recession special

First of all, I wanted to thank all of you who posted kind comments and wrote me emails about the girl who died in my town. It meant so much to me to hear from you and I have passed your prayers on to the girl's family. Unfortunately, I wasn't there for the girl's "reso," which is the recitation 10 days after her death, as I was just getting back from the United States, which is what I'm going to post about now.

I had it in my head that I wanted to avoid going back to the U.S. for a full year, just to see if I could, to experience what the world would be like without seeing the modern Rome for a full 12 months. But because of the LSAT date, I had to come back a little earlier than planned (March 9th would be a full year, but I came back February 5th), but it was nonetheless enough time to feel the distance and the full force of the duration elapsed since my departure.

For various reasons, I hadn't really had time or energy to think about the visit or prepare myself. For example while packing I realized that not only did I not have a single pair of real shoes (I only have the ballet flats style, flip flops and my running shoes), but I barely have any t-shirts or long sleeve shirts (I mostly wear tank tops here because of the heat). So when I arrived in New York wearing my ballet flats without socks and a t-shirt, the full force of the weather reminded me very quickly that I truly was not in El Salvador anymore. But in many ways I had anticipated the change in weather more than the million other differences that I had forgotten about. When I got to the airport, one of the first things that stood out dramatically was the diversity of the city. And really, there are few places more diverse than JFK. After a year of being the only person around me that looks different, of hardly seeing any faces that are not mestizo and hearing only Spanish, the assortment of languages and features that confronted me at the airport looked so beautiful to me, it actually brought tears to my eyes. This feeling didn't leave me the entire time I was in the city.

As I said to a few of you, coming back to New York this time was like seeing the city through new eyes. Everything was enchanting and amazing to me. Other things I couldn't stop noticing besides the diversity were how beautiful and stylish everyone looked and how many young people there were. To be fair, I was staying in Vivian's apartment in Union Square where the NYU students tilt the average of the population toward being young and stylish, but even up at dumpy Columbia I enjoyed observing the latest developments in fashion that have yet to wash up in El Salvador. I loved looking at all the people and how they put themselves together, how much thought and art they put into how they looked, even it did make me feel a little ashamed at my Peace Corps chic :). NY style can be quite artistic and enjoyable when you don't feel pressured to keep up with it yourself.

And I haven't even started to mention the food, ah the food. How much I have miss you Asian food. The first meal I went out for was Vietnamese food with my mom, and it was amazing. And I basically didn't stop eating Asian food the entire week I was there until I left, and I miss it already, ha. The variety of flavors and options available to you in New York was like a dream. Here the flavors are so limited, and there is no such thing as variety. I will be dreaming of those meals for weeks to come.

Generally speaking, it was also just wonderful to feel the rhythm of the city again, to walk through the streets in step with other people and feel like everyone is going somewhere doing something. Life can seem so slow here, it was exciting to be in a place where just being outside seems to give me energy.

And speaking of the people, seeing friends and family was the most important part of the trip (even beat out the food!). It was strange and wonderful to enter back into the reality of life in New York, the different priorities and perspective that everyone has there. As the title of this blog post demonstrates, life is different in New York these days. All the store shops advertise their "recession specials," there are many stories of people being laid off, and this year's Columbia grads are no longer being hired by the i-banking world. I was a little nervous to see what New York would look like post financial crisis; I had visions of i-bankers on the streets begging for change, abandoned, crumbling buildings, and empty restaurants. I was happy that that was decidedly not the case. Nonetheless, there did seem to be a more somber atmosphere in the city and everyone was talking about the changing economy.

Coming back to my site on Wednesday was hard. I didn't want to see anyone and only wanted to curl up in my room with my new DVDs and extend my post-NYC glow as long as possible before the heat sweated away any lingering aura of the world's best city. It's always a little difficult to come back here after being away, so I am not surprised at the culture shock, but I'm trying to ease myself back in and I am getting used to it again. To be fair, being in New York has also reminded me why I decided to leave and pursue something like the Peace Corps. Not for one moment did being back there make me doubt my decision. Indeed, it is only because I am here right now that I appreciated and savored every moment I was there. But that doesn't mean I don't want to go back to visit again soon...