After finishing high school in Connecticut my buddy Anouk Govil and I both made the decision to go and study at a university in New York. The location was perfect for us to live as students because not only is this one of the greatest cities in the world, it was also close enough to home, yet far enough away that we could have our independence. Although I had visited the Big Apple on a couple of occasions previously, living there was something completely different to what I had ever experienced. I was chatting to Anouk last week about what advice he would offer to someone coming to live here, and this was the advice that he would share.
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Here in new York nice guys most certainly finish last and you have to be aware of this when you move here. This is not to say that you must be rude to everyone of course, but you must always have your own interests above your own. In our first week here I would give my taxi to someone else, open doors for people and allow people to pass me on the subway, the result unfortunately was that everyone stole my cabs, I would hold the door open for hours on end and I would never get the train that I was trying to get on. Make sure that you only nice to point here, anything more and the city will swallow you up.
Cost
You have to work very hard to find the best places to go where you can get a bang for your buck because most of this city is extraordinarily expensive. Don’t be blind to this or else you will get yourself into difficulties in just a few weeks. The rent and the bills are so expensive that you probably won’t have anything left for luxury items like, food and water! Seriously though you really need to put some work in when it comes to finding the best places to eat for your money, and you should always, always check out the prices of whatever you are going to buy before you get to the counter, or you could be in for quite the surprise.
Tourism
Although I am not a New York resident per se, I do believe that I have spent enough time living here to consider myself as a non-tourist, which therefore gives me the right to complain about tourists. The truth is that there are millions of them, all loaded with bulky bags and ostentatious cameras which will get your goat. The tourists block up the trains, they crowd around hotspots like vultures around a carcass and they will slow you down if you are not careful. You need to try your best to avoid the tourist hotspots and if you want to visit such places, do so when things are a little quieter such as first thing in the morning.
To read more on topics like this, check out the lifestyle category.
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