NYC- tourist style
Nov. 6th, 2005 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avadFabiano is from Brazil. 25 years old. Works day and night cleaning buses, painting houses, any job he can get...skinny with working hands, all calloused and bruised. Sends money home to Brazil for his wife and child (now 4), and saving to hopefully be able to either buy them a home in Brazil or be able to bring them here. We can't imagine what it took to get him here..can't imagine the distance and sacrifice. Speaks Portuguese mixed with Spanish in order to get by...we've learned a mixture also to try to communicate..but it's strained. He spoke so longingly of NYC, wanting to see the landmarks, the Empire State Building, etc..that we vowed we would take him on a tour one day. Finally kept that promise yesterday.
On the winding endless lines in the Empire State Building he asks us if we go there often.
Err...I feel an odd sense of guilt for taking it for granted. I vaguely remember going when I was a child...with my grandfather Papa and grandmother Mita...but mostly I only remember the souvenir/gift shop (ok I was a kid, there were lots of shiny keychains...). Now I was intrigued by all the tourists...SO many of them, from all different countries...huddling on line to see the famous view from the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. Made me trade in my old jaded eyes. It took forever..waiting on those lines..but it was indeed worth it. From the outdoor observatory the city below was so hushed...car honks and noise made a muffled shhhh sound, everything blending together in a strangely peaceful way. I couldn't help but think of Wings of Desire...because that's exactly how it felt to me. Suddenly angels...looking down at the city...listening..and filling up with a sense of..love. Love for all those people up there looking down, love for all those below...oblivious to us up there, watching.
Little things stood out in my mind...a young boy, afraid of heights, clinging to the inside wall as his grandmother tugged at him to follow, a woman in a wheelchair with oddly shrunken legs..just a bit too low to see over the wall at the view. I thought of her having gone all that way to not see it fully and it was too sad to take. I wanted to pick up the whole chair...imagining if it would be possible, feeling dumb and useless...but I only smiled at her, and she smiled back so sincerely.
(sound of my heart ripping).
A bit later I found one part of the wall that was much lower than the rest and I practically ran back to her and her helper to tell them. The ache in my heart eased up a tiny bit thank god and I could breathe again.
After the Empire State Building we went to find 'The Bull' Fabiano wanted to see. Hmmm...a sculpture somewhere...on Wall Street. We knew nothing really about it. Took the subway and asked various people who pointed us on. When we got there, there was a small crowd of tourists taking pictures all around it..and again I had to shed the scales from my eyes and try to see what they saw. Fabiano was elated, and took tons of pictures..all of us taking turns. He bought a small replica of the bull from a Chinese street vendor for $10 in a red padded box, smiling as she packed it into a black garbage bag for us. Later I read the engraving...all strange engrish with mispellings..the clincher being the end line This bull is the Patron Saint of all stockjobbers. (!)oh I should've taken a pic of that.
We moved on to Ground Zero, memorial for 9/11. *exhale* SO strange to remember...it feels like so long ago already, but it wasn't. So unreal, but it wasn't. This major THING that happened in my lifetime..in my country. And now the destruction of New Orleans. I suppose everyone lives in strange times. On and ON it goes. Fabiano buys 2 photo books.
From there we go to Times Square...and by now I am feeling tired and completely overloaded. Fabiano is still taking tons of pictures, we switch on and off posing and taking shots. Soon I am following them wearily...overwhelmed by all the crowds and lights flashing and noise. We go into Toys R Us which has a huge ferris wheel inside and more things to buyBuyBUY than you can imagine exist at once. I start to feel sick. I focus on a lifelike animated dinosaur as it moves and blinks and roars. I like it and pretend it is real and I am going to try to convince it not to eat me with my special magical love powers.
But it is time to move on and once again the crowds and noise and the amount of STUFF around me swirls into a maddening sick feeling. The streets are no better and I start to worry that I am indeed going to lose it, that I'm on the thin line between holding it together and really freaking out/bursting into tears. I took deep breaths and murmured to myself that it was all ok...ok...all ok. Held it together. Fabiano bought a bunch of I<3NY t-shirts 5 for $10 to send back home. I thought them opening his care package...of his wife wearing her tshirt every night to an empty bed.... of his son learning to say "noojork" whenever 'daddy' comes up.... *bigexhale*:(
Finally we made it to sit down at an Appleby's restaurant where we had some dinner and I ordered myself a nice margarita. Slept soundly on the busride home.
(i'll try to fill in this post with some pics when I get to uploading them)
On the winding endless lines in the Empire State Building he asks us if we go there often.
Err...I feel an odd sense of guilt for taking it for granted. I vaguely remember going when I was a child...with my grandfather Papa and grandmother Mita...but mostly I only remember the souvenir/gift shop (ok I was a kid, there were lots of shiny keychains...). Now I was intrigued by all the tourists...SO many of them, from all different countries...huddling on line to see the famous view from the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. Made me trade in my old jaded eyes. It took forever..waiting on those lines..but it was indeed worth it. From the outdoor observatory the city below was so hushed...car honks and noise made a muffled shhhh sound, everything blending together in a strangely peaceful way. I couldn't help but think of Wings of Desire...because that's exactly how it felt to me. Suddenly angels...looking down at the city...listening..and filling up with a sense of..love. Love for all those people up there looking down, love for all those below...oblivious to us up there, watching.
Little things stood out in my mind...a young boy, afraid of heights, clinging to the inside wall as his grandmother tugged at him to follow, a woman in a wheelchair with oddly shrunken legs..just a bit too low to see over the wall at the view. I thought of her having gone all that way to not see it fully and it was too sad to take. I wanted to pick up the whole chair...imagining if it would be possible, feeling dumb and useless...but I only smiled at her, and she smiled back so sincerely.
(sound of my heart ripping).
A bit later I found one part of the wall that was much lower than the rest and I practically ran back to her and her helper to tell them. The ache in my heart eased up a tiny bit thank god and I could breathe again.
After the Empire State Building we went to find 'The Bull' Fabiano wanted to see. Hmmm...a sculpture somewhere...on Wall Street. We knew nothing really about it. Took the subway and asked various people who pointed us on. When we got there, there was a small crowd of tourists taking pictures all around it..and again I had to shed the scales from my eyes and try to see what they saw. Fabiano was elated, and took tons of pictures..all of us taking turns. He bought a small replica of the bull from a Chinese street vendor for $10 in a red padded box, smiling as she packed it into a black garbage bag for us. Later I read the engraving...all strange engrish with mispellings..the clincher being the end line This bull is the Patron Saint of all stockjobbers. (!)oh I should've taken a pic of that.
We moved on to Ground Zero, memorial for 9/11. *exhale* SO strange to remember...it feels like so long ago already, but it wasn't. So unreal, but it wasn't. This major THING that happened in my lifetime..in my country. And now the destruction of New Orleans. I suppose everyone lives in strange times. On and ON it goes. Fabiano buys 2 photo books.
From there we go to Times Square...and by now I am feeling tired and completely overloaded. Fabiano is still taking tons of pictures, we switch on and off posing and taking shots. Soon I am following them wearily...overwhelmed by all the crowds and lights flashing and noise. We go into Toys R Us which has a huge ferris wheel inside and more things to buyBuyBUY than you can imagine exist at once. I start to feel sick. I focus on a lifelike animated dinosaur as it moves and blinks and roars. I like it and pretend it is real and I am going to try to convince it not to eat me with my special magical love powers.
But it is time to move on and once again the crowds and noise and the amount of STUFF around me swirls into a maddening sick feeling. The streets are no better and I start to worry that I am indeed going to lose it, that I'm on the thin line between holding it together and really freaking out/bursting into tears. I took deep breaths and murmured to myself that it was all ok...ok...all ok. Held it together. Fabiano bought a bunch of I<3NY t-shirts 5 for $10 to send back home. I thought them opening his care package...of his wife wearing her tshirt every night to an empty bed.... of his son learning to say "noojork" whenever 'daddy' comes up.... *bigexhale*:(
Finally we made it to sit down at an Appleby's restaurant where we had some dinner and I ordered myself a nice margarita. Slept soundly on the busride home.
(i'll try to fill in this post with some pics when I get to uploading them)
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-07 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-07 05:42 pm (UTC)APPLEBY'!?!?!
Date: 2005-11-07 09:14 pm (UTC)Oh well. But seriously, you should START at Times Square. Get that out of the way as quickly as possible (or tell any visiting tourist that Times Square is, uh, "closed for repairs" or something).
Next time take him to China Town and then to the Met. And you could have gone to "Little Brazil," too. But I guess he's seen enough of that.
Ken
Re: APPLEBY'!?!?!
Date: 2005-11-07 10:05 pm (UTC)Next time won't be for a while I think. I'm pooped. He really had his heart set on these things. Wants to see the Statue of Liberty too.So IF there is a next time, it'd be the Statue of Liberty and the Museum of Natural History. I forget the Portuguese word for dinosaur but he kept saying it.;)
Now me...I definitely need to get to the Met again. But that's a full day and pretty much I'll be lost in my own little world all nostalgic, remembering all those past lives;)....best to probably go solo.