New York City-I've been back in North America for almost 2 months, 1 of which I have been officially unemployed. While being jobless in winter is not nearly as fun as it would be in summer, I have been indulging in all that New York City has to offer.
Today, in what I thought would be a dining experience filled with abuse and good food, I was gifted with 2 epiphanies, courtesy of the head chef at Shopsins, my new favourite eatery on the Lower East Side. While I had heard that f-bombs and verbal effrontery were on display at Shopsins, I was treated to much more. Stimulating conversation came as the main course with the hearty bounty of satisfying grub. (I ordered the Edmonton, and not just because my boyfriend is from there).
The first epiphany had to do with the TARP bail-out. Rather than focus on whether we should or shouldn't give the money to banks, our chef focused on whether we even want to go back to the place we were in the first place. Was the 'old world' of pre-banking collapse sustainable? Desirable even? This attempt to get the country back to a place of over-consumption and a growing gap between the haves and have-nots is perhaps the misguided part of TARP, not how and where the money is going to be spent.
The second one had to do with intellectual compensation for taking away someone's innocence. No, I'm not talking about that girl (who I think is made-up) selling her virginity on-line. I'm talking about the idea that when you teach someone something about how the world really works or is, the dark side of life let's say, what do you give them back to compensate them for the ugliness you have introduced into their world? For example, when you teach someone in a rural Kenyan village that he has to wear a condom to prevent HIV/AIDS, what do you give him in return for taking away the simple joy of sex?
Scott and I have also been busy playing 'tourist in your own home town'. Two must dos: the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side and a walking tour of Lower Manhattan. The Tenement Museum offers guided tours through an old tenement on Orchard Street. We did "Getting By" and visited the homes of German-Jewish and Italian Catholic families as they tried to survive the Panic of 1873 and the Great Depression.
Every Thursday and Saturday at noon, Big Onion tours offers a free tour of historic Lower Manhattan. This is the second time I have done it, and it was even better despite sub-zero temperatures. We explored the history, architecture, and people of the neighbourhood stopping at the old US Customs House, Trinity Church, J.P. Morgan, the Stock Exchange, and Fraunces Tavern.
During Restaurant Week we pretended to be a power-couple, power-lunching on our delicious Jean-Georges lunch at Mercer Kitchen. The food was absolutely divine.
We also made a visit to the American Museum of Natural History where Scott spent 90 minutes looking at African tools and artifacts. Fortunately he agreed with the curators exhibits on the Maasai, otherwise I'd have been in for a real treat. Then we hit up MOMA, which is free on Friday nights. Can I just say that I enjoy a good Picasso like anyone else, but seriously, there are way too many at MOMA…give someone else a chance!
Coupling our free events with brown bag lunches to Central Park and runs up the FDR, we are getting quite a lot of mileage out being unemployed (and a PhD student). However a job, and a paycheck are starting to look really good right now. Fingers crossed.
