El Kiosko Discount

The first full day in the States is over. It was probably the first time in my life that I felt like a true early bird - after I couldn't sleep since 3am, I was up and running at 6.30. I even did something productive and searched & booked my flight to San Francisco in the beginning of the next month.

63rd st in West New York

Later I decided to go to the university. First I explored the area of West New York a bit. The house is located in a quiet street, connecting two major arteries. On the one end of the street a few Manhattan buildings are visible.

A view of Manhattan

The place is inhabited mostly by a hispanic community. It was possible to hear that in the streets, busses. Commercials, banners and billboards left no doubt either. Of course there were some learning experiences, some of them acquired the hard way. First of all, even though it's New York (maybe not NYC, but close enough) the bus runs only every 30 min! Naively, I went to the bus stop without a prior check of the timetables. Naively, I believed that schedules would be on the bus stops, which turned out to contain only the route numbers. Having waited for 25 minutes, I entered the bus only to find out that exact fare is required and no change is given. So after a minute's ride I needed to hop off the bus and find a seven-eleven in order to get some change before entering the next bus.

Another interesting experience: we've all heard the word "dime, quarter, nickle, penny" etc. It is fine with quarter and penny, but how much is a dime? Convinced that this is only a colloquial name used in everyday American English, I started carefuly examining the coin. Unfortunately, it only contained the word "dime", without any indication on how many cents it is. I had to ask the saleswoman, who immediately realized that I was new. Her best guess: I was French.

Eventually, when I entered the bus, I figured out that they stop at every second block so it's always easy to know where the nearest bus stop is. There's air conditioning everywhere, including the buses. This makes it very difficult to survive on a hot day like today - going from a building, walking outside, entering a shop, taking a bus, walking again exposes you to really huge temperature fluctuations which can put a strain on the immune system. No wonder swine flu is spreading well here.

The ride was very long becasue of the many stops, heavy traffic and the overall chaos on the roads: delivery trucks notoriously occupying bus stops, roadworks, cars stopping in the middle of the lane blocking the traffic etc. I guess if I was to take the trip every day I would most likely learn Spanish in 6 months.

A Hoboken street

Hoboken is a whole different place compared to West New York. It's cleaner, the buildings are even and more resemble something that was planned before the construction started. It has a certain feel to it and I can easily understand why it is a trendy area with expensive rents.

A view of Manhattan

Just outside of the university are some walking terraces. Many buildings on the campus are located on top of a cliff overlooking the Hudson River with great views over Manhattan.

Song for today: Englishman in New York.

Lower Manhattan seen from Hoboken

Over and out!

El Kiosko Discount

West New York, United States