People often criticize me of telling a lot of stories in conversation. I promise these stories will be the least bit rambling but hopefully this blog can curb my urge for story telling, and spare the attention spans of my friends.
On June 7th I packed my stuff into a few bags and got on a train...I cheated a little though, I threw my board in a penskee that a friend was driving to Chicago and conveniently making a pit stop in NY.
I've always thought that in general people put too much trust in cab drivers. In the short time I have been here I have already seen a guy get hit by a cab while he was in a crosswalk rightfully so when there was a walk sign. I have been in 2 taxi's that got lost, and not lost so that they could scam more money for me, lost to the point of them getting embarrassed and not charging me for the ride at all. Yet the best cab incident was this one. My first night in New York I grabbed a cab to get my board from my friends penskee. Let me tell you the guy was driving like a mad man. I made a comment to my friend about how strange it is that they can get away with driving like this without being pulled over just before everything went blue around us. Busted. We left without paying and flagged down another one.
These past few weeks without internet, I've been taking notes on things I'd like to write about. I'm looking at my notes now and the majority of them are about food. So, here are just a few of those food thoughts:
Something I learned after the first few days, is to stay away from the buffets. Sure they are "all organic" cheap and extremely convenient but they make you feel disgusting afterwards and they never seem to fill you up, no matter how much bigger your eyes are than your stomach. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the same food is sitting under heat lamps for 6+ hours and maybe even for multiple days.
The first Friday night came up a lot faster than I expected it too. I had yet to meet anyone seeing that I was too tired to explore during the work week after having to learn the ropes of an industry that was completely new to me. I'll write about that another time. So that Friday night was still my best night here by far. I took the 6 train to Bleeker street and since I had absolutely no sense of where anything was I just started walking. I walked into a few places and left soon there after until I found a great restaurant on 2nd ave: momofuku. It was suprisingly affordable, I ordered the skate with fava bean salad and a thai iced tea parfait. it was just as I dreamed it to be within the short time between ordering and getting my food. (Great service and if you are nice they give you complementary drinks with your meal.) I was eating at the bar and asked the guy next to me where he would recommend to go for a relaxed but fun atmosphere. He definitely pointed me in the right direction. A quick walk brought me to Max Fish, amazing bar, good crowd. I was kind of forced to be a slightly more sociable version of myself seeing that even though I enjoy time wandering around by myself, its not exactly the safest option. I met two very cool girls who had recently moved to NY from Italy: Cloudia and Lara. That night they gave me a mini tour of some great spots. Went to a place on 2nd ave called Lit where I ran into a strange character who I recognized from Tazza back home. Then we left Lit and went to a random pizza place which I thought meant we were getting pizza! Well, not exactly. Lara went to the back of the pizza place to some lady that was standing by a door. She said something quietly and the woman opened the door for us. A secret bar! I had heard about these places but didn't expect to wind up in one my first night out. It was great and I wish I remembered where it was. The crowd was pretentious but I liked the atmosphere, reminded me of the Danish pubs I went to in Denmark last summer. We didn't stay long because we were sick of the people we met talking about how important their parents were. Back to Lit. I love that last call is 4am everywhere here. I met a bunch of people that night all who I've been hanging out with since. Saturday I went to this birthday party of a guy who apparently is really into opera singing. There was a lot of opera-like entertainment by various guests at the party. I loved it and luckily there were some other clueless people that I could laugh with.
Everyone ended up on a rooftop, it was kind of rainy but still enjoyable.
The next morning I slept in for the first time in a while. I was awoken by the smell of BBQ. I followed my nose a few blocks down and found myself at the Big Apple BBQ. I waited in 2 lines for at least a half hour each with no luck as the food was running out. Finally the third line I waited in at the Dinosaur BBQ tent was a winner. It took me a good 45 minutes but finally I got my "worlds best pulled pork sandwich" yeah yeah I'm a sucker for hype. But I'll tell you might just be the worlds best. I bought 3, ate one on the spot, saved one for later and then wound up auction the 3rd one off for 50 bucks after the food ran out at all of the tents. Hey, worlds best, I don't feel guilty at all.
At least I'm not as shame worthy as this guy:
He was charging people a dollar to take a picture of him and his cat hat.
This little guy is up there with the sketchiest creatures I've met in the city so far. I've been warned about central park but didn't expect to run into potentially rabid wildlife.
Once the sun set however, I think I would have been happy to run into rabid raccoons, the creepy park lurkers made me feel like I was in Hyrule in field at night and I had the survival instinct to reach for a deku stick a few times, ah pepper spray will have to do. Common sense not used, Central Park after dark never again, lesson quickly learned.
(beautiful at sunset though)
It proceeded to rain for the next 2 weeks, with one afternoon to spare. I really regret not
an umbrella or rain-boots.
When the sun finally came out I got to see the city in a different light. Actually, ever since getting the empire state building perspective of New York it is so much easier to get a sense where everything is and how it is all connected. I hate maps.
The famous Shake Shack is 2 blocks from my dorm so I had to check it out and waited in line for over an hour. Good thing I had a new book on hand. I also met some surfers in line who tried explaining the best way to get to some waves. I'm going crazy, its been over a month.
This weekend was low key with an acceptation of one night when I went to Webster hall to see the Sneaky Sound System. Amazing, I had such a great time and danced a lot until some drunk doofus stepped on my toe, hard.... my big toe toenail is not long for this world. It was good to get a break from 24/7 Michael Jackson (respect) I wouldn't be surprised if I started sleep-moonwalking at this point.
[And some wall-wisdom in the webster hall ladies room. A little bitter maybe, but wise.]
3 weeks and I am in love with this place.
Keep checking, I'm going to make this blog thing a habit.
