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!