A brief update for 2019

It’s been a little while since I last wrote anything. Not really felt the need, or inspiration to, and think everyone is probably bored or not fussed about my change in location. Which is totally fair, don’t blame you!

But it’s been near enough 6 months now since I made the move from Brighton to Manhattan, and it’s been a fairly interesting time. I’ve written before about the stress of moving, and on reflection, it was fucking horrendous – it took about 5 months to get my VISA sorted, with very little help given by my work besides the literal VISA application. Everything else was on me (Often companies use another service to hand hold you through this, many people at my company get that service – I did not). Combining that with moving out my place I’ve lived at for 10 years, and then finding a place to live in another country I wasn’t even in yet, all really added up and I felt like when I moved here whilst I enjoyed it – I really wasn’t over the stress of it all and really get to enjoy it properly.  And so I’m super excited for the spring and summer this year to really enjoy everything and just spend most of my time exploring this awesome city and all the fun things that come with it.

I’ve also had a lot of visitors since I moved here, and whilst this isn’t any kind of complaint, as it’s been really nice, and a lot of fun, it can be full on at times. It’s just meant I’ve not had all the time to really get out and see things with free weekends, and I don’t want to drag people around to places that might be awful or boring, or do things they aren’t too interested in. I’ve spoken to a few people who’ve moved country and they all say they felt the same, and it eases up over time when people get bored of coming over. I never really thought about it before when I’ve visited someone, and they are often great hosts, but I’m just 1 of X number. I’ve got more coming but it’s a little less congested now and I know the city a bit better too, so I’m sure it’ll be all good fun!

I still miss all my friends and Mum very much, but thankfully with technology nowadays it’s easy to stay in contact which is great, so I don’t feel too left out of things. Which is really good for me, as moving to a new place, it is often tricky, or takes time, to make new friends. It’s never easy at the best of times, but somewhere totally new where I’m the 1 and they are the 100, it can be quite daunting. I am very good on my own, and often like my own company, but equally everyone needs people to socialize with, hang out, and chat about the world – that part I’ve not been so good at. I’m not sad or anything by it, and good friends are always hard to come by, but probably know a couple of people I’d call mates, and even then the social aspect is few and far between, so I often have to just fill in my team alone or via other means, and it’s not always a fun scenario. Again, I’m sure most reading are saying me living here automatically makes it the best life on earth, but I’m still a person, and moving away alone can be tough.

I guess I’ve just seen things from a new perspective, being this person, rather than it being friends or family who’ve done similar. I don’t regret any of it, and I am really enjoying life here, and I do go out drinking whenever I want, but things are just a bit different and I’m still probably settling in, even if I am adjusted – but I’m always positive, I really do love the life I’ve made here, and I cannot wait for it to warm up so I can really explore, and of course take ridiculous selfies on rooftop bars with the NYC skyline in the background. I think 2019 (Well what’s left, flying by!) will be a fun year – hope yours is too!

Cheers

Some more NYC nonsense

Hi all,

Thought I’d give a little update on my jaunt in NYC, with a couple of minor musings and stray observations.  I guess you can read my initial thoughts here - https://french1984.blogspot.com/2018/09/im-alien-im-little-legal-alien.html - though if you like things that look nice, it looks/reads way better here - http://newyorkcliche.com/2018/10/08/brit-nyc-newbie/

The biggest bit of news I’ve got so far is relating to living. I sub-letted a place here for 2 months just after I arrived, which is a fairly common culture here but not so big back home. Usually it’s a cheaper and flexible alternative than committing to somewhere immediately, and I was fortunate enough to live with two girls, one of whom has literally been in the flat 2 nights out of the last 5 weeks (She has a bf in Brooklyn with a much nicer apartment, it’s not because she hates me. I think). The other girl is nice enough, which works for me, she has her life and that’s great – though she did nearly kill me when she left the oven on when falling asleep drunk and literally baked her pizza into the oven itself. I found it quite funny though, place stunk for a good couple of days after!

But yeah, as of last week I have now signed the lease to my own apartment for the next 12 months. It’s around the same location, East Village which is a pretty fun neighborhood, loads of bars and cool places to eat, highly recommend checking it out anyone who comes to NYC and has time to kill/doesn’t care about the touristy places so much.

Interesting quirk? The shower, is in the kitchen. Yep you read that right – however for a little more clarity, it’s still in an enclosed shower unit, but it’s next to the kitchen sink, which is odd. Then there’s a separate door for the toilet/sink. Hopefully I get used to it, though I think guests who are staying may find it slightly more alarming. Told you its quirky!  Downside to all of this, is because I have no credit history, they want a fortune up front, plus renting here, places are so expensive – probably 20/25% on top of London I’m thinking, and tiny. As such I felt compelled to negotiate extensively with the landlord as I did my homework, it was empty for a couple of months, and so I felt I had the upper hand, and ultimately ended up getting a bit of money off and a free month, so was fairly happy with that! The final bit of my negotiating secured $5 more off each month, as pathetic as that sounds, that’s how the negotiations had gone for a while but it all added  up, and now I sort of feel morally the winner here!

Food. Ah yes. Well I’ve somewhat thrown myself into the abundance of fun and amazingly tasty options that NYC has to offer, and accepted my fate of putting on some weight in the process, so much so, I have created a new folder on my phone purely for food photos. I’m such a prick. However it is so good, Ramen here is incredible, Burgers are ridiculously good in the right places, Pizza is unreal, Chicken wings, Bagels loaded with everything, enormous rolls brimming with meats and cheeses. Even the salads here are massive and often fairly interesting! Downside? Everything costs a tonne compared to back home, but you have to learn to accept it otherwise you’ll drive yourself nuts. Also from forcing myself to go to places on my ‘list’ (which is endless) I’ve learnt to be comfortable eating alone, something I never did before, especially in a sit down place. I always felt like I was just in the way/wasting a table and looked like a loser, but now I quite enjoy it! I’m pleased I took the plunge, which I appreciate when you compare to my moving seems like a drop in the ocean of ‘plunges’ but I was still quite happy with myself for that. If you’re interested I’ve posted a few food pics here - https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo_xGRbhGTi/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1co5z90c5wlhn (french1984)

Going back to the article I wrote on NYC previously, one of my irks related to cyclists, and I feel it was a pretty valid point, as in the few weeks since, I’ve now seen 3 incidents of varying levels of stupidity and not paying attention from cyclists which makes me now fear them even more. Twice I’ve seen them just not really look when doing a right turn out a side street when it’s OK for pedestrians to cross the avenue, and they basically just sideswiped the walker. Then they sort of half apologize half seem angry when it’s absolutely their own fault! The third was really bad as one delivery guy totally clattered into this fairly old lady (she had right of way, again) and he tried to cycle off!! Passers-by helped her out and made sure he didn’t ride off, waiting for the police and am ambulance. That would have cost the insurance company a pretty penny (ambulances out here cost thousands if you use one)!

I also like the attempt here of places to be like ‘British pubs’, I’ve been to a few now, and they are getting better than the time I went to one on the West Coast 7-8 years ago, and it had light up dart boards, and a buckin’ bronco! But it’s still a bit touch and go, like you just can feel that it’s like a pub but not a pub, especially as it refers to itself as a bar, but I’m slowly appreciating them a bit more, in fact there’s a cool one near me that Abraham Lincoln used to drink at.

Big thing here is leaving your card behind the bar with a tab, rather than buying rounds – which you can do, but seems to be a chore for the  bar so they don’t love it that much. And recently nor did I, when they accidentally gave my card to someone else – but they did wipe my tab and give me a couple of decent free drinks on the house, but still, it’s annoying.

My final new observation which is slowly annoying me, and one day I suspect I’ll explode, is here people seem to say “That’s so funny” all the time, when things aren’t remotely funny! It’s like one of those reflex responses, similar to someone typing ‘lol’ when you both know they aren’t smiling, or giving a shit what you’re saying. It’s very, very annoying.

Anyway that’ll do, thanks for anyone who’s read this far, always appreciate it since I know it’s all just a bit of self-indulgence, but figure maybe it’s mildly interesting!

Cheers!

I'm an Alien, I'm a little legal Alien...

Howdy. That's what we say over here, I think.

So I've made the move, and nearly 3 weeks in I've actually started to settle a little bit despite moving to 3 different places in 3 totally different areas of NYC. I'm now staying put for 2 months in the East Village whilst I work out the longer term plan which will probably involve me getting my own place. By place I mean something the size of your living room, places here are tiny unless you pay a huge amount.

But that's all good, it's slowly coming together, am waiting for my social security, got a US bank account (Well it's HSBC through my UK one, but I'm counting it) and am currently looking at how on earth I do my taxes for my first pay check. I say pay check, but it might literally be one, it seems banking here is pretty backwards.
In fact that brings me onto part of the reason I wanted to do this post, apart from a token update, but to just outline some of my observations that I'm sure you'll be aware of already but still worth a bit of a ramble!

So here's some things I'm either very slowly, or will simply never, come to terms with:

1. Grocery Shopping
I know we can account this to cost of living, and it's simply just what you have to pay, but I don't think I'm going to get my head around how expensive simple grocery shopping is. They just seem to mark everything up, and no matter how you look at it, I'm not best pleased about paying £3 for a bag of Doritos. £3 for a simple Orange Juice. £3 the going starting rate for basically anything. Might not seem like a huge amount, but multiply that for every item you buy and it certainly adds up!

2. Trader Joe's
Speaking of grocery shopping, there are multiple options available. You can go to a local market/bodega and get essentials and they do some other bits, that'll be a tiny bit cheaper potentially. Or there are some more well known chain places, that would be more like a Tesco Express. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are the best example. Not a bad store by any means, but the one by me - I have literally never seen the queue not stretch halfway round the store!! And I've been there early morning, late night, random times of day, anything just to try and not queue for eternity. Impossible. I've now accepted this is my life.

3. Bikes
It's good, it's healthy, it's easy to get to work and they have a city bike scheme like some places in the UK. Great. My only issue with this is, I cannot for the life of me who has right of way on a green man. This might sound ridiculous, but honestly, these cyclists NEVER STOP. They will carry on at 0.1 MPH if it means any momentum and have no qualms just cutting across you, regardless of the traffic light situation.

4. Humidity
This one speaks for itself, but I arrived at the end of Summer, and it's meant to be a pretty mild one. WTF. I'm petrified for next Summer! Don't think I've spent more than a couple hours (usually in a well conditioned office) without sweating profusely. Multiple showers a day, fans, open windows, etc, do not help. It is horrendous.

5. Lack of self awareness
I think you can apply this to many places, but I've just really noticed it here more than even London. People just don't have self awareness, both walking and talking. Often it'll be intertwined with being on a phone, either shout/chatting with someone or just staring at the screen and having no qualms walking into you as they can't see where they are going. Even if they could, I suspect they wouldn't deviate course.

6. Subway system
This conflicts me massively. As the subway runs well, it makes sense (those rigid blocks NYC is famous for helps with the subway hugely), and getting from one end to the other doesn't take as long as you may think. But, pricing wise, it's cheap if you're going distance. You pay a set fare of $2.75, which basically means if you don't leave the subway you can go as far as you need to, making changes etc all within that fair. But as soon as you leave the subway, then it's gone and you need to get another ticket. Even if it's for one stop. Though it must be said, they do offer a weekly/monthly/annual unlimited, but if you're just a tourist passing through it can be a bit annoying.
Also, perhaps more amusingly, the ticket is basically a like our train tickets, but you have to swipe it to get through the barrier. No one can do it first time, it's hilarious with all the bleeps for rejected swipes. It's a real art!
Honestly, the NYC system could learn a thing or two from London's, in fact they are probably very aware, but just refuse to pay for any of it!

7. Pints
They aren't pints, quite simply. They will charge you more than the UK and give you less ML. It's upsetting to say the least.

8. Happy Hour
It's a big thing here, and always a good concept for cheaper drinks, no issues there. More with people, soon as it's over 90% of people just leave. It's almost like they don't want to always get smashed, the silly sods.

9. Banking system
See 'Subway System'. Basically it's like ours from the 80's. Still charge you to make bank transfers, and not just a few dollars, a solid $30 per transaction. They still use checks, a lot. Things take ages to clear. But on the flip side, they do use an app called Venmo for moving money which Paypal owns, that seems to go down well, since Paypal themselves charge for transfers. I can't use Venmo as have a UK phone, which is great.

10. Every car beeps for no reason
It just happens. All the time. For anything. Relentless

11. Forms.
The Americans absolutely bloody love forms. Fill them in for everything. The amount I've had to do thus far is ridiculous, and that's without even getting to my taxes, getting an apartment sorted, a proper bank account, or a US phone.


Well there we go, that's about it really. Everything else is going quite well, apart from my issues with what to have for dinner each night (Tiny kitchen, expensive shopping, cheaper to eat out but not wanting to dine alone, no access to the main delivery app here!). But it's a great city and is so cool being here, I'm enjoying it all and finding even the things above more like quirks than just straight up dislikes. Hopefully I'll be able to do something similar for the great things pretty soon!

Cheers,
Dan