Day One - I've Arrived in Brooklyn

Well here I am in the Big Apple - well actually Brooklyn.  My apartment is perfectly located on 11th Avenue - across the street from a grocery store and two blocks from Prospect Park - the Central Park of Brooklyn.  My apartment is on the fourth floor with NO ELEVATOR!  Boy I thought I was in shape but not so.  My goal is to make it up the stairs without heavy breathing before I leave in two weeks.  Of course the heat doesn't help.  The weather forecast is high 80's/low 90's for the next two weeks.  Am grateful for the two AC units in my apartment! After settling into the apartment we took a tour of the neighborhood.  Headed up to Prospect Park where there were hundreds of people biking, running, roller blading, skate boarding.  There were entire families having cookouts and birthday parties and even some having World Cup parties.  It was amazing to see all the diversity - so different from Yarmouth, Maine.

The people here are very friendly.  Within minutes of leaving my apartment I was greeted by a neighborhood dog who gave me a great big wet lick on the hand!  A few more feet down the street and I met the owner of a nearby Yoga studio who is giving free lessons in the park on weekends.  A little later we had a chuckle with a young man who was trying to coach his female friend into parallel parking her car in a very tiny space.  We ran into them on the next street because she failed to complete her mission.  It was easier for her to park on a less busy street and walk a few extra blocks.  Too funny!  After walking a while in the heat we got a little thirsty so looked for a bar to have a couple of beers.  Not easy to do in the middle of the World Cup final game.  And so it was Kismet that we stumbled across a Greek restaurant - Okeanos - that served beer and had the game on.  Enjoyed some Mythos beer from Thessalonika and a fabulous Greek dip platter - humus, skordalia, taramasolata and tzatziki.  So here is the thing you will be surprised at the prices were actually cheap and the portions were huge.   We would have paid double in Portland, Maine.  Go figure.  After we left Okeanos we started to wilt in the heat so headed back to the apartment via the local grocery store then trudged up the four flights of stairs - groceries in hand.  I have to remember not to buy anything too heavy! This so reminds me of the days when I lived on Beacon Hill in Boston and had to walk to the grocery store and the laundromat.  That will come on Friday.

So tomorrow is my first official day at school.  Will take the F Train from the 15th street station near Prospect Park to the stop at 23rd street in Manhattan then a quick walk to the school.  School starts at 10:00 and ends around 5:00 with lunch included.  Can't wait to see what cooking secrets they will reveal.