quite pleasant experience in New York City (Newark, Hope: to live in, bus)

[triton1]

on March 25th, 2006, my tour class to florida made a 6 hour stopover in newark, nj (Newark-liberty international airport). Beforehand, after hearing some very scary things about nyc, i literally thought of new yorkers as "so rude that they'd call the police if one said hello to them", and that there were "not enough friendly locals within 100 miles of manhattan to fill a 15 passenger van." well, I certainly seem to have been proven wrong on march 25th, 2006 when my group took a field trip into Manhattan during the stopover. Although there were quite a lot of gumwads and stuff on the sidewalks, the city seemed quite clean; and only 1 person gave me a mean face! All the other people i said "hi" to said "hi" back to me, and i was even able to strike up some nice conversations with 2 of them, one of which told me that the big apple is steadily improving. Very cool buildings too, especially in times square. quite a cool experience even though we only spent 3 and a half hours in manhattan, though traffic did get very slow and crowded on the way to and from Manhattan and our bus driver was honking like crazy going into and coming out of the tunnel that goes under the river.

[mhogan10010]

Glad you had a nice time. I used to live in TN and NC. I have only had two friends with the gumption (word I don't often get to use), to come up for a visit. They all have this vision of being mugged and spat on. Those who have visited come away with a totally different view of new york and new yorkers.
Hope you get to come back and really see the entire city. It truly is a wonder!

[Hustla718]

Every place has good and bad people. NYC is no different.

[LookingtoLeave]

I can't tell you how many people think NYers are rude and it's full of crime. I quickly squash that myth and defent NY and NYers. I LOVE the people and the city!

[triton1]

[quote=mhogan10010;901282]Glad you had a nice time. I used to live in TN and NC. I have only had two friends with the gumption (word I don't often get to use), to come up for a visit. They all have this vision of being mugged and spat on. QUOTE]

I hear you. I was scared of going into the core of the big apple too. unlike most others you mentioned, I actually used to have visions of getting slammed to the ground by the New York City Police Department and dragged off to jail just for saying "hi" and trying to strike up a conversation with someone in nyc. In fact, i was even originally going to fall asleap at newark airport and was about to ask the instructor to "wake me when it's time to board the plane to fort lauderdale" when he told me "we're going to NYC, come with us!" I even started asking my instructor some crazy questions about NYC, like "how close did you get to nyc? (went up in the empire state building) how many times did you get in trouble with the new york city police for being friendly to someone? (zero)" And 4 hours later, i was thinking; "well, I guess that Illinois (Chicagoland/Dupage County) is now the rude capital of the country."

[triton1]

say... doesn't anyone else find new yorkers to be friendly? by the way, does anyone think new jersey locals are any nice?

[mellat]

I was walking along Houston St last summer. A man with a dog almost knocked me over trying to cross the street. An older man was next to me. She said "Honey, my brother once told me that they're more horses' asses than horses". I still think about that and smile. That was so New York.