My trip to New York

Living in Gainesville practically all of my life I grew accustomed to suburbia. The only way to truly move around is by car, everyone has a high picket fence, people do not have to interact with one another. Also I understood that Gainesville was a company town. People come here to work at Shands or to attend the University of Florida. Almost every family I know has at least one parent with affiliation with the University of Florida. Recently I took a visit with my Dad in New York City. I noticed many things at once. First, the time it took to go from Brooklyn to the upper end of Manhattan took over an hour. Second, I noticed that "American" could not be applied here because there were so many different ethnicities with in the city where a person could find a Ghinese market next to a German restaurant and a Russian cafe.

I thought my commute to school took too long but when I took a trip from Brooklyn to Manhattan I realized that comutes in suburbia are nothing. The most confusing thing about the subway system however was the design. Looking at a map it took me ten minutes to figure out the quickest route to my destination. This required getting on and off the subway two or three times. I got lost at least four times on one trip switching trains. This was cause by the complexity of New York's subway stations. I walked up and down left and right in the Atlantic Avenue subway station unable to find the train. I quickly realized that living in New York might not be the most pleasant idea.

In Brooklyn I was walking down a street having just gotten off the metro and I look to my left and right. Store after store had a different country associated with it. I felt like I was walking through a condensed version of Disney's Epcot. The next day I get on the Q heading toward Manhattan. The subway was full of chatter and I was suprised because I could hardly understand any of the conversations. The passengers were all speaking in German, Russian, Chinese, French, or some other dialect. It was like being in many countries at once. I realized that New York was such a blending place because of this. People from around the world traveled here to find a new life which made New York the most unique place in the world.