The Big Apple

As Thanksgiving becomes a memory and Christmas rolls in to Ames, IA the flurries bring a timely reminder of not just the masses of snow that will soon engulf the Midwest but also of the finals that are just around the corner. However, sitting at Café Milo and sipping my Coffee I am not thinking of the days to come, but of a Christmas spent in the Big Apple not too long ago. Christmas is a time that always brings a longing and a desire to be with family. It has indeed been a long time since I spent Christmas at home. In the 5 years since my last Christmas at home a lot has happened: I have graduated from both high school and college, travelled to a lot of different places, and made many friends. That however, is a different story which will have to be addressed when I write about Ames, IA.

To the world New York is the ultimate city. What better place to start explori ng NY than Ellis Island where many a migrant entered the US for reasons that were as varied as their backgrounds. This place still gives one the feeling of a new beginning.  This is what it was to the new migrants, whether they were German, British and Irish nationals seeking a better life or those from Eastern Europe fleeing persecution. They were all here for the American dream. For a third world national like me, with quite a bit of global travelling under my belt this dream is still very real as it is to many outside the US. The vast majority of the world, if asked where they would like to relocate to, will undoubtedly say the US despite the current economic downturn and international ill will brought on by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although why the US wanted to invade a country whose name most Americans can’t even pronounce still baffles me.

I however, did not enter the big apple through Ellis Island (although I would have loved to); I had to settle for landing in Newark, NJ and then driving to Staten Island. We spent most of our time crashing in the living room of a Sri Lankan family that let us stay. This was a great relief for us college students on a tight budget. The first morning we decided to take the ferry to Manhattan. Getting to the Ferry itself was an adventure, as the directions of “Keep going down this street and then take a right” seemed simple to start off with but after just one wrong turn we were lost! So we had to walk into a gas station and ask for directions.  We were taken aback when the attendant addressed us in Sinhala. We soon learnt that a lot of migrants from Sri Lanka work at gas stations in Staten Island. I figured that if one could find people from a small island on the opposite side of the world in NY then this must indeed be quite a diverse place.

Diversity is pretty much the theme of the city. Skin color, hair color, and even accents varied from one person to another. I am sure that most of these people were tourists but even so in a strange way they seemed to all belong. Even on the beautiful beaches of Sri Lanka almost exclusively reserved for tourists you know who belongs and who is visiting, but on the streets of Manhattan those rules don’t apply. The guy dressed in a suit that screams out ‘Wall Street’ could well be the tourist and the guy peering into a shop dressed in a bright orange beach shirt may well have an apartment down the street! What gives a tourist away in this city is the map of the subway system that they carry and the look of awe on their face when they set eyes on the brightly lit Times Square or the Glass cube that sticks out of the ground housing the Apple Store!

                For the rest of our stay in NY we did all of the things that tourists do. We took a cruise that took us around the Statue of Liberty; we climbed up to the top of the Empire State building, we visited the Museum of Natural History, visited the giant Christmas Tree at the Rockefeller center and even went up to ground zero and took a moment to reflect on the tragedy that shook not just the city but the entire nation. All of these places were great to visit and I would recommend that anyone visiting NY do all of these things. However, I will not dwell on these experiences as I will simply be writing stuff that one can easily find in a guide book. It is the less publicized and less flashy parts of NY that appeal to me. The subway system for instance although dilapidated and in desperate need of a facelift adds so much character to the city. The image of narrow streets with yellow cabs zooming through while many a tourist tries desperately to catch one is as much a part of New York as the Empire State Building. The little Italian pizzerias found at the corner of almost every block  present a far better (and cheaper) dining option which captures the flavor of the city better than any rooftop restaurant with a view of the statue of Liberty.

                Of all of my experiences of New York, I did save the last and the most cliché one for the last! If you are in New York for New Years Eve where do you spend it? Do you sit on a couch and watch TV? Or do you brave the cold, the unruly crowds and go see a ball being dropped in Times Square?  Being of the more adventurous type obviously I had to pick the latter! Apart from the size of the ball being dropped which was too small for having millions of people watch, Times Square did not disappoint. Standing for nearly 12 hours in freezing temperatures was not enough to dampen the mood of the crowd which had come from many different places to what is probably the biggest New Year’s party in the world. However, the well prepared police force was able to keep the huge crowd in check. I am sure that I will spend many a New Years Eve sitting on my couch watching TV and I might even see the ball being dropped in Times Square; but the one spent standing in Times Square while my toes froze, listening to people singing ‘there were 99 bottles of beer’ over and over again will be the one that I will always remember and talk about. 

                My advice to anyone visiting New York is simple: do go see the statue of Liberty, climb up to the top of the empire state building and do all the touristy things that you can find, but do save some time to ride the subway, to walk the streets and talk to the people on the street, enjoy a hotdog made by a street vendor or a slice of pizza from a road side pizzeria and while you are at it try to catch a cab and you might even get lucky!