What Nobody Tells You About New York City

After a year living in the city of the many nicknames, I give it a try at picking the good, the bad and the ugly tourists won’t tell you.

You either love it or hate it. You either dream of coming here or you don’t.

Welcome to New York City. We also call it Gotham, the City that Never Sleeps, the Big Apple… What a time to be alive, huh?

Times Square looked like this in August of 2018. “Don’t go there unless you really have to,” I was warned by my first roommate, who has lived in the city for five years. (Photo: Karina Montoya G.)

I arrived in the city of the many nicknames in August of 2018, with no idea of what I was going to find. Besides traveling to San Francisco in 2017 to cover a Google event, I had never been in the United States. Growing up in Lima, Peru, I never watched Gossip Girl in my teenage years (which apparently convinced some of my Peruvian friends that Manhattan was the absolute most glamorous place in the world), and I didn’t come to New York with any particular “American dream” to pursue. I got into Columbia Journalism School, a personal goal I never thought I would achieve, and I was determined to get that master’s degree. I packed my bags, paid for my visa and got here.

After all, I am a journalist specializing in business and finance. How could I not be excited to be in the financial capital of the world?