*Terms and Conditions apply

I flew into New York last Saturday and have been finding my feet in this city since. I arrived in the middle of a heat wave and suddenly realised that the four hoodies I brought with me were obsolete.

I’ve been sleeping on the floor of artemis’ apartment in the Financial District since I’ve arrived. She is actually a fantastic and lovely person, beyond her armadillo-esque exterior. She has given me some great practical advice on the day-to-day workings of New York. In related news: she’s disappointed that she hasn’t seen a shooting… yet.

After searching around I finally found my own place to live for the summer. It’s near Sunset Park, rent is good, it’s near the R (which I can take to work) and it has just been renovated. I’ll be living with two Philosophy graduates and I’m moving in tomorrow.

I had a job interview on Monday with a Web Design firm. It went well, consisted of “Show me some sites you’ve worked on”; “Here, here and here“; “Cool, you’ve got a job, come in Wednesday and we’ll draw up a contract”. I’ll mostly be doing PHP, CSS, xHTML and SQL work, with a bit of Flash, ActionScript and JavaScript thrown in. It’ll pay the rent.

I met up with Julia & Dan last night for a really tasty meal in a curry house called Brick Lane. The first time I met artemis in London we went to a great curry place too, in the actual Brick Lane in London.

I’ve had my first really bad Customer Service Experience too. I went into a Sprint Store on Fifth Avenue and asked for directions to the Apple store. The clerk replied with “Why do people always come in here looking for other places? We’re not a damn tourist information office! Get the hell out of here!”.

I’ve also had an Overheard moment:

Guy #1: You know about the Swedish; those guys in Paris.

Guy #2: Naw, the Swedish are from Norway.

So, to sum up, so far New York is: busy, hot, smelly, expensive, multi-racial, tall and fun.