Summer vacation ends.....

Another year and I am back in the city. Specifying my location as “the city”, however, is not an attempt to denigrate the legitimacy of any other city. In fact, I have been in a great deal of “cities” over the past several months. The first of which being Vancouver, my home city and part-time residence. While I never considered myself a New Yorker, even at the end of my first eight months in the city, I did in fact feel very “New York-ish” upon returning to the place of my birth. For instance, I seem to have become (if this is even possible) an even more vocal complainer in contrast to my more stoic Vancouver family members. Statements such as “Bagels here suck”, “Everyone walks too slow”, “Why are there so many damn trees around here” serve to show that while I may not yet be a New Yorker, the city has begun to leave its mark on me. 

The next slew of cities to leave their mark on me were in Italy, where my family visited several locations – Rome, Naples, Capri, Sorrento, Amalfi, and, perhaps the most beautiful of them all, the seaside town of Positano where we rented a home. For die hard movie lovers – you may be familiar with Capri and Positano as the inspiration for the island town of Mangibello in The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was in Italy that my New York-isms were temporarily substituted for Italian-isms. We all know the famous riddle – “If a North American travels to Italy but does not embarrass themselves by pretending to be ‘local’ do they really go to Italy?”

The answer is no but apparently my Italian sandals are frowned upon here in New York so, once again, I have been forced to re-adjust to being back in ‘the’ city. My classes are harder, but less time consuming. This year I will surely have time to dive into all sorts of fun projects and should produce some exciting work to show you all very soon. But first, I need regain my New York-isms. Making progress. Once again remembering how, why and when (always) to complain. My computer is slow.