Monday, April 2, 2012

New Yooooork New Yooooork...

I've said it before, but sometimes the best part about flying...is the not flying!  I've had travel perks for more than a year now, and outside of commuting back home, I've never used them!  Well, until now...

I had three days off, so I headed out to New York City to visit a friend who is in the States from Brazil!

And it's soooooooo easy.  I took a free flight to LaGuardia, quickly learned the bus system and spent $2.25 to hop on a bus to Harlem.  Just like that, I was hugging my friend from Brazil!!!

We spent the next two days hanging out in the city, and I was actually surprised at how much I didn't hate it.  I was fully expecting to hate the city, but it was easy to get around, and I enjoyed most of the time together.  Now with that said, the weekend as a whole was a bit...hard at times.

The Good...seeing my friend!  Being surrounded by unbelievable amounts of languages.  Dusting off my Spanish!  Teaching English to eager learners.  Experiencing the city!  Just getting out of day-to-day-everyone-is-white-and-middle-class society!  Having a picture of five people (including me) representing five different countries.

The Bad...the filth of the city.  Walking over dog poop in the lobby of the apartment building one night...then puke another.  The complete revolving of activities around alcohol.  Always, always alcohol.  Snobs...I literally had someone tell me they didn't like me because I wouldn't do what she wanted.  And arrogant men.  I had to be pulled from an apartment after a man punched his girlfriend.  I was so hot, and I was more than happy to jump in.  It still gets my blood boiling.

All in all, I am glad I went, but as I was flying away, I just wished things were different.  I wished we had enjoyed different activities, I wished we had talked more, and I wished she wasn't so attached to her stinkin' iPhone.  Ugh, that just drives me nuts.  Having to say something again during a conversation because her head tilts down to answer a text.  My biggest pet peeve.

Basically, the city is too city for me!  And I am quite alright with that.  They can have it.

But it was fun to get out and explore.  And it was fun to FINALLY use my travel perks!  It makes me wonder why I ever stopped traveling in the first place.  I used to want to become an airline pilot simply in order to do just that...travel.  Now that I have become one, I just wanted to stay at home and hang with friends!  Well, since the latter never really happened, it's understandably changing my priorities back again.  This trip showed me how easy it can be.

A weekend in New York City.  The total cost?  Maybe $40.  I would have spent more on gas, food,  and heat back home!

Where to next?!

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