Hoboken

Now in Hoboken. It seems everytime I say Hoboken, I get a comment on what a funny name that is. Turns out, according to the source of all knowledge (the internet), it is either from the name of a Flemish town or from a Native American (sorry, can't remember the tribe) word meaning something about peace pipes or something.

Here's the place (pre-moving in).



Livin' on Park Ave...



Here are some things I've noticed about Hoboken:
- There are a ton of funeral homes. There seems to be one on every other corner, practically. Considering Hoboken is a mile squared (that seems to be something everyone here is very proud of), that makes for a LOT of funeral homes. That might be related to the next point...

- ...which is that there are a LOT of old Italian babushkas (yes, I know that's Russian, but you get my meaning) wearing cute floral print cotton dresses and sitting on their doorsteps and cute little old Italian men wearing all sorts of great hats and belts up towards their necks.

- There is a shortage of good coffee shops. There are two (and a half) Starbucks- the one closest to me is the half- it's not open yet. Not sure what's going on- it's been in the same state for the past month. I've found one excellent coffee place (great espresso foam that makes you melt), but it's at the other end of town (yes, I know, it's only a mile squared) and, more importantly, doesn't have any tables. So, you can sit along the windowsill, but it's hard to spend a lot of time there reading or writing.

- The aforementioned coffeeshop is owned by an actress/artist want-to-be, apparently, which turns out to be a good part of the population here in Hoboken. So, the next point is about the diversity of the population here. I'm not sure how to say this in a PC-appropriate way, but it's obviously not just white-collar (like I'd say Bethesda almost exclusively is). It's different socio-economic classes, different colors, different religions...

- There are a TON of Christian churches of all types. Seventh Day Adventist in Spanish, for example, which I'm not sure I've seen before. And all sorts of Christian scenes on people's doorsteps and in their front windows- there's one I need to put up a picture of. Stay tuned. There are virgin Marys in a bunch of gardens, etc. There are also a good number of synagogues, but as far as I can tell, no mosque. Well, unless it's in a regular building, definitely no mosque.

Settling in... Cute place, amazing views of NYC. Check it out...