Thank Science* I Didn't Move to New York

Once upon a time, I was living in Los Angeles and unhappy with my life, and I started to entertain the idea of moving to someplace new. New York City seemed at the time to be a better fit for me: a city with a more European feel to it, passionate about its baseball teams (good if you're a baseball fan like me), and lots of Jewish girls (which at the time seemed to be important to me!).

All I have to say is that it's a very good thing I never followed through on that idea! New York City is a crowded, dirty and gray city, with no parking and a confusing subway system filled with over-stressed and rude people. We got cut in line twice within our first HOUR in the city. Rudeness in NYC is a sport.

You know those people who are walking alone down the street or in a store and just start talking, and you're wondering, "who she's talking to?" or "is he talking to me?" and then you see a wire dangling out of their ear. Then you realize they're having a phone conversation, where you get to eavesdrop on exactly half of the conversation - how annoying! Until, that is, you get to hear the WHOLE conversation! I was in the supermarket and this woman in her 40's having a full-on conversation on speaker on her cell phone while she was shopping, the whole conversation out there for all to hear. I just stood there dumbfounded. I don't recall ever seeing something like this - even in LA, where you'd expect something like this.

Not to say that we didn't enjoy ourselves.

Our friend Brian hooked us up with his apartment conveniently located on the West Side of Central Park, where the weather was very nice for a little stroll ...

Then, we met our friends Suchitra and Andrew for lunch at Carnegie's Deli on 7th Avenue (for some reason it is very famous, had a long line outside, but in my humble opinion, was overhyped and overpriced).

Then we went to the "Top of the Rock" which is the observation deck at the top (69th floor) of the Rockefeller Center, giving you a wonderful view of the Empire State Building and the rest of Manhattan and the surroundings. Quite impressive! By then Noa was quite tired and crying a lot, so tried to get back to the apartment quickly. Unfortunately, our navigation expert (me) took us on the wrong subway and it took us a LOT longer to get back than needed. Let's say they'll be many subway riders that day that won't soon forget us :)

The next day, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, where we were told you have a great view of Manhattan. They forgot to mention "on a nice day". Check out the photo for yourself:

I have to say that my impression of New York did improve - once I saw New Jersey!

And to be fair, once you leave the city and go upstate, New York is actually quite pretty, but that's for the next blog.

* BTW, for the Thank Science reference, you have to watch the SouthPark episode called "Go God Go" from season 10 (http://www.southparkstudios.com/)