Brooklyn Babe

So before I moved to New York, I promised all of you that I would continue my blog... and then didn't.  It wasn't because I'm mean or a liar.  Actually, it's much more pernicious:  After traveling internationally, navigating through multilingual metropolises, and exploring new countries, New York felt kinda normal.  I'm a real jerk, right?  Like I hate myself for even writing that sentence.

But I also realize that it's fun for my family back home to read about my (mis)adventures, and I forget for myself even how great it is to have an ongoing memoir about my travels.  I am beyond lucky to have lived abroad and traveled abroad and to now call the Big Apple my home :)  With that in mind, let me tell you about my new hood.

I live in Brooklyn.  Stereotypes from Hollywood movies have painted it as a rough, crime-ridden, ugly cousin to Manhattan, so that everyone who heard I was moving to Brooklyn appropriately paled in horror.  Allow me to disillusion you: Brooklyn has been gentrified over the years to the point that Williamsburg and some other neighborhoods remind me a heck of a lot of Austin.  They're hip, urban, trendy, and full of skinny, beautiful, model types who probably live on wheatgrass shots, expensive coffee, and their own innate coolness.

I don't live there.  I live further into Brooklyn in a neighborhood called Bedford-Stuyvesant (pronounced 'Sty-vesant', which means I looked like a real idiot telling everyone I was in 'Stuey-vesant' for far too many weeks).  It's not quite as far along in gentrification as those neighborhoods closer to Manhattan, but this is actually what I love about Bed-Stuy.  It is a total mishmash of culture, ethnicities, socioeconomic status, ages, and more.  When I first saw Bed-Stuy, I'm not going to lie: I was intimidated.  Unlike the clean, prim, and proper Western European capitals that had spoiled me, it was rough around the edges.  There was graffiti mostly everywhere, the people looked tough, and I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Having settled into Bed-Stuy now, I realize I was just confronting all my own stereotypes and prejudices.  Bed-Stuy is vibrant, jam packed with different backgrounds, and brimming with activity.  On my second Sunday afternoon in my new apartment, I went for a run around the neighborhood.  Older men sat on their stoops yelling across to one another about anything and everything.  Blocks were closed off for block parties with little kids chasing each other around, their parents lounging in lawn chairs chatting, and other neighbors grilling up food.  All the basketball courts were packed and in the midst of games.  Neighbors crowded around each court cheering on their kids or their friends or just their neighbors.  On the corner, I heard every language from Spanish to Chinese to African dialects.

No one bats an eye at the blonde, pale chick walking through the streets because I'm not the only one.  I don't feel unsafe running around the neighborhood because I'm not the only one.  I don't get harassed on the streets as a young woman because I'm not the only one.  The neighbors that have been here for generations and seen the change take place are pretty desensitized to white people.  They don't really care (and maybe it's narcissistic of us to think they should?).

That being said, Bed-Stuy does have its quirks.  There have been screaming matches at all hours of the night.  There's a Spanish church two doors down from us that apparently only holds service at 9 PM on weekdays in the backyard so as to maximize echoing between apartment buildings.  The subway is often delayed due to "train traffic" because it's the wild west out here y'all, and somehow trains magically appear on the tracks despite there being like a schedule... Yeah, I'm still figuring out how that happens.

But mostly Bed-Stuy is a normal neighborhood with some flavor to it.  The other day I took the train in from NYU (It's about a 30 minute train ride without any transfers, and I'm far enough down that line that usually I can find a seat... so awesome!), exited at my stop, and walked out of the station to the sound of Spanish music playing from a store, rap music pouring out of a car passing by, a police siren bustling down the street, and children's laughter as a young mom walked her kids to the station.  I remember thinking how much I loved Bed-Stuy in that moment.  Side note: My field placement is also right by NYU, so it won't be far to get to work either.  All in all, I love Bed-Stuy.

Although I should note that I still manage to find the international experience in NYC.  This past weekend, I went out in Williamsburg with my roommate Dianna (I'll introduce her one of these days) and my BFF from Belgium Becca (Triple B?).  First we hit up a food festival called Smorgasburg right on the waterfront which was basically foodie heaven.  We then checked out an Austro-Hungarian beer hall called Radegast (hello, Belgian beer!!!), and ended the night in a bar that I have now forgotten the name of (you could say I had a good time).  At said bar, I encountered what Dianna called the 'UN of single men' as I chatted up a Spanish man from Barcelona, a Czech guy, four Frenchmen, a German dude, and then a Greek girl, who isn't male obviously but gets an honorable mention for being awesome.  Literally they arrived one right after the other, and it was the best time being able to chat about Europe with some Europeans.  Also our bartender was Colombian, so he can get thrown in the mix.  I'm sure I'll get some more opportunities like this in the future and hopefully will be more sober to better relay them to you all.

I officially start classes this week and my field placement next week so prepare yourself for some embarrassingly good adventures.  Cause that's what I'm about.

Big bise!  Talk to y'all soon!