In the Land of Opportunities, New York is the big apple indeed. It is a city like no other, a melting pot of cultures, creative talent and entrepreneurial spirit. The world's capital on fashion, music, musical shows, plays, trading, big and small business ... Like an abstract sculpture of stained glass you see different things from all possible angles in the different ways light hits or misses the parts that make up the whole.
Colorful billboards lord over old brick buildings. Mounds of black garbage bags, bursting at the seams, wait outside like dutiful schoolchildren from the stores and shops whence they came from for the garbage truck to pick them up at the end of the workday. Locals, lean and sleek in black outfits and sensible shoes rub elbows but oblivious to the tourists in their colorful prints and sensible shoes. Stores and vendor stands promising hot bagels at almost every block are easier to find than public rest rooms.
It doesn't matter whether you seek out other countries or not, they will come to you. Sit in Times Square and close your eyes, you will hear different languages of the world from all directions. Stand on a street corner and before the light changes you will be surrounded by people garbed in their native costumes or somebody else's fashion creations. Sample exotic cuisine from the Ukrainian, Ethiopian, and other restaurants. Take a trip on the subway from one end 'till the other and be amazed at how the color of the passengers' skins and clothes transform from light to dark. It is like being a travel capsule where fellow riders are whites, then Chinese, Italian, then blacks.
Except for tourists, everybody else seems to be in a hurry to get somewhere. In the most literal sense they walk briskly or run, or get around in all sorts of wheels from roller blades to bicycles to cars and jeeps to limousines and yellow taxis. They work hard, but they also party hard.
The phrase "if I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere" rings loud and clear here. So many successful comedians, jazz artists, actors, models, designers, entrepreneurs, etc. started out here as struggling nobodies. And yet the price of fame and fortune is sometimes the human spirit. There are just as many tattered souls and broken dreams around as evinced by the bums, beggars, crackpots, drug addicts, and whathaveyou's. Some people pay dearly with their life's possessions, blood and soul. Still, there's enough excitement and energy to go around. People, including many Filipinos, are still lured by the seductive promise of success and being where the real action is.
I love New York because I find it an exciting place to be in. Anything and everything happens here. The question is "do I want to live here?" I don't think so.