streets and avenues

Indians are not used to grids. We are very comfortable with chaos. Structure confuses me. The best thing that happened to me in NY was that my bro gave me one of the street maps, which I held on to for dear life (its another thing that it looked the same upside down or downside up!). I loved walking on the streets of New York, although it reminded me of VT station in Mumbai, where people bump into each other while walking. If you think I could easily navigate, now that I had a map, then I'm laughing! I'm hopeless with directions. More often than not, I ended walked in the opposite directiononly to find another place of interest, like I was trying to get to Central Park, and where do I find myself? Guggenheim!

metro card

I think i ran out of credit on the Metro card at one of the Path stations while transiting to NJ. A very nice lady offered me her metro card.

mobile phones

at and t sim card

just a random doodle

I found this doodle in my diary. Probably drew it on my flight from NY to Chicago.

Fall colours

guacalicious!

Chipotle's day in and day out! mmmm....my favvvvvvvv food!
Here's one of my favvvv places in NY! Freaking out on beans and guacamole!! Although I died everytime I tried to finish  my burrito, I'm still a fan!

Enter the Dragon

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Took the ferry from the Pier close to Battery Park for the Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty tour on a windy day. After going through some security checks,

Poland Spring

Like we say ‘mineral water’ for bottled water in India, they call it ‘spring water’ around here. Everyone drinks ‘Poland Spring’. It's equivalent of our ‘Bisleri’ in India.

Apples in New York

I visited the most talked-about Apple Flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York. The store has a spiral glass staircase, which leads to the basement. It looks like a big glass cube. Very very fancy. There are waterfalls outside the store and it is permanently mobbed with tourists and Mac lovers. We tried to get a solo picture of me, but ultimately I gave up and said I'll manage with the crowd in the background.  I say what's the big deal in having a fancy store that doesn't even have its own products? I was looking for a normal, regular, adaptor plug for my macbook,  coz mine decided to die a sudden death and they didn't even have it! Whattttttttttt! Just imagine- the NEW YORK APPLE STORE doesn't even have a basic adaptor! 'sPity! Tch Tch! And I still prefer you over the PC!!

Pronounciations

I had fun communicating with people in New York. I wanted to take the train to a station called 'Fulton'. So I asked the lady at the ticket counter for directions. I said, "Can you tell me how I can get to 'Fulllton' station?" She wouldn't understand. I said 'Fullltonn'. Naaa...I then pulled out a map and pointed out the station to her. She exclaimed, "Oh...Foolton! Cross the street, take a left and its two blocks away".
At another time, I wanted to take one of these 'Path' trains that go from New Jersey to Manhattan and I randomly asked a few passer-bys where the nearest 'Paaaath' station was and nobody would know. Then it struck me that these guys just cannot interpret. I said 'Patttttth' and Bingo! Suddenly, everyone knew where it was! Magic! Now this one is completely insane. There is a place called 'Houston' in America, which is pronounces as 'Hue-stunn'. But there is a small part in New York, which is also called 'Houston'. But, guess what this one's called...'House-stunn'. Beats me! The next time i wanted to know something, I knew how to 'aesssssssssk' them!!  ;)

Diwali in New York