Family time and familiar feels in New York — my first ever experience of the Bronx was these guys taking me to its charming Italian enclave two Saturdays ago, for some freshly shucked oysters and clams on Arthur Avenue. The weekend before that, they took me out for Caribbean food in a vibrant part of Brooklyn I’ve never been to before, while last Saturday, we went to Queens, also a first for me, for some yummy Greek food. This weekend, @asiatoday and I say goodbye to his family and embark on our first ever US road trip together — we’ll reconvene with them in a week down south. My own family first took me to New York when I was a child and college student, for work, pleasure, and research. Every one of these aspects builds on top of each other to make me feel more and more at home here. I don’t know when we will be back and for what, but I just know that we always will ☀️
✨The quaint and leafy inner NYC suburb of Hastings was founded as a village in 1879, with stone quarrying as its primary industry — check out the steep cliff palisades on the opposite river bank! “Along the river, where everyone told time by the factory whistle, were mills, modest homes and the highest percentage of bars in America. On the hills above the business district, were working farms, grand estates, summer houses and a growing number of homes for people who would become known as ‘commuters.’ The Wizard of Oz lived here, and 4 Nobel Prize winners, and painters from around the world. In 1930, 66% of Hasting’s 7,097 inhabitants were foreign born, mainly in Eastern Europe or Britain. 89 years later, the number remains the same, but now 22 languages are spoken in Hastings’ homes, from Spanish and Portuguese to Japanese, Korean, Hindi and Mandarin. The details may change, but the diversity of Hastings continues.”✨
