Do opposites attract in...FRIENDSHIP?

     We all heard people saying very often: "Opposites are attracted to each other in relationship." I've always thought it was true only for the relationships, however, I realized it might be true for friendship as well.

    We were different. I was a career-oriented, cold-heated rationalist. Jackie was a romantic, infantile fantasist. But this significant difference made our friendship perfect, as neither of us could possibly become attracted to the other.

      We constantly argued about simplest things. When I said about something it was ‘white,’ Jackie pointed out that the same thing was ‘black.’ It always was a surprise to each of us to find something that we both agreed on. Well, we found something we both loved: going out in NYC. However, let’s leave the reasons for going out for the future and pay closer attention to the night life of the city that never sleeps.

      Weekend after weekend, month after month we kept our lives busy with dim light of cafes, bars, and lounges, random friends that are willing to “hang out next week,” and the variety of foods and drinks that the city had to offer. It is very hard to question yourself of where to go in New York City. The more you live here, the more you realize that there are so many places to eat in the city, it might be impossible to check out at least a half of them as the new ones appear on weekly basis.

      This week we decided to check out the Italian place right by Columbia University Campus – Max Café. Beautiful interior, friendly personnel and absolutely delicious food made this place a “must-go” for me. Jackie started to complain a bit about portions like he always does, so I tried to start the new discussion. And this time it led to the topic that rally made me question many things about my life.

-    So why are you so excited about this job fair? – Jackie asked.

-    Well, career growth really is the reason I came to the United States, duh! – I responded. The truth is I've always cared about professional success more than I cared about anything else.

-    You, for example, care about girls and relationships only, - I made a comeback.

-    Well, don’t you think it’s a more human thing to do?

I might have over-dramatized it for myself, however, I've always knew it anyway. I lacked some simple human characteristics sometimes – I hardly ever missed anyone, got jealous or fell in love. The question my friend asked me really put me under the projector that shone with its light right in my eyes. “Am I a Muppet or am I a man?” – I wanted to ask myself referring to the Muppet Movie that came out a couple of years ago.

What if I really was just a Muppet that was hooked on career? What if I never will be that person who is capable of real human feelings? And why in the world do I even ask myself if I am a human?

At least, as I decided for myself, I can stay happy with what I do, I can reach the goals that make me feel satisfied, and go for things and moves other ‘regular’ humans would never go. I decided to take it as an advantage that will help me to stay strong in the world of weakening emotions.

The New Start

My aunt's visit was the ending chapter of my amazing first summer in NYC. Now it was time for school which meant new friends but less personal time. However, I was fine with it as I really wanted to meet new people in the city. I didn't realize it right away, but the more time I spend here, the more this issue became realistic.

No need to say, I was excited to go to the international students orientation at my school. Classes registration, new connections, and finally some clarity about my new school were just a few of my expectations.

I woke up very early. It always happens to me if I'm pumped about something. Daily routine seemed different, breakfast was tastier, sun was brighter, birds sang more even more beautiful. Simply to say, it was a great morning.
Finally I got to the school, found the right floor, and there was a huge line.
'Are you also for international students orientation here?' - the guy that stood right after me in line asked me in Russian after glancing at my ID.
We had a short talk and then saw another person joining our waiting area.
'Are you also Russian by any chance?' - my new talkative friend asked a guy.
'No... I'm from Brazil' - he answered.
You know this moment when you just meet the person, but you know, you're going to be good friends? Well, that's exact;y what happened. I hope I'm right this time again.
The information given at the orientation was useful, but all of us seemed to be much more interested in the lunch section of the event. While that break we all exchanged numbers, the Brazilian guy and I decided to meet to play tennis one day.

We decided to meet up later that week. Not for tennis, though, we went out to the club "40/40."

Claiming itself just as a sports bar/lounge, it was more than that. As it was Friday, the public was very diverse: some people were dancing and relaxing after a hard week, a few of regulars were chatting with bartenders, a cute couple was all chatty and giggly in a corner, and also there were us - excited about NYC life international kids. The spot gave this relaxing feeling  and at the same time reminded you about its "coolness" with its deign and service.

After talking for a while my new friend and I found out our interests are very different.
'I love Maroon 5!' - he exclaimed after "Daylight" came up.
'They're pretty good. I like jazz also...' - I threw a random fact about me.
'Jazz? Who listens to that?'

As night was going on, the conversation went from music tastes to life priorities. It's something I can just go on and on as I'm too excited about the future
and everything that I'm planning to do in the next few years. While Jackie, that was my new friend name, was all about love and relationship. I called him 'girly' for that, however, my dear reader, I might be too guyish and career-oriented. Overall, Jackie was just a genuinely nice guy, who was also very funny.
However, there was a thing we both loved a lot. Both of us loved going out. Overall, Jackie was just a genuinely nice guy, who was also very funny. These few facts became a start of our friendship. 

The City That Never Sleeps

                    In the evening I decided it was the right time to show Times Square. I know, I know, it doesn't seem that special after you spend in the city more than a month.

                    But admit it, the first time you were coming to NYC, unless you've lived here your whole life, you were picturing Times Square full of lights, taxis and people rushing around.                     So I didn't think my aunt was an exclusion, and I brought her to the most touristy spot in NYC on her first night. But, even though you eventually get used to this view, the first impression is always "WOW!"                     And I cant even explain how much I love when people actually get excited about the places I take them.   When we were sitting on the  red  stairs, I saw my aunt's eyes, I noticed how bright they were. I don't know if they were that bright from the surrounding light or from the happiness and excitement. Whatever the answer was, it made me happy. 

                    "We have so much to see!' I kept talking and explaining what we were going to do in a few next days. 'Not sure though, if we have enough time to do everything. I wish there were just 5 more hours in one day!'                    'Well...' - my aunt replied. 'It the city that never sleeps, so how about we follow its craziness, save this time and win't sleep?'                    My aunt actually just actually offered to spend a sleepless night in NYC, Dang, this girl catches up with the craziness of the place pretty fast! As I'm always up for the craziest ideas my friends have, this seemed even pretty normal and legit.                    However, I've never seen the city in such light. Walking down Broadway, we saw drunk old men leaving gentleman's clubs (I have no clue how these places are absolutely invisible in daylight), unreasonably laughing frat boys, girls wearing clothes, main purpose of which was to get your attention. All of this was a different city, I've never seen before. And I was glad to be just a member of audience and not a participant. 
                    4 AM. Coffee shop. The guy there is smiling and looking right into my eyes trying to find the reason of such an early/late visiting. Yeah... who will even think that there are crazy visitors like us.                    

 5.10 AM. Time to get a train to the ferry. We're on subway, laughing and hal-sleeping. I still can't find the reason, why we were that tired! I think it's the poisonous night vibes of the city.                     When we got to the ferry, I spent most of the time sleeping. I swear, I couldn't just open my eyes. People looked at us like something was wrong with us, but come on, they saw much weirder staff in this city!                     But at this point we couldn't just go to the ferry and leave. Of course, we went to see Wall Street Bull.

                     7 AM. "Hey!" - My aunt says, "it's Today Show time now, right? I actually want to see how it's made." It was her only chance to see it, as later it would be weekend. Of course, we went there.                     Looking at everything that was happening there I was just smiling as I knew, that's what I want to do. I could see everything filmed and shot, and at the same time see how it appeared on TV screens in the entire country. The excitement and inspiration I got that morning is very significant. It's just always great to know what you want to do, It;s even better to see that it's happening right by your side, and it's absolutely terrific to know that you'll be able to reach this if you work hard in a couple of years. 
                    

My aunt got sort of infected by my excitement. We were smiling and basically bouncing around seeing the working process around us, At about 9 we left, and finally made it to bed. 

Lupsik in the city. Part 1.

The next few days I spent reviewing my knowledge about the city. I know I haven’t spent that much time in there, but I’ve seen some cool things here, so I was excited to become a guide for my aunt who was coming to visit NYC and me for 4 days. Do I really need to tell you I was excited? I was just pumped.

First of all, I was about to see my aunt, who is not just a relative for me, but a great friend. Secondly, I got a chance to show the city of my dreams to someone I really valued and loved. 4 amazing days of sunshine, butterflies, rainbows and ponies were marked as “Lupsik (this is my aunt’s nickname I gave her as a kid) is coming to the city!”

I called Nick to ask if he’s available on the day my aunt was coming. I just realized at this point that we haven’t talked since we went to the Luna Park. That got me kind of nervous. As it’s been 5 days. Not that I’m the type of girl who can be the overly attached girlfriend, I just always need to know that my friends and family are fine. I don’t need to talk or spend time with them. As soon as I know they’re alright, I’m well too.

I called, and after long 5 beeps the girls’ voice said: “Hi!”

-          “Um, hi. Who is that?”

-          “Vicky”

-          “Whoops, I’m sorry.”

I was surprised, but not that much. I was just happy the person is safe and not dead. And this was, to be honest, the only thing I was worried about. So, apparently, this was the end of my abnormally perfect summer fling.  You have to admit, I’m definitely not a romantic kind of person.

But how happy and excited I was about my aunt visiting! In the very morning I rode to the airport. I think this is the first time for to come pick someone up from the airport. Usually, I’m the one who people drop and pick up there. After chilling there for a while, I saw the sign that finally changed from “In the air” to “Landed.”

Whenever you wait for something the minutes go by slower than hours. I was looking through the glass to see if she was coming.

Isn't she pretty?

“Lindik!” – it was so weird to hear this voice I knew my whole life that close and not on Skype where I’ve been hearing it for the past few months. We hugged, and I knew, my family, even though it was just a part of it, was here, with me. I don’t usually miss anybody that much in everyday life, but whenever I finally get to meet people I’m always so happy and it gets very hard to believe I’ve lived without them by my side for that long.

Lupsik told me that she followed the first trip suggestion for NYC properly – she listened to “New York, New York” while the plane was landing. On AirTrain we were talking non-stop, or maybe I was, because, you know, Linda loves talking.

Yep, our waitress spilled coffee.
After working in serving business,
I don't blame her :D

I felt kind of bad, because the first real NYC thing my aunt saw was the rat in subway. But I knew, it’s going to be ok as New York City has so much to show, that the rats are really not a big deal. And, it’s good, from some point, as the rats run away only from the soaking ship. NYC, though, was the strongest and the most powerful ship, I’ve ever been to.

We started our cruise right away from the very bottom of Manhattan – SoHo. I just didn’t feel like Times Square our first stop, as it’s too much of a tourist cliché. We walked down the streets, going to shops and looking at the cute little (relatively) buildings which are not very usual for the city.

After that I told my aunt that while our visit, she has to try three things, which, in my opinion, you have to try in this city: pizza, cheese cake, bagel and Central Park hot dog.

The first food-spot I showed to my aunt was “Fanelli Café.” I’ve never been there before, but I know that, if the place is Zagat rated, it’s going to be great. Yelp results were right that the service wasn’t that great, the only waitress working was trying to serve the entire place by herself which made her pretty grumpy.

However, it didn’t ruin the experience. The place was just wonderful with the atmosphere of old America. And the cheesecake? It was amazing! Absolutely, totally, completely AMAZING! The coffee went well with it, and this hour at “Fanelli Café” stayed in my head as a remarkable food experience I will never forget. 

'I feel infinite'

This is our power group!

                Today was the day I’ve been very excited for since I got to New York City. Today I was going to participate in my first flash mob ever! The great thing about was the fact that it was a proposal flash mob, which suits the city atmosphere perfectly.  It was organized by Flash Mob America which already sounded pretty global and rad.

                Well, whenever I got to the address that I got in the e-mail the day before the actual event, I realized  that it actually was a pretty big deal as I was standing right in front of the Alvin Ailey School .
                Whenever I entered the building, I saw that there were at least a hundred of people. All of them were different from each other in age, sex or nationality, but something bigger and more powerful than any of these labels united all of them – their positive energy. Literally, everybody was smiling, cheerful and happy.

                I checked in, and went to some mysterious and intriguing place called “The Practice Room.” I know it’s pretty easy to impress me as I’m that kind of person who thinks mostly everything around us is absolutely AWESOME. But this room could impress not only me, but a very hard-boiled person.

                As almost every good dancing room, it had mirrors all over the walls the place, but the coolest thing was that the walls that were supposed to have windows, were windows themselves. How neat is that?! But wait, that’s not everything yet, as the room was pretty high it had an awesome view was on the street. And what can be greater than dancing and looking at the city at the same time.

                “Hi, guys! Thank you so much for spending your time today with us! We really appreciate it! But we’ve got a lot of work to do, so let’s get started right away!” – pretty smiling blond girl standing in front of the crowd said. She was so animated and cute that she almost looked like a cartoon character to me.

                The crowd organized itself pretty fast, and we started. Step after step, we were learning the dance. It wasn’t hard, but it was a lot to remember for sure, especially for the person like me who never ever dealt with dancing.

                In a few hours that flew like a couple of minutes, we all knew the dance. And we realized that at the point when we all looked at the mirror and saw that we’re all moving at the same time, doing the same thing, and our Minnie Mouse (I called our teacher with this Disney name in my head) was just watching us and smiling, she didn’t move at all.

                After that she said that, even though, this organization does projects all over the US, dealing with NYC crowd is absolutely unique. She said, this city was her personal favorite. I have to admit that I’m always so glad and happy when people say nice things about this city.

After that, the organizer came, and picked who goes first, second, third, and etc. I was in the fourth group! So exciting! Also she gave us the code word and revealed the place/time of the actual flash mob. It was (TADA!) in Central Park right in front of the fountain! I think this event couldn’t get any cooler by this point. But, no, it could. “Oh, totally forgot to mention, ABC is filming us for the news.”

                With some people I met, I headed to the place X. We ate some froyo and just talked about random staff. I texted Nick and told him about everything that was happening.

10 minutes before everything we got to the fountain. How nervous we were! One of the girls started repeating the moves, but stopped right away: ‘Oh, what if they saw me?’ So, were just waiting for music to start.

                Perfectly on time, the song was turned on, and the first group jumped in. I got closer, and saw some random people standing and watching. ‘You know, what’s happening?’ – I asked them.

                ‘We have no clue, but that looks pretty cool,’ – the lady in the hat replied.

                ‘It actually does!’ – I said and jumped in as it was my turn. I didn’t see peoples’ faces or the girl who was proposed face. No, it was just that moment of pure happiness and joy. Everybody was doing great, and the level of positive energy was just overflowing.

                 Somehow I thought of Monsters Inc. where they filled those capsules with little kids screaming. Well, if they needed some positive flow, they would get a yearlong amount of it if they were with us. We shouted and laughed and screamed and smiled, and I didn’t even have a single thought of ABC or the couple or anything else in the world. It all seemed unimportant at that point, as I felt so happy. "I felt infinite (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower")"

I'm sold

               In the very morning I started thinking about the job opportunity that was getting more and more real really seriously. I wasn't really sure if I'll be able to do it and if I should do it. I called my mom, and she didn't sound that positive about it at all.
               "You don't know these people, how can you live with them and be the part of the family?"

               "How are you going to deal with school?"
               "What if they're not nice to you?"
               These were just few of hundreds my mom kept asking me. Our conversation ended up with her saying that I can "do whatever you think is right". My mom used this trick a lot when I was little. She gave me this illusion of choice, but I ended up doing what she wanted me to do. But this time was different. She wasn't here, she didn't know anything about the life in the city or even in the United States. So I decided to actually do what I thought was right.

               I got ready for the dinner. It was an unlikely cold and rainy summer day so I got a chance to put on my favorite yellow raincoat and bright-blue rain shoes. I braided mt hair and put on my glasses. I looked in the mirror. I looked like nanny. I couldn't help singing Mary Poppins songs in my head.
               I left the house an hour before, even though Google Maps told me it won't take longer than 40 minutes. But who knows. This is very important to be sharp on time for this dinner.
               I never even rode on 7 train. Well, first of all, I've never been to Queens actually. So, the view I saw coming up to Court Square Station totally amazed me. I ran to the door, so I could see better, and enjoyed one of the gorgeous views that New York City could offer. The sunset colored the dark-blue clouds in orange. And the skyline was all lightened up with this bright yellow light that created the great feeling of bright future.

               I found the house pretty easily. Beautiful street full of trees and birds singing created a pretty positive impression right away. Red-brick house with some white flowers blooming made me smile as I wanted to call this place my new house right away.
               I knocked on the door. The nanny whom I could possibly be replacing opened the door. When I saw her, I knew two things for sure:
               1. we're going to get along
               2. she's going to become one of my first friends in the city.
               She showed me around the house. It was very simple and perfect at the same time. Paintings on the walls, big glass-made table, white sofa made me want to stay here. The Kate, that was the girl's name, asked me if I wanted to see the roof. THE ROOF? I would run there if I could. Even though, the house wasn't that tall, the view was amazing. The clouds seem even lower and closer. It felt like I could touch them if I jump.
               - I'm sold. This is the dream place to be!
               Ding dong. Ding dong! DING DONG!

               "They're here," - Kate said. "Let's go downstairs."
               The kid and Mr. Boss entered the living room. I liked them and I knew that I was going to stay in this house for a while. We had a great dinner where everybody told how s/he spent the day. Ted kept talking about the school cookout they were going to have tomorrow. To be honest, I've never talked to a little kid in English, so I never even realized how adorable it is, when little kids speak English! "Oh, this steak is so much gooder than last time!" - Ted exclaimed.
               When I was helping Kate clean up after the dinner. "I think they liked you. I'm pretty sure you'll be back very soon."
When I left the house, I was smiling. This seemed too perfect. But I believe that this kind of things happen, so I was happy to live this movie-like reality.
             

Too Good to Be True

   Later I went to work to the gallery.

Phone call from the New York number. I have to admit I was pretty surprised as I know all people from here who can potentially give me a call. 

     "Good afternoon! Am I talking to Linda?"  - the man's voice sounded very confident and smart if you can describe voice with such a word. "Are you still looking for a job? I saw your post on Craigslist for nanny position."

     My eyes almost popped up when I heard that. Live-in nanny in NYC? The person, let me call him Mr. Boss, asked me to make decision if I'm interested at all in this opportunity in an hour. 

     The problem was that I didnt know a i was shocked-surprised-happy-scared-concerned at the same time. So, as my Russian side of advisory board (my family and best friend Alice) was asleep I called my closest people here in the US - Emily and Alex. 

     Both of them were positevely for this idea. I loved Alex's enthusiastic "of course! You can be a nanny in NYC! What can be better?" And I was happy to get questioned by Emily about every single detail of the deal. 

     I made my decision in an hour: I'll give it a shot! (Wow, aparently I have a tendency to make the most significant decisions for my life in very short time)