HELLO!!! HELLO!!! NY 2005, Day 1 & 2

After a travel day which brought me from LAX at 7am (blech)to Houston for a one hour layover, and then finally to NY; I arrived safely and somewhat awake. Nani greeted me at the airport, we collected my luggage, and headed to the bus stop, transferred to the subway, walked a few blocks, up 4 short flights of stairs, finally to arrive at her (suprisingly) nice sized Harlem apartment. Later on we took the train down to her friend so we could borrow and air matress for me. Thanks Yelena for that!


DAY ONE: Nani headed to a work training, I slept an extra 30 minutes, which is nothing considering my sleep is extremely messed up right now. I headed over to Lexington (staying off 110th).The #6 delivered me to Union Square where I grabbed a latte and bagel, and headed over to watch NY City dogs run, play, jump and hump in the dog park. I know, I'm weird. It started to rain a bit, which makes the fact that a guy was selling umbrellas nearby perfect. Next I did a little window shopping and then headed downtown to the Brooklyn Bridge to meet Nani.


Next stop: Boro Park, Brooklyn
With the suggestion of a friend that shall remain nameless, Nancy and I found our way to Cafe Shelva. First, I wasn't even sure if we should go in because there were only men in peyas inside. I know that's strange for those of you , who like me, don't live in a religious community. Being that I've had enough exposure to Hassidism to know about respecting male/female space, I was careful to respect everyone's personal space in such a cozy restaurant.I enjoyed the lucshen kugel and some cucumber salad. I stared out the window watching a man in peyas and his wife in a head wrap garden and sweep. We finished up and took a stroll down 13th St. Didn't see too much, but did buy challah for shabbos, which is a funny story. When we were at the bakery, Nani was getting the challah. The woman walked over to the cash register to ring her up but she wasn't ready. So the woman is standing there yelling, "HELLO!", "HELLO!", "HELLO!". Finally, I look at the woman and say, "SHE'S DEAF, SHE CAN'T HEAR YOU". (by the way Nani really is deaf). The whole thing was actually quite funny.

Next stop: Crown Heights, Brooklyn

We cabbed it over to Crown Heights. I wanted to "see" 770. though I'm not really sure what it is I was looking for. When we pulled up there were TONS of people, mostly boys, just hanging out, singing, clapping, dancing...you would have thought there was a huge festival or something. I wasn't really sure if we could actually go into 770. So we sort of hung out front for a few minutes, then I noticed the building to the left had many more women out front. We went up the ramp, asked a woman if we could go in that building. She explained that the upstairs door was the woman's section and we could look downstairs. I must say, this was quite interesting. There were HUNDREDS of men and boys davening, praying, chanting, swaying. At the mechitza a man was teaching. This was a sea of black hats, white tzitzis, and heads swaying like the wind. There was one woman upstairs, watching and listening to the man teaching. I approached her. Nechama and I started talking and I soon discovered she was great. She shared what was going on downstairs. We went next door and she asked her brother to go inside to see if we could get a tour of the Rebbe's room, office, etc. Although that didn't happen, we enjoyed our short time there. Nechama, Nani and I talked for a while outside. Hopefully we'll see her on Sunday. We invited her to join us as we go to the Ohel and later on for the Jewish festival in Manhattan.

Next stop: East side, Manhattan
We met up with three fellow (blushing) Jdaters for a drink and appetizers. We had a re Inice time chatting and having a laugh. Then we headed back to Harlem where we are now relaxing.

Tomorrow: S. Bronx to visit Nani's high school. Then to shul and Shabbos dinner