New York, New York
or Unusual Notes About the City
To tell the truth, to go to the United States has never been my dream. I have always wanted to visit Europe as a place with rich history. The United States after France, Italy and Greece represented no interest for me. And suddenly, in September 2006, my American friends, who I have known already for about 8 years, became very active, saying that I must come and see them “on their territory”, “a territory of freedom and peace”. I tried to invent lots of reasons to refuse the invitation: difficulty getting the American visa, terrible control in the airport, a 10-hour flight... Nothing was persuasive enough, as I easily got my 2-year visa, could survive a 3-hour control in Sheremetevo and was very lucky with my neighbor in the plane as he had a computer and during our trip we watched DVDs.
Having arrived at JFK airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, I saw my friends who finally won our “to come or not to come” dispute. We decided not to take a taxi but go together home by public transport, which  I did not regret at all: as I learned later, there are traffic jams in NYC even at 1 a.m. And they are formed mainly by taxis and not by private cars, which are quite expensive to maintain (insurance, parking, garage, repairs, gas).
If you come one day to NYC, take the light train that goes directly to the subway from where different trains will take you to any part of the city. The NYC subway is very simply decorated in comparison with the Moscow metro: no mouldings, no columns, no statues... But it is very practical: two types of trains, local and express, help you avoid crowds during rush hours. The local train stops at every station, the express only at selected ones – that is why you can quickly reach another part of the city. It was so comfortable that I even got used to mice and rats running fearlessly on the platforms.
 Animals in NYC are another very interesting thing to mention. Rats live not only in the subway but, as I saw, on the roofs of buildings as well. One evening I was walking along a street and suddenly a creature fell from the top of a building directly near my nose. If I had made two more steps, this “something” would have landed on my head, which is not very pleasant, as you can guess.
I prefer squirrels that cross NYC streets everywhere they want and are not afraid of people. They are very fat in comparison with squirrels that we usually see in our Russian parks. I was so surprised that I said to my friends: “The ecological situation must be very good in your city if squirrels live everywhere and are so big”. I did not expect to hear: “No, the point is that there is much garbage in the streets and they have a lot of food”.
Another thing that surprised me is that in the house where I stayed, a simple 6-floor building, people do not have any washing machines in their flats. It is much less expensive and more comfortable to go every weekend to the basement where three or four machines for public use are installed in the laundry room. Every resident of the house can come, put their clothes at first into the washing machine for 30 minutes (it costs one dollar) and then dry them all in the dryer (another dollar for 30 minutes). I appreciated it a lot as you can put your favourite shirt on in only an hour without waiting for it to be dried on your balcony or in the bathroom.
 I went to the supermarket, and discovered that the people who work there speak no English word. It is mainly Spaniards and Mexicans who create a very unusual atmosphere in the district where they live. I spent almost two weeks in Queens, one of five NYC districts (the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan), in a place which can be easily called a “the melting pot”. There were representatives of many countries: the Chinese, Italians, Mexicans, Koreans, Spaniards, Indians... I tried so many different cuisines that I had not tried before in my whole life. I saw so many people in their traditional clothes that I would never come across in Moscow.
And all these people live peacefully together, take the same subway, maybe eat in each others’ cafes and pass each other in the street every day. The atmosphere in NYC is very relaxing despite its 10 million (or even more) population, almost like in Moscow. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. I often got lost and tried to read carefully my map somewhere in the middle of a big square. And everytime there was somebody who came up to me and asked if he could help me. By the end of my trip I think I already knew half of NYC: I was lost so often. And nobody ever refused to show me the right direction (there were even a couple of people who personally accompanied me to the place I was looking for).
Now I must confess that, now that I am back in Russia, I’ve started missing NYC, with its crowds, yellow taxis at Manhattan, skyscrapers that seem to surround you everywhere, numerous shops, a multinational  society and, of course, its sun. While it was gloomy in Moscow at the beginning of January, it hit up to +20oC in NYC. I was lucky, as normally it must be snowy and rather cold but the winter of 2007 was exceptional for many countries. For example, in Vermont, a state north of NY, on the border with Canada and one of the highest points in the USA, there was no snow at all. Many tourists who usually come there to do cross-country or downhill skiing cancelled their reservations and it was a total disaster for the resorts.
Only a week after my arrival back in Moscow, I admit that the country that has never attracted me before is becoming one of those places that remain somewhere deep in my soul. Soon we want to return to these countries again, to walk along the streets we walked for the very first time and to go to the cafe we went to. I think that NYC is such a place, not only for me, but also for many people who have already been there. If you are still wondering: “to go or not to go there” – Go, you will not be disappointed.
By Alevtina Kozina
Alevtina.kozina@yahoo.com |