This post goes in english to attend the petition of a few readers, I guess I have to alternate from time to time to make it even for all my friends, old and new.
I just put the title in spanish to give my mom a smile, to bad she won’t be able to read it, somebody will have to translate for her.
Chilling on the way to work in the subway
Darse una vidita
‘Darse una vidita’, is like giving yourself a treat, it’s an expression me an my mom used to say whenever we did something different but pleasant, even if it was as stupid as going to the movies, or having a nice dinner in a cheap fast food restaurant.
Things in my country aren’t as easy as they are in the states (economically), you always live on a day to day basis, you basically end up buying whatever the family will eat the same day, and you cook it. Unless you have really good jobs and can afford to go to the supermarket and buy goods for a few weeks you’ll have to deal with the cooking. In the Venezuelan culture in terms of food, as it is now economically, most of the people cook at home and save money, this bad for restaurants owners.
I remember when I came here almost two years ago, I was totally amazed by the number of people in restaurants and how you had to wait to get eat, it’s so silly. It’s gonna be hard going back if I ever have to.
So… too much conversation, I’ll get to the point of tonight’s post. This week, I tried to live as If I was not in New York, I didn’t suceed completely because I ended up exhausted and the goal of the “Quality of Life Week” was to end up relaxed, feeling like I was living in Barcelona, Spain.
I just walked out my capoeira class while it was still going, I couldn’t move, I was sleepy, slow, my legs hurt, I felt like I couldn’t breath, I was dead.
My goal this week was to slow the pace a little bit and enjoy life more, in the way that Europeans do, try to have New York as if it was an Europen city, calmed, eating good, resting good, etc. I mean, sometimes you’re walking by and you feel like you’re not in the US, I love this town.
From the goals I set on the “Vidita Week”, I could accomplish one of them which was eating good food this week. Also I could enjoy two nice movies from the Tribeca Festival, and last night I went to bed at 3am watching a Spanish Film called “Live Flesh” (I have Almodovar’s Talk to Her waiting on the Netflix envelope, great)
So that was on Monday and Tuesday, after that, I went to Capoeira, got home late, and woke up early to go to work, having myself totally dead sitting now in front of the PC while listening to Los Amigos Invisibles with my new Ear Jams for the iPod Headphones.
This things are attached to the ear buds of the iPod’s headphones, and they
go inside your ear ducts, giving you a nice nice bass and like +10 decibels, it’s nice to blog listening to music like this.
So the best thing this week was the food (there was something a hell of lot better of course, but it’s too personal 
), that’s one of the things I love about having a job, I’m no longer starving to save money, now I can afford to go to a good restaurant at least twice a week and do little gastronomic explorations.
On monday, I ate a nice Salad for dinner (something really unusual for me, and to my surprise I wasn’t hungry at midnight, even after all the activity that followed after dinner, hehe, I love NY, life’s good), it was on a vietnamese place, It was a beef salad with a bunch of vegetables I didn’t want to look at, but the dressing made it all easier. I gulped it down with a Japanese beer, I guess it was called Sapporo, or something similar.
I don’t remember what I had on tuesday, it was probably a bunch of sandwiches, yeah, that was it.. but on wednesday or thursday I had the softest meat, with mash potatoes, and rice.
Today was the best, I went outside the budget by walking out of the office at noon, and trying this place called IDEYA. It’s one of the few Latin places in the area, I found it thanks to a page called http://www.menupages.com (Thanks LW team for the link, they always use to order food, you can see the menus and all)
…So I left the office, walked towards Broadway West, and then North, passed Canal St, passed Grand St, and like a block after, I started seeing all this nice restaurants one next to the other, Brazilian, Argentinian, Japanese, and finally IDEYA.
West Broadway and Canal St/Heading North
Like 3 blocks ahead you get to the restaurant
Click on the pic to enlarge
Ideya
349 W Broadway – Btwn Broome & Grand St
New York, 10013212-625-1441
It was empty, so I was kind of doubting how the food was going to be. This nice girl got my order to go, I asked for a “Bistec a la Parilla” which is grilled skirt steak, ideya chimichurri, mixed green salad for $12.00,also ordered rice and black beans… everything to go (fucking the whole purpose I guess, but the food was too expensive and I didn’t want to tip, hehe, cheap ass S.O.A.
.
While I waited for my food, I ordered a vodka on the rocks, which I sipped slowly in the middle of a shallow conversation with the bartender as I got a bit tipsy. My food was done in like 15 minutes, I paid for my drink and the food, it was a total of like $30, and I took it to the office, feeling the buzz as I walked (yeah, hic!)
It’s nice to have a drink during the day every now and then, it makes you relaxed and you enjoy the moment more I guess (which reminds me, party party party, I gotta party, since finally I found somebody with whom I’ll honestly enjoy the act of partying, thing I couldn’t do in Miami since I was always thinking of getting lucky, it’s nice to see how things change), adding to all of this that the weather was perfect today to walk at noon, It was very sunny with a temperature of 57F, so I had to take off my jacket and soak up all the sun that I could in my face and arms while I walked in the streets of Tribeca.
Click to see all the restaurants around the office, I love this town
http://www.menupages.com/cuisines.asp?areaid=4
Back at the office, I couldn’t wait to eat the food. The “Bistec” was sliced in long stripes, and mixed with “mojito” and a nice salad, which I ate (I guess when you grow older you’re not so picky with foods and you eat what’s good for you), but what surprised me about the food was that the rice and beans tasted exactly, exactly as the ones my mom makes, so it was awesome. Las caraotas con arroz mas caras que he comido, but they were worth it.
I guess that’s it, I’ll see If hit the bed and dream about you. (You know who you are )
Conclusion
You can live a good life here, you just have to be unemployed or retired, have a lot of money, have no couple, or have a couple that’s with you all the time and the two of you are extremely in love so you don’t get bored out of each other.
Are you still reading this? Thanks, hope you traveled with me a little bit while reading, hope you go out now, or tomorrow, and try to have a nicer day for yourself, please do it, this life goes by too fast for you not to enjoy it, if you have your family with you, go and hug them all, kiss them, and tell them how much you love them, you never know the twists destiny might bring, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, and be happy, you’re still alive.