I've been in America for just over a month and a half now. In that month and a half enough stuff has happened to fill probably one hundred blog posts and age me by about as many years. I wish I could have blogged about it sooner, however, I have been incredibly busy juggling my workload with finding a new life. In that case, this blog will have to be made up of written snapshots of all that I've done in this time.
So without further ado, here's everything I've done, in as few words as possible:
September 26th - Left Britain. Feels like an eternity ago now. Bid adieu to my family, cars being on the left, and not having a voice that is an instant conversation starter.
Later that day, I got on the plane and landed in America.
Just before I left, my family all had a final meal together. Everyone was happy, except my father, who sulked throughout because we went to Giraffe instead of Wetherspoons (or if you're American, a restaurant instead of a pub.) Here's a picture that sums up his mood:
Then I got on the flight and landed. Got through US customs and met my fiancee, Willa, for the first time in nearly 11 months. Emotions and joy and so on. I'm sure you can imagine how it feels to be reunited with someone after a very long time.
September 27th - The never ending and constantly terrifying subway ride
I have to hand it to the managers of JFK international airport; they certainly have an ingenious way of indoctrinating new arrivals to New York City. Instead of, say, organizing a regular coach that would go directly to Penn station every hour, they stick disorientated and jet lagged new arrivals on the subway for hours.
Yes, you could get a taxi or an Uber, but with the distance covered the bill will be in the hundreds of dollars compared to 2ish dollars for the subway.
So anyway, getting on the subway at some point past midnight was just about possibly the scariest and most startling way to introduce me to my new home. We encountered drug addicts shouting at transport workers, huge groups of policemen, and other things that I appear to have blocked out. I remember feeling like we were in one of those bizarrely popular immersive reality experiences; this one called, "Oh no, New York!"
However, in the end we arrived mostly in one piece, dazed, tired and amazed at being reunited.
The next morning, we decided to have one day of fun and relaxation before the business of house hunting took over. We went to a place called Governors Island. It's a small island just off Manhattan, filled with cool stuff.
Here's some pictures:
The Brooklyn skyline. We didn't realize at that point that we would end up living there.
September 28th - Met a real estate broker called Claudio. I already thought that estate agents were basically the devil but with less sympathy, but brokers are worse.
He fed me lots of misinformation about renting properties in New York, that probably set my house hunting back by at least a week. And he had a smug face. We didn't use a broker in the end, so there.
Here's some advice to anyone looking to rent in NYC. NEVER USE A BROKER!
September 29th - October 11th - Lots happened in this period that I will use in future blog posts, but the main activity can be summarized as looked at property, didn't get it, looked at property, didn't get it, looked at a property, didn't get it.
Left the friend's place we were staying in to flit between Airbnbs and hostels with increasing aimlessness.
October 12th - October 31st - Moved to New Jersey, hours away from New York City. Willa's Aunt and Uncle let us stay at their home that they weren't using.
If ever a place summed up suburban America it was South Plainfield, where the house was. It was sparse, safe, and most of the houses had gone overboard for Halloween. The only shop within a mile of the house was a little shop called Little Shop.
I quite liked living there, despite not having a car and the two hour bus commutes into the city. I was comfortable and at peace. It got even better when I found the perfect oldies station on the radio to listen to every day.
However, eventually New York came calling. An application we had put on a small apartment in Brooklyn was approved. We signed the papers and Willa's Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to drop us and our things off in the city.
November 1st - Now - This month has mostly been filled with getting nice stuff for our apartment. It's been significantly less stressful than October, which was filled with uncertainty about what we were going to do with living and commuting. We even have a TV now!
We also saw this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/-EXGVwGFI8/?taken-by=whobalaya