From NEW YORK to You: Part One of Many
Well, if From BU to You wasn’t so catchy, I would change the name to From New York to You or From Brooklyn Heights to You or From the New York Film Academy to you, but alas, none of them have the same ring to it. So, for the next 8 weeks, I’ll be here in New York. Here’s my adventure so far:
Yesterday, I flew from Denver to Newark, and although my plane was delayed, we still got into the airport in good time. After finding my stuff, I took a taxi to Brooklyn Heights, which cost almost $100, despite it’s short length of 14 miles. I checked into my room and just as I was about to go upstairs, I heard an Australian accent and realized that it could very possibly be my roommate, Maria, whom I had talked with over facebook. It was in fact Maria, but she informed me that there had been a mix up and I was not her roommate and she had been placed in a different room. Not a huge problem and so far, the dorm looked great. I got upstairs and into my room only to find the most disgustingly dirty room every. Not only did it have enough dust to fill Invesco Field, it looked like no one had been there in years! However, there was a comforter on one of the beds and I saw some towels in the bathroom. Everyone was going out to dinner, so I threw my stuff in the room and didn’t get to unpack until the morning. I assumed my roommate would get back while I was sleeping and we could talk in the morning about the HUGE mess.
I woke up in the morning and there was still no roommate, so I started to snoop around a little. There was a dusty comforter and sheets but no pillow; there was change scattered everywhere in amongst heaps of dust that covered EVERYTHING; the microwave was completely filthy; there was nothing in the fridge, but the freezer had probably 10 to 15 half-eaten cartons of icecream, as well as a take out container of beans and cranberry sticker, a box of toaster strudels, and a piece of fresh Atlantic scrod with an outdate of September 2007. The bathroom was disgusting as ever. The toilet was legitimately brown all over and the tub looked like someone recently removed a rotting corpse from it. I decided to take a shower despite the extreme skankiness of the situation and the inside of the shower curtain was nasty. There was still no roommate. I looked in the closet and there was a bucket full of Christmas garlands (not exactly what I would bring with me), a broken air conditioner and a shoe rack. In the drawers under her bed there were a bunch of stretch pants and strange jeans with rhinestones and stretchy ties instead of a button at the top (this girl either has bad taste or left the clothes behind for a reason). My favorite was the gold spandex stretch pants with gold satin pockets. On the back of the door were some ratty, dusty towels and there were old hair products all over the bathroom. Under the counter was the most disgusting mess of all. I went down to the ResLife office to see if they could do anything. The guy took my room number and said he was really sorry and they would see what they could do. I asked about whether or not I had a roommate and told him I thought someone had abandoned their stuff he said with the super high turn over they have it’s possible our room just got overlooked. But I genuinely think it was overlooked for months. With the amount of dust on everything, I really don’t think there’s been anyone living her for months. The good news is that we gained a nice full length mirror and a scale (although it’s in kilos- I guess that should make me feel better about my weight). The guys we know are happy because our former inhabitant left us a case of Cup of Noodles. So altogether, a very puzzling situation.
After I left the ResLife Office, I decide to find the nearby Target to get necessary supplies. However, just my luck, the weekend I got here happens to be Subway Construction Weekend, so all of the directions I got from people were totally useless because Train X would be diverted to platform Y and so on and so forth. And it’s not simple like Boston in that there is only one platform with two directions. Trains in Boston generally also go pretty logically across town but these New York trains are just all over the place. So I tried to find my way to Target but ended up totally lost and confused, so I just decided to find a pharmacy and grab the essentials. How confusing!
I dropped my stuff at my room and then decided to go run errands and sight-see. I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan and then made my way up to Central Park, where I sat, ate lunch, and laid in the grass for an hour. I was planning on going to the zoo or something, but I was too tired I knew I needed to get back and try to resolve the roommate issue. So, I went to the train and using my map reading skills, I decided how I would get back to Brooklyn (there are many options). Finally I made it back to my room, but there was still no roommate and there was still a huge mess. I went downstairs and the ResLife directors apologized profusely and called up someone to clean it for me. They told me they’d be up soon, so I went back to my room and started unpacking. 30 minutes later, I heard the classic yet corny “knock, knock, knock-knock, knock --- knock-knock” at my door and thought it might be Maria (the Aussie girl who was supposed to be my roommate) or Miranda (her new roommate). I looked in the peep hole but didn’t see anyone so I opened my door. There stood the smallest man I have ever seen in my life- and I mean that literally. He walked under my arm into the room and started saying something in English, though it hardly sounded like English and I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. At first I thought he was looking for someone but then he got so frustrated with his English that he called someone so they could translate for him. As soon as he called and started speaking Spanish, it was totally pointless to translate, because I understood everything he said. The good thing is that as soon as he realized I spoke Spanish, he decided to do a super thorough job cleaning our room. We talked for several hours about anything we could think of. It was very convenient- I could practice my Spanish and I think I convinced him to clean our room. It took 6 hours for him to clean it, in fact.
Just before dinner, Maria, Miranda, and Mark came to my room. It turned out they made her move rooms again since they double-booked Miranda’s room and assigned her to both of our rooms. So, we cleared away mystery girl’s stuff and moved in Maria. She wasn’t thrilled about having to move again, but at least we have a nicer room than her old one.
Anyways, that’s my New York experience so far! Hopefully I’ll be able to blog frequently and keep everyone updated.
Yesterday, I flew from Denver to Newark, and although my plane was delayed, we still got into the airport in good time. After finding my stuff, I took a taxi to Brooklyn Heights, which cost almost $100, despite it’s short length of 14 miles. I checked into my room and just as I was about to go upstairs, I heard an Australian accent and realized that it could very possibly be my roommate, Maria, whom I had talked with over facebook. It was in fact Maria, but she informed me that there had been a mix up and I was not her roommate and she had been placed in a different room. Not a huge problem and so far, the dorm looked great. I got upstairs and into my room only to find the most disgustingly dirty room every. Not only did it have enough dust to fill Invesco Field, it looked like no one had been there in years! However, there was a comforter on one of the beds and I saw some towels in the bathroom. Everyone was going out to dinner, so I threw my stuff in the room and didn’t get to unpack until the morning. I assumed my roommate would get back while I was sleeping and we could talk in the morning about the HUGE mess.
I woke up in the morning and there was still no roommate, so I started to snoop around a little. There was a dusty comforter and sheets but no pillow; there was change scattered everywhere in amongst heaps of dust that covered EVERYTHING; the microwave was completely filthy; there was nothing in the fridge, but the freezer had probably 10 to 15 half-eaten cartons of icecream, as well as a take out container of beans and cranberry sticker, a box of toaster strudels, and a piece of fresh Atlantic scrod with an outdate of September 2007. The bathroom was disgusting as ever. The toilet was legitimately brown all over and the tub looked like someone recently removed a rotting corpse from it. I decided to take a shower despite the extreme skankiness of the situation and the inside of the shower curtain was nasty. There was still no roommate. I looked in the closet and there was a bucket full of Christmas garlands (not exactly what I would bring with me), a broken air conditioner and a shoe rack. In the drawers under her bed there were a bunch of stretch pants and strange jeans with rhinestones and stretchy ties instead of a button at the top (this girl either has bad taste or left the clothes behind for a reason). My favorite was the gold spandex stretch pants with gold satin pockets. On the back of the door were some ratty, dusty towels and there were old hair products all over the bathroom. Under the counter was the most disgusting mess of all. I went down to the ResLife office to see if they could do anything. The guy took my room number and said he was really sorry and they would see what they could do. I asked about whether or not I had a roommate and told him I thought someone had abandoned their stuff he said with the super high turn over they have it’s possible our room just got overlooked. But I genuinely think it was overlooked for months. With the amount of dust on everything, I really don’t think there’s been anyone living her for months. The good news is that we gained a nice full length mirror and a scale (although it’s in kilos- I guess that should make me feel better about my weight). The guys we know are happy because our former inhabitant left us a case of Cup of Noodles. So altogether, a very puzzling situation.
After I left the ResLife Office, I decide to find the nearby Target to get necessary supplies. However, just my luck, the weekend I got here happens to be Subway Construction Weekend, so all of the directions I got from people were totally useless because Train X would be diverted to platform Y and so on and so forth. And it’s not simple like Boston in that there is only one platform with two directions. Trains in Boston generally also go pretty logically across town but these New York trains are just all over the place. So I tried to find my way to Target but ended up totally lost and confused, so I just decided to find a pharmacy and grab the essentials. How confusing!
I dropped my stuff at my room and then decided to go run errands and sight-see. I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan and then made my way up to Central Park, where I sat, ate lunch, and laid in the grass for an hour. I was planning on going to the zoo or something, but I was too tired I knew I needed to get back and try to resolve the roommate issue. So, I went to the train and using my map reading skills, I decided how I would get back to Brooklyn (there are many options). Finally I made it back to my room, but there was still no roommate and there was still a huge mess. I went downstairs and the ResLife directors apologized profusely and called up someone to clean it for me. They told me they’d be up soon, so I went back to my room and started unpacking. 30 minutes later, I heard the classic yet corny “knock, knock, knock-knock, knock --- knock-knock” at my door and thought it might be Maria (the Aussie girl who was supposed to be my roommate) or Miranda (her new roommate). I looked in the peep hole but didn’t see anyone so I opened my door. There stood the smallest man I have ever seen in my life- and I mean that literally. He walked under my arm into the room and started saying something in English, though it hardly sounded like English and I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. At first I thought he was looking for someone but then he got so frustrated with his English that he called someone so they could translate for him. As soon as he called and started speaking Spanish, it was totally pointless to translate, because I understood everything he said. The good thing is that as soon as he realized I spoke Spanish, he decided to do a super thorough job cleaning our room. We talked for several hours about anything we could think of. It was very convenient- I could practice my Spanish and I think I convinced him to clean our room. It took 6 hours for him to clean it, in fact.
Just before dinner, Maria, Miranda, and Mark came to my room. It turned out they made her move rooms again since they double-booked Miranda’s room and assigned her to both of our rooms. So, we cleared away mystery girl’s stuff and moved in Maria. She wasn’t thrilled about having to move again, but at least we have a nicer room than her old one.
Anyways, that’s my New York experience so far! Hopefully I’ll be able to blog frequently and keep everyone updated.