sporadic fulfilment

i feel safe in new york city

-which is the bad thing... i'd thought it'd be more alien . i got the hang of the buses almost immediately & i'm getting fairly comfortable with the subway (i only got properly lost once, when i confused the f train &the q train's station u with each other). no one tried to mug or proposition me or anything fun like that -- but that probably has more to do with the fact that i look (& smell) like a bum than because i'm physically intimidating. tourists etc. actually tend to think i'm a native (maybe my 'another fuckin' tourist' t-shirt is taken as sarcasm rather than literal truth?) & ask me for directions & stuff & get all surprised when i tell them i'm canadian (fyi: not all canadians speak french, so stop asking me that). & it doesn't matter that i don't have the accent -- the only people i've heard with a 'genuine' noo yawk accent were bus drivers & other working-class blokes (yep, no girls for some reason).
-the amount of mega-chainstores & whatnot that are here & also have branches in toronto are friggin' scary; it's like cities are the same the world over & they're just gonna keep on homogenizing until the world looks like las vegas. times square made me sick. i think i'd have liked the new york of decades past better.
-fellow travellers: if you're of legal drinking age in your own country but not in the states, show the guy your passport & see if that works -- it did for me.

posted by malachi trizec @ 3:10 p.m.