THE NEW YORKER HOTEL

This was a whole discussion in of the [subway takes video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZNMGfRK4Bb/?hl=en). I loved seeing this video, and reading through the comments. Because I don’t think I ever had enough time to live outside of my country or city; to even think that I could be something else. To become not only a resident, but part of that city.

I guess I knew people from my hometown, that weren’t born there, but always lived their life there, so they were from the city. But it was hard to see an adult that moved there and then became part of the city. It would be an exception, not something that I’d expect to happen.

I think this reflection tells me much more about how you change, how the city changes, how you change the city, and how the city changes you. New York will always have its roots, culture and multiple, infinite ways of living. Neighborhoods, music, boroughs, inner jokes, things the city have gone through. And how resilient and positive about the future people are in here.

I liked a comment that said: _I’m a New Yorker; and if you have been here enough, and think you are a New Yorker. Then. You are a New Yorker._

Feels like something a New Yorker would say to me, if I had asked this question for them, on the subway. Or… they would’ve just said: get out of my way lol.

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BRYANT PARK

I was literally looking for the yellow umbrella. It was raining, there were a lot of couples out there having a cup of coffee to start the day, and warm themselves. And it was starting to rain.

_How come I had never though of taking a picture of yellow umbrella here!?_

I grew up watching a lot of movies and TV shows that were based in New York. Friends and How I Met Your Mother are possible the ones that most shaped how I see and what I expected New York to be, before coming here.

There is a lot of truth from the TV shows on how you can live your life in New York. The vibes, the pubs, the parks, the out-of-nowhere-last-minute hangout session with friends and people you just met.

And of course, the yellow umbrella. This day, you would be able to find any colored umbrella you wanted. Actually, in New York, if you can believe it, you will find it. You just need to choose which umbrella and which color you want to find; and/or want to be in this city.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BUILDING

It becomes easy to read a quick note, reflect, skim a text, or even just read the title and think that you just read the entire article piece. The art of sitting down and stopping to read some news has become something really rare. Not only because we can’t stop to do it, but because there’s so much news that it makes it hard for you to decide what to do.

The New York Times is one of the most important institutions in New York. It has so much to say, so much content; so much coverage; from New York to the whole world. When you end up reading something from it, you may feel like you are reading something that a person just came in one day, and wrote about it. When it’s definitely the opposite.

There’s research. There’s conversation. And there’s time to think what wants to be said. This week, I saw a picture of a guy cleaning the Memorial Pools at the dark. It caught my eyes right away. I started to read that news report at the same second. I didn’t even think of it.

It was the first, or one of the first, of a series showcasing jobs and workers that maintain the city alive. A really interesting series.

And Today, I had the chance of going to The New York Times, at the Times Center, to see a series of conversations from writers, journalists, photographers, podcasters there are part of the daily work that makes The New York Times the big institution that it is. And there it was, the team that thought about finding and telling the stories of those workers that makes the city alive.

They, as well, were also workers that made parts of the city alive. Telling stories of people. Telling stories of what is happening. It’s always fun to be able to see from within how other structures and organizations works. There’s a lot of time needed, and a lot of energy put into, to make The New York Times what it is.

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TIMES SQUARE - 42 ST

It does not matter. At some point you are going to end up at 42st. I'll give you some options and future/past tellings on why you could've ended up on 42st:

- You went to the celebrate with Knicks fans when we won the championship
- You went to party with some country from the World Cup
- You were doing a train transfer to another line
- You are having fun with friends, and walked form K-Town to Times Square
- There was some free stuff, from a very specific thing you like, and a huge line for you to get it
- You went to watch a Broadway show
- You are taking a friend that is visiting NYC for pictures in Time Square

You may fight the urge. You may have gone there multiple times. You may be tired from walking between all the tourists. But...

It doesn't matter what is going on. You don't have a choice. At some point, you are going to end at 42st. Again.

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SOME TREE IN 33RD ST

Trees have a natural compass that tells them which season is coming or going. They don't fail on this task.

In autumn, some leaves will start to fall and become brown/orange. At winter it's going to be completely dry, because of the cold. At spring it will blossom and become the most beautiful natural happening.

Usually when it is new years, it's when I stop to reflect on my life and make resolutions. Where I grow up; trees would look like the same all year round. It was close to the equator. So you don't have this differentiators throughout the year.

With trees changing every 3 months. Feels like I should reflect and change every three months as well. I take this change and this view, with pretty good eyes.

Today, I figure out that the tree started to drop some of its leaves. It's time for me to do the same; and start to build up new leaves for my next blossom.

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HUDSON YARDS

Looks like it's the same photo from yesterday. It's the same angle. Almost the same hour of the day. It will feel cheesy to say, but it must be said:
> even if you are seeing or doing the same thing over and over again, it doesn't mean you are the same person doing it everytime.

Yesterday, I was more contemplative of this view and the connection with ocean and my water-relaxing vibes.

Today it was more like: "this city is beautiful".

Same person. Different thoughts. Different day. Different vibes.

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HUDSON YARDS

I grew up in a beach city. And since I was a kid, I remember going to the beach, or even passing by it. I have a really close emotional connection with the beach and the ocean. It usually reminds me of relaxing and enjoying life.

This picture is one of the views from my office. On this day, the sun opened up a little bit more. There were people riding sailboats, jet skis, normal water public transportation, and a lot of life on the water.

So many buildings facing the water. Maybe someone else was feeling the same feeling I was at that time.

“What a good thing to have this much of water close to us”. It just brings me a different type of peace. It’s something between feeling like home and knowing that life is much more than whatever individual thing we do. In this great sea of water and buildings.

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HARLEM STAGE

When you live in a different country and you don’t speak your mother tongue daily, you stop using a lot of words that you used to know. It doesn’t mean that you forget the words, but it means that from time to time, you stop expressing yourself like you used to; and now there are different ways to express yourself in this new language.

Besides the energy that you need to put to express yourself in English, for example. There are still many gaps from the communication, just because there are no ways for you to express exactly what you want.

That expression, in language, slangs, and encapsulating words(like _saudade_), is what ends up changing you for the time you are immersed in this culture.

On this day, we went to [Black Writing in Portuguese event](https://www.instagram.com/p/DdJjIO-Fszr/?stkn=MTQwMzJvYzdieWhnZA==), which one of the presenters was Conceiçao Evaristo. She put this very bluntly, and it was something like this: “there are a lot of words we speak, that came from Africa, and black culture. That our grandparents use to say, but that we stopped saying it, just because of other Latin-like languages that put themselves at the ‘top’”. Which makes me think on words that used to describe feelings or situations that happened to us, that we stopped expressing; just because this other culture, in another language, didn’t have a way to express it directly. Or that it even didn’t want to talk about that.

Being empowered to understand where the words we speak come from, and why do we speak them in the way we do, is also a process to get closer to our own culture. It continues to amaze me, how I can continue to grow my passion for Brazil, from being outside of it.

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HIGH LINE AT 18TH STREET AND 10TH AVENUE

The first tourist attraction that I went to see on the first time I came to NYC, years before I moved here, was the High Line. [The High Line](https://www.thehighline.org/art/projects/tyler-mitchell/) is a deactivated train track that was active in mid-1900s. Right now, it is used as an elevated path from the streets, where you can walk between buildings; and that it has many art activations throughout it.

It has paintings, photos, physical artifacts, and some HUGE art pieces. I loved the enormous pigeon that used to look over 10th ave and oversaw it(RIP little huge fella).

I wouldn't say that I'd go here every week. Just because it's too crowded right now, with all tourist attractions. But every time I go, in a span of 2-3 months, it's always a pleasure to walk really slowly, appreciate and look at the amazing art designs, building architectures, and try and figure out what is new and what has changed there.

It was used before to transport people places, and it is now being used to transport art into a higher ground. If there's something like a Living high art, I'd say this is a good place for it.

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HOME SWEET HOME

I never watched Bluey. But I saw somewhere on Threads saying that Ted Lasso is the Bluey for adults. So, I must taken that Bluey is pretty good. Will be showing it to my nephew.

The city can have all the things in the world. However, sometimes you just need to finish the week by watching a gold old relaxing TV show.

What made me reflect today, specifically on this episode, is that it kinda had the vibe of Home Alone 2. New Years. Christmas. People Traveling for a party. Cozy clothes. Adventure for the characters living in it.

...yeah. This whole episode put on a flag that Winter is right at the corner, and that Summer is already giving it's space to Autumn. I must enjoy the outside, tomorrow, as much as I can. And catch all the sun that's left.

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BROADWAY AT 39TH AND 40TH

I always walk by this part of Broadway. Actually, anytime I'm going up and down Manhattan, I usually try to walk through Broadway, for two reasons:
- In my analytical mind, I'm always walking the hypotenuse, so it would always be faster.
- Broadway has such a vibe. Some parts of it is closed only for pedestrians, and others you end up seeing something new.

I don't remember the exact day it was. But it was a really big summer day, sunny and with tons of people on the street. The day that they started painting [The Runway Routine](https://garmentdistrict.nyc/runway-routine): it is this colorful path on the ground that has a lot of flowers and personality.

I was in the day they started, and I came by in another day when they were opening it.

There's a inner feeling. Like from your inner child. When you would see a hopscotch in the ground, and you must jump over it. This feeling of interacting and having something fun, over something that's pretty normal: the ground.

Every time I went by this section, I was reminded of that feeling and ended up walking on The Runway Routine, like it was the routine that never finished from my inner child.

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GERALD SCHOENFELD THEATRE

I'm a huge theater nerd. I love going to musicals, plays and anything that broadway and off-broadway has to offer. This musical felt more like a musical than the usual musicals. If that makes sense.

In the other musicals, if you have never heard the songs before the play, the music feels like it's complementing the show. Here, it felt like the music was the main character of the show. Buena Vista Social Club, is both the name of the album and of the group that created it. Which flows and is clear during the show. They are both the music, the play and the group at the same time.

In Brazil, I didn't grow up thinking that I was Latin. I grew up thinking that I was Nordestino(*Northeasterner*), Pernambucano, and Brazilian. I knew that I was part of Latin America, but it was weird to feel Latin, because we were so much Brazilian.

It was after I started to get in touch with other Latin, inside Brazil and traveling to other countries, that I started to feel more Latin and more close to my hermanos. We are really much alike. On food, culture, and most of all, being warm and passionate about other people.

It's shows like this, being exposed to more Latin culture and speaking Spanish on the streets that makes the Latin in me grow even more.

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787 COFFEE

In 2024, when we arrived in New York, we didn't know exactly what to do for fun. The city gives you so many options on what you can do, that you can get lost. It was already the start of winter, having something that could warm us was definitely in the plans. So, we ended up deciding to do a croissant cooking class.

From all the sourdough baking I did during the pandemic, I thought the process of doing croissant was going easy peasy. I couldn't be more mistaken. It had layers, and layers and layers; and BUTTER, so much butter! By the end of the class, when we had the first warm bite of fresh croissant; and knowing all the effort, cautiousness, and care that the whole process demanded; just made it taste even more delicious.

Since that day, every time I eat a croissant, I remember the amount of effort and love I put in it to make it work. And I enjoy croissants so much more.

Today, I went to a Bean-to-Brew coffee experience at 787 coffee headquarters. We learned how they are a farm and also a coffee shop. How much of the process they own, how they work together with farmers that share the same passion for coffee, and how much they actually care about serving really good coffee.

Instead of just dropping hot water in a filter, and letting the water run through; by: caring for the paper filter you use. The V60 container you have. The temperature of the water. And the amount of time the water takes to run to get the most-perfect extraction of the coffee flavors. Reminded me a little bit of the croissant class. Made me enjoy much more the cups of coffee I had during the morning.

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