Washington Heights: No Habla Espanol?

Just under a week ago, Hanna and I signed our lease and began moving into our new apartment, in Washington Heights, upper Manhattan. The first few days I walked around our neighborhood, I heard a lot of Spanish being spoken. By a lot, I mean I heard significantly more Spanish than English. Our friends Dylan and Elaine, also former Mongolian Peace Corps volunteers, took us to a great Dominican restaurant a block away from the apartment and told us that our neighborhood is known for being predominantly Dominican. Interested in learning more, I hit the always reliable and informative Wikipedia :D and read a bit more about Washington Heights. Here's one tidbit that seems to accurately describe my new hood:

"Today the majority of the neighborhood's population is of Dominican birth or descent (the area is sometimes referred to as "Quisqueya Heights"), and Spanish is frequently heard being spoken on the streets. Washington Heights has been the most important base for Dominican accomplishment in political, non-profit, cultural, and athletic arenas in the United States since the 1960s. Most of the neighborhood businesses are Dominican owned, driving the local economy. Many Dominican immigrants come to network and live with family members. Bishop Gerard Walsh, former long-time pastor of St. Elizabeth's Roman Catholic Church, located in Washington Heights, said that many residents go to the neighborhood for "cheap housing," obtain jobs "downtown," receive a "good education," and "hopefully" leave the neighborhood."

If this isn't the perfect opportunity to pick up another language, I don't know what is. If every minute of my time is not taken up by my graduate studies, I'll have to see about getting some lessons in Spanish.

It's been obnoxiously hot in NYC the past few days. By obnoxiously hot I'm talking Cambodian hot. It's been in the high 90's, hovering around 100 degrees and higher some days and of course, it's incredibly humid. NYC is already humid enough but we live between the Harlem and Hudson rivers so I can't imagine that helps. The dogs are doing well for the most part, adjusting to the craziness of living in the big city. We have a park right down the street, which is pretty nice. I'm pretty sure that we are the only people in our neighborhood with dogs other than chihuahuas and pit bulls, so Zack and Jack get a lot of looks from the neighborhood kids, some excited and curious, some terrified.

I had a ton of thoughts I wanted to write down in more detail as part of this blog post, thoughts and observations from living here for the past (almost) week, walking around my neighborhood, the madness of driving in the city during rush hour, etc. but I am experiencing a serious brain fart and I really need to eat dinner. More profound and thought provoking blog post coming very soon. In the meanwhile, here's a few pictures from the past few days.