While I never did post pictures from our trip to Spain last fall, it's an understatement to describe it as motivating, impacting, inspirational. Not to sound trite, but we just a had a really, really good time. The main region we visited was Asturias, in Northern Spain.
I'm so fond of that area that I now have the regional flag stuck on my lap top, and if it were even remotely acceptable, I would be naming my son Asturias to memorialize the whole experience. (Ummm, no, I know what you're thinking-- and the answer is No, that's not why.)
Anyway, when we returned from Spain, progress on Sean's secondment* in NY really kicked into high gear, and we found ourselves needing to figure out housing details for the year up there. Sean did a lot of initial research, and somehow, whether it was through him or something I read myself-- I found out there was a neighborhood in Queens called Astoria.
Because this is the kind of person I am, I was instantly sold. And once I read a few good reviews of the neighborhood, including safety, and found out it was a reasonable commute to Sean's office in midtown, I was of the solid mindset that there was absolutely no reason to look any further. Case closed. Done deal. Astoria it would be. I was only interested in reading things that further supported this decision, and I begrudged any suggestion that we consider alternatives.
That isn't exactly how Sean works, though. If I remember the story correctly, the guy never chose a graduation gift because he couldn't find a watch in SWITZERLAND that was precisely to his liking. He wears his shoes to nonexistent nubs because he can't settle on a new pair, and he frequently drives his poor wife into low-blood-sugar grumpiness as he debates pros and cons of countless restaurants rather than JUST PICKING ONE. In other words, he's not the type to select a neighborhood in New York City based off the name resembling a good vacation destination in Spain. That sounds like utter flippancy to the man who must research every possibility before narrowing the list down to twenty and visiting them all in freezing cold weather. (Needless to say, to my type of person, his approach seems laden with agonizing stress... I do comprehend it, I just don't favor it).
Aaaaaanywaaaay, to make a long story short: after much further reading on his part, a thousand conversations about alternatives, and a ton of open-mindness on my part as I graciously humored his investigations into Brooklyn, New Jersey, the Upper East Side, and other neighborhoods in Queens.... I'm beyond pleased that when it all shook out, we ended up agreeing wholeheartedly upon Astoria and landed a perfectly located apartment which suits us really well. It was a long, tiring process, but the results were so rewarding! (And that isn't to our credit... one of the brokers just happened to come up with something the last day we were there that was really ideal. Now we walk past all the other apartments we were considering and are incredibly relieved we ended up where we did instead.)
Which is in the Ditmars area of Upper Astoria. It's a very diverse neighborhood, with strong Greek and Italian influences. We're just a few blocks from the last stop on the N,Q line, and within easy walking distance to a variety of stores and laundromats and the library and a great park.
Our door is the brown one below; our apartment is on the top floor. There's a sweet, hospitable, attentive Greek family that owns the house and lives on the first two floors. (We don't have to go through their home to get to ours-- the stairwell is separate.) They have two daughters who are 5 and 7; Josephine completely adores them!
These pictures are from our first visit in January, when we were apartment hunting. What a relief it was to leave that week knowing we had something secured!
The layout of it is circular, which makes for an excellent running track for a certain nearly-three-year-old. In the picture above, I'm standing in Josephine's bedroom doorway, our bedroom is immediately to the left, then there's a closet and a blue bathroom before the hall goes into the living room, which connects to the dining room, which is at the far end of the kitchen that you see there on the right.
A triumphant Sean-- contract signed:
A couple pictures of our street. One thing I loooove about the neighborhood is how heavy they are with the seasonal decorations. It really adds to the family-friendly feel of the area. As do all the children and little old Mediterranean ladies.
In the picture below, the train station is right behind the billboard; it's an above-ground subway on this side of the river. There are always a lot of people out walking, even late into the night.
While we live closer to the stores and subway, the main park, Astoria Park, which is on the river, is still an easy walk... maybe about 7 minutes.
That big bridge isn't car traffic; just the occasional train (not even as frequent as a subway).
There's also a big playground, and in the summertime, a large pool (which from the pictures I've seen, gets ridiculously crowded, so I'm not sure we'll be venturing into that)... but the playground is great. Below is a view from the playground looking across the river towards Manhattan.
One of the other pictures I snapped was, of course, of a bakery. The Italian and Greek influence in Astoria means there are irresistible bakeries on every block. This one is less than a block from our apartment and they have cookie platters that remind me a lot of the Italian cookies my grandmother used to send us from St. Louis every Christmas. I promise I'm trying to curtail my indulgences, but let's just say I will not be surprised if Numero Dos is a hefty little booger.
In short, the apartment's great, namely because of how much we value location. The Astoria-Asturias connection is just icing on the cake.
This is all an introduction to the next post because Josephine and I just returned from staying with Sean for a couple weeks up there. Sadly there's still a good deal of work to complete here in Austin before we can potentially lease the house and join him more permanently, so I'm back on the home front, bracing my nerves before delving back into everything that needs to get done. My pace is restricted by single-parenting and contractor's schedules, but that discouragement is easily outweighed by the encouraging rewards that lie ahead. So we'll just keep pressing onward!!
*To put it very briefly, McKinsey has a program that allows employees to essentially cut ties for a year and work with a different organization before returning to their normal job. The idea is that they bring back experience and industry insights by taking this sort of working sabbatical. I won't even try to compare/contrast his new work with his old... I started to try to do that and nearly doubled the size of this post. ;-) Suffice it to say he's working with
ideas42 this year; that link takes you to their website which can give you an sense of their work and projects. In short, it's a pretty awesome opportunity!
