I want to move to New York, work in Manhattan, live in Brooklyn Heights, watch the sun set on the New York skyline every night, and marry a guy with a Brooklyn or Bronx accent (I'm not picky).
Besides the food, art, and culture bonanza, the PEOPLE are the wonderful nonpareils on top. Everybody we met was so friendly, helpful and INTERESTING. Don't get me wrong, LA has its own fair share of eccentrics, but NYC almost makes me shake my head at LA with disappointment. The subway is the microcosm of NYC, and it's the most fascinating place to observe people. Upper east side blends with lower east side blends with west sides, hippies with yuppies, families, couples, loners, friends, people heading back from parties at 5 AM sitting with people heading to work at 5AM... all in every type and color I can imagine. Lines blur and categories fade, everything mixes together. No safe bubbles, just how I like it. It's so easy to talk to people here, no one has inhibitions, prejudgments, people just chat with the guys next to them. Can't help it if they're in your personal space. I suppose you need an individualistic nature to survive in NY, because it's easy to feel lost in the mass of people who all have their own direction. Nobody in NY has time to try to fit in anywhere or worry about their image. There's too much going on, to much to do, and people just are.
Why do Angelenos try to fit themselves into slots anyway?
Best coffee I've ever had. Super dark and strong its like getting punched by Mike Tyson if his hand was made out of caffiene.
Biggest Pastrami ever at Katz
30 minute wait to get this Artichoke and Spinach pizza
50 minute wait to get concrete and burger at Shake Shack in Madison Square Garden
They say people in New York are rude... we didn't experience that at all! We had only 2 rude-ish encounters out of the probably more than 50 people we spoke to. This trip to NYC involves many stories, and an epic one that was created by a series of crazily coincidental events that took three days of seemingly arbitrary moments to reach its climax.
The first story starts all the way back to sometime in the middle of spring quarter. Anna, Janelle, and I were studying at Literati Cafe on Wilshire. Pink Martini starts playing on the radio and Janelle breaks out in exitement and tells me about them. They're an international band that plays Old Hollywood-esque music in all languages and styles. So I start listening to them on Pandora.
Fast forward to New York City, two months later.
Tuesday: Arrive by red-eye at 12 pm pretty exhausted from lack of sleep on uncomfortable plane. Walk all around Times Square, 5th avenue regions in the day, around Brooklyn and cross the Brooklyn Bridge for the almost-sunset, and finally get back to Anna's place, which is housing for Columbia's Grad and International students, and Interns. Being too tired to subway out, we wander downstairs to the I-House Pub. It's pretty sparse, we chat with a few students, the bartender from Wisconsin, and randomly play pool with late 30's med student who used to do improve comedy in Amsterdam (and was an English major undergrad!). He gives us the low-down on NYC, tons of tips and places to go, and tells us to pick up The Onion because it lists Manhattan events on the back.
Wednesday: Explore and eat much in the day time. Go to a comedy show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade. Coincidentally sees a stack of The Onion lying next to ticket booth, picks it up and stuffs it in my bag just for kicks.
Thursday: Rainy day, avoided by being inside the AWESOME Museum of Natural History. Anna has to work late. Janelle and I eat Papaya Dogs and explore Upper West Side while contemplating whether or not to hit up happy hour and start drinking at 6ish before we hit up a real bar/club. Pretend to look at crappy shoes in shoe store to avoid rain. "Hey! remember the guy said The Onion lists events for the week! Let's see if there are cool music/art shows right now!" Flips open The Onion to Thursday section, first large block says: PINK MARTINI PLAYING AT CARNIGIE HALL AT 8PM!!!
What time is it?!? 6:30! OMG we have to get the tickets! What if they don't have any more?!? Do they sell same day tickets?? But Carnigie Hall is huge, they have to! Let's go check! Hurry! Wait, but let's not get our hopes up! If they don't, it's ok... But they have to! They must! Run (subway quickly) to Carnegie Hall, up to ticket booth: 2 partial view tickets available! Want them? Of course we'll take them! And lucky we did, the house was full that night, and it was an amazing show.
Tempo Perdido - Pink Martini
Sympathique - Pink Martini
Treat after Pink Martini: Delicious burger joint literally HIDDEN inside a swanky hotel. We kept smelling burgers from the lobby but we couldn't find it. It was behind a huge red curtain.
Another just as awesome fortunate series of events:
After sleeping on Anna's floor Tuesday night (and the plane on Monday), it was so horribly uncomfortable it was basically like having not slept for 2 days. Determined to improve our situation, we planned to steal the sofa cushions from the lounge, sleep on them, and put them back in the morning. Yes, very ghetto. FORTUNATELY on Wedesday just before sleeping, we see an ad for a girl selling her air mattress for $30. Yaye, definitely better than the floor! So we call her hoping she'll pick up and not be mad about the fact that it's almost 2 AM.
Nope. No answer. Refusing to face one more unbearable night on Anna's floor, we go to the lounge to steal the cushions. A guy is sitting in there alone playing on his computer. "This is weird... do you think he cares? Oh well, we'll just take them anyway." We walk past him and begin to take the cushions out. He glances back at us briefly to see what we're doing and continues to play his game. Instead of leaving the awkward moment lingering, I decided to break the silence and lessen our shadiness. "Hey, do you think anybody would mind if we used these cushions?" "No probably not... blah blah blah." "K, thanks."
As we're about to leave, "Are you guys sleeping on those cushions? I have an air mattress, do you guys want to use it?" Ahhhhhhh! Those are golden words. He lends us the extremely large air mattress that barely fits inside Anna's room, and all is saved.
And that is not the end of the story. Theo, the air mattress guy, encounters us once again on Sunday night at 1 AM before I have to leave for the airport. It was right after we had a depressing convo with Onour (must roll r's), a guy who hates NYC but has lived there for 3 years and completely shattered our idealized perception of the City. Theo says, "Isn't this your last night in NY? Follow me." and then takes us to a nearby bar and ends our NY trip properly. Theo, the Columbia law student studying civil rights law (too good to be true? Business law more likely). Theo, who is actually German but went to Oxford for 4 years and has therefore picked up English with a British accent. Theo, who knows more about American pop culture than most Americans do, including me.
NYC comes with some pretty amazing people and experiences. And the best nights were when we explored the nightlife and went to the clubs and bars till 4AM (most bars don't close till 4!) and met people like John, Nick, Tie-guy, Vest guy, lanky British guy and long-haired friend, Robbie the afro guy from "komp" and his "superior", and braces guy who may or may not stab Anna. Most New Yorkers aren't even really from New York, which is the best part. Hmm we seem to have met a lot of men... But those stories are for another time and place :) Of course we had moments when we wanted to chop our legs off from walking so much. But it was always interesting to people-watch even when we were trapped on the wrong subway. I feel like in Manhattan, it's actually more difficult for things NOT to happen. I suppose that could also be the same for LA, but in a city that has double our population in such a tiny little region, naturally it should mean double the fun, right?
NYC is the greatest city in the world. Someone move there with me, already!
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