So I woke up this morning, yawned, looked at my clock, realized dimly that it hadn't gone off at 7...and realized I had less than an hour to get to my internship. Naturally, I rolled over and slept for another 20 minutes. Then I struggled awake, brushed my teeth, gulped down a piece of chocolate zucchini bread and headed out the door. It was spraying nasty wetness outside, so I decided to take the car.
Big mistake. Finding parking in downtown Buffalo is a bit of a trick. There are massive parking lots everywhere, which is deceptive at first. Parking is dirt-cheap - $3 or so. But...it's for M&T employees ONLY, or St. Michael's Parishioners ONLY, or tenants of the little apartment complex that only we know about ONLY. All other, normal human beings can go huddle in a puddle three streets over where the parking is $.50 an hour, with a two hour limit.
I walked in ten minutes late, but then again I had been given a range of times to come in. I have, frankly, the best bosses ever. I've been given enough guidance to not be lost, but this project is what I make of it. I spent the morning researching which parishes belong to which historic buildings, and which historic buildings are now decommissioned.
Buffalo is deeply, profoundly Catholic. There are about 2 Catholic parishes to every Protestant church, and no one Protestant denomination comes even near the mark on its own strength. For this reason, I feel as though Buffalo is the most deeply European city in America. The churches look like European churches. Not the fake American Gothic Revival stuff but genuine Lombard Renaissance, etc architecture. One, Holy Trinity RC, was copied almost exactly from similar churches in Italy. The interior decoration was done by skilled immigrant craftsmen, often journeyman or master craftsman who continued from their work they had left behind in the Old World.
Today, the descendants have moved into the suburbs in large numbers. The communities move out in the same direction that they settled in the cities - the Italians north, the Germans east, the Poles even more east and the Irish south. The urban core is now inhabited by a remnant of the WASP population on Elmwood, a remnant of the ethnic neighborhoods, a large African-American population and the increasing Asian, African and Middle Eastern immigrants.
I wonder if, in fifty years, the Karen, Burmese, Nepali, Somali and Iraqi neighborhoods will look as solidly like their home countries as the German, Irish, Italian and Polish neighborhoods did. Will we have graceful Burmese temples dotting the landscape? Or, since so many of these new immigrants are joining non-denominational, charismatic churches, will something else develop? Is there something intrinsic to Buffalo, something in the cold and fierce winter perhaps, that keeps the minds of the immigrant on the joys of home? I may live long enough to find out.
Big mistake. Finding parking in downtown Buffalo is a bit of a trick. There are massive parking lots everywhere, which is deceptive at first. Parking is dirt-cheap - $3 or so. But...it's for M&T employees ONLY, or St. Michael's Parishioners ONLY, or tenants of the little apartment complex that only we know about ONLY. All other, normal human beings can go huddle in a puddle three streets over where the parking is $.50 an hour, with a two hour limit.
I walked in ten minutes late, but then again I had been given a range of times to come in. I have, frankly, the best bosses ever. I've been given enough guidance to not be lost, but this project is what I make of it. I spent the morning researching which parishes belong to which historic buildings, and which historic buildings are now decommissioned.
Buffalo is deeply, profoundly Catholic. There are about 2 Catholic parishes to every Protestant church, and no one Protestant denomination comes even near the mark on its own strength. For this reason, I feel as though Buffalo is the most deeply European city in America. The churches look like European churches. Not the fake American Gothic Revival stuff but genuine Lombard Renaissance, etc architecture. One, Holy Trinity RC, was copied almost exactly from similar churches in Italy. The interior decoration was done by skilled immigrant craftsmen, often journeyman or master craftsman who continued from their work they had left behind in the Old World.
Today, the descendants have moved into the suburbs in large numbers. The communities move out in the same direction that they settled in the cities - the Italians north, the Germans east, the Poles even more east and the Irish south. The urban core is now inhabited by a remnant of the WASP population on Elmwood, a remnant of the ethnic neighborhoods, a large African-American population and the increasing Asian, African and Middle Eastern immigrants.
I wonder if, in fifty years, the Karen, Burmese, Nepali, Somali and Iraqi neighborhoods will look as solidly like their home countries as the German, Irish, Italian and Polish neighborhoods did. Will we have graceful Burmese temples dotting the landscape? Or, since so many of these new immigrants are joining non-denominational, charismatic churches, will something else develop? Is there something intrinsic to Buffalo, something in the cold and fierce winter perhaps, that keeps the minds of the immigrant on the joys of home? I may live long enough to find out.
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