Yesterday my whole family woke up at 4am, I woke up at 5.30 and Nighty (my dog) was still asleep till 6 am. I went for a shower and struggled with the shower only pouring cold water at first but then managed to take a long hot refreshing one. We went out to eat breakfast at a Parisian café but the French atmosphere wasn't actually there. While in Chinatown u get the feeling you aren't in the usual New York, i didn't get the French vibe in this café but nevertheless the apple croissant thing i ate was enjoyable . So after everyone drank up their Americano coffee and i pronounced coffee about 20times with an Aussie accent and annoyed the hell outta my brother, we walked towards the Korean town. It was a long way with ups and downs, rights and lefts, dogs and cats. Yes, there are a lot of dogs here, even dog parks! We let Nighty go into one doggiepark but he was slightly awkward about it. He attracted some female (or male tbh idk) dogs and then played a little but then went to another one and so on (a real player). In the Korean town my mom and I went to a supermarket and were amazed by the large onions, peppers and apples they had. There were really random things such as black garlic spread or thousand brands of instant noodles. So after saying 안녕 meaning "goodbye" we went further. My calves started to hurt and sting. I could feel the blood flowing through every vein and felt as if i was walking on burning needles ranched in gasoline. Life goes on and so we headed towards the subway.
Paranoia.
I could feel how paranoia was sneaking behind my back and wrapping me up in its arms to warm me up with destructive overthinking and dark thoughts. I watched every person entering the subway, their hands, their eyes. What are they going to do, what are their intentions? Will they also kill innocent souls just like the Brooklyn subway attacker from a few days ago? My brother broke me out of my thoughts as he tapped me on the shoulder to let me know we arrived already and i must get up. My dad took me by the side and announced we are at the Christopher Street, a street with its own special history.
In the 60's there were the first Lgbtq+ protests in New york, a huge thing back then. We saw some pride flags and colorful zebra crossings and murals here and there but not much more.
It was hot. Time passed and sweat was present. The sun was burning and everyone was searching for the fridge with cold frozen water in the nearest supermarket. We bought 4 water bottles and headed towards the place with the hottest tea at the hottest hour: the NYU college. We were in the local park with manyyyy students who were talking about last Friday night, dating issues, alcohol, cigarettes, school stuff, summer and more. Everyone was free and minded their business. People were coming up to other random people to talk and socialize, it really felt as if its a playground just for adults and their silly minds. It was so interesting looking at those people, I almost forgot to blink. From one side u had girls and boys gossiping about Brad's new haircut and on the other some random junkie holding up signs saying his slutty sister is ugly.
My grandma always told me "don't look at ur phone! Look at the people instead", but in Zurich people are just antisocial workaholics trying to pass the day as fast as they can. But here in NYC i literally could lose my phone (like Samira) and not being bothered by it the second i don't feel it in my hands, because truly the people here are the entertainment you're looking for. NYC is free therapy.
My cheeks were sunburned. Dang it. I noticed it only when we returned to the hotel to cool down and rest. Nighty was drowning into the Jetlag and didn't eat his fried chicken and was exhausted. We all were. New York is like a drug that makes u pay attention to the smallest details, makes u smile at the strangeness but all this energy makes u fall into bed at 9pm. My dad&my bro went to a Libanese take away and bought some halal salads with falafel. I shared the food with my dad and then went out with him and the dog. Nighty played with a cute dog called Charly and I was busy admiring the tall buildings that were literally scraping the sky above me.
