Localized Thoughts

Mobile Diaries Part 4: New York State of Mind (and do I mind?)

It’s funny, dropping you’re from New York while traveling often leads people to describe their own travels to the Big Apple, if they’ve been. Never fails. But, I’ve been surprised by how many symbols of NYC end up finding me here.

I meet more and more people who’ve actually been near Small Planet’s office in Dumbo, Brooklyn. On any given spring day, Dumbo has way more international visitors than locals (perhaps thousands?) all shuffling down to take the Instagram-ready picture of themselves airborne with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building in the background.

Given the reputation of some New Yorkers abroad, while traveling I make a point to not constantly compare things in Santiago to New York, or to “size up” the city vis-a-vis New York.

This of course lasted all of 4.3 seconds… Upon entering my Remote Year provided accommodation in Santiago I was greeted by a big stretched canvas of the Empire State Building. The canvas also included the U.S. Capitol just for good measure.

On top of that, a strategically-placed mirror would reflect the picture to me while standing in the kitchen. Yes, I had traveled 5,000 miles to be instantly reminded the place I just left.

Then I noticed the number of “New York style” pizza places around, and right by my apartment is Santiago’s version of Citi-bikes as well, then on top of that, there are a number of businesses labeling themselves as “New York” and a number of pigeons hanging around waiting for the occasional bread crumb.

I’ve also seen a significant amount of NY labeled shirts and Yankee hats (worn by people thinking it’s an official “NY” hat, most likely). Even the strongest-willed effort to “forget” NY while being here is seemingly futile. When our group shifts to Medellin this weekend, I’ll see if it’s an aberration or not.

Of course, the kicker is when I saw cabbies honking and cutting each other off near the bus terminal, and then I heard someone randomly yelling out into the crowd, indiscriminately. Then I could finally say, “This really does feel more like home.”

As part of the Remote Year program, Our developer Teju Prasad is journeying through Latin America for 4 months.