Borrowing Manhattan: First Few Days in the City

In the past few days I've gone from the beautiful farms of Pennsylvania to the beautiful cityscape of New York City. My mother and I drove into the city on Saturday morning via the George Washington Bridge and got a true tourist's welcome from the self-assured drivers of the upper west side. After decompressing a bit, we went on a boat tour around the southern tip of Manhattan, watching the bridges emerge above us, listening to the history of the city and the rising and falling real estate markets on the various banks of the river, and seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Of course, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most iconic figures around the world, but there is still something incredible about seeing it before me. It's quite large and quite grand. An incredible gift from the French, indeed.

The tour ended fairly close to the entrance of the High Line and so we joined hundreds of other tourists walking above the city on this green elevated converted train track filled with art sculptures and vantage points. We descended when our hunger rose and found a beautiful and delicious restaurant called The Park nearby. We walked along 6th Avenue until we found a subway line to take us home.

On Sunday, we went down to Rockefeller Center and the MSNBC Studios to watch the Melissa Harris Perry Show from the control room where my friend is a producer. It was cool to see the complexity of putting together a live news show, and also cool to see this show in particular which tries to give greater attention to some of the issues affecting minorities.

We then went to the top of Rockefeller Center to see an incredible view of the city. Yes, it's big. It's really big. What does that even mean? Many people, many buildings, many parks, many sounds and smells, many ideas and ways of living, all crammed together in this tiny island. It feels quite privileged and impossible to see it all at once.

We descended, found lunch, walked along a street market to the Public Library. We saw the lions, but it was closed for the day, so we walked around Bryant Park and discovered all the cool programs, classes, games, and reading spaces that were possible. Then to Grand Central Station and a bus ride along the park with a fellow passenger offering a small diatribe on the mayor and his inaction in helping the poor carriage horses of Central Park, a beginning among others to becoming local, to having local concerns.

And yesterday into today continued the local transitioning with a trip on the subway and through the streets in interview (decidedly non-tourist) clothing, neglected by the pamphleteers, the offering of a part-time job (teaching cello in an after school program in Harlem), and the obtainment of a New York City Library card. At the end of the day, I have a job, I have a library card, and I've walked the streets as a resident.

But tomorrow, back to the prolongation of tourism, holding off the quotidian perception of living where I live, in this incredible city. My mother and I will venture to the tip of Manhattan to see the financial district, the oldest areas of the city, perhaps the Brooklyn Bridge and the water memorial for 9/11.

It's exciting to be here. The moving-in is finally happening. The transition is underway.