First impressions

I was coming in from Philly by one of those chinese buses, with two baggages and a friend of mine. Dropped some where in Chinatown, I had no clue where to go. Obviously, I hadn't done my homework well. I had make a couple of quick calls to get to the place I had to, I mean, I place to put the lugguage and all that. My friend and I, had a hot and crusty pizza for lunch and checked in to near by hotel. Whew! We were set for NY!

It was tiring, and heat wasn't helping. We bought a couple of tickets to south ferry; oh - thats the Statue of Liberty, strolled around the battery park area for a while. There wasn't anything awe about it. It's just NY.


We were waiting for the train to start from south ferry towards uptown, busy as the city is. There was an elderly lady trying to get in to the sub; with the doors closing. She was half way through neither in nor out. For second, I thought this was going to be a freak accident. It wasn't. This gentleman next to me ran to the doors to help the lady with the door; she came in and the train started with a jerk. This put the man off his balance and nearly tipped over a passer-by. The man the profusely apologetic about it though there was nothing to be. The passer-by replied very ticked off - "Next time be careful" waving his index finger at him. New York City.

Prelude

New York City. Yes, like hell I'm excited and raring to go. But, I have to arrange for accommodation and set some things right. The first place to look for was of course craigslist. I was there on room mates dot com too. After a lot of searching I found two good deals. Too bad I couldnt get either. a) Two bedroom apartment in Manhathan for $1350. That's what the owner of the apartment; a wedding planner currently in UK told me. By the way, thats how manhattan was spelt in a copy of the her passport.

That was easy; anybody with a stable head should have cracked that one. The next one was harder. $700 for a single bed room in a double bed; on Manhattan again. Believable? I fell for it first up! Its a great deal or, so I thought until a day a before when the owner mails me informing that she has to run to London due to her mum's failing health. I wanted to move in the by weekend, I was *high* - on New York. She asked me transfer the money soon to her address in UK for her mum's medicine through western union. Uh oh! It was kind of an emotional attack; the urgency, and the sincere plea. She was good. I have nothing against western union, its convenient - but in matters like these its a give away.

This was my third and my final stint as it turned out. All I wanted at this point was a place in New York (rather I should say around New York) to rest my head for the next ten weeks. I was browsing through sulekha dot com for more. There were a lot of available apartments around Jersey city. I picked a number, called it. It was a brief chat about where the apartment was, how accessible it was to the place I work and all that. I asked him to send in a few pictures. It was great I should say. I wanted to take the apartment. He said if you want it come get it; well something to that effect. I was in Pittsburgh yet! This called for some serious help. I could get in touch with a friend of mine to get the apartment confirmed and, that I could move in by 25th of May. Well, today is the 25th of May and I'm in varjun dungeon waiting to go to my place in a few hours.