I made it. I am finally in the Big City! Well, actually I'm in the Bronx, but close enough right? I'm sitting in my living room on a couch that came with the apartment I'm renting. I live in a cozy two bedroom apartment, and cozy in the good way not the New-York-I-don't-have-enough-room-way. Granted, my view from my windows is of our trash filled back yard but hey you win some you lose some. Anyways, even though I've only been in NYC for a week now, I have already learned a bunch of little lessons and one overarching theme.
First: driving in New York is miserable. Now, Men's Health Magazine may rate New York drivers as the safest, but coming into the city, I was much more fearful for my life than in Italy with the magic cars. But, driving into the city, crossing the George Washington Bridge (possibly on the wrong level) I could see the New York skyline, the classic image of man and nature standing and swirling together in beautiful harmony contrasted against the chaos of the road and I was in love. See, I've had a poster of the NYC skyline hanging on my wall the past 2 years and I've wanted to end up here for quite some time and, though the skyline looks a bit different (the poster was pre-2001) it still did the trick.
But beauty of it aside, here in the Bronx, the majesty of the city gives way to tired buildings and dangerous streets in more than one way. Here in the Bronx, the streets aren't painted! Seriously. The lanes are up for you to decide. It's like the Seinfeld episode when one of the lead guys sponsors a piece of highway and paints over over the lines to make it more luxurious. Here, though, there is no luxury just confusion and chaos, but hey life is an adventure, why shouldn't driving be? I've never been one for road rage, but the traffic here has caused me to shout some phrases that would make Steve Stiffler blush.
Second: moving in sucks
Somehow, we survive the drive through Manhattan (I was blessed enough to have my father riding with me). After we finish getting all of my stuff into the apartment, sweating, we bumbled down to my car to go get food to find a nice surprise on my windshield. My first New York parking ticket! I was too close to a fire hydrant (they don't clearly mark them here). The fine assessed by the state of New York? One-hundred-fifteen dollars. Whether I'll have to pay all of it is still up in the air.
Overarching theme (since I'm kind of sick of writing this): Life is full of unexpectedness. You have to just roll with the punches. For example, on Saturday, I was planning on going to visit Strands (a used book store with over 8 miles of books) and Central Park. What ended up happening? I met a friend and his friend in an exclusive club called the SoHo House and ended up relaxing next to a roof-top pool (one of only 3 in NYC) with some 30-year old Australian women and Argentinian models. Another example of unexpectedness? I came home from work today and was followed by a man from a different apartment into mine. He asked if he could come in then sort of just came in without waiting for a response. He comes in and starts moving things out of my sink and turns it on, leaves it running, and leaves with a promise to come back. Kay? He comes back with another guy and a tool. They duck under my sink and start unscrewing pipes and then jamming the tool into the pipes and snaking the drains. But after about 30 or so minutes of this, it wasn't enough so they both leave with a promise of coming back and come back with a bigger machine and another guy. They snake the pipes again with the bigger machine and stand around talking and eating for the next two hours. They leave, tell me to not use my sink, and tell me they'll come back the next morning.
Cheers to the daily adventure (pics to come, I haven't forgotten about the tower of Pisa).
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