NYC

Hello! I just got back from NYC last night! It was definitely an adventure. Honestly, it made me realize that I am truly a small town girl at heart! Not small like "small rural town in Georgia with no Walmart" small, but smaller than NYC. I could NEVER live there!

It's strange because, my whole life, everyone I have ever known has complained about how there is nothing to do in their home towns. People are inherently bored. And when you make suggestions, they always cost money, which leads to the next complaint: fun things are too expensive. But, I tell all you small town complainers, those complaints don't disappear in the big apple.

There really wasn't much to do at all. I mean, we can look at things, it's a big city so there is lots I haven't seen yet, but seeing isn't too exciting...especially when everything you see you have already seen on TV. There are stores and food and broadway shows, but everything is CRAZY expensive. And getting anywhere is a production. There are entrances to the subway about every other block, but the subway only stops every 7 or 8 blocks, so you have to walk the 6 or 7 blocks either under or above ground to get to the actual subway, then walk the same distance to wherever you are going on the other end. Not that it's a ton of effort, but it takes a lot of time, so if you don't have huge chunks of free time, leaving your area is not really feasible. Cabs are quicker, but expensive, especially since you are expected to tip the driver (there are actually gov't signs in the cabs telling you to, although they say you don''t have to). It's just not nearly as accessible as I expected it to be.

So, what did we do? We looked around, walked around, ate at mediocre restaurants, and saw a broadway show. The show was good, but otherwise, I just wasn't too impressed. Actually, if it weren't for the fact that I was so happy to see my sister and where she lives & goes to school, it would have been a really boring weekend. A really expensive boring weekend. The hotel was $400/night, it cost about $150 to fly there, $50 to get to & from the airport in NYC, $40 on Cabs in the city, $10 on the subway, and $30 to leave my car at the Atlanta airport. Not to mention broadway tickets that were $100 each and then food. I would have bought stuff, but that is CRAZY expensive in the city!

So, this is what a learned: I love living in little towns! I love a normal amount of pedestrian traffic, a normal amount of car traffic, parking lots, regular malls and plazas, local theater, local small restaurants with great food and normal prices, and, of course, Walmart. I like that people smile at each other and don't walk into each other. I love that I can spend hours in my town and never hear brakes screech or a horn honk. I love that I don't feel a subway vibrating below me when I walk down the street. I love that I can take my car to the grocery store. I love that there aren't flumes in the middle of the road, pipng up underground pollution into the air. And I will NEVER complain about there being "nothing to do" in any little or medium-sized town I live in, never, ever again!