Part I: Perennial Tourist
第一部: 永遠的觀光客

created 8/2004

I hope my next destination will make me feel more, like, permanent.

I have been tired of being a tourist like this. Even in this colorful travel destination, living there three years as a tourist is far too long. Unless you manage to put down your root there, you just have to move on, to next destination. As a seasoned and savvy traveler, I should have known that better.

This is the moment I have to admit defeat (once again). I really did try but failed to make New York my home (again).

I moved out of New York officially on July 1st, 2004, right before I started another trip to a faraway place. Since I would be away for the whole month of July, it was a wise decision to drop my apartment in New York and leave all my belonging in a storage place. Thus, from now on I no longer have an address in New York. And I won't have one soon anyway. After returning to the United States in August, I will move to another city, to start another new career.

No longer a "New Yorker" can I call myself. But I guess I get what I asked for. Really. I don’t want to live as a tourist in a place I cannot identify as home forever.

In fact, I love New York. It is always a city full of excitement. The food, the art, and the feeling of being in the center of the world. I don't need to drive (which I've been adverse to) here and the mass transportation runs 24 hours everyday. I’ve seen "Avenue Q" (The Best Musical winner of this year's Tony Award) before everybody else knows it is not just a Broadway show featuring puppets.

Oh, yes, it is soooo expensive living in this city. But this second time living as a New Yorker (First time was from late 2000 to early 2002.I was there when 9/11 happened), I earn much more money than the first time. I could actually paid more than $1000 for an apartment in a very chic neighborhood in Manhattan. Walking across Houston Street, to the even trendier neighborhood of East Village, just took me 3 minutes. Second time around here, life was just more convenient. And finally I was able to pay the extra price tag for that convenience.

But excitement and convenience are not enough. We all look, constantly, for sense of belonging. Or at least, feeling of existence. In New York, I have been rarely able to find both.

That job (okay, three jobs) I had here is "temporary" With a title like "research fellow," the position only runs up to two years, while another job (since been laid off last February) has the clause "provisional" in its title. None of those jobs really offered sense of security. Since I thought I might find a better (and a more permanent) job and move back to DC (or Taiwan) anytime soon, I ended up choosing a furnished, "short-termed" (which means most people live there for about 3 months) apartment, applied through a management company (instead of a broker). I stayed there for much longer than intended. Though this "short-termed" apartment felt too small eventually, I wasn't bothered to find another more spacious apartment. Real estate brokers in New York are too scary, too greedy, and too vicious. I preferred not to deal with them (again) and rather staying put with this ill-managed, but relatively friendly company.

While my next-door neighbors change every few months, I was there for 18 months. Working "temporary" jobs and living in a "short-termed" residence more like a hotel (remember? it's furnished!) than home, I sort of felt that I was on a prolonged business trip. Sense of feeling unsettled had been strong. And yes, I spent a lot of time sightseeing around New York, things people also do when on their business trip.

Of course, the most difficult part of life here is how difficult it is to make new friends (You all tired of hearing me complaining that already. Won't get into detail here). After living in New York for a while, I started to believe Bostonians are actually a bunch of friendly people (?!).

Well these complaints should finally become history (so is this "business trip"). I get a new (hopefully more permanent) job in another (much cheaper) city and no longer need to stay in New York.

In my last week in New York, I went on a river cruise to circle around the island of Manhattan. Something only tourists are really into, I guess. I had been on different river cruises around Manhattan several times. They always sail only around the southern fifth of Manhattan. I had seen some great view of Liberty of Statue, Ellis Island, and Brooklyn Bridge on each of the trips. However, I never really knew how the other four fifths look like from the water. In this trip, our boat passed under other less known New York bridges, Queensboro Bridge, Tri-Borough Bridge, and George Washington Bridge; we passed by the circus tent of Cirque du Soleil; I had a great look of Grant' Tomb (near Columbia University), from Hudson River; Also for the first time, I found there is a stunning graffiti on a cliff opposite Inwood (Northern Manhattan), painted by rowing team from Columbia University - a big blue "C"

So, even after I thought I had seen a lot of New York, there are still many more I haven' seen or experienced. With a mindset of a tourist, I can actually explore more and enjoy more about New York. This is such a tough city to live. It is too crowded, cost of living is extremely high, people are mean and vicious, and worse, it is always the favorite target of those crazy terrorists.

Being a tourist to New York is just much easier. Before I was a resident here, I traveled to New York more than 15 times and enjoyed it almost every time. I did not know how difficult it might have been if I had to make a living there. In other words, I fell in love in New York because I hadn't yet needed to deal with all the horrible aspects of living there.

Being a tourist in many ways is easier than being a resident. For the first time in many years, I will travel to the Continent I am originally from (but basically ignored in most of my travel plans), to experience the life somewhat familiar but yet strange. Say goodbye to New York, I moved on to another travel destination.

For now.