A British blogger I follow recently moved to NYC. It’s been so very fun for me to read his tweets, watching someone see NYC with fresh “alien” eyes. I asked him if I could share his most recent post. Thanks for saying yes, Dan!

I’m an Alien, I’m a little legal Alien…

By Dan @French84

So I’ve made the move to New York City. Nearly 3 weeks in, I’ve actually started to settle a bit, despite moving to 3 different places in 3 totally different areas of NYC. I’m now staying put for 2 months in the East Village whilst I work out the longer term plan which will probably involve me getting my own place. By “place” I mean something the size of your UK living room, places here are tiny unless you pay a huge amount.

I want to outline some of my New York observations that I’m sure you’ll be aware of already but still worth a bit of a ramble!

So here’s some things I’m either very slowly, or will simply never, come to terms with:

1. Grocery Shopping

I know we can account this to cost of living, and it’s simply just what you have to pay, but I don’t think I’m going to get my head around how expensive simple grocery shopping is. They just seem to mark everything up, and no matter how you look at it, I’m not best pleased about paying £3 for a bag of Doritos. £3 for a simple Orange Juice. £3 the going starting rate for basically anything. Might not seem like a huge amount, but multiply that for every item you buy and it certainly adds up!

2. Trader Joe’s

Speaking of grocery shopping, there are multiple options available. You can go to a local market/bodega and get essentials and they do some other bits, that’ll be a tiny bit cheaper potentially. Or there are some more well known chain places, that would be more like a Tesco Express. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are the best example. Not a bad store by any means, but the one by me – I have literally never seen the queue not stretch halfway round the store!! And I’ve been there early morning, late night, random times of day, anything just to try and not queue for eternity. Impossible. I’ve now accepted this is my life.

3. Bikes

It’s good, it’s healthy, it’s easy to get to work and they have a city bike scheme like some places in the UK [editor’s note: it’s called Citi Bike and I’m a fan]. Great. My only issue with this is, I cannot for the life of me understand who has right of way on a green man. This might sound ridiculous, but honestly, these cyclists NEVER STOP. They will carry on at 0.1 MPH if it means any momentum and have no qualms just cutting across you, regardless of the traffic light situation.

4. Humidity

This one speaks for itself, but I arrived at the end of Summer, and it’s meant to be a pretty mild one. WTF. I’m petrified for next Summer! Don’t think I’ve spent more than a couple hours (usually in a well conditioned office) without sweating profusely. Multiple showers a day, fans, open windows, etc, do not help. It is horrendous.

5. Lack of self awareness

 

I think you can apply this to many places, but I’ve just really noticed it here more than even London. People just don’t have self awareness, both walking and talking. Often it’ll be intertwined with being on a phone, either shout/chatting with someone or just staring at the screen and having no qualms walking into you as they can’t see where they are going. Even if they could, I suspect they wouldn’t deviate course.

6. Subway system

This conflicts me massively. As the subway runs well, it makes sense (those rigid blocks NYC is famous for help with the subway hugely), and getting from one end to the other doesn’t take as long as you may think. But, pricing wise, it’s cheap if you’re going distance. You pay a set fare of $2.75, which basically means if you don’t leave the subway you can go as far as you need to, making changes etc. all within that fair. But as soon as you leave the subway, then it’s gone and you need to get another ticket. Even if it’s for one stop. Though it must be said, they do offer a weekly/monthly/annual unlimited [editor’s note: there’s no annual unlimited, dear sweet Dan!], but if you’re just a tourist passing through it can be a bit annoying.

Also, perhaps more amusingly, the ticket is basically like our UK train tickets, but you have to swipe it to get through the barrier. No one can do it first time, it’s hilarious with all the bleeps for rejected swipes. It’s a real art!

Honestly, the NYC system could learn a thing or two from London’s, in fact they are probably very aware of this, but just refuse to pay for any of it!

7. Pints

They aren’t pints, quite simply. They will charge you more than the UK and give you less ML. It’s upsetting to say the least.

8. Happy Hour

It’s a big thing here, and always a good concept for cheaper drinks, no issues there. More with people: soon as it’s over 90% of people just leave. It’s almost like they don’t want to always get smashed, the silly sods.

9. Banking system

 

See ‘Subway System’. Basically it’s like ours from the 80’s. Still charge you to make bank transfers, and not just a few dollars, a solid $30 per transaction. They still use checks, a lot. Things take ages to clear. But on the flip side, they do use an app called Venmo for moving money which Paypal owns, that seems to go down well, since Paypal themselves charge for transfers. I can’t use Venmo as have a UK phone, which is great…

10. Every car beeps for no reason

It just happens. All the time. For anything. Relentless

11. Forms

The Americans absolutely bloody love forms. Fill them in for everything. The amount I’ve had to do thus far is ridiculous, and that’s without even getting to my taxes, getting an apartment sorted, a proper bank account, or a US phone!

Well there we go, that’s about it really. Everything else is going quite well, apart from my issues with what to have for dinner each night (Tiny kitchen, expensive shopping, cheaper to eat out but not wanting to dine alone, no access to the main delivery app here!). But it’s a great city and is so cool being here, I’m enjoying it all and finding even the things above more like quirks than just straight up dislikes. Hopefully I’ll be able to do something similar for the great things pretty soon!

♦

Check out Dan’s blog here where he originally shared this post. For more frequent updates, follow his Twitter where he shares New York Newbie observations that I absolutely adore like:

Things I've learnt this week. Even NYC natives still miss-swipe the subway card properly & get rejected at the turnstyle. The salad at work is priced on weight not box size (shout out to the most expensive salad in my life). No one has ever gone to Roosevelt island out of choice

— Dan (@french84) August 30, 2018