Ok, I say resident. The first 10 days I was in a hotel, but a nice one. Here was my room:
And the view from the window:
It was just off Wall Street. Whilst I was glad of work paying for the hotel and flying me over, I tried to spend as little time there as possible. Working the day after I got off the plane helped! We're in 7 World Trade Center; currently on the 30th floor and looking to move even higher. The current view is not too shabby though, aside from the 9/11 Memorial's construction:
Then, on the first full night, I went round to Matt's in Jersey. He has a mat with his name on it:
Well, sort of. Anyway it was a good idea to check out his place as he has one of the most enviable commutes in any big city; a 5-minute walk and a 7-minute train ride, to the door of the office! I was thinking of moving to Jersey for this great commute and also it might suit us better when L moves out here with me. Also, Matt's place is huge and for a similar price as I might pay for a closet in Manhattan. More on that later.
So, I then hit the weekend. Of course, the office took me to a couple of local bars by way of a welcome. I drank too much and staggered back to my hotel. Saturday I had planned to go see an apartment in Brooklyn. Whilst my plan was to look for a cheap flat-share to get me out of hotel stays (allowing me to then look for a place for me and L), I wasn't expecting as er... studenty... as the place I saw. Not a nice neighbourhood, and a window-less room in a converted factory which smelled distinctly of *ahem* "special herbs" and looked like they had thrown a party until 6am. Which they probably had. Not for me. I had very little luck looking for a place to do me after my 10-day hotel stint; so I changed my approach. I figured I could look for places starting May 1st and deal with surfing the many couches my wonderfully kind workmates had offered. But as for Saturday, it was a write off. So I went up to a friend & colleague's place in the Upper West side of Manhattan, and had a blast. Drank in a couple of really nice bars which were, naturally for NYC, open until 4am. Taxi back to the hotel, awaiting more flathunting hungover the next day...
I wasn't too hungover. Thankfully sticking to beer mostly paid off. So I went up to the Upper East Side and saw one of the strangest places ever. It was 4 floors up (no elevator in these old buildings) and the "room" was a loft conversion. Well, not exactly a loft, but a loft SPACE. I wouldn't store my suitcases up there, yet there were TWO rooms, accessible via a hatch, which somehow had a mattress in each. I could lie down in my room, but that's it. Surely that has to be illegal?
So, feeling rather out of luck I went all the way back down to South Manhattan and caught that luxury 7-minute commuter train out to Jersey City. There was a room for grabs out near Matt's place and I figured it sounded good. It may have been the sunny day, the hangover, or the really nice friendly people (a couple) in the place but I decided pretty much there and then I would go for it. It was a bare room, and I had no bed, but that seemed trivial compared to the dismay of no responses and looking at terrible apartments. Plus, it was CHEAP and that commute! So good!
I walked to the nearby park and enjoyed the sun, calling L on a cellphone I had borrowed from another saviour of a workmate. Living without a phone is weird in this day and age! I then decided I would check out one of the nearby "trendy" neighbourhoods that Jersey has to offer; Hoboken. They had a nice riverside walk and I snapped a quick pic of Manhattan on my (SIM-less) phone:
Not bad. That place in that picture will be my home for at least a year. Well, looks like I'm going to be in Jersey for a little while at least, but the proximity to the office where I spend 5 days a week means that NYC will still very much be "home" for now!
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