About a month ago I spent my last 2 weeks in the US visiting New York. Originally I planned to go for the F5 Fest motion graphics conference…Bought these tickets in 2020 and its been postponed ever since…this year was no different. But since I haven’t seen my grandmother and the rest of that side of the family since 2018 I decided to go anyway. Below are some highlights from my time there.
Obviously New York is a great city, but since I’ve been there so many times to visit family I feel a bit jaded about it. Many positive and negative experiences there. I tend to find the pace and energy uncomfortable, but beautiful in incredibly small doses. However contrary to popular belief I feel people there are much friendlier than everyone says. It was also unbearably hot. Real struggle dragging my giant luggage around in that heat.
Note: Since I usually travel during the winter and San Francisco is cold during the summer(which I love); this has been my first hot summer dealing with real heat in like 6 years. FL, TX, DC, and NY.
Anyway, continuing with my efforts to save money I stayed with my Aunt and Grandmother for the first week. This was the longest I’ve ever spent with them. Pros, lots of family time to get to know them, my uncles and my new baby cousin better, tons of delicious Haitian food daily, Creole lessons, and a slower pace of life compared to how I lived in DC. Cons, space, living many of those memes about Haitian family many of my friends have shared with me. Also the part of Brooklyn is pretty far away from everything. Incredibly thankful for the time together.
I was really excited to check out the NYC skate scene. Which didn’t disappoint. My trip aligned with NYC Skate Marathon. Been craving the chance to try a skate race. There’s also a Wednesday night skate that has like 100 skaters roam through the city on 8 wheels. This was a blast, but in a way less intimate than the smaller skates I’ve done in other cities…thus more difficult to make connections. This didn’t stop me though. Made a few new skate friends that also were doing the Marathon. Despite the fact I skated about 20+ miles a week for the past 2 months the 21k was still incredibly challenging. It was four 3.25 mile laps around Brooklyn’s Prospect park in high headwinds. Events ranged from inline to quad, 5k to 100k. Don’t know if I could have finished without the motivation from the new skate squad. #weoutside
Some other arbitrary highlights. Barhopping around Queens to a place called “Donovan’s Bar” with my fellow Taco Bell Hotel bud, Hanging with a couple San Francisco friends, Revisiting one of my favorite jazz spots on the planet for Bebop+Pool, Vibey Black Functions, Finally checking out The Met and The Whitney, Drawing in central park. The Italian festival(San Gennaro),
Discovery 2: While at said festival I overheard someone say this and it genuinely blew my mind. “You know, these City street festivals are just like the fairs you have in the country. Same stuff, same food, but its in a tight alley so it feels more exciting, you know?”
