The Real City

This is the city I love. Sure, midtown, times square and Broadway are all fabulous and bright, they are not where the real heart of the real people are. I've been going to the city once a week for another program which is on 42nd St, so I've walked down that area so many times I could probably remember most of the stores and signs. Also, you can really meet or even simply see any real new yorkers in that area: only tourists and business people- who are never looking too friendly. The few other times I've been to the city other than midtown I've incredibly enjoyed this included central park of course, Chinatown, I went uptown for my lifeguard classes at the 92nd St YMCA which similar to this trip in that we explored that area- for our lunch breaks-, and one distinct trip to Brooklyn with my friend to a thrift shop. This particular experience was extremely close to this STAC trip in that we had falafal and middle eastern food and in general ran into some crazy looking artistic people at this well-known thrift shop Beacon's Closet. We took the subway and figured out our own way just the same.

Anyway on to this particular trip. When we first arrived, I was brainstorming on what to take pictures of for physcogeography and in started almost randomly taking framing pictures of any objects I saw until I came across a chain for a lock on a door.

I suddenly thought of being chained to something and being restricted. So, I suggested the idea of capturing all the things in my surroundings that I deemed had to do with restrict and constraint. My favorite was this:

As the trip proceeded however, this concept was lost in well getting lost. In looking for the "spectacular" Bleeker St we took wrong turns and ended up walking to a place I don't even remember. Of course this was partly and mostly my fault in being so confident in my map reading skills, but this definitely brought a more interesting aspect to our physco-geography project: getting lost and furthermore the places and people we found when lost.

Our first awesome location which was the lowest of lostness in the trip was this cafe pastry shop called "Paradiso". I spoke to the owner who served us. At first I asked him what was his best hot drink. I honestly just wanted to have whatever he proclaimed as his finest and not just choose some random typical thing. He said, "for you, you look like you'd like a cappuccino." Without a breathe I agreed. Although I never even thought of having a cappuccino and would have probably stuck with a hot chocolate in a dunkin donuts for example, I feel it was necessary to try this new thing. I also pride myself for attempting my interaction with this man to find his nationality to be Argentinian, yet to be brutally honest after exchanging a few words did not find his Spanish to be very good.

 Next we found ourselves at a CVS with wants for a public restroom. However, the staff was quite rude and did not aide us with this dilemma, a nice old woman outside offered to help us find our way to Bleeker St. It was interesting to me how she took the imitative to simply offer her help. "Can I help you find anything?"





Once we got to Bleeker, I loved what I saw. It was calm yet busy. It was the people and shops not the lights and tall buildings that made the streets alive. We walked into a hat shop. To begin with owning a hat shop was an innovative thing, but just standing there and smiling as people threw on and off different hats was pretty cool for this woman to do.

I am proud of where we ate lunch -Raman Takumi. That's how out of the ordinary it was. I ate an amazing dish of beef I believe it was, and some sort of vegetables. -again out of the ordinary. And we had green tea ice cream that came in a dough ball. The meal was great and a success in the trying new things aspect.

Next the Pratt Gallery was also a hit. Although for me it really wasn't what I had expected. They were all cool exhibits but they didn't really go with what physco-geography had meant to me so far. I loved the interactive exhibit where one placed their scent and location on the map- that did seem to have physco geography as I know it. The jello exhibit was amazing but I didn't really see the physco-geography in it. Other than that some buildings jiggled more than others.