New York City… the city where people never sleep… the city where since people do not sleep, they do not smile… the city where you DO NOT wave or talk to those sleepy people, because they will only glare at you or point out that you are obviously not from New York City… the city where human sized rats go roaming the streets, always ready to bite… remember, when you get bitten by one of those mutant rats, no one is going to help you because they’re obviously too tired and cranky… so anyways, once you do get bitten by a giant rat, you will be escorted to a very scary hospital where not only will you NOT get treated for your rat bite/rabies, but you will soon be injected with bad blood and disease… that is IF you make it to the hospital, because the evil cab driver taking you to the hospital will probably drive you down a dark alley and steal all your belongings and then sell you on the black market…
At least that’s what I’ve always heard.
I went to Brooklyn this week for a hospital conversion… I finished finals Monday afternoon and jumped on a plane, KNOWING that I was going to get glared at, bitten, injected, mugged, and sold. And yet, here I am… AMAZED at this city and humbled by the experience I’ve had.
You see, I am a small town girl from California, MO. Even though I’ve been in Kansas City for over 6 years, I still am most definitely that small town girl… petrified of the big city. For some reason, especially this one.
But I’m not scared anymore… only FULL of respect and awe. This place is WONDERFUL, for six very obvious reasons:
1) First, who came up with the idiotic phrase, “the city who doesn’t sleep”? I mean, who sleeps anyways? No one sleeps. I don’t sleep. I have too much going on… I ingest WAY too much caffeine… and I go to bed thinking about Chemistry (I mean cookies, yeah cookies.). Doesn’t matter where you live. I also stayed out too late several times this week, and I pretty much didn’t see too many people out and about. Does that mean they were sleeping? Hmmm, good thought.
2) I’m going to skip #2 for now, because it’s my climax, and I would ruin my whole happy thought if I explained it now.3) Those rats must not be out in December because I saw none. Only dogs on leashes, well groomed, smelling much better than Claire Francis, sitting quietly and well behaved. Seriously, people take these dogs everywhere in New York City. I saw dogs in grocery stores, banks, and bars. Strange but awesome. ADDITIONALLY, I always thought those rats would come with lots of trash and smelliness. And yes, I saw trash, lots and lots of trash. But it wasn’t spread out all over the streets. It wasn’t rotting and oozing on the sidewalks. It was piled neatly in specific areas along the streets, waiting for the garbage man. Someone has cleaned that city up. Very cool.
4) Nothing really funny to say about the hospital, except for the fact that I was most definitely not scared of bad blood. The hospital I spent time in was full of old wise doctors, young smart attendees, fresh students, and patients patients patients. This hospital had doctors that saw 50+ patients a day. It was clean and well run. Inspiring really.
5) When I left the airport, I expected to get into another dirty cab. I don’t mind cabs, but they’re definitely not my favorite part of the trip. So when I got the message from Louise, my private driver, I was amazed! Mr. Louise, who forced me to speak Spanish the entire drive, had a beautiful, leather seated, yummy smelling car. And he drove slow. And he didn’t stop and go the whole time. And I didn’t get carsick. And instead of just overcharging me and kicking me to the curb… he scheduled my ride back to the airport (I would pay him later), opened my door, hauled my bags out of the trunk, and kissed me on the cheek. I left with all my belongings, and I did NOT get sold to any black market.
6) So back to #2… The whole nice people thing. I could seriously make a new list for all the nice people I encountered on this trip. People went OUT OF THEIR WAY to help me this week. I have no idea why… definitely did not do anything special to myself… my roots are growing out, my nail polish is totally cracking off… I forgot my pair of dress pants, so my outfit totally does not match today… I didn’t even work that hard. And still people were almost overly nice.
a. The hotel I stayed in put me on a list to get me a better room, JUST because my room was too close to the breakfast room. They not only transferred my room, but hauled all my luggage for me and left me cookies on my bed. (Just kidding about the cookies. I bought them in the vending machine. But it sounded good, and the room change was still nice.)
b. Some random guy on the Subway asked us where we were going… obviously we looked like we had no idea where we were going… I thought he was badgering us and then he gave us the exact route to get there and what we needed to see once we reached our destination. So nice.
c. ALL my taxi drivers were nice. But Louise is still my favorite. :)
d. No one at the hospital yelled at me or told me how bad I suck. Totally not what I’m use to with my lovely job.
e. A bus driver, who was NOT supposed to pick me up… asked me where and when I was going and just let me hop in, even though it was out of his way. Thank you, Mr. for not making me stand in the rain.
f. One taxi driver DID glare at me a little bit… as he drove by while I waited on the curb in the rain. I waved, because I thought he was going to be like every other kind New Yorker… and then he just drove by and left me. And THEN he ran over the curb and popped his tire. New York karma is a real b*tch.
g. MULTIPLE people asked Mr. Schaffter and I if they could take our picture at Rockefeller Center. At least they thought they were being nice… little did they know they were causing the Erin/Bryce Awkward Moment #2,796.
h. I actually saw a guy propose to his girlfriend on the ice skating rink. Obviously that had nothing to do with me. But so sweet.
i. Some guy called me Santa Claus. I don’t know why. I had an orange sweater on, and I actually looked kind of nice. Bryce told me he was calling me Mrs. Claus, and that she was a good looking lady in her prime. Whatever. Maybe he just meant I was merry. Which is nice, I suppose.j. My FINAL impression of New York City came when I lost my FRIGGIN driver’s license at the airport. Not only did the ticket guy print off a ticket that would get me on the plane WITHOUT my driver’s license (Yes, apparently they can do that. There goes security.), but the police officer I reported the incident too was the nicest guy of all time (YES, there are nice police officers out there! And he didn’t even say anything inappropriate or disgusting!). He comforted me and told me everything was okay. He patiently wrote down all my information. He called lost and found as well as all the officers near the gates. And FINALLY, he WALKED me to the nearby bar, tracked down both the bartender and manager, and VOUGED for my age and identification so that I could get a beer. Pretty much never heard of a police officer TELLING a bartender to serve alcohol to someone… ESPECIALLY someone who does not have a license. LOL (See I told you I LOL all over the place).
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