In New York!!!

Home, in Brooklyn.

We have arrived in New York from Montreal, we have taken an Amtrak train which goes slowly and takes 11 hours to get here, but here we are!!! We have arrived to Penn Station, next to the Madison Square Garden- a huge events hall-, we took a taxi which is quite an experience, people (even more taxi drivers) drive very brusquely and get angry very quickly. Lots of people were in the streets and and lots of lights in the high buildings.

 New York has five boroughs, that is, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Harlem, Bronx and Queens, we are only visiting the first two, especially the first one. It is such a big city... and a lot of places, statues, buildings and so on move me because I have read so much literature in English that takes place here, but also, we are culturally colonised by the Americans, and this also seems part of our lives, as we have grown watching TV series and films that took place here.

Some days have passed and we have seen several places of which I am going to highlight those that I liked more. In the East Village, in Manhattan, we can find one of the cultural centres of the city, the Shakespeare theatre is there and there is a special place for me called Cooper Union which is a building that houses a school run on grants. It was founded by tycoon Peter Cooper who was a visionary (built ahead of his time and spread the Morse communication system) but did not know how to write or read because he was of humble origin, so he founded this school (which is the oldest building made with steal beams that stands up still) so that every girl and boy could study, there are grants for that. In its Great Hall, great educative and progressive lectures have been given (pro women and civil rights), prominent speakers from Mark Twain to many presidents of USA, including Pr. Obama.

The Great Hall

Also in the East Village, we find the Colomnade Row, so called because of the many columns in its façade in the Greek style. Now it is very old and not taken good care of, but they used to be luxury appartments in which tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt or writers such as Washington Irving, William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens lived.

Colomnade Row