I'm a long way away from Williamsburg, Brooklyn so I'm realizing day by day and my new neighborhood ain't American. My walk to work in the mornings begins with a view of this lovely smokestack behind my apartment building. I then cross a street with 8 lanes of traffic. I walk when the lights are green and stop between lanes to let cars/bikes/buses/trucks screech by on either side of me. This used to wake me up in a hurry but by now I'm used to it. Then I walk on a gravel road that has been torn up (presumably for construction?), over a bridge, and through a little "park" before arriving at my office.
I miss everything about Williamsburg... even the smelly bodega around the corner from my apartment-- the one on havemeyer street with the obnoxious cat that would hiss and claw at my dog in the aisles. How can that be? I hated that place, but here I am missing it. I think I'm remembering only the good things without the bad. In any event, I think it's time I got acquainted with my new 'hood here and made it my home without trying to compare it to anything Western.
This is my new local convenient store (or as we'd say in nyc, my local bodega). I bought slippers here today to wear around the house for 75 cents each. I tell you one thing my new neighborhood has on Williamsburg-- better prices!
-mk