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Should have noted - I actually lived there for five years. I went to NYU for four years then lived as a working-adult for 1 year after graduation. As in paying my own bills/being an independent adult in NYC. Family business brought me back to my hometown.
I would have happily stayed there permanently. I am a very well-travelled person and NYC is such a special city. My favorite, along with London.
In house massage glamorous night life fancy restaurants 4 years at NYU....ummm yeah a true NY'er.
Ask a wealthy person like Jamie Dimon, Taylor Swift, or one of the Rotschilds who live in NYC what NYC is like, they will say magical, fabulous, stupendous, glamorous. After all, NYC is the center of people like this and luxury home sales. It's extremely desirable.
Ask a middle or upper middle class New Yorker what their experience is like, it will vary - some will say awesome, eclectic or expensive. Some will tell you it's hard - it's very expensive. New York is a very expensive city, but full of things to do. You never really get bored.
Ask poor people who live in the Bronx like "Bronxguyanese" (and half of this forum - who else has time to sit around here like they do) what it's like and they'll say "HELL" because they think their pathetic existence in their poverty and sad section of town is representative of NYC. LOL, poor things. Don't come to Los Angeles and ask someone in Compton what living in LA is like haahha.
I've lived in NYC for a year and I say it was sublime. Lived in Downtown Manhattan - West Village, had my nice corner stores - butcher, deli, cobbler - all who knew me by name (felt like living in a small town) went to museums on the weekends, took nice jogs along the Hudson, met my friends at the famous restaurants, watched sail boats on the Hudson while I had things like in-house masseuse (it's NYC - every single thing is deliverable or on demand), did the "glamorous" nightlife thing. Life was perfect.
Loved it.
That first sentence sums it up. We're so big and diverse, no single film, movie, book, piece of music, can capture all of New York City, only a part of it. No one thing can capture everything. Woody Allen New York is true. But so is Spike Lee New York. Requiem For A Dream is real New York. But so is Six Degrees of Separation. And on and on and on. Anything the OP has seen, read, or heard about NYC is probably true. And anything the opposite of that is probably true as well.
Movies usually show a particular facet of NYC. Woody Allen, for instance, showcases educated people with intellectual, cultural interests. From what little I've seen of the TV show "Friends" it seems completely irrelevant. Women in NYC aren't like SATC, but the one thing that program did correctly was to show a lot of real NYC locations; I remember one scene where a restaurant wasn't identified, but I instantly recognized it. It also was accurate in some small things, like how housing is a big issue here (yes, it's expensive).
New Yorkers aren't necessarily very rude - probably less than the French, who are traditionally considered very rude. But New Yorkers are impatient. We have a lot on our minds, we're busy, and we don't like people wasting our time. On the other hand, New Yorkers are very willing to talk to strangers sometimes. I once started talking with someone when we'd come out of the same movie, and we ended up sitting down and talking for an hour! And, while we may not necessarily be rude, we tend to be assertive and opinionated, and probably more outspoken than most of the rest of the country.
But like any big city, NYC is rich and poor, native New Yorkers and new arrivals, quiet and noisy, a big mix.
I don't live in NYC, but do work in midtown. The one thing that surprises me is how the time taking public transportation adds up, and you need to factor that in. I live in Weehawken (outside the Lincoln Tunnel), work near Grand Central and go to the gym around the Empire State Building. Whenever I go into the city, I need to bring anything I might need for the day, since most times it will not be worth it to return home (and anything that would be closer to any of my daily destinations is too expensive).
The more money you have the more you'll enjoy living here. If you do not have a lot of money (millions of dollars) you won't be getting the full experience. As far as media portrays New York that is a fantasy version, as other posters have said.
Are women as sexually liberals as the girls of SATC?
Yes. Men too.
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