WARNING--WARNING-- cheesy, warm, mushy feelings alert!!
The title of this blog says it all. From the song Bonito by Jarabe de Palo, the title means everything is beautiful to me. Tomorrow I will be beginning my second week of Institute in Philadelphia. (I start teaching real live kids on Tuesday!) And while I have no idea how things will go in the upcoming four weeks, right now I am on a HIGH. A high that I have not felt since I was in Costa Rica last winter or since I was in Ireland last summer. It’s the kind of high that you feel when you look around and see the beauty in so many things.
Last Friday I took the bus to New York City to visit my friend and her boyfriend who was visiting. I was feeling very blah about the whole trip, as I had gotten about 20-25 hours of sleep throughout the week. I was thinking that I probably should have stayed in Philly to get some rest and recuperate for the week to come. But as my $25.50 roundtrip MegaBus was arriving into the city, I no longer felt any of that. The New York City skyscape shone in the distance as the sun went down over the Manhattan and I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. I’ve been there before, but for some reason, it gets me every time.
As I jumped off the bus and started walking to the subway, I ran into some AIESECers that I met last summer at the AIESEC Summer Conference in Madison. (Small world? I think so.) I continued onto my friend’s apartment on the upper west side to set my bags there then walked to meet her and her boyfriend at a restaurant. It was especially great to see familiar faces after two weeks of non-stop introductions and interactions with 660 Ivy League type-A personalities.
On Saturday, I managed to meet up with a friend I hadn’t seen since January to watch Spain versus Paraguay over a $35 lunch (love them New York prices,) head to Union Square for the Farmer’s market and Trader Joe’s wine shop, walk through central park back to my friends apartment and finally see the Broadway musical “In the Heights” at 8pm. But our night was not yet over. We then walked up to Lincoln Center to see another friend sing with a rag tag group of New Yorkers while a short Filipino man played a colorfully painted community-maintained piano.
Just as the New York skyline made me marvel at man’s ability to build and create, this impromptu performance made me marvel at man’s ability to sing, feel, dance, relate and enjoy. The singers and the piano man in front entertained a crowd of about 100 constantly changing passersby, everyone joining in to sing a show tune or popular ‘60s hit at one point or another. A group of 5 people danced in a row the front, audience members rotating in and out of the line.
Beauty is architecture and beauty is also interaction. One hundred strangers gathered together on a summer Saturday night at the corner of 65th and Broadway, not for money-making, not for attention-grabbing, yet for no other reason than pure merrymaking.
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