USA- Love & Hate Relationship with the Concrete Jungle

Love & Hate Relationship with the Concrete Jungle

While listening to Charlie Puth on the plane, I got interrupted by the air-hostess announcement asking the passengers to buckle up as we will be landing to JFK shortly.

So I thought well WUHU NEW YORK HERE WE COME … my view of New York City was over the expectation so frankly speaking I wasn’t impressed by the concrete jungle. Sorry to everyone who loves New York City but that’s how I feel. Now I might sound a bit irritating but it’s just my point of view. First, sadly the airport is not well maintained and the immigration line was a chaos.

As soon as we got out, we hopped into a van to get to our hotel located at the Upper West Side of Manhattan and on our way we passed by the Bronx and Harlem which to me looked very interesting because it’s not a part of New York that they show in Hollywood movies. The people of Harlem have the passion for arts and music. I personally did not like the Bronx, I felt a negative vibe. Of course I’m not tough enough to be able to live there but shout out to anyone who did and who are living there.

Fortunately, and Unfortunately we arrived to NYC on Fashion Week which means the hotel rates were like triple their standard prices. Tim helped me try to look for Gigi Hadid at the fashion district and I was following her and her sister’s updates on Instagram. Anyway we didn’t manage to see her. Being half Palestinian, I’m proud that there’s a famous Palestinian celebrity who accomplished this much fame in the western world. GO GIGI

This blog is just me typing whatever comes to my mind and about my view of the city. I was deeply upset to see how people live in New York and how lots of people struggle to be able to live. I enjoyed watching the people pass by and there’s more to that city than just Manhattan.

If I ever want to live in New York City, I’d pick Brooklyn. Yes, it is industrial and all but for some reason my heart has chosen it. I liked the people, the area and the feel of it.

Besides the fact that New York City is filled with homeless, aroma of pee and lots of crime. The city still has its positives such as it’s a cosmopolitan city, subway connection is reliable, lots of fascinating restaurants to try, BROAD WAY, museums, LIBRARY, BROAD WAY AGAIN, its fashion, historical touristic attraction and last but not least BROAD WAY.

Tim and I encountered two incidents in NYC, once at  the Bronx and the other time somewhere between Harlem and the Upper Westside. We were on our way back to the hotel and took the wrong train and ended up in the Bronx. We had to get out of the subway and walk 20 minutes to the other side to get on the right train so while walking I made eye contact with one of the guys and he pulled out a gun. Thankfully nothing happened we just continued walking to the subway that had blood all over the floor. The other incident was when my childhood friend Marwah, Tim and I were having dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant and a guy who was on drugs just randomly walked in shouting and then smashed the window behind Tim and kept hitting my side of the window with a wooden board. Marwah wasn’t shocked and said things like that happens a lot. She moved to NYC after living in UAE for 20 years. Anyway so the restaurant called the cops and we had to give a statement since we knew how the attacker looked like.

I have mix feelings of LOVE & HATE for New York City but would I visit again. Yes, I would but for a short period of time and maybe visit the New York state itself rather than just the city.