“Welcome to New York City”

New York, NY
May 8, 2010

(14:00)

“Oh crap”
The bus I was in had wireless internet so I was checking e-mails and watching TV almost the entire way to NY. That made the trip super fast.



When we arrived to New Jersey the bus went super slow because of the insanely amount of traffic… It was like if I was on a Movie studio tour, looking at the places where all the movies I watched about New York were filmed.

There were homeless everywhere, and gangster-looking people walking around, police cars with the lights on, and arresting somebody. It looked dangerous!!

Suddenly I realized that I was alone, in a city a never been before, with a huge bag, an expensive camera hanging on my neck and a terrified face that put me on evidence that I wasn’t from here. And I said to myself “Oh crap”.




I did hear too many stories that it would take a long time to get use to a huge city again. I was getting scared.

The bus went throughout a tunnel that would enter to the Island of Manhattan. This was the same tunnel that I watched in some moves such as Independence Day and I am legend, with Will Smith, or 15 blocks with Bruce Willis, among many others.

I got off the bus in Houston Street in SoHo* and I noticed that everyone who also got off the bus with me took a taxi.

In seconds, I was alone.



“For Crying Out Loud"
I tried to call friends to check on Internet and tell me where the closest subway station was but no-one answered the phone.

I was scared.

So I took a deep breath and, like if part of myself stood apart from my body, I said to myself… “For criying out loud Hernan, you are from freaking Buenos Aires! You KNOW how to get around a city, so get a hold of yourself and stop being stupid”



Once in the subway, I saw people push and give each other the nastiest looks I ever seen since I left Argentina. People were acting just like I remembered people acted in Buenos Aires.

When I got to the apartment a doorman wearing a fancy uniform opened the door for me and said with a smile “Welcome to New York City”




*Did you know that Soho comes from "South Houston" so everything that is south of Houston is called SoHo

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