Spring Break 2015 update: Had another wonderful day in New York City. I spent more of Tuesday in Brooklyn. I still haven't quite recovered my subway knowledge or innate sense of direction, so after lots of wandering around the subway, I found the best train to get me to the Prospect Park area.
The Prospect Park area is beautiful and residential. Brownstones surround you and a bike lanes are recognizable. It took some wandering before I found a cute coffeeshop/ice cream shopped tucked in between some apartments (because I can't function without breakfast). I got my classic NYC style bagel, complete with a thick layer of cream cheese.
As I munched on my bagel, I took a quick loop through Prospect Park. It was pleasant outside, with a slight breeze blowing around. I wished the grass could have been more green, but I was happy it wasn't negative temperatures and it wasn't snowing.
Then I went to the Brooklyn Public Library, the point of my visit to the Prospect area. I love that feeling of walking into a new library. It's an adrenaline rush because you don't know what to expect.
It's a beautiful library. The walls rise above you as you walk into the lobby. These high walls create echoing acoustics. You hear several languages, see people with all sorts of different cultural backgrounds, and feel that excitement that hangs in the air. In a library, anything is possible (we hope).
I got to see and catch up with my old boss from the New York Public Library, Nick. Shortly after I left the city two years ago, Nick went back to BPL to do community outreach and engagement. He and his staff are doing incredible things and it was so exciting to hear all the updates. Sometimes it's crazy for me to think about how my internship at NYPL led me to these moments. How Nick, Brigid, and Sarah (my other bosses) just knew that community outreach and engagement would be what I would excel in and find myself doing again in grad school. And Nick is the sort of librarian I hope to become -- the people come first and there is always time to do more and dream bigger.
After an all too brief catch up session, I wandered back around Prospect Park. Stuck in my ear buds, caught up on some podcast episodes and just walked. Prospect Park is huge and I probably only made a loop around 2/3s of it. Unlike Central Park, Prospect Park was mostly empty. I saw a handful of bikers, runners, and dog walkers but it was a very solo walk. The walk gave me plenty of time to reflect, mainly thinking back two years to my New York experience and how much I and the city had changed since then.
I ended my day with heading back to Manhattan, grabbing my stuff, and taking a train out of Penn Station to see my aunt, uncle, and my cousins. While it's hard to believe my Spring Break trip is almost done, I've certainly enjoyed a few days off.