basement to wash and dry it on hot. He got bedbug bites at my house and didn't want me to bring critters to NYC. Even my assurance I'd had a fumigator and a recheck didn't reassure him.

The next morning, mild weather which I didn't expect and a lox and cream cheese on bagel with Jon while somehow we got around to "pork barrel" projects built by the Corps of Engineers. He is informed! Then I went to the eye doctor and found he is NOT recommending cataract surgery at this time which left me wondering what I would do with two months in The City. I proceeded to spend 1.5 hrs buying three pairs of socks before walking across town back to the apartment.

Yesterday, the temperature began dropping. I began to savor NYC, literally, at Tiny Thai Restaurant nearby. The lemon grass soup was hot, tangy and full of vegetables. Then had the rest of the lunch, rice and al dente veggies in peanut sauce. There were two people eating on the other side of the restaurant. They finished before I did and when I was ready to leave I found the man had paid for my meal. I asked the waitress if he came in often, she said from time to time, and I said be sure to thank him!

Then I managed to get a library card at the branch two blocks from the apartment. I'll say more about what I'm reading at a later time as I'm back in the library using their computer facility for the last 25 mins the library is open. Just before coming here I went to the Salvation Army thrift shop for some warm clothes. According to the internet, the temps today in NYC are 1 to 8 degrees Celsius. The trees are just starting to turn, I'm in luck.

By 5:30 NYC is dark already which I am finding confusing. Doing a lot of walking. The streets here have more holes in them than in Guanajuato so I have to watch my step. Today I ate a Pakistani lunch..