It’s crazy to me how different New York is to Oxford. The Empire State building is the tallest building here… One of the tallest buildings in Oxford is Walmart. The stores are like mansions compared to the little shack-small boutiques Oxford has. My perception of New York stayed pretty much the same when I got here, and as I walk around it feels like I’m in one of those thousands of movies set in NYC. When I thought of New York, I would always think of skyscrapers, rude people, and it being extremely busy. Oxford can seem like it is extremely busy and Lord knows we have our share of rude people. In Midtown Manhattan all you can really see is Corporate America. I thought that coming to NYC, all I would see are white people in business suits, along with this Corporate America notion I had. No one told me that there would be SO many people from other countries and nations. It’s odd to find someone who speaks perfect English. Yesterday I went to eat over at a Taco Bell around the corner and the guy who checked me out there spoke to me in Spanish. I was like Wahhh? I feel like I’m the kind of person that looks like I don’t know how to speak Spanish… because I don’t. The man was extremely nice and after I paid for my cream sodas, he smiled and waved goodbye. That is one thing that no one told me about either- there are some really nice people in New York. I went to the Chelsea Galleries a day ago and found a friendly person- A girl that actually worked for the gallery. I was told that they weren’t nice (the people who sit behind the desk doing nothing but playing on the computer and making sure you don’t steal stuff), and yeah they weren’t too friendly. I could walk into a place and they wouldn’t even glance up…. So if I DID want to walk out with some massive sculpture or something- they would have no idea- because they probably wouldn’t have paid me any attention. But when I was in one gallery…. I was looking at the paintings (I was alone in this small gallery), and out of NO WHERE I hear a “hi”. Another moment when I was like Wahhhh? One of the gallery girls actually was nice and said Hi out of no where. So I said hello back. And then I started thinking… This girl is nice! I bet she would let me use the restroom (which are forbidden for public use) so with my ridiculously Southern accent I say ‘Pardon me, do you know where a public restroom is?” And she was like “Sure! Let me show you to it.” It was not a public restroom. How do I know? Because I tried opening the locked door earlier knowing it was probably locked because the sign on it said ‘Not for Public Use’. Turns out the gallery girl was a waitress and she told me that was basically she was nice- because she understood needing to use the bathroom. So as I walk down the streets of New York I will still try to consciously compare Oxford to NYC.
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