Our Adventure to East Harlem

Target's are not easy to find in New York. Actually, comprehensive stores in general are not easy to find. I understand it, as large amounts of square footage are difficult to find and expensive to rent in Manhattan. It does add to the charm of the city that you have to stop by your local market and drug store each day. Fruit is best from the man with the cart on the corner and the liquor/wine shop on 3rd is by far the most helpful. You get to know people and they you, making the big city smaller and creating your own little community.

But I digress....Target. Target has everything as we know, and is cheaper. We refuse to keep paying $6 for a box of cereal so we decided enough was enough and mapped out the plan. Victoria and I boarded the 6 train together, thinking that Harlem and Target were both 2 person jobs, and headed up to 116th. After almost taking out some rude 15 year olds with serious A.D.D. we ran off the subway and found ourselves deep in the heart of Harlem. Now, as some of you know, Victoria and I were always looking for a cost effective place to live in New York and have a set budget, so Harlem, was at one point a thought. I think we have officially ruled that out now. Let me try to paint the picture.

Close your eyes......wait, you have to read...On the corner of Lexington and East 116th Street you will find 3 taquerias, 2 panaderías, a Wendy's, 1 Irish Pub, 2 tech stores with obviously hot items, 3 pop up stands with used or at least rain worn back packs and kids bicycles and a hodge podge of other shops. There are people everywhere of all shapes, sizes and ages with music playing from every store; one has Spanish, the other Hip Hop. With all this commotion, you would think a few white girls (well at least half white) would go unnoticed, which may have been the case, but we certainly felt out of place. It was as if a Leonardo De Vinci had painted us into a Monet.

Nevertheless, there we were. The Target was located on 117th in between 1st and 2nd Ave according to the map. This means that it was 1 block and about 4 avenues (about 2 blocks each) away. We got about 4 blocks in and thought, who are we kidding? Even if we find the elusive Target, there is no way we are carrying big red dotted bags 8 blocks back through this neighborhood! As tough as we are, we are also realists.

Victoria and I look at each other as we pass two very large dogs (some kind of German Sheppard mix) and make a u-turn around the block. Keeping the pace up and our eyes down (mostly to keep from laughing,) back to the subway we went. A 30 minute ride got us back to Murray Hill where we made a command decision. The Food Emporium on 3rd and an occasional run to the Target on Staten Island will have to do. You live, you survive, you learn.

With love and a sigh of relief,
Lucy