For the few who know, I've been to New York and back, a few days ago. The trip lasted 2 weeks and gave me a chance to see the world, or sort of.

Prior to that, I was actually thinking to myself that I might just want to move there permanently because, let's face it, I don't actually have anything to hold on to here, asides from my family.

However, after spending two weeks in what you could call a foreign environment, I realised how much exactly we take for granted in Singapore. Sure, the people are pretty stupid (admit it, you agree with me), life's all of routines, and the government is your boss. But you also get safety, stability, and hey, edusave and medicare!

That made me think about a conversation I had with my colleagues on monday over lunch, about how most girls look for a bad boy during relationships and end up settling down with a good-two-shoes in the end. Do you get the similar?

So the thing is, I went, I saw, and I spent (lol). And I came back to Singapore in one piece lol. Not to say that I was involved in anything dangerous when I was there. But you know how people are always telling horror stories about the states? Where people get mugged every minute of every day, how someone dies every other day, and how people smoke weed and worst freely?

I am glad to say I didn't actually encounter any of that. Except the last one where I happen to know a couple of friends who are actually able to acquire such contrabands easily over there, lol.

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Anyway, what I noticed about New York is how for one, the people there can be nicer and ruder at the same time. You meet people who smile at you on the train, just because, and there are also people who curse at you just because you are standing there.

Like the two most distinct incidents I recall, which really made me think.

(Be forewarned that I am actually pretty clueless when it comes to race and so I shall describe the incidents in the crass way that I know it to be in an effort to convey the message. No offense to anyone.)

The first incident happened when we were just getting off the Staten Island ferry and the whole crowd of people were all slowly shuffling our way to the exit. We were walking in front of two big, black women (I'm gonna have to apologise again for the use of crude words because I don't actually know what race they are. But then again, I don't care! =.=), one of whom had a stroller and the other was carrying the child.

Out of nowhere, the one with the stroller shoves her stroller into my legs and when I turned around in surprise, the other one shouted at me, "Move it bitch!"

Utterly flabbergasted, I tried to move out of her way because obviously, I'm not gonna be able to win if I fought with them. (I wish I had done something about it though. =/) The next thing I knew, they were trying to mow my mother and auntie down with that stroller.

See, the thing was, there was no space in front, and it was pretty obvious those two bitches were just being the bitches that they were, but there was nothing we could have done.

That incident just totally ruined my image of the people there, all because of these two stupid people. What was sad was that before that, all the other black people I met have been really nice and friendly. (Almost all, but they're not the only ones so it doesn't count.)

A few days after that, I was in the subway station waiting for a friend when I saw a black guy run past, dropping a crumpled bill in the process. A white guy, probably a business man, saw it and started shouting to tell him. When the black guy didn't stop or even turn around, the white guy picked up the money and chased after him still shouting.

Awhile later, I saw the same white guy walk back up the stairs with the money no longer in his hand, and continuing on his way to the opposite direction.

I assumed that he had returned the money of course. (But my dad said otherwise when I told him about the incident after returning; maybe he pocketed the money after running down. Psh, that's what he would have done, lol!)

Still, the idea that the businessman had been running after someone to return his money; I was somewhat in awe after witnessing the incident. It wasn't even a short distance, yet the man had gone out of his way to return the money. Most people would have just shouted, and if the other guy did not turn around, just pocket the money, and that would have been it.

After that, I felt that perhaps New York wasn't such a slump afterall.

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Like every other country, each person anywhere would behave differently of course. So it is not to say that I would label all New Yorkers as the same. But as a tourist, you'd have to agree with me that, what you encounter on the trip would define whether you ever return to a place again, right?

So when I was wandering around by myself at times, I saw how most people in New York don't care much for rules despite signs that tell them that an exit is only for emergency uses, that the doors connecting the train are not meant for walking through, and graffitti can adorn even the middle of a 10 storey building with no actual means of reaching it.

And apparently, toilets are really hard to find after 4am. Rofl.

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Will post more when I have the time. Came back to Singapore with a bug and the medicine's making me drowsy.

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