My second bite of the big apple

Day 1:

April 14 2014

At the spring break during my eighth year of school, me and my family took a trip to New York and being from a small town located at the north of Sweden, I usually wasn’t exposed to the fragments a big city such as New York. My trip there just seemed like discovering a completely different society and way of living as I previously only had witnessed by other peoples experiences and of course the beloved wonders of the internet. Today would be my second bite of the Big apple and just the imagination of it reminisced my old memories, an impression of the past in front of my bare eyes, my trip to New York City 4 years earlier. I just wanted to encounter the sense and feeling again, to make the second bite even tastier and enduring than the first!

At Arlanda airport, all of the sign there
made me very attentive

I woke up with a smile full of eager and the weather was taught to be a stunning this very morning! As I saw the shine of the glowing sun, a shroud of fervor and joy approached to my consciousness.  While catching a sight the blue sky and all of the twittering birds, I also got a sensation of vitality and spirit.  For the eighth time the morning of our flight, I checked my bags to make sure nothing essential was left behind and of course the flight information, no delays, no problems, no change, everything was going to be as expected!  At the moment I watched through the window, the runway was zoomed by and all of the building and houses decreased in size rapidly as our plane gained more and more altitude until disappearing. A sense of exhilaration overcame me as I thought, soon we would visit one of the most vibrant and sparkling cities in the world. Unfortunately, our plane from Stockholm to New York was delayed, not thirty minutes or one hour but four infuriating hours. Suddenly, the sensation of anticipation and hope just ceased to exist. What if flight would delay once more?  Perhaps it could be cancelled, maybe our trip wouldn’t even become reality? However we learned a beneficial lesson this day. During long-haul international flights, low-cost airlines such as our, Norwegian were the worst option out there and we would never trust them as before but luckily, as a compromise, the captain gave all of the passengers food coupons for 200 kr each and since our family was composed by four persons, this was a very good deal for us. I really could feel the guilt of the crew members, because our schedule was entirely screwed up right now and everyone else were quite so mad!  By the time our plane finally lifted in 11:00 pm, I was just so relieved, even if the flight was very unprepared or unpleasant, it still was more preferable than nothing and after a long day at the airport, I looked ever so tired and exhausted and this was the time for my eyes to shut down and rest!

Taken at the streets of Brooklyn immediately
after our arrival. The frequent occurrence of "One way"
signs was an interesting observation

As my uncle drove us to their apartment in Brooklyn Heights, it really was apparent that New York was not the same as Umeå, even if we arrived 4 o’clock in midnight, it just seemed like the city never slept, somebody went through the sidewalk like he was in a hurry to get to another place, some  loud honking of cars was heard through our journey and even in Brooklyn at night, I could take some glances of the recognizable skyscrapers in Manhattan with my bare eyes, lighting up the darkness beautifully and luminously. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it didn’t feel like the second bite of the Big apple, it didn't feel like New York, it just felt like back home in Sweden and I just wanted to share my experiences with my friends and after four years of waiting, I was finally back here, again!

Day 2:

My first morning in New York, the weather was foggy and cloudy with some traces of rain, it was unusually cold today, the bitter wind was biting my face as I witnessed the sheer pulchritude of the skyline of Manhattan, in every kind of situations, the urban center of New York was still recognizable and splendid.  I turned myself to other side, where cars were even more loud as before, even the people in the streets was walking at a brisk pace that indicated a rush to somewhere, it was an incredible sight!

The skyline of Downtown Manhattan seen
from Brooklyn park, I like how the fog hid some of the
tall buildings,  setting a limit of some kind, in 4 years of time,
there have been quite noticeable different of the cityscape

After a while, the clock was running late and we headed to Chinatown in Flushing to eat some lunch. It was a place with bustling activity, everywhere, people were strutting and shoving. The vibrant, sounds and smells surrounded my five senses like a blanket. Even if Chinatown was located in New York, it was indistinguishable to the real China, a sea of Asian faces and Chinese characters, thousands of Asian shops, restaurants and supermarkets with delicacies, the delight of sipping the soup and chewing the tender meat of Xiaolongbao, the crispy and brittle meat of Peking duck combined with a delicate sweet sugary sweet bean sauce and some soft spring pancakes. At the evening, my aunt, uncle and of course myself was invited to a Passover dinner by a  Jewish family, after four years of anticipation, I was finally here! After being welcomed to the seder, I eventually gave them my gift, a beautiful candle bought from Sweden and they really liked it, the hosts, namely Alan, Debbie and their family members were very friendly and made a good impression to me. I really liked the table setting and furnishing, especially the usage of modern and traditional furnitures and of course all of the name tags!

Seeing my own name tag made me kind of
surprised and keen. Suddenly, it just felt like
I was one of their Jewish family members,  even if
the last time I was invited at the seder was 4 years ago,
they remembered me very well

I always had a perception of jews as old- fashioned fundamentalists, with lots of rules and restrictions. I was really surprised seeing so many Americans invited at the seder and how they treated everybody equal. As usual, a Pesach celebration begins with recitation of the Haggadah (A Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover seder) and it took quite a long time. At the end of the recitation, everybody were going to eat each item of the Passover Seder plate containing symbolic food, each of the six items are arranged having a special significance retelling the exodus from Egypt. Also, I noticed that every Jewish family had its traditions or individual way of celebrating the Passover, our hosts were very secularized, skipped a lot of important sections of the Haggadah. Usually, people sing lots of Jewish songs but the only one sung was  called Dayenuh (The word actually means approximately "it would have been enough for us") and it immediately became one of my favorites, I just loved the meaning of the song, it really interpreted the intention of Pesach, depicting the exodus from Egypt in an easily and intriguing way. Eventually, this was a very peculiar experience and I was pleased to be invited and entertained, something you would not undergo at a daily manner of course! Oh, at last I would just say that Alan had a huge collection of CD's which was quite uncommon nowadays as we either download them from the Pirate bay or use Spotify. Since I also was interested in music, as a pianist, I was quite pleased and impressed seeing so much classical music or jazz and no modern pop.

The Passover Seder plate consisting of the 5
traditional dishes, a hard boiled egg, a lamb
shank bone, two kinds of herbs, parsley, the
unfermented Matzah bread and cups of wines
& grape juice

In New York, almost everything is possible, it’s  where I would call diversity , such as eating dim sum with Chinese parents every weekend, going to school and having classmates all over the world or enjoying some French baguettes while dining in a fancy Indian restaurant. New York is also a place with contrasts, extreme rich next to dirty poor, western culture and eastern culture, frenetically urban adjacent to pristine greenery, a very Western Catholic church located in the middle of very Chinese Chinatown, there are so many cultural and ethnic enclaves and people still live in harmony. Diversity and contrasts are generally speaking, differences and I perceive each of them as puzzle pieces, diversity and contrasts is about embracing these differences and simply excerpt a larger perspective, every individual, every society is unique with vibrant and sparkling colors, pieced together to an even more distinctive and beautiful entirety!

Day 4

I walked down to the hole in the ground, the spot next to the faded blue beam, passing the black spots and remnants of various bubble gums; how long they have been there nobody knows. Taking the first steps down into the abyss, a very smell hit my two noses, I could feel it filling my lungs, how much had other people been inhaling this peculiar smell? It was kind of a mix between dirt, mold and grease, a scent of society and humanity, walking down to the long corridor, I witnessed the green steel poles with some signs informing the name of the station, Rector street and below my feet, I took a glimpse of the yellow paint outlining the periphery of the platform, everywhere at the station had an aged layer of rust and brown on it, including the gibberish among the tracks. The train arrived with a unpleasant screech, the doors opened and tons of people walked out, like a stream of water, rushing to their destination.  When I finally entered the vehicle, I found a seat and others remaining in the train would move and soon and soon the train would depart.  New York subway, is bit simply a transportation utility but for many people, it has a completely different purpose, I see the subway as something living, possessing a very own identity, riding the it is a very special experience I wouldn’t find anywhere around the world, there also were so many people performing arts, such as singing, playing guitar, saxophone but also selling several items and I didn’t really mind riding new rapid transit systems such as the Dubai metro. Sure, it was faster, more efficient, more comfortable and modern than New York Subway but where was the characteristics, the individuality?

I really like this picture, the sign looks very sharpened
combined with a surrounding fading away,
a common sight in the New York subway, I noticed the
stations were very small compared to the Stockholm or
Washington metro

Our first attraction today was the 9/11 memorial located at Ground zero or generally speaking, the WTC twin towers which was destroyed in September 11 2001. Today, a new WTC was rising, defining a new New York skyline, the modern architectural style of a blue prism made of steel and glass, reflecting the surroundings was something I really liked and of course, we took many pictures of it. The 9/11 memorial site consisted two fountains, designed to be in the exact same location as the Twin Towers stood, was the same size and shape of the former buildings, even me, as a Swede received grief watching the memorial, hoping people to realize how seriousness and legacy of the September 11 attacks, even today, there are visible traces of it. The fountains were huge squares falling around the perimeter with a small square at the middle gathering all of the water. In each side of the fountains, there were names inscribed, different squad teams and victims of the attack, many mourners placed flowers on the names of many people which intentionally was constructed doing that with each letter as holes. I noticed how quiet it was at the memorial, even located at the Downtown of the largest city in America and how the waters at the fountain would drown the noised around in front of the visitors, It put me in a peaceful and restful mind , a contrast to the attack, a place people would grieve their deceased, a place people feel fellowship. It was very hard to imagine deaths of roughly 3000 folks, filling the entire circumference of two squares, as big as the former twin towers but witnessing the memorial also gave me a sensation of hope. The Americans and their government still didn’t give up protecting their people after the 9/11 attacks but struggled to improve their society, giving awareness to these kind of events such as the security, which was very comprehensive at the memorial. There were police officers stationed at roughly every area as well as the officer, to make sure everything was going well. Also, at every spot, there were cameras placed around the memorial. Everyone, children, adult or seniors went through an airport style security before being allowed to the memorial (It’s a very common sight among American exhibitions, museums etc.) proving that the United States was continuing to enhance its security and really cared about its citizens’ public safety. My aunt once told me:
"After the September 11 attacks, everything altered, the time before the attacks was completely absent and won't return once more. Even if the American government is trying to improve our society, our homeland security, even if we, New Yorker also are giving more awareness to these kind of events and helping each other more often than before but we've still lost some of our loved or familiar ones and the delighted pre-9/11 period won't be restored anymore. 
The history of the American nation without limitations is something lots of people would never forget. It was disheartening that tons of places may never be as welcoming. People may never again be able to experience New York and the United States as before due to all of the horrifying actions perpetrated by the terrorists.

I became tearful seeing this picture, someone
sorrowing their deceased ones
by putting a flower on top of their
names with some fountain at the surrounding
representing the tears and grief

The city that never sleeps, that was New York, so many people were walking down the street, hurrying to get to another place and the same with cars, the constant sound of people talking and cars honking, people hailing for taxis, waiting for buses, rushing underground to the subway station, everybody was so busy rushing to their separate ways, the sight just resembled a continuous streams of water, never ending, during day and night next to streets crammed with skyscrapers, built side by side, with very little room in between them and the architecturally significant building in a wide range of styles spanning through different cultural and historical periods combined with the iconic grid system shaping the distinctive skyline of New York. I really liked the intersections between narrower streets such as 42nd and huge avenues as the 5th, with the recognizable trademarks along the roads, a huge extent of restaurants and cuisines from all over the world and yellow taxi cabs driving all in, a scenery defining the borough of Manhattan and I was awestruck as we went on top of the Empire state building, it gave me another perception of New York, everything seemed like toys and ants, as if I could grab the entire metropolis, since the weather was very nice I could see through long distance, even Queens, New Jersey and Ellis Island. Suddenly, I just had a feeling of tininess, the city looked so little up there but also very immense, even if I was 381 meters up the ground, New York still filled my entire vision and  merely looked stunning from various perspectives.

It last I would just say that I experienced something very special this very day while visiting the Steinway hall. After seeing a huge and beautiful grand piano, I started trying it and immediately this very person came to my side, he looked quite old, wise, gracious and prudent. I assumed, this was someone with lots of experiences and knowledge, I stopped playing and he began giving me some advice.

Doesn't this just look special?
Look at the  the emotion of that man, he really
expressed himself using the body
My favorite photo thus far

“Breathe, breathe, expose you playing with your heart, express your inner emotions, your own sensations! Breathe while playing, make every single note special, with pulchritude!”

I started playing again, with my inner emotions, with breaths, with my heart, before leaving me, he uttered his last words.

“Beautiful, beautiful, that´s just what I meant, keep on that way!”  

This was not something I would not encounter very often, it just felt so special meeting this man, I couldn’t even explain it with my own words!

Day 6

My visit to Washington D.C wasn't comparable to anything known, even if it duration was only 2 days, within that time, I learned more than numbers of years behind the school desks could teach me and my memories were sure to last a long time.

Walking through the Streets of the Capital of United States I had a very particular experience, unlike New York and other metropolises in America, Washington seemed so empty in comparison, there were only few wide avenues and the vast majority of the roads were very narrow as any European city. The building were low-rise old-fashioned and tiny in contrast to the ones in New York and only a few of them were tall or large in size, Washington D.C. gave an impression of the Colonial and the Republican era when America only were British colonies, by the time European and English culture had a big influence of the society, walking down the streets of the American Capital just seemed like travel through time. It was hard to believe that the capital of the most americanized civilization just looked like the rest of Europe and since we had been working on America at Social studies, I was very anticipated witnessing the famous landmarks by my bare eye. I just loved looking at the Capital from Pennsylvania Avenue, with trees lining up at the corners and lots of cars passing by. Even from a far distance, the building just looked so magnificent and recognizable, capturing all of my attention.

I really like the angle of this picture, it makes the
momentous Capital building seem so small and the wide roads were
so empty in comparison. In New York, the avenues and streets
were much narrower but of course much crowder, New Yorkers
would be happy having these kind of huge avenues

The National mall was also divine and monumental, taking a huge portion of the City with Museums, city Blocks, soaring trees and Cherry blossoms at the corners. Towards the Washington monument there also were several memorial such as the WWII one consisting of 56 pillars, each of them inscribed with the names the 50 states and outlying territories of the United states, small triumphal arches surrounding a plaza and fountain. I really favored two walls of the memorial, approaching the left , towards the Pacific arch with the reliefs' progress through several iconic scenes, including combat and burying the dead, ending in a homecoming scene and on the right hand side, towards the Atlantic arch with a similar progression but depicting scenes and events occurring in Europe. Something I remembered very well was the quotes by various famous figures during WW2 such as Winston Churchill or Franklin D. Roosevelt inscribed on the walls. That truly enhanced the experience of the memorial and made it noteworthy.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
among the most significant American
Leaders! I wish I could compose these kind of
quotes or poems, so beautifully written!

Another memorial was the Lincoln Memorial built by honor to the 16th president of the United States. The size of it unimaginable, I could not even believe my eyes seeing the statue of Abraham lincoln, rising 9.1 meters from the ground. All of the inscription, like the Gettysburg address and the little details of the monument just looked gorgeous. In front the Lincoln memorial lies the Reflecting and Washington monument and watching it from the memorial was one of the most astounding sights during my visit.

Day 8

My Second bite of the Big apple has soon approached its end and  this bite was even more delicate and long lasting than before, I’ve also tasted a little bit of D.C and that was a perfect combination.

After saying goodbye to my uncle and cousin, my aunt drove us to the airport and it didn't feel like we were leaving New York. After only 8 days here, I’d already obtained a considerable amount of feelings and remembrance looking at down the cityscape. It felt like I was a fellow New Yorker, it felt like home catching a sight of the streets of Brooklyn, as I had been living there during my entire life. Even if New York wasn’t my domicile of origin, I still didn’t perceive the City as foreign or distant, thus intimate and proximate, somewhere I frequently would visit during the near future.

Epilogue:

March 28 2018

I woke up with a smile full of eager and the weather was taught to be a stunning this very morning! As I saw the shine of the glowing sun, a shroud of fervor and joy approached to my consciousness. While catching a sight the blue sky and all of the twittering birds, I also got a sensation of vitality and spirit. Today, as an 18 year old adult gentleman, this was going to be my first time travelling to New York by myself and just the imagination of it reminisced my old memories, an impression of the past in front of my bare eyes. I just wanted to encounter the sense and feeling again as 4 years ago, I wanted to do the same things as 4 years earlier. To make this bite of the Big Apple even tastier and enduring than before!