Snowmelt

I'm still here, though dealing with a leaking ceiling in my bedroom from a malfunctioning radiator in the apartment upstairs for most of the past two weeks has stretched my patience to the breaking point. I'm calling the constant plop-plop-clank into the bowls and trashcans lined up next to my bed the Hell's Kitchen water torture.

It's also drip drip drip outside as the snow is finally melting, uncovering all the treasures that were embedded in the snowcrete.

Urban poetry

When you just need a break from doomscrolling.

Urban poetry

Washington Heights last winter. Taken from the window of my car, which gives me a (very brief) moment of regret.

Waiting out the rain

Some locals near the bottom of the steps who were also hanging out while getting out of the rain.

Costa Rica through the bus window

The last day of the Costa Rica program we did an excursion to Cartago, Ujarrás, and the Orosi Valley. The traffic heading back into San José on a Saturday evening was solid gridlock, and these are pictures I took from the bus windows during the long ride home.

Watching the watchers

So, you may have heard there was an eclipse today.

It was only a partial eclipse here in New York, and although I would love to see another total eclipse, I just couldn't handle traveling in the middle of the semester. And I consoled myself with the lousy weather forecasts, thinking I might scramble to get somewhere in the path of totality and not be able to see anything. (I do have to admit that when I saw there were actually going to be clear skies in Vermont today I was tempted to jump in the car and drive to Burlington.)

Instead I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and watching the people watching the eclipse on what turned out to be a mostly clear and quite lovely day. I didn't have glasses, but someone let me borrow theirs for a couple of minutes, so I even saw the eclipse.

On the streets of Al Balad

Is it obvious that classes have started again? I will post the remaining Jeddah pictures, but the pictures that haven't been processed yet (Knossos, Ephesus, Yanbu) will have to wait a while.

Coffee break

Many women also cover their faces, like this one at a cafe in Al Balad.

And if you're curious—I admit it, I was—she drank the coffee by lifting her veil just enough to bring the cup underneath it.

For example

Some of the shoppers on a street near the clothing and jewelry stores.

Street photography, Suez style

I tagged this as “street photography” because of the man who was just standing outside, using his phone, with probably no awareness that a nosy tourist on the passing ship was taking his picture.

I love to capture faces and scenes of daily life, and although I know that this is something photographers have always done, I am also always uncomfortably aware of how intrusive it is. This isn't some official record of the world, and nobody asked me to document it.

But I do it anyway; I sneak pictures when the subjects aren't looking, even if I feel a little like a thief for doing it. We call it “taking” pictures after all.

Faces of Cusco

I love the hats on these boys sitting at a bus stop outside the Koricancha.

Urban poetry

Rainy evening on Ninth Avenue a few weeks ago.

Saturday reflections

Another of the night reflections I took this past summer. This was on East 23rd Street.

Cartago

Cartago is about an hour southeast of San José. It became the first capital of Costa Rica in 1563, but extensive volcano damage in 1732 led to its being gradually overshadowed, and then replaced, by San José.

It's most famous for La Negrita, the Black Madonna shrine at the basilica. Unfortunately our visit coincided with the annual pilgrimage to the shrine so we couldn't visit the basilica, and though we saw the crowds of pilgrims, some of whom had been walking for days, I couldn't really get any good pictures from the bus.

My idea of a pilgrimage is obviously a couple of centuries out of date, because these pilgrims, with their sneakers and athletic wear and backpacks, looked like any group on an organized long walk. One thing I'd never seen before: there were the usual tables handing out water and snacks to the pilgrims as they passed by, but instead of bottles, the water was in plastic bags knotted at the top. I half-expected to see goldfish.

I don't know if this gentleman was a visitor or lived in Cartago. He was sitting by himself on the main street, watching the crowds go by.

Public transportation

Waiting at a bus stop on Avenida 31, and one of the buses that finally arrived.

San José

Three random pictures of San José: the one on the right is the view from ILISA in the San Pedro district, and the other two are of downtown streets.

It's not a particularly lovely city. It's old and a little gritty and more than a little shabby. You can see why there aren't a lot of tourists here—this isn't the Costa Rica people imagine visiting. But I like the liveliness and the energy and the cityness of it. I'm enjoying taking buses or Ubers, buying groceries, and navigating restaurants and food stands in my mediocre Spanish.

I'm going to spend a few nights up in the mountains when this program is over and see more of the Costa Rica on all the travel brochures, but I'm glad I got to spend this time in San José first.

On the beach

I really wanted a beach to be the next stop on my Dipping a Toe Back Into Reality program, so I spent an afternoon in the Rockaways. (Technically I spent an afternoon in the car driving out to Queens and back again, with an hour walking barefoot on the sand and another spent eating lunch.)

It was glorious. And these guys made me smile.

Beautiful downtown Newburgh

A look at Liberty Street in Newburgh from the grounds of the historical site, and the back seating at Ms. Fairfax's, where we had lunch at the picnic tables.

It is so odd that after a year and a half of longing to be anywhere else that in many ways this weekend away didn't feel like a big deal. I'm grateful that it didn't, that it felt as though getting in the car (a car that I have owned for all of a month now, though that's probably worth its own posting) and heading out of town is something I do, and have done, regularly.

There were many small pleasures--fog-draped trees, nectarines from a farm stand, breakfast in restaurants, driving down country roads--and honestly I don't think I could handle anything more exciting than that. Not yet.

Life in the time of coronavirus

A sidewalk in Chelsea on an August day. I was on my way to have the wonderful James undo eighteen months worth of home haircuts, and I'm still not used to being able to go outside whenever I want to.

But, as this man demonstrates, thanks to rising case numbers we're mostly back to masking on the street. I will pull the mask down if I'm on a side street with no one else around, but if there are more than a couple of people in my vicinity, it goes back up. 

I'm glad I got the haircut in while I still could. School starts again next week and one class is scheduled to alternate in-person and online classes. Everyone has to supply proof of vaccination, and masks are required, but I am wondering if in-person classes are possible yet -- at least in places that take the virus seriously.

Street photography

I just liked the look of this trio standing on 42nd Street on a typical summer day in New York.