Saturday, September 3, 2011

Sink Or Swim

New York City is not for the faint at heart. There is no time to 'find your bearings' and there's no time to ask too many questions. You move it along and if you get it wrong the first time, you do it again until you get it right. No one is going to help you out. No one cares that you're not a local. And no one is interested in your personal situation.

As grim as this opener might sound, I still rate this as one of the best places in the world. I have totally fallen in love with this city and it's personality. The fact that things are so fast-paced and people seem cold is exactly what drives you to figure things out on your own until you get it right. In physiology, the phrase 'fight-or-flight-response' is often used to describe the body's reaction and general adaptation to stressful situations and this is, psychologically, exactly what I have had to do in the past couple of days. I have only been here for a little under a week, but it feels as though I was born here now simply because I had to discover everything myself.

I have had a really great opening week and have accomplished so much in this week alone. I have totally mastered the New York City subway system, I have found a really nice apartment in Brooklyn, I have opened a US bank account, and I am on a US cellular network. Heading into orientation week I still need to move in to my apartment and get furniture for the place, but hopefully I can handle that smoothly.

I haven't had the opportunity - or the time - to do any touristy activities while here, but as time goes on I'll do my best to get around to doing that and posting about those experiences.

I'm really über excited to start classes this coming week and the enormous privilege and blessing this is has only just recently sunk in. I have had a little preview of the kind of things I'll be getting up to from a friend of mine who studied musical theatre as well. I'm going to be totally immersed in dance, music, voice instruction, and film craft. With that total immersion, though, comes little time for anything else apparently so I'll take this opportunity to apologise in advance if I don't come up for air very often. 

Tomorrow is my first Sunday in New York City and no prizes for guessing where I'll be headed in the morning: CHURCH! I have a short list of 3 churches which I will be visiting before ultimately joining one. I am starting this week at Hillsong Church in Irving Plaza which is cool because I have already met a volunteer from there on the streets of Manhattan during random conversation. Coincidence? Maybe not.

Untill next time...

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