New York City, the city within cities.

New York City is not always all about the big tall buildings, but the people around it. This city contains people from all over the world. When you go to Manhattan you can find yourself on 5th Ave, Times Square, Chinatown, Central Park, Union Square, Soho, but this time I found myself roaming in Little Italy.

So much commotion was happening. Everyone was walking extra fast to proceed to the restaurants. Everyone knew where they were going, but to me this is a new place. A place I had never been before. I was a tourist in the city I have been living my whole life. I was walking in an unfamiliar place following my best friend who was following her brother. I felt as if I was a duckling following its mother who was guiding her ducklings to their destination. There were so many people that there was no way to walk next to someone especially around 7:30 p.m. It was really crowded that you easily could have gotten lost with everyone who instead of walked speed walked. When someone walked in the direction towards you, you could have easily bumped into each other. You and the person in front of you could of also had that moment where you do not know whether to move towards right or left so you kind of danced a little bit with a complete stranger. In order to not get lost you had to hold hands but I kept as close to my best friend and listened to her voice. Every time I was a bit far from her she led me using her voice.

My best friend, Stephanie, is more than a best friend. We have been so close that she has become family to me. That summer, she was about three inches taller than me and had long dark brown curly hair. As usually, her brother, David, who is a skater boy, was bothering her about how she looked. David who was the same height as Stephanie wore khaki shorts, a “Belief” T-shirt; black Vans and had his skateboard which he took everywhere. I was not paying too much attention to what David and Stephanie were arguing about because I was studying how there were so many people squished together.

While I walked I was amazed to see the restaurants packed with people. There were tables being added, chairs being moved around so people could eat. People shouted and promoted their restaurants so people would eat there. A tall guy screamed at us “THE BEST OVEN PIZZA RIGHT HERE”. Stephanie’s dad stopped to ask the guy some questions but I couldn’t hear anything because my ears were filled up with other people’s voices. He signaled to us to come over. We walked towards him and he asked us if we were hungry. We shook our heads in agreement.

While I walked towards the table that was set up outside I saw everyone stop and looked up at the sky. I heard a loud BANG sound. I looked up and saw the red fireworks that slowly spread throughout the dark blue skies. The sparkly red lights formed a design in the sky. Then the light that set up the fireworks was slowly fading away. Now the only thing in the sky was the smoke left from the fireworks. I felt like I was in Italy for the first time.

The waiter directed us toward a table with that had eight seats. The adults sat on one side of the table while the kids were placed at the end of the table. As I sat down I caught myself gazing the exquisite buildings that were standing right in front of me. They were yellow, light brown, light blue and light orange buildings. Each building varied from 3 to 4 stories high. I looked to the side and saw the red, green and white colors of the Italian flag.

I looked down to check the menu and I saw the logo of the restaurant with a smaller size of the Italian flag. I checked the menu and there were different things to choose from. The menu had a whole section of pasta and there were about fifty different types of pastas. There was also a whole section dedicated to salads, fish, soups, pizzas and meats. There was oven brick pizza which I always wanted to try but never got the chance because there aren’t any pizzerias in Astoria with oven brick pizzas.

Shortly the waiter came over and my best friend’s dad, Juan, ordered calamari. We all started to eat but no one except my sister dared to eat the squid. The squid looked super weird, disgusting and looked very abnormal. It had 8 little legs; the squid looked purple with brown dots and did not have a head. Its legs and the legs had little bumps. My sister said that the squid was super chewy. After the appetizers, the waiter came to take our orders. My mom and my best friend’s mother ordered pasta while my dad and Juan ordered steak. David ordered the oven brick pizza for us.

The food came and everyone looked like they were so hungry that they just wanted to stuff their mouth with food. The pizza looked very tasty. You could see the golden cheese shine. I could smell the fresh cheese with tomato sauce. As I picked the pizza up the cheese would not let go so it was extra cheesy. The bread part was brown which was not hard or too soft. As it was in mouth I could taste the mozzarella cheese with the fresh tomato sauce. Everyone seemed very satisfied with their food.

As the night fell upon us I grew to love a culture I had never known. Each city has its own people that make up lots of little cities and make it feel like home. Little Italy in the big apple.