One Year and 2 Birthday's

One year has passed since my arrival into the land of opportunities. It has definitely lived up to its name. Opportunities galore, the only problems are that this saying does not work without others such as "being at the right place at the right time", "time is money". This one year has really taught me a lot, other than what I am learning from my masters program of course.

When I arrived here my mind was full of thoughts and images of the America that I had lived in a few years ago. Changed it has, in many ways and yet it is still the same, perhaps it is my attitude towards it that has changed. New York is New York, the city that never sleeps, and inspite of all that has happened here since 2001 the city is still bustling with energy. The people are mostly friendly, when they have the time they smile but I've had the unfortunate opportunity of witnessing some very rude remarks and behavior too.

The good thing is that I don't get asked if we ride on elephants in India or whether i bought my shoes when I came to this country, the people in NY are more aware of the world around them. But then again most often people think I’m Hispanic and insist in speaking espaniol....excuse my spellings. Though when I arrived here I had to take an English test, yes other than the TOEFL, I aced it. The lady handing me my results was very intrigued and asked if I had learnt English in school. I informed her that English was the first language I spoke or learned for that matter. On which she replied “Yes, but that is Indian English”, to which I simply answered “No as a matter of fact it is British English”.

NY is definitely a city where time is of the essence, you see people walking at record times.....with their high heels, Gucci and Prada bags. In the summer you see men dressed in their nice suits riding bicycles on the streets. What does not seize to amaze me is the fashion sense here; considering it is a highly fashionable country (or claims to be) I just cannot understand their fashion or their colour palettes. The funkiest colour combinations that you could ever imagine, purple with red, green with pink the list is endless…..

I actually live in New Jersey in a town called West New York, it is right across the Hudson and it has the beautiful view of the Manhattan Skyline. A quaint little town, with winding roads and nice people. It takes me 15 mins or so to get to the city when there is no traffic. I don’t have much to say about my town except that I like the long walks I can take by the breath taking view of Manhattan or a bicycle ride….yeah I just got a new bicycle….its awesome.

The seasons are extremes, and I mean it when I say extremes, the winter…….brrrrrrr freezing……and I have been informed that I did not see the worst of it. You take an extra hour getting ready coz of all the layers that you have to load up just to go to the grocery store. But what is really bad is when u get to ur destination, and the building is heated…..to spend the whole day in those layers (no my college does not have lockers, where I may store all those layers). I walked around, no I literally waddle like a fat duck all over the place. I had not seen my toes in the longest and I had become “white” no pun intended. The first snow is beautiful, the whole city is white but come afternoon it is slushy and brownish white…..not a very pretty sight.

Spring is not like the name suggests, its winter. They just added a new name to have a new fashion line out. And then the much awaited summer…….hot like aamchi Mumbai, only not as humid. This time the problem is when u reach ur office building or school, the ac’s are so effective that the fact that u r wearing very little really is a pain. I guess fall could very well be the best season as the weather is just about right, not too hot and not too cold but it does not last very long.

Ok enough about the weather and NY…..moving here has taught me a lot about myself. First, I am a “monica” from friends, yeah it may not be the best reference but I don’t know of any other clean freaks……I also discovered that I am quite like my mother in many ways. I catch myself saying things she would say and do.
I have realized that I love open toe shoes……and that it is ok if I am wearing flat shoes. My own fashion sense has changed, actually not really changed, but its just that I wear stuff here that I would not even think of wearing in India. Oh yeah! I have realized that I am a really bad shopper…….extremely picky. I have rediscovered that I do enjoy alone time……but it can get really bad.

The most important thing that I have realized is that this maybe the land of opportunity, and that people come here and feel like their lives turn around. But that has coz of the person themselves, and not just this country.

All in all this one year has had some really beautiful days and some really bad ones. I find this country inspiring, its freedom of thought, freedom of education, freedom of expression is what makes this a land of opportunities.