adventure hopping

thursday, august 9th. the sadness that comes with the end of another phase as i had said adios, muchos gracias to my spanish professor was cut abrupt by the thought that a friend of mine from the philippines was visiting and couch-crashing for the weekend. even before i could verify that muy triste was the proper way to describe the end of the spanish classes which i had terribly enjoyed, i was faced by the reality of an incredibly messy apartment and the need to clean up big time.

balcony, check

cut to saturday morning, hours before bun (who's visiting from the philippines by way of philly) arrives. clothes all over the place. dust gathered all over. quick trip to the 99cents store to get some cleaning supplies. stack clothes away. scrub and sanitize the bathroom. sweep, vacuum and polish the floors. fix bed. wash dishes. put away dead leaves from garden. put fresh set of sheets on bed. by afternoon, the apartment was miraculously visitor-ready. and i was off to pick up bun from the train station.

bun w/ local hipster

bun was here for a total of 5 days. or was that four? for the majority of those days, we were with mhir, another filipino who's fresh from the boat to study here in fordham for the next 2 years. we jumped from one store, cafe, bar, park, street fair, concert to another. i took them mostly to the favorite neighborhood spots that showed a lot of local character and not so much the canned empire states, times squares and statues of liberty. i did take them to central park though coz everyone loves central park.

funny church sign

it was great having some filipino blood around as i must admit i dont get to use my tagalog that often anymore. good to be reminded of some filipino values as well (and equally great to be reminded how lucky i am not needing to deal with annoying pinoy traits such as chronic tardiness on a daily basis). fresh eyes. that's what it is. or perhaps, familiar eyes. temporarily seeing the city with a set of familiar eyes once again — a great break from viewing and living the city with the swagger of someone who's been seeing and living the city for the past 5 plus years.

pupusas @ red hook

the need for adventure carried over the past weekend as i was pushed into some exploration. equipped with my bike, a map and a strange need to get myself lost, i found myself in red hook, brooklyn in the midst of soccer fields where stalls of latin american food were put up. a sampling of foods from peru, mexico, dominican republic were all over. my personal picks: the pupusas filled with queso and chicharon, the corn smothered with queso, mayo and picante. and to balance all the saltiness and spice, an ice cold glass of horchata. i was brought to a whole different world. and with it a sense of familiarity and pride as i had thrown in my gracias and si in my conversations with the vendors. mi profesora en español would be muy alegre.

shades of holland

after having my fill of food and latin culture, i was off to the waterside, in an area that reminded me so much of south holland. cobbled streets, steel gates and brick buildings. fantastische! erg mooi! it was as though i had been transported back in time when this city was still known as new amsterdam. it was as though i had crossed the lake again and made my way to the netherlands for a taste of the culture and history.

red hook factory

and right across the river, were dilapidated factories. very photogenic in their ugliness. a forgotten industrial area waiting to be exploited. quite the reminder of how much change is an integral part of this city. but at the same time, a reminder of how much preservation is just as important.

ahh, brooklyn bridge

a missed turn on the way back home had led me to the foot of brooklyn bridge. for some reason, the only bridge in the city i had not biked over. i had crossed the manhattan, the billyburg, the queensborough, the GWB before and there it was, the city's most famous, most photographed one, right infront of me. ahh, brooklyn bridge. setting to 10 million movies, postcards and posters. and apparently home to 10 million tourists as well who cant tell a bike lane from a pedestrian lane. as i had pedalled my way over, it was great to be immersed in the feeling of getting sucked in the sights and living in the moment but at the same time id realized how important it is to be engrossed not too too much coz otherwise you'll get run over by @holes like me. and that would be a sad ending to an otherwise awesome adventure and life.

travel journal's set for my peru adventure

mark twain, who at 18 once worked as a printer at a city called new york, once said “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” im not sure in what context he had said this gem of a quote. i do know however that twenty years from now biking over the brooklyn bridge aint one of the things ill be whining about. i might however get disappointed with the fact that i didnt know how to say "heads up" in italian as i had maneuvered my way around that tourist over the bridge. but who cares, ill be off to peru soon anyway, where ill have my own chance at being run over by a lama. parada! parada! oh right, lamas dont speak spanish.