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One of the biggest "party" in town recently was the St. Patrick's Day celebration. New York is full of people of Irish decends (check out the movie Gangs of New York to refresh your memory).
The St. Patrick's Day parade in New York is one of the biggest SPD parades in the world. It takes place every year along 5th Avenue from midtown all the way up towards Central Park in Manhattan.
The parade started a little past 11am two Fridays ago in a nice chrispy cold morning under a sunny sky. The cold obviously didn not deter thousands of spectators (some local, some obviously tourist) from lining the street. 5th avenue was a sea of green and orange. Some people were busy scambling for a good spot along the barriers; Some obviously started the day early and were very "merry" already.
People wore big green top hats, glittering clover headbands, flashing buttons, orange boas and even Brave-Heart style face paint (Yes, I knew Brave Heart was about Scottish). The atmosphere was amazing.
The parade itself consisted of a mixture of Police Departments, Fire Departments, Army and Irish bagpipe marching bands (yes yes, men were wearing kilts; No, no wind so I didn't manage to see anything under the kilts). Hiliary Clinton made an appearance in the parade as well - I only knew it was her because of all the secret service agents surrounding her (and the lady next to me exclaimed "There's Hiliary!!").
Later on that day in Manhattan, you could see a lot of "green" people wondering around the streets.
As part of my effort to look for a place to live, these last few days I have been "subway-hopping" - ie. Catching the subways and hopping off at stops to see what the areas are like.
In preparation for this activity, I bought myself a weekly metrocard which gives me unlimited rides for a week. I have also been searching on the web for apartments and studios and shared places in recommended areas. That has proven to be an educational and interesting experience.
I have never rented a place before even though I have lived away from home before. Being so used to the nice clean spacious places in Australia, it has taken me sometime to adjust to the pre-war brownstone block apartment buildings and the old dimly-lid houses that are characteristic of NY suburbia (Ok, you are no doubt thinking: Hey what about those penthouses with a view of Central Park? What about Trump Tower? What about the lofts with exposed beams that are so cool and trendy? Yes yes they do exist, you just need to be able to afford them). But I do love the hardwood polish floorboards and the fire-escape ladders at the kitchen window of most apartments - just like you see in TV shows and I am expecting a detective to come crashing into the apartment any minute now... Anyway I digress.
What I meant to say was, reading the ads on real estate sites has been entertaining. Most of us would be familiar with terms like WIR, LUG, BA, BR scattered throughout real estate ads in Australia. Here would be an example of what you might find in a NY rental ad:
"$800 1 BR 12'x8' in 3BR apartment. Share Living room, EIK, 1 BATH. Located 5 minutes from F, E, G, R, V. Close to LIRR. W/D in apt. Utilities included W/HW."
EIK - It is quite a big deal to have an Eat-In-Kitchen. That is usually only be available in houses. Space is scares in NY and apartment kitchens usually have ovens and sinks line up against 1 wall with some cabinets above head and that's about it (also defined as kitchenette).
F, E, G, R and V - what do you make of that? Alphabet soup? These are actually references to subway lines! Convenient isn't it? Can you see us doing this in Melbourne? "Located 5 mins from Camberwell station with Lilydale, Belgrave, Nunuwading and Boxhill express services"
Just not as cool is it?
LIRR - the Long Island Rail Road. Not to be confused with subway, which runs underground most of the time (except for certain lines which runs above ground on bridges which I found fascinating but we will go into that later).
W/D - Those who live in apartments might actually know this one. W/D stands for Washer/Dryer. This is special. Most apartments here are too small to fit in a washing machine or dryer. Some buildings have laundry rooms on each floor; Some have laundry rooms in the basement of the building; Some just don't have anything so the coin laundry place down a block or two is your only salvation (it is a big deal if you have to lug your dirty laundry down a few blocks in freezing subzero temperature after work to do your washing).
Now for one of the more interesting attribute I found advertised.
I first came across this when I looked at some Brooklyn suburbs. There were the usual references to room dimensions, sex and sexual preferences of the roommates, the number of roommates, pet and smoking rules and distance from subway stops. But there was this extra specification on some of the ads - "420 friendly".
Hmmm. What was that? I pondered upon what 420 could possibly be. I saw it a few more times and decided I should google it. I had my suspicions. The first site returned was Googlism and it had the following to say:
420 friendly is an absolute plus
420 friendly is a plus
420 friendly is important
What makes 420 "an absolute plus"?!?! The next few sites revealed a bit more. It was full of images of a certain plant that some people smoked, and I am not talking about tobacco.
At this point if you still had no idea of what I'm talking about, check it out on google (I'd suggest you don't do this at work though, you don't want to give people the wrong idea about you). Wikipedia also provided some concise explanations and theories as to how "420" became the code. If you already knew what "420" meant, well I apologize for my low social awareness but am somewhat glad I had no idea prior to this.
I am still baffled by the fact that it got listed as an attribute for apartments. Does it implied that the new roommate should bring some to share with everyone else? Or that you can get your supplies from your other roommies?
As I've said before, interesting neighbourhood.
