NYU

Going to Abu's house always means going thru old boxes of pictures and remembering the little things about my childhood here and in Colombia...and for some weird reason Abu does not let me take the pictures with  me...she wants to hold on to them.  I only get to see them and scan them or take pictures of them...she is like a security officer next to me looking at them and making sure they all go back in her treasure box.  I wonder does she looks at them when she is alone.  Nenes Abu got marry very young having Tio Cesar at 14 I always find she is too young too have the children and grandchildren she has. 

Nenes remember there is time for everything, in a persons life the word late never exist you are only late to appointments.

I was surprise to come across my NYU ID...she holds on to it, and looking at the picture I can see how naive I was when I first left home thinking life was easy and everything goes easy...I was in for a huge surprise,

nenes the hardest part was not being in a big city working and paying school, the hardest part was being alone not having Abu around.  Nenes and in no shape of form I am saying that staying always around your parents is the thing to do, in today's world we need to explore other places and learn to be alone, solitude only makes you stronger.  It makes you reflect on what you had at home, you learn to treasure your parents and the beliefs and values they teach you. And the best part of all of these is that there is always baba's and mami's home to go back to, and that is how I felt I always had Abu's house to go back..but then my inner desire to not give up keep me going, how could I go back to Miami without accomplishing anything that push me to do better in school and at work and to make Abu proud of me.

And I know one day I will feel the same anguish Abu felt that June 5, 1997 I left to NYC...in my white fiesta ford I drove all the way from Miami to Queens, NY...not knowing how difficult was to have a car in NYC I had to call Tio Fabio to come and pick up the car back a couple of weeks after.  I know you only learn by firsthand experience when you have to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday morning to move the car because that day they are cleaning that side of the road so you have to drive around for hours at times waiting for someone leaving that the day before had gotten a stop on the opposite side...having to do this every day for a car that I could not even take to work or school, because parking for a month  int he city would end up being more than what I made in a week.  I promise you nenes as you get older I will enlighten you guys with my adventures.

Crafting away!

Last year I did one of the Christmas gift for Samia, Carmelita her doll...so this year I decided to do more of their toys.  There are a few things that I have on mind one was felt food.  The girls love to play in their kitchen and there are certain foods that they always mention so I started searching for ideas to make them.  It took me a couple of days to come up with bread, tomatoes, lettuce, bologna, different types of cookies, doughnuts, eggs and strawberries.  I know Samia is going to love this.


I then wanted to do  this but as I was doing it, I notice it was not coming out that good so I decided to fill it it with the felt food, but once again I got excited and I started to decorated it the outside.  


I think I will make another one for Gamila just for doll stuff!

I also want to make this puppets they love playing with their puppet thing thanks to my friend Katherine she gave it to us.  I think I will start working on that soon!


Nenas is hard to do crafts when I have you two around although if Samia is doing her activities she let's me work, Milo you are a whole different story I have to keep you entertain in my little sewing closet...funny the other day baba mention how he thinks that in a couple of weeks with my belly I would not fit in there.  I have to take pictures of it.  He might be right it reminds me of the kitchen in a basement I used to live in NY.  

I remember this basement had no air conditioner neither and in the summer I would wet my blanket and sleep with it wet so I could keep cool, and I am not lying maybe 3 hours later I had to do it again because the blanket was dry by then...I still remember that summer....don't know how I jump from sewing room to new york basement, but nenas by the time you read this you will know mami is a bit hyperactive all around. 


About the baby we being trying to come up with a name..hard hard hard thing.


I like Kairos baba does not like it, althgough I am hoping I can convince him I still have 4 months!!!!!


We liked Adam but too common.

Baba has even mention of Yehia but I don't think so!!!!


Baba likes Gibril but this is Gabriel to us in Spanish and is hard for me to get used to saying Gibril instead of Gabriel...I have to admit I do like it but my tongue does a little dance when I say it and not only that I have to think about it...it does not came out naturally so imagine mami with la chancla trying to say Gibril, Gabriel No joda ven pa'ca pelado!!!!!

Lighst, Camera, Action NEW YORK

For starters I will advice you to sit down with a nice glass and lemonade because by the the end of the post you will be tired from traveling and running around with us and our journey to New York.



Nenas we pass by the first place I lived after I left the NYU dorms the area is called Jackson Heights a mix community although allot of Colombians, I used to live in the second floor. This was just a 10 minute walk to the subway or I could always take the bus, but walking becomes a natural thing when you live in NYC.








Afterwards we drove by my second home this place was a little a farther away from the subway so commuting to school and work was a long way, I can still remember waiting for that bus at 6:30 AM with snow or sleet freezing while I waited for that bus. Nenas nothing in life is easy, but when we work hard for things the gratification is greater. While I was taking pictures of the bus stop I felt so good that I did not give up and quit school I stick it out no matter how cold, or how long I had to walk.

Then we went to a nice Colombian restaurant in Roosevelt Ave. actually we went to the place we eat the last time before we drove down to South Carolina, I still remember Osha and Maria a couple of friends from New York met us there at around 6:00 AM to have breakfast with us and say goodbye. I think Queens is the only place after Colombia that you will find so many Colombian restaurants to eat at you can find bakeries, restaurants, bars is just hard to decided..


Samia you could not believe your eyes seeing so many cars and people walking in the street. I guess now that I am a mom I took the time to look around and see that life is not easy in NY for children, is amazing how you see this 3 years old crossing streets carrying umbrellas and hustling between the crowd. I also saw a little girl she could not be more than 9 walking from school alone crossing a mayor intersection. Although I love NY I could not have Samia or Gamila do that now, maybe because I am living where I am now and I get to see that life for children is better here. Everything still the same, people walking everywhere, children playing handball in a park in top of a busy street, however I did notice more graffiti in the streets and the crowd of people around Roosevelt has change.

Then we drove to Astoria that was where babathru the first dinner we went to eat, it was funny it was our first date and we had drive around for a while so we decided to stop and have something to eat. While we are eating baba's uncle decides to call and invite us over his apartment to watch a movie and eat popcorn. It was just so funny we wanted to be alone and he is inviting us. Then we drove by the apartment building baba used to live, then to the apartment we moved it after getting marry the same thing


After all of these driving around we headed towards the hotel to take a rest and then hit the city at night. I just wanted to take Samia to all of the places I used to go after work, but I had one place in mind that was Toys R Us in Times Square I will always go inside that store when I was single and admire it, now I had my nenas with me.

What can I say Times Square is breathtaking at nights the lights all over the place, people posing for pictures, people dancing in the street, food all over the place, people selling tickets for Broadway, just by walking there you can feel the rush from New York, the energy that you can only feel there, people watching the NBA game in the middle of the street with lounge chairs, you will see the unthinkable in New York and specially in this area.

Samia you could not believe your eyes inside Toys R Us you did not know which way to look what to touch, even baba was all over the place. Gamila you were still small I guess you were just excited by seeing so many people and things.

While we were there we also run into the set of a movie being filmed, once I saw the trucks I knew right away they were filming something that is something I miss, just walking down the street and knowing that in a couple of months you will see this in the big screen.

There are so many things, so many places, but nenas when you guys get older we will go again and I will explain in details so many things we did in NY.

The following day was the big arrival, we waited the whole day drove around again went to see some places we used to go to, I have to say I remember Amira so much there so many places her and I went to in NY she just love the shopping there. One thing I found new that was not there before we left was the Boca Juniors corner, nenas you will understand that by the time you grow up. Boca Juniors is the soccer team from Argentina that we are fans of because of Nono and here it is.

Baba also drove me around my beloved Indian neighborhood, maybe I was Indian in a prior life I just love that place, the stores, the jewelry places, the food etc.

I think this couple of pictures describes what Samia and Gamila felt this couple of days.

Then came the time to pick them up, Samia was anxiously wating for Guido and Zetu she even came up with a Zetu and Guido song/dance. After arriving we had to open the luggage and try to organize it since there was so many bags, the amount of food they brought can not be describe, nenas you guys would not believe how much stuff they brought back, nenas you will also become accustom that when we travel to Egypt or Colombia you bring the unthinkable. Is insane you have to be a foreigner to understand why we bring lemons from Egypt or pita bread, or pastrami, or cookies, dill, grape leaves YES everything passes thru customs hard to believe but it just happens. I think over all we had 6 luggage's and 5 hand bags plus the car seats.

There are so many other things to post mainly all of the keepsakes they brought back from baba's and Amira.