POV: OP is a Serial Killer looking for variety not offered in the Midwest

Try Istanbul. You can literally find ANYTHING here.

Kind of funny how different people are. I worked in midtown for seven years and I would just go between home and work as quickly as I could on most days because there were too many people around outside for me to feel comfortable. (I lived near the office so that I could avoid taking the subway.) My dog, however, loved the crowds. The thing about living in a twenty story building that allows dogs is that there are enough dogs in the building that the maintenance people have to hose down the sidewalk every day in warm weather and it still smells like dog pee, but that’s a plus for the dogs…

I’ve been maybe 5 or 6 times for a few days but once stayed at my then girlfriend’s place in NYC for a month. She lived in latin harlem.

I vividly recall one of my first mornings there. My then gf asked me to get some bagels and vegetable cream cheese for breakfast. I went outside the apt building and found the first bodega around the corner.

There was a hispanic man with a mustache and a half-unbuttoned shirt leaning behind the counter and displaying an abundance of thick black chest hair. There was a radio on that was describing some kind of sports event in audio quality so bad I couldn’t even tell the language. A few feet in front of the counter, there was a thin middle aged black fellow with a huge grin on his face and sunglasses, just leaning on one of the isles and doing nothing. It didn’t seem like he was listening to the radio or interacting with the other guy in any way. I walked inside, said hi and went to get the bagels. The hispanic man ignored me, but the black dude said “how’s it goin?” in a very slick raspy voice. I was like “hey”. He kept looking at me, smiling, as I went in.

I went looking for the veg cheese but they didn’t seem to have any, so I approached the counter and asked chest hair guy “do you have any vegetable cream cheese?” to which he did not react to or establish eye contact.

The black guy, however asked me “vegetable cream chEESE???”, holding his huge grin, and I’m like “yeah…?”. He then asks me “You a vegetarian?” without losing his smile. I just try to say “n-no…” but before I could finish, he literally yells at me, still grinning: “YA GOTTA EAT SOME MEAT, SON. YA GOTTA EAT SOME MEAT!” he then turns around to counter guy and says “Sheeeeiii” who acknowledges this with eye contact.

Then counter guy just reached out extending his hand without saying anything but clearly conveying he just wanted me to buy what I had and not interact with him in any other way. I just grabbed the regular cream cheese, paid for everything and walked out.

As I was leaving, grin guy says “see ya latah” in his sexy raspy voice.

It was the single greatest New York experience of my entire life.

I went to NYC for the first time this past June as a birthday present to myself and loved every single second. Felt like there was just an endless amount of things to do and see. I felt bad that I was only there a week cause I was rushing myself to do as much as I could since I didn’t know if I’d ever come back. I live in the Midwest and while there is a city around an hour drive away (St. Louis) it just doesn’t have anywhere near as much stuff that captures my interests so I rarely go there.

NYC is just the best. My son just played a show up there a month or two back and it was just sooo epic. You can feel the buzz in the air. I wish I could afford to move/live there.

I want to live in NYC so bad. I live pretty close right now and I take a trip there every month or so and I always love it there.

I miss my city.

Its got hard, dirty edges everywhere, but it is also one of the friendliest, most fun-loving and kindhearted places you will ever have the privilege of visiting.

Just don’t be on any roads during rush hour when people are at their crankiest and make sure to keep valuables close to your skin when in places like Times Square and you will only have good experiences.

LaGuardia Community College in Queens has a student body that reports speaking over 200 different languages. Everyone on Earth has a cousin in New York.