Not exactly corn fields and Amish folk

As my plane descended into New York City for the first time, I noticed I would soon be trading the flat terrain of the Midwest for the concrete jungle that is The Big Apple- but the landscape is not the only thing that would be changing. In fact, my entire lifestyle learned in 22 years in Indiana would be flipped 180 degrees.

Within 15 minutes of being outside of my terminal at La Guardia, I was bombarded with a little New York wheeling and dealing of cab and limo drivers. I soon realized this was commonplace not only with your choice of transportation, but with cafes, comedy shows and even a 21-minute massage. (Still not quite sure about the math in that one.) As I dodged the continuously honking traffic, clearly disregarding the ”no-honking” law, and the dog-walkers and baby-pushers, I arrived at my hotel on the Upper West Side which was quaint with narrow halls and little space. This is a trend I soon learned is consistent in all real estate.

This trip was devoted to searching for an apartment to begin the final move into Manhattan with my boyfriend, Alex. We began looking at apartments in our price range, and something about the $1800 per month, five-hundred square feet apartments is in fact charming. The negative side of this process, in my opinion, was walking 30 blocks to view these apartments in ballet flats that were all kinds of uncomfortable, not to mention the 90 mile-per-hour pace our real estate agent decided to walk. I didn’t want to act like I wasn’t cut out for the city, so I ignored the blistering beginning to form on the sides of my feet and took to the streets!

It wasn’t until Alex and I took a break to admire the greenery of Central Park that I began to people-watch and noticed that nothing about the shoes worn by the New York natives were attractive. In fact, I saw every variation of Crocs and Keds. Needless to say, the rest of my trip was spent wearing comfy sandals and halfway considering stopping into the Crocs superstore downtown.

The pace is fast and the city is vast, but I think I can get used to this New York state of mind.