Week 2: One is born, one dies, the land increases …. Galla
I have no idea what this means but I saw it in the African peoples room in the Museum of Natural History and I liked it.
The Subway! The bloody Subway!
Now I know I bled my heart out last week regarding the Subway. You probably had a good laugh too, you sick cat, because there is absolutely no way you’d be reading this just to make sure I made it to my second week safely.
At this point, I am comfortable moving around the Subway and switching trains to get where I need to be, eventually. I’ll explain.
It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi
I had to Google for some motivational quote like this to illustrate the gravity of my Subway troubles. I had not even heard of this guy Vince before today. I am not even sure if it is relevant to this here topic but it sounds good so just play along.
Some may argue that a man’s greatest achievements are not measured when he is at his best, but when he is against a wall (or the wrong train). And I agree!
At this point I am okay with the fact that at some point during the day, I may get lost in the subway or simply take the wrong train. But when that happens a few hundred times, you harden up and feel nothing really about it. I have become familiar with Subway stations that I have mistakenly found myself in before and that’s okay because that means I was able to get home last time.
It is an intricate system of sometimes admitting that you do not know where you are headed but you will eventually find your way back where you should be based on past and similar mistakes.
Feel free to quote this in your tweet, Instagram story or whatever. You will change a life.
Oh and if all that does not work and I cannot seem to get my way back, I simply call a Lyft. Genius, ay?
One thing that I noticed is that I am not the only one always walking around with Google Maps open. New Yorkers do too! That’s surprising for me that I could spend 14 years to a lifetime in a city and still need good old Google Maps to get around. i’d probably need about 4 months to know every other corner of Nairobi. But that gives me hope! That I might ask for directions from a New Yorker who is lost! I’d cherish that moment!
But I love that there is always something buzzing in the train stations. I thought I heard the best of it with the Opera performance and country music last week but it got better. There were these guys playing some Caribbean (is it? The kind of music people dance the Salsa or Tango to?) and people stopped to take pictures and eventually took the center stage to bust a move from Take the Lead.
And the good thing about Subways shows is you do not need to know or even understand the music! There is a place for everybody. You can just stand, stare and take pictures (read me), dance along to the music (definitely not me!) or join the band and actually play an instrument (you get the drift here).
Sunday Brunch
Have you ever had fried chicken, waffles and bottomless alcohol well in the middle of the day? I did not even know waffles and fried chicken was a thing but I am glad I tried this!
Sunday brunch apparently is a big deal in New York I was surprised by the number of restaurants that had Brunch offers with bottomless alcohol. For me Sunday is my lazy day. The kind I stay indoors and binge watch some show.
The best part about my first Sunday brunch experience was that our table was in the basement with some ambient lighting which made the setting dark. I was surprised by the amount of light that hit me when I walked out, which makes sense because it was only 2PM. I totally lost track of time which speaks to the good brunch conversations.
Pancakes at Clinton St.
When we hosted some of the Andela NYC team in Nairobi, I had the chance to show Gavin from sales around the National park and he returned the favor. In a very palatable fashion I must add!
I checked out Clinton Street Baking Company before I got to the restaurant. They have been voted by New York Magazine as having the best blueberry pancakes. Twice! You can imagine how excited I was.
We had to wait out in the cold (which is saying much since it is the warmest it has been since I got here) for one hour or so but it was worth the wait! You have got to try their shakes too. People flock and wait outside for hours just to have some pancakes!
While waiting outside, Gavin showed me this interesting coffee shop that you get to have coffee while petting a cat! Now I am not much of a pet person but this was interesting. Apparently this is quite popular in Japan, they are known as neko (cat) cafes!
NYC Nightlife
I did not know much about the clubs and parties in New York until I got here. So I really did not know what to expect and from my two-weekend experience, I could not have predicted the scene here!
NYC is the most populous city in United States with about 8 million people. It is a fast paced cosmopolitan joint that boasts of a diverse population, which probably explains the 15 million or so different types of restaurants. And I love that! But I felt that the DJ spent so much time calling out each and every nationality/race that was represented in the building.
It was all fun and games when he mentioned the Hispanics, Jamaicans, Puerto Ricans, Britons and the Italians in the building and dedicating the next song to them. It became more of a history lesson when he went on to mention about thirty more of those. At some point I expected he’d be specific enough to call out the Kenyans in the house from Eastlands.
And the DJ names! I thought having funny DJ names was a Kenyan thing! So this guy’s name was DJ A.K.A. I’d have guessed he is Kenyan, had he not deliberately left us out in this shoutouts. I mean we do have one DJ Duvet and Bunduki (rifle) so at this point anything goes.
Museums!
There is so much to see in NYC museums! And they happen to be so huge, it sometimes gets tiring to walk around. I have only been to the Museum of Sex (it exists, check it up), Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Natural History which was so huge I’ll have to go again sometime because I did not even get halfway.
At this point I feel like there are more museums than there are weekends for me here.
My two cents on a couple of things
There are a couple of things I have come to love and hate about New York. Hate is such a strong word though, its more like things I think could be done to make the Big Apple a little better.
Subway WiFi
Yes, the Subway again. There is nothing better than free WiFi and the MTA has setup a really fast network in all the train stations. A WiFi network that actually works I might add. Not one of those that redirect to the Orange payments page when you get on a Matatu. I hate those!
Doors!
I wish the doors would explicitly say if you need to push or pull! Or get a standard. I’ve been out here looking like a fool.
Chopsticks
I know it is not exactly NYC specific, but is there a README for this? Some documentation or best practices? Anything?
The cold
Can you just not exist? It has been a pretty warm weekend though.
Courteousness
I rarely ask for help in Nairobi, for absolutely no reason. I think New Yorkers are more willing to help you out if you ask for help in the streets. Some will even start a conversation when they realize you have an accent and you are not from around.
Basketball
Everyone is just so nice!
Restaurant Reviews
New Yorkers take their review seriously on yelp! And I love that. It means the restaurants will have good service and food or they are out of business.
Pictures
Here is a photo of Vince Lombardi by the way. You are welcome. Don’t mention it.
Remember when I went on about my glove last week? Looks like bad luck wasn’t done with me yet. I had my wallet snatched from my coat pocket on my way to Whitehall street station.
I hope whoever picked it is decent enough to drop somewhere I can pick it up, or at least be kind enough to put the passport photo of myself from 8 years ago in his wallet and tell his mates I changed his life with the few hundred shillings or so that was in it.
