Catherine et les fées

Sunday, May 12, 2013

NYC Day 2: dipping our toes in Central Park, Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown

The next day, we woke up to a bright sunny day and decided to take the ferry to go to NY to really get the best view of the city. Approaching the city by boat made us feel its magnitude.

We then went to explore the area just south of Central Park.

:: Central Park ::

NY felt strangely extremely clean and there were very few beggars and homeless people... to the point that our girls noticed it! They compared it to San José and Montreal and said how much cleaner it was and how they barely saw any homeless people... It is actually kind of weird. It makes you wonder were they all are. My friend Lisa says ex-mayor Giuliani might have deported them all in rougher areas of town...

:: Getting fresh pressed beet, carrots, ginger and spinach juice right on the street! We love NY!! ::

We then went off to discover the Soho neighborhood, mainly a high-end fashion district. We wanted to stop for a bite at Olive's, but when I went in to check the menu on the big blackboard and pointed my camera at it and got yelled "No photo!", we decided against it. Very NY.

The next logical district to visit, especially with a grumbling tummy, was Little Italy.

We had gelato and cannoli at Ferrara Bakery and Café, one of the most famous spots in Little Italy.

The South end of Little Italy intermingled with the beginning of Chinatown and that gave rise to a very funny mix of smells...

We were quite excited to have found rambutans for sale, but also quite surprised when we found out about their price (75 cents EACH and no picking said the sign!! Those are the big red hairy litchis... We would get a huge bag of them for $4 in Costa Rica).

When we reached Columbus Park (still in Chinatown), there were many Chinese gatered to play games. Most were playing cards, but some of them were playing Chinese checkers. It was the real thing, not the American version that we know. It was an entirely different game and looked quite complex.

The girls loved New York much more than I expected. I thought they would be too young for it, but they enjoyed the city vibe a lot. On our way back we got to see the Statue of Liberty in the distance. What a great way to say Goodbye to this amazing city...

Saturday, May 11, 2013

New York City, Day 1: Times Square and Harlem

After some pondering and researching, we had decided to skip NY this time and save it for another trip simply because it's complicated and expensive to find a campground for our travel trailer close enough (like less than an hour drive) and we thought the girls would enjoy it more later. The only sensible way to visit New York is to stay in town to avoid transiting morning and night (which quickly get costly for the five of us). But on Wednesday afternoon, a suspension leaf broke on our trailer and we had to get it fixed before going any further. We could not go anywhere or we would be causing more damage. As luck had it, we found a garage nearby (in Hackensack) that could order the parts snd do the job for the next day. We could park our truck and trailer in front of the garage where it would be safe to sleep. For free. It was 3 pm on Thursday and we were a mere 20 minute bus ride from the closest NY metro station!

:: The girls had ridden the subway only once in Montreal when they were little so that was quite exciting. There was lots of discussion about who might live behind the doors in between the stations under the cities and where all those doors might lead... ::

:: For the full New York effect we got off right at Times Square. The girls were stunned. Aïsha said she never saw such a "decorated" city before. ::

After seeing a French speaking Chinese Spiderman, Sonic, Minnie and Mickey, Bart Simpson and Puss in boots from Shrek, Mathilde spotted a big cookie monster head in a phone booth and we tought it was a pretty funny sight... Then the rest of the monster arrived from Starbucks, coffee in hand, and tried to hide as much as one can in a blue hairy suit, in Times Square, for a bit of a break...

:: Feeling very little in Times Square... ::

:: Then, we wanted to go to Harlem for dinner to try a restaurant a friend had recommended to us, the Red Rooster, and we were not disappointed. The cornbread with honey butter and tomato jam, the parmesan fries, the maple syrup and Bourbon sauteed collard greens and my smoked trout was to die for!::

::And we walked and walked some more and took more subways and inevitably got in the wrong train and ended up in a *very* empty station and found our way back thanks to our amazing navigator. Aïsha was pretty fascinated to watch a woman read an hebrew book beside her in the wagon and recite verses with her eyes closed. And there was the very sexy mama with a baby in a car seat that was quite probably a "him". We finally caught the bus pretty late and when it crossed the brigde back to NJ, we could see the whole city illuminated over the Hudson River and all I could think is how we are some lucky bastards!! Seriously! Things often work so amazingly well for us, it's just incredible! ::

Thursday, May 9, 2013

The life of the Amish

The Pennsylvania Amish of Lancaster County are America's oldest Amish settlement, where thousands still live a centuries-old "Plain" lifestyle. - See more at: http://www.padutchcountry.com/activities/amish-activities.asp#sthash.p505jtdL.dpuf

The Pennsylvania Amish of Lancaster County are America's Oldest Amish settlement, where thousands still live a centuries-old "Plain" lifestyle. About 30 minutes before we reached the town of Intercourse (yes, you heard that right), which is in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, we started seeing horsed pulled buggies and Amish people working the fields with antique equipment and horses. Children dressed in "plain clothes" (long dresses and head covers for girls, dark pants with suspenders, a white shirt and a straw hat for boys) on straw bales or in gardens, we really felt like we had entered another era...

Since One of the Ten Commandments states that "Thou shalt not make any graven image unto thyself....", most Amish folks are not supposed to POSE for pictures, but most people are not too sensitive about pictures from behind or at a distance, so I was able to take some photos...

They use of horse-and-buggy transportation and speak a Pennsylvania German dialect in church services and daily conversation. The vast majority of Old Order Amish communities meet in homes for religious services, wear distinctive plain clothing, and reject television, online access, and public utility electricity.

We visited an Amish farm. I must say it bursted my Amish bubble quite a bit. The milking cows were tied up all day and did not go outside and fed grain that was not produce on the farm. The calves were separated from the mother in little white cells to which they are tied outside. They also used pesticides on the fields. Also, many of the houses are now built with vinyl siding and other "new" material instead of wood.

Just before we left the farm, the mother was trying to sell us some cookies and at the same time her 13 yo young girl was coming back from school on her antique scooter bike (they seem to use mainly that type of bike instead of pedal bike, which is probably more convenient with their clothing) in her plain dress and head cover... with skate shoes!

Most Amish homes in Lancaster today have beautiful kitchens with gas stoves, refrigerators (LP gas), hot water heaters, showers, indoor toilets, and sometimes, public sewer. Most would not include electricity. Fans, sewing machines and other items that may require a motor are usually run with compressed air motors. A diesel engine is normally used to run a compressor, which pushes air into a large storage tank for use as necessary. Pumps in wells are also run by air motors. Windmills are less and less common. Electric fences are used on the farm run by a small solar panel and battery. The principle generally set forth is that no wire should come into the home connecting it with the outside world. A phone in the shed, barn, cell phone or pager with no wires of course makes all that possible.

:: The girls really enjoyed the buggy ride. One of the funniest things to see were the flashers on the buggies! ::

Children go to school up to 8th grade but cannot pursue higher studies. You can get a very good idea of what Amish school is like if you read the series of "Little House on the Prairie" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. These schools very much follow the pattern of what early 20th century schools were like in America. One room, one teacher, reading, writing, arithmetic and other basics are still the main stay.

I had in mind that the Amish were quite self-sufficient, but soon realized that they rely heavily on the outside market to buy their products and that they are really money-oriented...

::It's a good thing that they have a great natural food store with great prices and an amazing selection of things. They had tons of herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs at a really good price, local bee pollen, lots of local raw dairies and much more... ::

:: Homemade sourdough Amish pretzel: Yum! ::