I've been able to update a few people as to how things are going for me down here in The Big Apple, but Eric tells me there's a lot of people asking him "How's your brother like it?" or "What's his school like?" or "Has he been devoured by subway rats yet?"
If you remember, or saw on my blog, the last time I put up a post was 63 days ago. That's a little over two months. You could then infer that I'm either a lazy douche-balloon, or I've just been that busy that I haven't had the time to sit down and get in some time as a word-smith.
I now understand the phrase "in a New York minute."
I've done and been through so much in the last few weeks I don't think I could put everything down here but I'll try to focus on the big stuff.
As I've told a few people, living in New York has been the easy part so far. Sure there are a lot of weirdos and people that dance on the subway trying to get a few bucks and I frequently play the game Crazy? Or using Bluetooth?, but overall NYC has been pretty good to me. Most people just want to be left alone and I've yet to be hassled. Unless you count train delays, because then I get hassled all the time (along with the rest of the city).
Queens in particular has been pretty great as it's slightly slower-paced than Manhattan and my apartment super quiet at night. However since my air mattress decided it would be fun to slowly start deflating over night, I've been sleeping on the couch for the last two weeks which has not been the best. Yea yea, I know. BUY A MATTRESS. I will! But my roommate agreement is only good until the end of May and the less stuff I have to lug around if I have to move, the better.
New York has a surprising shortage of tree stumps.
Work is by far the largest stressor in my life. Even after 6 years of kicking ass and taking names at Hess there are still moments where I feel adrift at sea with no oar and having just lost my volleyball-best-friend.
It's tough. And I don't mean that in a Dangerous Minds kind of way, most of the kids at school are great but this is a super difficult time to get into the game as the school year is more than half over at this point and we're right in the middle of preparation for the state exams.
My typical days starts at 4:30 when my alarm goes off and I slide out of bed and into the shower. By 5:30 I'm dressed (shirt and tie required) and out the door for the bus. I'm usually in Harlem just past 6am and in the school building at 6:30. Class starts at 8 and I'm usually home at 7pm. 12-13 hour days are normal, and with prep for the following day (and grad school on the near horizon) I'm lucky to get 5-6 hours of sleep a night.
One of the biggest differences and things I've really struggled with is being a total hard-ass with the kids at school. My students in Taiwan knew that I could bring the hammer down if I needed to, but this is a totally different kind of class management beast. The standards at this school are super, super high and basically I get my salary to see that the kids are held to them. There is no speaking in the hallways, not following directions the first time usually brings either a silent lunch or a detention, and I'm making parent phone calls daily for a variety of reasons. Oh, there's theres frequently staff meetings at 7am and/or at 5:30pm to plan for the day/week or to debrief.
By Friday I'm pretty beat down, but at least there's weekends in the City. I'll give it to these New Yorkers, they know how to do a proper brunch...
Stay tuned for another update coming soon!