seeyaladar

I woke up today and there was a change in the air. I walked to the subway and it was crisp. Overnight fall had fallen at our doorstep. It was a morning when I always think of boarding school 8ams. The first day you decide to wear stockings instead of socks. It is a late April day at home. And somehow here even the M train knew that something had changed this morning. No more pumped-up air-conditioning subway carriages. I stepped on to find a seat set at room temperature. New York City woke up this morning, sighed and breathed a cool breath of goodbye. I leave in two days. 

A lot of things have changed in three months. Probably not least of all me. I arrived thinking I could never get used to this noise. I could never walk down a street, staring straight ahead, with no care for anyone else. I could never be ok with the amount of people in my space. My only space being the millimetres surrounding my body, if that. But I did. I became a person who was capable of blocking out all sound, all annoyances, all accidents that had nothing to do with me. I could stride those avenues, dodging, running across streets without a look for cars, bikes, buses, taxis. I became the ever-hurried New Yorker, blank stare, get-outta-my-way-I-gotta-get-there-and-then-there.

It is not such a good thing at all. It is an absorption like only the very best wettex. I am not sure if it possibly only appears to be absorption but in reality is more like a facade. For me (I am new to this) it is absorption. I think for the seasoned professional though it is facade. New Yorkers quite easily drop their subway faces. They are used to the rat-race-rush, the anything goes this way or that. I am impressed with the way that New Yorkers will relax and have a chat. Just because. Just because you are a lonesome dove. Always. Under an awning waiting for the rain to soften. Small talk. At an opening against a wall. How are you? This never happens in Australia. We possess a laid-backness that comes with a side of reservedness. The Americans will always talk. And usually not with an accent of I-am-so-much-better-than-you. Not in my experience with strangers anyway.