Experience #12

Solo in NYC

You know, if you're not being attacked by pigeons in Central Park or running into a group of midgets dressed as baby cupids posing as a band (which is a thing I swear, I'm witness), New York isn't all that intimidating. A big factor of the stereotypical ~growing up~ is learning how to be independent and self-sufficient, or at least so I've heard correct me if I'm wrong here.

Regardless, Sophia and I are doing it -- we're living it up, solo, in the city and we have yet to be mugged/killed! Let's hope I didn't just jinx it...and before you ask, no, cat-calling doesn't count. As I mentioned before we're staying at a relative of Sophia's family's apartment, but she writes during the day and since we're sleeping in her office we get kicked out into the city around 9am and get back close to 5-6pm. Meaning, we have all day to explore quite literally everything:)

the view from our window in the morning

One of the other reasons I really wanted to stay the extra two days and separate form our class was basically just to see if I could do it, you know? I'd never been to New York, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know how to ride the subway, etc. etc....the list could go on and on. The point of that being that there were too many 'I didn't know's' versus what I actually did know. So I set a goal for myself to fix that!

Day 1

Now, can a person say they were 'solo' in a foreign metropolis, even if they had their best friend by their side? Does it help if said friend is almost as lost as you are when it comes to riding the subway and getting around? For the sake of this blog posts title I'm going to go with a yes on both of those.

Or day was fairly straightforward and after we woke up, our generous host was kind enough to make us some breakfast. Shortly afterwards, we set out on the town. First went down to visit Marymount's campus, then the New Schools down in Greenwich Village,and then we made our way back Uptown to go to Barnard. By then, it was nearly 1 o'clock and at 1:30 Sophia had a meeting with a Barnard student to ask questions/etc. So, we did that: she met us at this Hungarian pastry shop, we got iced coffees, and then went to the park across the street to chat. The student, Emma, was so nice and talked such great things about Barnard that she made me wish I'd applied!

After our coffee date with Emma, Sophia and I grabbed a quick lunch from a cafe that promoted farm-to-table eating (so cool! and so delicious!) and Soph showed me around Barnard some more. By the time we got done with that we were pretty worn out so we decided since we were getting up early the next morning that it would be best if we just stayed in for the rest of the night. Which turned out to be so much fun -- we had dinner with our host and she told us the coolest stories. Turns out she's writing a book about her family (also Sophia's family) and she told us how they had relatives on the Lusitania, how for her 21st birthday her friends strung up cigarettes like Christmas lights for her and she smoked her way around the room, and other priceless gems like that. I bet Sophia was happy because know she has great blackmail against her family;)

Day 2 

Today there were no excuses -- I really was on my own. Sophia and I both had our respective meetings in the morning and after packing up our bags and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we were off on our separate ways.

But of course, this wouldn't be a true experience if something embarrassing/terrifying-in-the-moment/funny-later-on didn't happen. Now, I'll proceed to explain how Lusi screwed up the subway system, even though she'd been riding it without a hitch for the past week. Obviously, I'm a pro when it comes to screw ups; hold the applause, please.

Here goes. All's fine. I'm making my merry way down 77th and I get to the stop at the corner of 77/Lexington. I had the nyc subway app downloaded and I'd already checked which route I needed to take last night so it was all good. I was prepared, I was ready. All I needed was to get on the R train and it was a straight shot to my next stop. So I go underground, swipe my pass, and go and stand by the edge and wait for the train. I'd made it in, you'd think that nothing could go wrong at this point. Well, think again because right at that moment where I thought 'dear god thank you for not letting me screw up and miss my interview.' I look up at the sign above my head and it announces that there is no R train at this station, or L or N or Q or any of the other ones. No the only train at that station was the 6 ~cue panic mode~

Now I'm real nervous, and I have no idea what to do. I'm underground so I can't eve check my route again so I book it as fast as I can and get out on the street. There I open my app, and within 30 seconds realize just how stupid I actually am. I had checked my route yesterday. Yesterday was Sunday, so I had switched the time zone to weekend. However today was Monday, specifically morning rush. And I hadn't.changed.the.time.zone. So unbelievably stupid. Again, hold the applause.

Hold on though, it gets better. Alright no big deal, I've established I'm really bad at working the subway app, but at this point I've tops only lost maybe a couple minutes (but not my sanity, that I lost a while ago.) My new route is to take the 6 train all the way down to Union Square. All right, no big deal, I won't be late. I had a new determination not to mess up again at this point.

So back down into the underground I went, casually trying to blend in with all the new yorkers. So far so good, I didn't trip down the stairs, no one suspects I'm from Kentucky yet, and I go to swipe my card. And I swipe it, I go to move forward...and find myself stuck. I swipe again, the bar still won't budge, and now the machine is angrily beeping at me. 'Just swiped.' it reads. By now there's a line backed up behind me, I smile sheepishly over my shoulder but they don't return the smile. Damn it. Now they know I'm out of town.

The panic is rising again -- because once is just not enough. I swipe again; still nothing. 5 more minutes lost, my meeting is in 50 minutes and the train ride takes about 40. In that moment if hysteria I realized just how on my own I was. But I pulled myself together and went to the desk and told the lady my card wouldn't work and that it said 'just swiped.' Also, I didn't quite understand what that meant because I hadn't just swiped it. Besides, shouldn't you be able to swipe it whenever? She took it from me, then told me with an accusatory glance that yes, in fact, I had just swiped it a couple minutes ago at that very same station. And then I remembered: the wrong route, the wrong time zone, the panicked Lusi. Well crap, now I'm embarrassed and she's telling me I have to wait 18 minutes before I can get on another train.

Long story short, I screwed up big time and had to buy myself a single ride ticket because if I had waited the 18 minutes, then I really would have been late.

But wait! It gets better. At this point, I bet you all are thinking 'jeez, how much more embarrassment can this girl handle?!' Turns out quite a bit. So I finally make it down to the New School in one piece and with about 5 minutes to spare. My meeting with financial aid was at 9, my coffee date with my friend Mead who was going to show me around campus at 10, I was golden. So I'm told to take a seta and wait for them to call me, so I did just that. I pulled out my book to read and tried to not think about how I was about to beg this school for more money. 9:05 came and nothing. 9:10 came and went, still nothing. At 9:15 a student worker comes into the room, sets her stuff down and looks at me curiously. We make awkward eye contact naturally, and then she comes over.

'Is there anything I can do for you?'
'Oh no, thank you! I'm just waiting to get called up to financial aid.'
'Financial aid? But its 9 o'clock? They don't open until 10 on Mondays.'
'Wait, I'm sorry what? I called a couple days ago and scheduled a meeting and they told me to be here at 9...'
'I'm sorry, I don't know who you talked to but the office doesn't open for another hour. Is there anything else I can help you with?'

-.-   <--- That was the only face I was capable of making after hearing that news. And it wash;t like I could have waited to go talk to financial aid when they opened because that was when I hd to go meet Mead. And I couldn't go talk to them after because it would be 11 by then and I had a meeting with my other college at 12 and the train uptown was another 45 minutes. So basically, I was screwed. Instead I just went a got myself a nice big coffee and waited for Mead. What followed next was much less exciting, school stuff and what not, which you can read about in another post because college tours aren't really way this post is about now is it.

the evening view of the city from our window