Week one in the Big Apple

I wouldn't all myself a "New-Yorker," by any means, but I feel like I've learned to navigate well enough in the last week. I've kept a map on me at all times, just in case, but I've only looked at it once, on day one. I've been forcing myself to do something new and semi-intimidating each day...go to a new gym or a new grocery store, take a different street home, etc., and tomorrow's goal: go to a laundromat. Horrifying, right? I've just never had to do any of these things before, life was so simple in Iowa!

There are a lot of pros and cons about living here -
*I can pretty much find anything I want within a 10-minute walk from my house.
---->But everything here is pretty expensive! (The one thing that I've found to be cheaper here than in Iowa is shipping costs from online purchases.)
*I can walk virtually everywhere I need to go on a daily basis.
---->But it's not that enjoyable on rainy days.
*My street is generally pretty quiet.
---->Except for when street cleaners and garbage men come making all kinds of noise between the hours of 3 and 4am!
*The number of people here is a little overwhelming.
---->But getting off of main roads, like Broadway, helps a lot! It's also nice to know that I have my own room to come home to, or that I could reserve a private study room at the library on campus.
*People here have been surprisingly helpful and polite.
---->But not everyone falls into this category.

Other random sightings in NYC include:
*A man shaving his face in the side-view mirror of a parked truck on Broadway.
*A woman applying lipstick, using a store's display window as her mirror.
*People out walking 1 or 2 LARGE dogs. I mean, if you live in this part of town, your apartment REALLY can't be big enough to house two dogs AND yourself, right?
*SO* much Spanish! I love it.
*Clothing choices: every-other person is either wearing their shorts up to their ears or I can totally see booty hanging out the bottom. Can we please find a happy medium?
*Workers standing out in the streets on strike, yelling, whistling, waving around signs. Police quietly overlook, not stepping in, just ready in case anything gets out of hand.
*The weight room at Palladium (one of the NYU gyms) appears to scare away ALL females. I could use a little company in there.
*Parking lots look like this:

The first few days of class have been great, and I'm excited for Brazil *amanha*! (tomorrow)