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After two months of living in New York City, I have learned a few more things. If you didn’t catch my one month update, you can check it out here.
Everything is either expensive or free: Everyone knows how expensive Manhattan can be. Food is expensive, rent is expensive–the list goes on and on. Fortunately you can also find a lot to do for free. There are a number of museums that allow you to pay as much as you like [so you can pay $1 or $5 if you want]. There are also tons of famous sights to see for free: Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park. Also I recently learned that New York City has an initiative called Shape Up NYC which offers free fitness classes in all five boroughs every day of the week! They offer quite a range and they get the job done. I am amazed at what New York City has to offer.
You have to work hard to make friends: I know it’s never easy to move to a new city when you don’t know anyone and make tons of friends. I guess I was blinded by the fact that I was starting grad school. I figured I would immediately bond with all the people in my program. Unfortunately most of them were already established here and had a solid group of friends. Although they were bubbly in class, none of them are looking for new friends. I was initially hurt when multiple people weren’t available for months at a time to do something as simple as grab coffee. I had to come to the realization that people in New York aren’t as quick to invite you into their circle of friends. It is disappointing and finding friends is something I’m still working on–there are ways to meet people here. You can do things on your own here without feeling strange. I go to coffee shops to study, check out new places and wonder through Central Park alone. I’m also planning to check out some Meetup events. They also have couple groups on Meetup that Joe and I are planning to check out! Yes making friends is hard but you just have to be patient.
Seamless is awesome: I’m kind of obsessed with the app Seamless. It’s like the Uber of food delivery. Busy day? You can order food to be delivered to your apartment through the app and pay for it there [along with the tip]. It’s super easy and I will be using it a lot this winter!
I wonder what I will learn in the next month!
Sounds like you are learning alot. I haven't actually ever been to NYC but I have heard its great. I would love to get the chance to do the fun stuff you mention here. Moving is tough…. especially while busy studying and trying to find a new niche. I moved around quite a bit when my hubby was in the navy. The navy kinda gave me a built in set of support thats too bad you can't connect more with the people in the same program but maybe its just not meant to be the people not the program lol. I am sure they are the ones missing out 🙂 Anyways good luck.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment! I am definitely learning a lot. Moving is tough…I am glad you had that support system with the navy. I hope you get the chance to visit NYC in the future 🙂