It's My Life

First Day in NYC (Day 114)

I bought a ticket for a hop-on-hop-off open top bus ride today, and hopped on, intending to take one whole round without hopping off. However, traffic was extremely, painfully slow, and so I got off at Chinatown to have lunch… fishball noodles! I had it at one of the HK-style cafes there, and it was actually more like instant noodles with fish balls. Well, still it was a decent meal at just $3.50 in NYC, can’t complain much I guess. At least they gave me 11 fish balls…

Then I went to the subway station intending to take the tube to meet my friend at Columbia University. Being totally new to the NYC subway I was totally taken aback by the complicated network of routes… so I asked the ticket vendor what train I should take. That was a Chinese guy, and he looked at me as though I was a moron and yelled an indecipherable answer at me. I asked how much the ticket cost and he yelled $2, grabbed the money from me, and practically threw the card through the hole in the window.

I asked a passer-by for directions instead.

Later when I was getting back from Columbia U to Times Square, the ticket I bought had a problem and I couldn’t get through the turnstile, so I asked the ticket vendor for assistance… and got yelled at again. Seems like he couldn’t understand English or just couldn’t be bothered to listen - I told him the ticket had a problem and he just asked me to try again. So I went to the turnstile to try again… couldn’t work. I looked at him, and he was motioning furiously at me to try again. So I did so again and again. Couldn’t work still. Then I walked back to the counter, looked at him, and he again had that “you are a moron” look and told me to go through the manual gate instead. Dammit. What’s the problem with these people.

When I got back to my room, I realised that someone took my towel. Gee. Of all things, someone stole my towel, a used one too. Now I got to buy a new towel before I can shower =( Better lock all my stuff tomorrow before I go out.

© 2008 this lush garden within.