12 hours in NYC.

Ricardo photographs tourists while I photograph him.

One of the good things about living in New York City is that everyone passes through it at some point. My friend Ricardo emailed me last week. He had a 12 hour layover in NY on his way from Bogot‪á‬ back to Paris. TOUGH LIFE, RIGHT?

Since he arrived at JFK at 6am, I got to the office uber-early so he could come by and drop off his bag. When he arrived around 9, I gave him the bises and launched into French. How was his flight? And had it taken all this time to get to midtown?!

"J'ai travers‪é‬ le pont," he said. Immediately my mind raced. He crossed the bridge? I had visions of him walking across the Queensboro bridge from the airport. How had my directions gone so wrong?!

Turns out, he arrived, didn't want to bother me at work, and went directly to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk over it on this sunny January morning. Then he came to midtown to drop off his bag. Now this is a man who has his priorities straight!

We had lunch together in Grand Central, where his breath caught when we entered the main hall. "I remember this from movies," he whispered and I smiled. Sometimes I forget how famous New York really is.