10 things I’ve learned in my first week living in New York.
From a clueless, west-coast intern...
by Avery Conder
Much like my time abroad, you have to dress up to go outside.
During my daily walk to and from work, I quickly noticed that there is an unspoken dress code. This dress code was even more apparent on my first weekend in New York, which made me realize there is a similar emphasis on appearance like in Florence, Italy. No one dresses poorly. However, at my college the dress code is athletic clothes or extremely casual. On a Friday morning especially, people tend to lean into the “extremely casual” attire with the elite sweatpants and sweatshirt combination. But I don’t see anyone ever in the morning looking like they haven’t recovered from a rough night in this city. Even people wearing athletic clothes are still strutting to their workout classes in expensive matching sets. In fact, I felt like I was walking by real-life Pinterest boards on a Saturday morning, which felt bizarre to me considering the nightlife culture in this city.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Everyone told me I would have a weird subway experience. I expected something to happen, but a woman two-hand pushing me and cussing me out while I waited for my train was NOT on my 2024 bingo board. If I had headphones in I could have been unaware of that entire situation and carried on with my day. However, instead I spent the rest of my commute going over the interaction in my head repeatedly wondering what I did wrong. That took a bit of time to recover from.
Subways.
Uptown vs. downtown. Express vs. Local. Let’s talk about it. What is seemingly so simple, has me so confused because the entrances are impossible to find as a New York newbie. I love going the opposite direction of where I want to go! Also, when it was 95 degrees out and I wanted to head uptown to escape the heat, I walked to the nearest uptown entrance to find there was caution tape blocking the entrance. So I walked to the next one a couple blocks North – again, caution tape. I looked it up and it just so happened that there was maintenance on that one line and it wasn’t running for the entire weekend. Needless to say, I walked 60 blocks in the heat and will now be mapping every route through Google Maps when I leave my apartment.
Sent to my family group chat to update them on how I was doing Coffee and prices for things in general are crazy. Where is my buy one get one free?
As I moved into my apartment I headed to the nearby CVS to pick out some necessities. I don’t know what I was expecting because when I got to the register, I have never felt my blood run colder. The dollar amount staring at me was not representative of what I had bought in my mind. I missed my Rite Aid and QFC back home in Seattle A LOT at that moment because grocery shopping with my mom usually consists of a competition for who can find the best BOGO deals. Now I’m signing up for every email subscription to get even a dollar off my total. So, I decided to cheer myself up by treating myself to a coffee nearby. It was $10.
The city is huge, but boy is it small.
With so much to see and do in this city I thought the probability of crossing paths with someone more than once would be slim, if any. Then, on a night out the first person I met was describing their apartment and it took thirty seconds to realize that this person wasn’t just in my area, on my block or in my building, but my immediate next-door neighbor. I know I’m new to the city, but I am feeling like those chances are extremely small.
You actually read addresses and road signs here.
It is genius that the city is made into a grid and you can understand where to go based on the numbered street. In my college town with streets such as Franklin St. and South Rd, someone can’t comprehend where those streets are located with no prior knowledge of the area. Now I am able to map out in my head what places people are describing because of the chronological order of the streets. Good work New York! Also, seeing as now I cannot drive for the foreseeable future, I have quickly learned to pay attention to one-ways and maximize my speed-walk to work (also known as jaywalking). But, on my second day here I saw a man who was not so good at reading the road signs get hit by a car and that was quite the wake up call. For me, not for him – I’m pretty sure he passed out.
People want to know where you live.
I went from the go-to conversation starter being: “What’s your major?” To: “Where are you living?” Is that not really weird to people? That the first thing someone wants to learn about you is where you LIVE? I feel like that’s kind of creepy, but here I am memorizing LES means Lower East Side and trying to understand the different “vibes” of each neighborhood.
The parks here are pretty unbeatable.
As a huge fan of long walks, my first trip to Central Park actually blew me away. There are so many people doing so many different activities, which translates to: no one really cares about what you’re doing. That’s a pretty awesome culture to be around. People are roller blading, failing at yoga, playing badminton and singing with a boombox on a Monday. It puts into perspective how you can’t help but be your authentic self here because the only one that’s feeling weird about you stepping out of your comfort zone is yourself.
Central park on a Sunday Do not go to Trader Joes on the weekends.
Unless you are able to keep your inner peace in extremely aggravating circumstances, prepare for no personal space.
This city is home to incredibly talented people, so living here is inspiring (cheesy, I know).
Everywhere I go, I’m taking notes on outfits that I want to replicate, saving songs of the incredible singers on the sidewalks and asking coffee shop baristas their favorite spots in the city. When you spend four months in a foreign country unable to speak the native language, you learn to appreciate the small moments that allow strangers to connect. I will never take for granted what I can learn from a stranger and especially what I can learn working from an agency filled with talented, creative and driven people.
To sum it all up…
I’ve learned that many people moving to this city may be able to relate to these 10 lessons as they struggle to find their place here. The culture I have most noticed is one that contradicts itself. On one hand, you want to not be noticed and to fall into a crowd like you know where you’re going and what you’re doing. On the other hand there’s an expectation to be original and unlike anyone else. For example, as I walk to work I can point out all the summer interns. We all want to fit in and not wear the wrong thing or take the wrong subway and therefore stick out as clueless or unsocialized to this city. But, we also don’t want to fall into a category of copying what we think we should do so often that we don’t have our own experience during our limited time here. It’s something I know that I am struggling with as it seems my time in the city is rapidly decreasing, and I want to feel like I had an experience entirely my own. So it leads me to wonder: how is it possible to fit in somewhere so diverse that the norm is to stand out?
P.S. This is how they water plants here. This is wild to me.
