To any American friends that read this please don't think I'm being rude but there are certain perceptions that us Aussies get from seeing the news, movies and TV shows from your country as I'm sure you do of ours we all don't put a "shrimp on the barbie" or have "kangaroos in our backyards". This may be just me but from seeing the likes of sex and the city, ugly Betty, the view or my personal favourite which alot of Aussies don't understand but i love is 30 rock. New York to me it seems is a place where everybody moves at the speed of light in the latest seasons fashion, restaurants are opening up every minute, you get mugged very easily, the subway and central park are extremely dangerous and no New Yorker wants to live in New Jersey and if you have a dream to succeed that New York is where you must go.Now don't get me wrong all of my perceptions are not bad for some reason i feel the need to try a pretzel a pickle a hot dog and a slice (i think you call your pizza's that) walk into a bakery and have a fresh pastry i want to do the tourist thing and which i assume is the statue of liberty, the empire state building and central park etc but as i said in my first post i want to see more so if anyone has any ideas that read this of places that are not to miss i would love to know this may be weird but i want to see Queens and Brooklyn i want to go to the Hampton's which my perception of is only the people who make good money live or have a holiday house there.
When i watch TV shows and see the likes of your day spas i get so jealous i definitely want a treatment! you hear about the gap which actually took me a while to figure out it was a shop not a hole in the ground, Starbucks which we do have here but basically went broke and all the fashion shops Prada, Versace etc i believe if i walked in there something like the scene from pretty woman would happen and yes i do realise that was in LA but i think they would look straight at me like you don't belong here but for me it's probably because i don't know if they would have anything in my size not like Julia being a hooker.
One of my major perceptions about New York is what's with all the tipping? i know it is customary in the US but i believe half my holiday money would go on tipping what is the fair amount to give someone not to piss them off? and why do you have to give someone money for hailing a cab this custom will feel weird to me as in our country tipping is a matter of coins not bills a small jar at the end of the cash register where you can dispose of your loose change but really there is no obligation so tipping with notes to me is going to seem like a waste of money but as one visits a different country one must adhere to their customs i could talk about this forever but i will end this post tonight and continue this another day.
I think perception is a really funny (and sometimes disarming) thing - we get so stuck in our pre-conceived notions of how things are supposed to be that we don't realize how wrong we are. ;) I know when I travel it always surprises me how wrong I am about what I think I'll find!
ReplyDeleteNew York City is one of my favourite places on earth (on the short list with Washington, DC, Noosa, Aus, and Valparaiso, Chile) and most of your perceptions are pretty accurate: it's busy and frantic, and soemtimes unsafe, though honestly not all that much anymore (I've wandered down Broadway at four am, plastered, not wearing shoes, and sat and chilled with homeless folks while trying to remember where my hotel was) Brooklyn and Queens are also faves of mine, though I'm an upper-eastside kind of girl... When you're ready to start planning, let me know, and I'll definitely have suggestions for the city and surrounding environs (I go usually three or four times a year)
Oddly, there are so many great stereotypes that exist in the US that I always like to bask in them while visiting - the cowboys in the south, the LA culture (or lack there of, if you're from the east coast), the New England wealth and upper class existence... All of these things are great, and well worth enjoying, just as much as those 'living as locals' things would be.
Dare I ask what the Canadian Stereotypes would be? (I could likely guess, but probably shouldn't...) :)