New York. I'd never been before this week. I’m here experiencing the Web 2.0 Expo, which has been a combination of disappointing and a total nerd’s dream. Hearing about IE 8.0 beta 2? Suh-weet! Sitting through a conference lecture on how to search on Google? Aren’t we all WEB professionals?
But let’s move beyond that shall we? Because, really, besides me and the web geeks I came with, who cares am I right? I have made several observations about New York city that I’d like to share.
1. Honking your horn is polite: It’s not like LA, where honking is used to show your general displeasure with the driver nearest you. In NY, it’s a way of letting someone know, Hey I’m driving through this intersection per the green light I have and I don’t want to splatter your brains on the pavement today, thanks! (Because wow, people just cross the street because they like to keep their blood pumping fast.)
2. New Yorkers are not mean, just rushed: Everyone always hears that New Yorkers are rude or pushy, and they are, but not in the way you’d expect. They just have places to go and they need to get their quickly because, likely, they are walking 1,793 blocks to get there. For example, we stopped at a crosswalk so as not to splatter our brains on the street today, thanks, and within a millisecond of the little walk man appearing on the sign, the old man behind me said, “IT SAYS WALK ALREADY!” See? Just in a hurry.
3. On the above note, people here generally aren’t fat: Because they walk 1,793 blocks to get anywhere. It’s like how in LA you say “it takes an hour” when describing the length of time needed to get anywhere so you can account for traffic. People here always have to walk a bunch of blocks to get somewhere. The sidewalk sort of becomes its own organism, ebbing and flowing, expanding and moving on its own. And fat people don’t make for good organisms.
4. Cab drivers are adrenaline junkies and possibly the best drivers in the entire free world: Many, many times I thought I was dead this week. Dead, in a gnarled crash of metal. And then I opened my eyes and we were instead merrily jaunting down the street, weaving in and out of traffic, making any space of asphalt a lane. Because actual traffic laws? Those are bloody waste of time when you drive a big yellow cab. Not once did I see a cab hit anything. Me = impressed.
5. Central Park is incredible.
6. If you ask for things with a smile, you usually get a smile: Maybe it’s because I’m a girl. Maybe I was expecting too many people to be irritated in general. But everyone I have talked to or been around has held open doors, smiled when I did, and said thank yous.
I’m sure there is more. In fact there is, but this is a blog and my friends yell at me if I write too much. They, unlike NYers, have places to be and aren’t very nice about letting me know.
After watching Animal Cops New York, it was my goal to find an SPCA officer beating down a dead beat’s door. No such luck. But I did get to meet some NYPD and take pictures with them. And they smiled through two pictures all while receiving calls on their radios and answering out of the side of their mouths.
New Yorkers have a certain je ne c’est quoi. And I can say that because I speak French. And speaking of French, there is a lot of French stuff, words, and influence here, which makes me surprised my husband liked being here…. Maybe he thought it was Farsi?
**Photo Caps: First one is the view from my hotel window. Second one was me hanging my cameral out a cab window in Times Square. Third is Ed, me, and Joe at The Village Den, where I ate breakfast for dinner my first night here.
