Once I finished finals, life hits so hard. I hadn’t gotten my vaccines, visa, or run any of the errands I needed to do before leaving. In the course of a week I managed to sublet my room, train my replacements in my job, and pack up my entire apartment and Ethiopia suitcase. While I was running around getting ready for Ethiopia, I had a number of family visits that gave me a chance to explore the city. I may live in New York, but I never get to do all the things that make the city so amazing.
My brother came to visit for ten days, but I’m fairly certain he only saw part of Brooklyn and Lower East Side. Karuna described my tour of New York as “Well there is this amazing pizza place here, oh then there’s some bridge or something.” We ate like kings!!! One and a half pounds of meat at Fette Sau along with delicious moonshine for Jenna’s going away party. Anna made us great cupcakes. I cooked a last minute 3 course Indian meal. I have to give huge thanks to my awesome sous chef, Elliott. We tried to go for tapas, but then waiter said, “Its Monday and we have a pig we’ve been roasting for 4-5 hours.” I think my favorite visit was Veniero’s. There’s nothing better than amazing sweets and fresh coffee. Karuna got to visit my bar, The Thirsty Scholar, and meet my favorite bartender, Cormac and eat the famous Pomme Frites.
Aside from glorious food, we also managed to take in some New York culture. We went for a spoken word performance at the Nuyerican Café. Some performances were better than others, but all the messages were very moving. It felt like Global Flows in poetry form. We saw an interesting documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” which explored street art and the question of authenticity. The documentary was thought-provoking and the city’s street art came to life after we saw the movie. Karuna even ran into exhibition of one of the featured artists the next day.
My last three days in the country brought a lot of the Isaac clan to New York to celebrate Jimi Thatha and Charmine Partima’s birthdays. We stayed in a beautiful house in Harlem. Since I’d literally never been above 72nd street, it was nice to see more of New York. It was really fun to have everyone all together. I was so happy to meet Amelie and see my great Colorado cousins. We went on a beautiful sunset cruise near the Statue of Liberty. We also had a tasty picnic in Central Park. The Isaac cousins closed it out with an amazing karaoke performance of “Love Shack.” I learned my power song is definitely “Build Me Up Buttercup,” but suspect the crown and ginger helped that.
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