I was in the city for a voice lesson that didn't start until 8 pm (I KNOW, SO past my bedtime) and I got into the city around 5:45 pm. Thank God my chronic need to get everywhere hours ahead of time took effect, because I used nearly every one of those minutes up to 8 pm to find the man's studio. First off, the subway stop for his place was the last one before you hit the Bronx, which means, for those of you up on your NYC geography, that you go so far uptown that you might as well be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was surprised that I got phone reception way up there. And the subway ride all the way from 34th street to 215th street (!) took a fair amount of time, seeing as we were heading up to Canada.
I had been warned that finding his place was incredibly difficult (something about finding a magical toadstool, talking to animals and stumping a Spinx with a riddle), so I called up a friend of mine who had been to this teacher's place before and asked for some help. OF COURSE I didn't have my NYC map with me because, despite all that planning with the train, I had completely forgotten a map. I figured the area I was headed to had a Border's or a souvenir shop. How wrong I was.
So after talking with my friend, who was very kind, but unsure of which direction I was coming from and was trying to help me out via memory, I ended up accidentally walking over the bridge to the Bronx. Not as scary a place as you out there in the Midwest might think, as there was a Target across the street from the McDonald's I stopped in to get a Diet Coke and collect my thoughts. Seeing as I had no map and was quite confused as to how to find this teacher's street, I did what an savvy, city-dwelling young woman would do: I called my mom. Look, I knew she would have her computer nearby, probably wouldn't ignore my call, and would be able to tell (via Google Maps) if I had gone too far.
Obviously, since there was bridge crossing involved, I had gone too far.
She helpfully (thank you mom!) got me back on track and I arrived at my new teacher's place, where I was told (by my friend on the phone) not to ring the bell, but to proceed to the side, spin around three times, walk into a courtyard, past the laundry room and into his studio. Apparently the first test with this man is that if you can find his place, you are up for the challenge of learning to sing.
Part 2 Coming Tomorrow...dun, dun, duuuuuun......
3 comments:
My dear you need an iPhone. You tap a button and it tells you where you are on a map. You tell it where you want to go and it tells you how to get there. All this with a couple of taps.
If you're ever lost again and can't reach your mom, you may add me to your Phone-a-Friend list. :)
You are too kind!
technically, since you were on the WAY upper west side, we refer to that as "alaska." phong once said, "wait, what? there's a TWO HUNDRED FIFTEENTH STREET?"
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