Home Sweet Home
Hello,
My apologies for my absence - I should have let people know I was going to be away for a while. So yes, I am still alive and all is well :).
I left New York for a week of recovery in Northern Ireland. I hugged the trees, filled my lungs with the freshest of air, reaquainted myself with hills (of which there are surprisingly few in Manhattan) and listened to the waterfalls (of which there are none in Manhattan, at least that I know of) in Glenariff.
,
I'm back in Southampton now - settling into a new house and getting back to work. Four months of living with constant traffic noise has made me more aware and sensitive to other noises in England. I now notice things I didn't notice before. Birds singing, trees rusting, quietness. Of course its not all that idyllic. I've moved back into British studentland where state sponsored piss ups are all the rage! Alas, I have left behind the quiet (if a tad boring) maturity of NYU's medical student community for a bunch of undergraduate British lager lout footy fans next door. (I jest - I like my new neighbours, they're very friendly actually!)
Other nice things about being home is going to a familiar supermarket and having people to cook for. On Saturday I cracked open the Thai cook books that Ken bought me for Christmas and rustled up some sweet and sour vegetables, Som Tam (papaya salad - which was amazing, you would not believe how absolutely incredible this strange concoction of papaya, garlic, chilli peppers, fish sauce, ginger and peanut was) and lime chicken. Bland food Lorcan - I think not! I then worked off this rather extravagant meal (I haven't cooked properly in 4 months, ok) at the swimming pool conveniently located right by my office.
I've been back to Southampton Quakers as well. That was nice - as much as I loved Fifteenth street meeting and received an incredibly warm welcome into the community there - Southampton's smaller, cosier little meetings feels a little more like home. It was nice to be in a meeting that was entirely silent until about 10 minutes before the end :P! Fifteenth street is a little livelier ;).
BTW, I wasn't able to say goodbye to a lot of people at Fifteenth street - especially Rich (Brooklyn Quaker) and other people from the Friday night group - so if you're reading - thank you for the welcome and I hope our paths cross in the future. It was wonderful to be with you - I've learnt a lot and really appreciate the friendship I experienced at the meeting. My experience in New York wouldn't have been anywhere near as happy if it was not for you guys.
In other news I'm moving out of studentland in about 8 weeks. Ken and I found a beautiful flat to rent - in Bassett Green Village no less. Its as quintessentially English as it sounds and the name is admittedly a tad pretentious for a little corner of Saf-hamptin. Its all leafy green and quiet, next to a little unused but listed church building. I fear picnics with pimms on the green may be warranted.
posted by Ruthie @ 12:08 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Your return home does sound oh so sweet... I hated NYC when I was a kid and am glad to have made my way to the Midwestern states of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
I feel as though I've gotten to know you a bit through your blog, and I trust that we'll hear more from you as you settle into your (re)new(ed) life.
Blessings,
Liz, The Good Raised Up
Hi Ruth-Ann,
It's good to hear you're happily at home in the British isles, though we'll miss you here in the capital of the world. I will pass on your kind mention of the 15th Street's Friday night group to other attenders.
- - Rich
Hey, Liz, let's go easy on the New York bashing! The good can be raised up here, too, you know. Give us a visit sometime and see if we aren't a little less hateful than when you were a kid. ;-)
One further comment in defense of the Big Apple: Ruth-Ann's belief that there are no waterfalls here seemed far-fetched to me, so I made a quick google search and found evidence of at least two. (There really aren't many things that we don't have somewhere in New York City.)
One website speaks of "...a waterfall on the Bronx River in Bronx Park. It can be seen from East 180th Street west of the 180th Street IRT station, near the Bronx Zoo entrance."
Another puts the word "waterfall" in close proximity with the word "Quaker" in a description of Prospect Park in Brooklyn: "Prospect Park covers 526 acres and contains a Quaker graveyard, gardens, trails, zoo, pedal-boating and ice skating, and a historic carousel. The Ravine is an Adirondack type gorge with waterfalls, pools and 24 acres of woodland, New York City's last surviving forest."
We had a small potted history of the gardens and landscape design of New York during one of the design modules of my undergraduate course - and I can confirm that there's a lot more to it than Ruth Ann's impressions might suggest...
...nice to have you back with us in Blighty again.
Let me put it another way, Rich:
If I had known Quaker families as a kid in elementary school, whom I could visit while my folks went to sophisticated theater and museums, my guess is I would have fonder memories of the Big Apple! smile
Also, please note that the verb in my earlier comment is in the past tense. My partner has been helping me "raise up" a better opinion of New York in my own mind. Please have patience with the impressionable schoolgirl that still lives on in me, who preferred quiet spaces over trembling sidewalks and noisy subway trains...
I get to the NY/NJ area about once a year (my folks live there), so perhaps I'll be able to take you up on that offer of a visit before long, and you can show me those two waterfalls you mention.
(Apologies to Ruthie-Annie for these tangential comments on a very sweet original post...)
Blessings,
Liz, The Good Raised Up
Hee hee - its alright Liz. New York is an amazing city - especially Manhattan - but I found it all rather relentless sometimes. I think I have more of an affinity with green, quiet places too!
Rich - you're cheating. I said waterfalls in Manhattan - and if you can find one in Manhattan, I'll be very impressed! :)
Thanks for passing on my hello (or goodbye or whatever it is) to Friday night meeting.
Ruthie
Ruth-Ann, I actually didn't notice that you said "Manhattan" rather than "New York". So far I have only found mention (at NY Bytes)of one waterfall in Manhattan, but I predict you'll think it is also cheating (it seems to be in the back yard of a restaraunt and may therefore be an artificial waterfall - no more authentic than finding a New York skyscraper in Las Vegas). Still, here it is:
"Il Palazzo; 151 Mulberry Street (bet Hester & Grand Sts), New York; # 212-343-1908; **Credit cards. Open 7 days. Friday & Saturday dine until midnight. Lunch, Dinner. Catering. Party room up to 60. Dining in backyard with waterfalls. On premises pastry chef. Homemade pasta. Little Italy."
I understand they also plan to incoporate an artificial waterfall into the new World Trade Center site construction.
Liz, If you want to see the natural side of New York I might be able to introduce you to the Friends in Unity With Nature Committee of 15th Street. They have done nature walks in the city from time to time.
I'm surprised that no one called me on the fact that I "looked" for waterfalls not by going out and actually viewing one but by browsing the worldwide web. I think I have seen the Ravine in Prospect Park, but it has been many years and I'm not quite sure of my memory.
I am not really quite as much of a Newyorkophile as I may seem, nor do I take your past-tense critique personally. I come from a home town of population 500 in upstate New York and came to the city in the early 70's searching for more openness of spirit and ethnic/religious/class diversity than I knew at home. Nevertheless, I like quietness and trees, and homeyness as much as anyone. In New York I search out Quaker Meetings, parks, walkways, and little neighborhood stores that feel like the village stores in my hometown.
If I am a bit toucy about critiques of New York, it may be because in visits upstate with my wife Janet many years ago we were both struck by how uninhibited people were at expressing their loathing of our city. As in "Oh, you're from New York? How do you stand it?"
As Janet said then, "If someone from Rushville visited us in New York I wouldn't dream of trashing Rushville to his face."
There is a waterfall in New York... it is at the Down East Art Center on 13th and Ave A. I have been spending a lot of time there... now that my whole band has quit... in hopes that a lost Irish singer or flute player might fall in... but as to the water fall... there is a large fellow... I mean BIG... who lives on the fourth floor of the building. He sits in the tum with the taps on, the water runing out onto the floor and down trough the ceiling of the Art Center... lovely wee waterfall... then the fire department comes each day, and turns off the water... then the next day, it starts all over again. Ah life in New York... Oh to be sitting by Peddler's lake on Scragg in Kerry... o well...
Nice ye'r home, hope ya come back, see you one place or the other... lor
PS Nice that spicy food has come to the Island of Saints.
Excellent blog. I go though the web in search of
blogs like this one. Its so good, that I plan on
returning to its site!
I want you to look for my no load term life insurance blog.
Post a Comment
<< Home