My lifestyle has changed

Hoarding board in Jackson Height, NY

Recently I was in New York for five days, and what did I do there, nothing at all. Out of those five days I spent one night and 2 days in Baltimore, visiting my old roomies from SIUE. Besides that when in New York, I didn’t go to Time square, empire state building, statue of liberty, or any other tourist traps. I wanted to see the other side of the New York, a life that majority of city dwellers live.

After starting way early from New Orleans on Friday, I finally landed in La Guardia Airport NY around 2 pm. It was Shiva Ratri so I decided to go to the temple, last time I went to the temple in San Antonio on October 2006. I do believe in god, it’s just there are no temples in Lafayette. There is way less diversity in Lafayette, so I was really glad to see so many different races of people.

I woke up late Saturday and went out looking for bus to Baltimore from NYC. Traveling by China Bus is a very efficient and economical. It travels from China Town of one city to another and the fares are really cheap. The only problem that might arise is lack of good customer service as many of the bus operators/ representatives don’t even speak English. So I found line of buses and a Chinese lady escorted me to a bus. After ensuring that it leaves for Baltimore I asked her what time it leaves. She replied “1 pm”, not bad, it was 55 past 12 at that time. As I sat in the bus waiting and it was already past 1 pm, I heard the china women selling ticket to other customer saying that the bus leaves at 1:30 pm. The tickets were non refundable and I can’t argue in Chinese so I began to panic a little. Finally the bus started almost at 2 pm. However, when returning I caught a bus from DC to NYC in Baltimore, so there was no stoppage time.

Monday, the President’s Day, I decided to celebrate roaming around in Queens, specifically around Jackson height. I was glad that for a change I don’t have to drive now, subway and metro bus can take me anywhere I want. But riding subway made me drowsy and sick, maybe due to lack of oxygen and crowds. Although it was very chilly outside, I was happier walking with fresh air rather than riding a sub way. While roaming, I could barely hear English. There were Africans, Indians, Spanish, Chinese, etc everywhere. I used to turn my head sharply if I heard someone talk in English with American accent, which was so rare there. I even found lots and lots of people talking in Nepalese and passing by me without even looking at me, if that’s due to city life and larger Nepalese population, I am very happy with less diverse Lafayette with handful of Nepalese.

I have heard USA blaming other countries for piracy, but in the heart of US of A I found people selling DVD’s of movie just released couple of days back. Roaming around in Jackson Height flooded back the memories from Nepal. Although it’s predominantly Indian Community, I got very nostalgic seeing the similar café, restaurants, grocery stores, sari and jewelers etc. The movie theatre there always showed hindi movie, and other day it had shown “Basai”, a nepali movie for a day.

Tuesday I had flight back to New Orleans; although it was Mardi Gras in Louisiana but I won’t even get a piece of it as I would be landing very late. I really enjoyed the convenience and availability of different stuffs for my daily chores in NYC, but I can’t see myself living there someday, living in suburban areas has changed my life style. Being a Nepali from Kathmandu, I was surprised with myself complaining that NY was dirty, messy, congested, noisy, unsystematic…………………………………