Guess what? I moved to New York! I know! I can’t believe it either. I explain why and how in this video. Moving to New York made me quickly realize, one thing. Deep deep down at the pit of my heart… I am a country mouse. It was hard to admit it, especially as I’m the type of person that likes walking around cities. I thought I was ready for New York. I guess my 26 years of mostly living in the suburbs has shaped me as a person. Like many, transplants or newbies to the city, my first few months were about surviving New York. Or at least I tried to. As much as I wanted to show New Yorkers that I was one of them, so many things I did gave me away quickly. I had many silly rookie moments that I’ll like to share with you:
1: I live in Brooklyn
Prior to moving to New York. I was aware that there are 5 boroughs. What I wasn’t aware of was how big some of these Boroughs are and how New Yorkers described their locations. On my first week, I set up an appointment to meet up with Jane, a potential friend. We needed a meeting point that was close for both of us. “Where do you live right now?” Jane asks. “I live in Brooklyn” I gleefully replied.
“But where in Brooklyn though?” she seemed confused “Um… Bushwick” slightly surprised, I thought that information would be enough. “ok, but where in Bushwick?” she was still not satisfied. At this point, I was like, girl! Do you need me to write down my home address? How much more do you need to know, isn’t saying Brooklyn enough. When we finally met, Jane explained that she knew I wasn’t from New York because of the way I described where I lived. “Brooklyn is huge” she concluded, “So you have to be specific” she continued this time laughing. I started laughing as well. I might as well embrace my newbie status.

Surviving New York: on the Brooklyn Bridge
2: Rats!
If you really know me, you know that I can’t do rodents. Even hamsters. Yes, it’s that serious. I once had a mouse in an apartment I shared. It was either the mouse stayed or I moved. I dedicated a whole month to eradicating that mouse and it’s family members. Let’s just say, that for the rest of my time staying in that apartment, there wasn’t even a hair strand of mice left. Upon arriving in New York, I suffered numerous sightings of not just mice but worse, rats! Those disgusting things are huge. Have you seen them? And they were just chilling in the metro and on the street as if it was a law-abiding New Yorker. I had been trying to keep my cool- In an attempt to blend in like a local- but I gave my cover away when I shrieked upon seeing a rat run across the metro platform. Passersby looked at me for a second and then moved on. They weren’t fazed like I was. I wasn’t just fazed, I was terrified. “oh well, I tried. I’ll just have to embrace my newbie status”.
oh and I definitely would spare your eyes by not including an image of a rat. They don’t deserve that honor!
3: Public Transport
One of the reasons I moved to New York was for saving money on transportation cost. I knew how accessible New York was by train, bus, and foot. New York is one of the few cities in the U.S. that actually has a functioning public system. What no one told me was how inefficient the public transport service could be. You’d think that a city that values time and money would also translate into its public transport. Not at all! You’ll find out the hard way that you have to add an extra 30- 40 mins for your destination in order to accommodate delays. Don’t count on the trains or buses in New York to come on time. In fact, a great ice breaker with any New Yorker is to rant about their public transport system.

Surviving New York: NYC MTA
I absolutely lovedd NYC when I visited for 2 weeks! I very quickly learned saying “brooklyn” or “manhattan” was not enough direction *cry emoji*
hahah yes! Those are two entirely different locations which are both big.
Brilliant post, I was laughing about the rats! I didn’t see any on my trip there thank god, i think i would have totally freaked. xx