New York, New York

As I told you yesterday our new topic for the blog is cities. Here goes my entry!

"New York is the biggest collection of villages in the world". That's the way British/American journalist Alistair Cooke described the Big Apple. I totally agree.

It seems that New York has a representation of almost every culture on its ground for everyone to explore. Chinatown, Koreatown, the Polish neighbourhood in Brooklyn, Little Italy, Spanish Harlem...and many more. During decades immigration waves have make the city the largest melting pot of the planet. It is widely recognised that New York is the capital of the world.

If you go to New York I would highly recommend for you to stay at least for a whole week. There is so much to see! It's pretty hard just to pick a few highlights of "the City" but if I must, these would be my chosen ones: Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Columbia University, the East and West Village, Soho, Brooklyn Bridge, the MET,the Empire State Building and the Flatiron building (you can see it in the last picture).

Among the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn,Bronx,Queens and Staten Island), Manhattan is the one that oozes a life and character that cannot leave you indifferent. There is no doubt that in Manhattan you can visit most of the touristic attractions that New York offers, go shopping to the most exclusive and beautiful stores and enjoy food from every corner of the world. It seems to provide visitors with every entertainment there is, from dusk till dawn. No wonder is known as "the city that never sleeps".

After reading this entry, I guess there is little doubt that New York is my favorite place in the world. I lived in New York for five years and I know it will always have the most special place in my heart. I worked as a Spanish teacher in a public primary school in Manhattan for the first two years and, after that, as a linguistic advisor for the Spanish Consulate. Well, all in all, an amazing experience!

Since I started with a quote, let me finish with another one. This time by the American psychologist James Hillman: "You come to New York to find the ambiance that will evoke your best. You do not necessarily know precisely what that might be, but you come to New York to discover it".

Teresa