I’ve been living in”The City that Never Sleeps”, for about a decade now. I moved here from my beloved Caribbean island of Puerto Rico (Yup, there are tons of us Pororicans here). Everyone has their own personal reasons to want to leave their home country or home town and start over in a new place. Some take a small step like moving from one big city to another within the same country, others take a bigger step and move from one country to another. The level of difficulty in the game depends on how different the two locations are in terms of language and culture, and also on your preparation (academic, professional experience, money saved).

I’ve had friends from back home, from other states and even other countries ask me about life in the Big Apple. Is it as tough as people say? How hard is it to find a job? Is it really expensive?

There are lots of things to keep in mind. But anything is possible if you truly want it to be. They say that if you make it in New York you can make it anywhere, and I believe that is true. The life experience you gather here can open many doors for you, if you take advantage of it. Life here is both exciting and challenging.

First of all, you’ll need money. How much do you need? Enough to buy yourself food and pay rent for a few months. You may find a job within your first week of looking, but you want to be prepared for survival in case it takes a bit longer. Also update your resume and have printed copies at hand if possible and a digital copy that you can take to a place like Staples or Kinko’s and get it printed.

If you have a relative or friend who lives here already, talk to them. They can give you tons of valuable information. Also, if you feel comfortable enough and have a good enough relationship with that friend or relative, maybe they could provide a temporary living arrangement for you, or suggest one.

Something that a lot of people do is, they set up job interviews for an entire week or a few days, and then they take a trip to NYC specifically for interviewing. This is up to you, I didn’t do it that way. I did my job hunting while living with a friend.

One great thing about moving around in NYC is that you don’t need a car! The public transportation here is great in general terms. It is not perfect of course, and those who have lived here long enough will tell you that it can be a “pain” sometimes, but compared to the rest of the world it is pretty damn good. If you are attached to your car right now, and think you might want to bring it with you, all I can say is that you will be spending a lot of extra money to keep that car. Car insurance is expensive here, and so is parking space. So unless you plan on living outside of the city, far enough that you will need to drive a lot (and that in itself will be expensive), then give up the car. Trust me, once you get used to it you won’t ever need it again (I was once a car owner too).

You’ll be traveling around by foot, subway train, bus and taxi. So, if you like reading you’ll have tons of time to do that while  you sit on the train, bus or taxi.

Renting here goes like this: it’s small and usually expensive, but you can always find a place that suits you and that you feel comfortable in. Living with a roommate is a great alternative that many people go for. The cost of rent gets divided so it’s easier to deal with. Fancy, large apartments will cost you more of course, and the location will also dictate the price. Nicer areas cost more while not so nice areas will of course be a bit cheaper. Also, if it looks too good to be true it usually is. When you go see an apartment, try as much as possible to go see it during hours in which the neighbors might be in (late afternoon and night). This will give you a more realistic experience of what you’re getting into. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and don’t settle for less (unless you are truly desperate). NYC housing experiences is a whole other topic I might have to write a separate article about lol.

One thing that must be mentioned is: The Internet is your friend. It can help you do so many things without leaving your home, without having to travel. There are tons of websites that can help you do your research, find housing, a job, etc. I’m going to include some websites here (below, just keep reading) that are very helpful. I’m sure I’ll miss some but I’ll add more later and if you know some good ones please let me know and I will add them.

Remember, that those who never take risks never truly live. I used to be (and still am to a degree) very shy, and I’m also not a huge fan of drastic changes. However, I took the risk and came to New York City from a tiny Caribbean coast town were everyone knew each other. The change was enormous to say the least. I had to adjust to so many differences in culture and lifestyle, even the people who are from my same island of Puerto Rico are not the same here. Those who grow up here have a very different way of talking, thinking, living etc. which is understandable. Like I said before, it is exciting and challenging. Anything is possible.

Here are some helpful Links:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/ (jobs, apartments, furniture for your apartment, VERY helpful website)

http://www.manhattanaddress.com/ (to find any place in NYC you need the “cross streets”)

http://www.notfortourists.com/NewYork.aspx (tons of cool info on good places to go to)

http://www.weather.com/ (the weather here dictates how you’ll dress so you have to keep up with it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City Lots of good info about NYC

So that’s all for now. I hope to be able to continue this later with more information and experiences. I have no regrets and I’m proud to have come this far in Gotham. I love this city.

Good luck with your move!

So, I decided to become fluent in Japanese. I’ve always been fascinated by languages, and one of my dreams is to be able to learn as many as I can. This is probably because I was born and raised in a place were we have two official languages: Spanish and English. Being constantly surrounded by English language TV, music, magazines, and many other things helped me to learn the language. In school, I leanred the grammar. Then, when I moved to NY, I finally was forced into having conversations which I barely did back home.

But it’s not enough. I want to learn other languages. If it were up to me I’d go to school and learn as many as I could, no joke. But, years ago, even before I moved here, I was introduced to Japanese anime by a friend. I did not like it and brushed it aside. Later on, the same friend showed me more anime, and this time I did like it. After watching an entire series, I didn’t really watch anymore. I just wasn’t a fan. Anyway, I started getting into anime once again recently, and also manga. This made me want to understand Japanese. I also got into Japanese rock music. There is a lot of good music, good anime and manga, oh, and even TV dramas! Of course that’s not all there is to Japanese culture. But what I really want is to be able to read a magazine, a book, watch an anime, and understand it all perfectly without the need for translation into English. It’s such an expressive and passionate language, I want to learn!

Of course for serious learning one can not rely on anime (that would be ridiculous). I did my research, and I found many resources. There is school, books, software, websites, all kinds of resources. These are the ones I am using at the moment.

• All Japanese, All The Time. http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/ a friend introduced me to this awesome blog. Khatzumoto has his own method for learning Japanese, and although it may be too extreme for many of us, we can always learn something valuable from this language warrior. I read up a lot in his blog, and gathered the information that would be useful to me.
• Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1: A complete course on how not to forget the meaning and writing of Japanese Characters by James W. Heisig. This book has many good reviews and recommendations as a great method to learn and remember the Kanji. I just started with it, but so far, so good! I got my copy from amazon.
• Byki. This system has desktop software, a community, and the basic software is FREE. And it’s not just some crappy free trial, it’s actually pretty good. It uses common phrases, basic words, everything that you need to know. It’s not boring at all. It gives you real pronunciation, images, and you can take tests, record yourself to compare with a native speaker, get new lists of words from other users, etc…There are many things you can do with Byki. I started off with the free version but I liked it so much that I bought the Deluxe (it was on sale for $40).
• Music. I remember that one of the things which helped me learn English faster and to pronounce more accurately was listening to music. I’d crank up the volume in my room and sing along with my favorite Rock and Metal bands that of course sang in the English language. So I’m repeating this method now with Japanese. I have a few favorite bands right now like, L’arc~en~Ciel, D’espairsRay, Versailles to mention just a few. I try to look at their lyrics as well, even if it’s Romaji (a system of Romanized spelling used to transliterate Japanese). I also listen to Japanese radio, even if it’s just news.
• TV. I don’t watch much of it to begin with, but I’ve reduced my amount of English language TV as much as possible. Instead, I watch anime, or Jdorama (Japanese TV dramas). I still use the subtitles in English but hope to stop using them soon. So my Netflix queue is usually full of anime these days. Unfortunately they don’t have Jdoramas in Netflix yet, so I have to buy them or find them online on streaming websites. One really good website I go to constantly to watch anime is crunchyroll.com. They are getting a lot of great new anime that are legally streamed in their website. Plus, since it has a great forum, I can find out about other good ones to watch, and even for TV dramas.
• Reviewing the Kanji. This website is a wonderful tool to use as a supplement to Remembering the Kanji, mentioned above. Once I get through a chapter on my book, I go online and review the Kanji learned. This way I will reinforce it. The website was created for this exact purpose so it works perfectly with the book. It also motivates me to keep learning.

So those are my current tools. It’s not easy to learn a new language, but the more you immerse yourself into it the more you learn. I can not have a conversation in Japanese as of yet, but each day I understand a little more. I’ve even started to think in Japanese a little bit, and that’s a good sign to me. Now what would be even more helpful is a friend who is fluent in Japanese. I guess I have to work on that…

またね。

I read something recently that started with this….“If you haven’t been laid off already, you are probably working twice as hard.” It’s not a very positive statement, but it sounds partly true to what I’m seeing around lately. You don’t have to look hard at all to find tons of articles online, tv, magazines, news papers, about the the current state of the economy and how it’s all going down. I’m not going to deny it, yes, things are pretty bad right now, it IS the current state, it is the Now we are living in. However…

Why should I allow myself to plunge down into the destructive spiral? Why should I allow my sanity, my thoughts to be completely invaded by all this, quickly placing my ability to continue in a positive direction in a complete freeze? One thing is, admitting the state of things in the Now we are living, and another is, allowing that to become the future as well. I can’t allow my mind, my thoughts, my desires, my energy to focus on Now, when Now is not what I want for me. I have to continue to work on my thoughts, and on my focus on what I WANT my life to be. That is the only way I will get THERE.

As a former colleague recently wrote in her LinkedIn status, I am a recent casualty of the economy. So I’ve been home for the past two weeks or so, doing many things: updating my portfolio, browsing job postings and applying here and there, keeping the recruiters updated, going on the Unemployment Insurance website, and of course I’ve been doing other things like watching anime, checking out some Flash video training for myself (I will get better at it!), and working on my Japanese Lessons.

Of course being at home, I’m saving all that money I  used to spend on lunch while at work and that is great. Also, I’ve become an addict of HGTV. I call it my training for buying my first home. I’m also cooking dinner more which I really like doing, and no I am not cleaning more. That’s not a job that I do on my own so I’m not going to turn my mini vacation at home into a cleaning binge. Another thing which  is a bit of a side effect of watching too much HGTV is, the decorating/organizing/re-arranging obsession. I kinda keep looking for little projects to do, lol, and my first one was to find a nice frosted film to place on the living room windows, so that I can have all the light coming in but still keep it private. I found a really nice on on eBay for a nice price. So I’ll cover the bottom half of the windows with it, and then I can take out the dark curtains and enjoy the light.

Yup, mini vacation is going well after all.

ヤね

~L

Everyone likes to start new things at the beginning of the year. These are known as Resolutions.

The first definition I found for this word was: A firm decision to do or not to do something. Ok, that seems quite clear to me. But from what I hear and see, most people start the year with tons of resolutions, which are then forgotten or given up on, very easily.

I don’t do resolutions. I believe in something called The Law of Attraction. It is very simple. You attract what you think of, what you focus your thoughts on constantly, whatever things you think of with emotion/feeling. You know how when a day starts off badly, it seems like things just go downhill from there? That’s you doing it. One thing goes wrong for you, then you get upset, sometimes start arguing in your mind about how “these things happen always at the worst time”, and from there it starts building up inside you. And very soon, another thing goes wrong and you say…what do you say? “THIS DAY JUST GETS WORSE EVERY SECOND”, “WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS”, “IT’S ALWAYS ONE THING AFTER THE OTHER“. Do any of those sound familiar? It’s all you, it’s your own doing. Attracting like a magnet, your negative thoughts, together with the feelings of frustration, anger, and your focus on whatever negative thing happened to you at the beginning of the day, plus any others that may be coming back into your memories from past frustrations, make up a huge spiral. And before you know it, it really is ONE THING AFTER THE OTHER. And again, it’s all your own doing. Nope, no one did this to you, there is no one punishing  you, no outside forces are against you. Read the rest of this entry »

Time is an illusion. One that we learn about early in life, and it is enforced on us quickly and heavily. Things move, change, we see it and associate one with another. But do we really understand?

For those of us who understand that there is no time, and that this is but one life amongst many others, and that death is nothing but another step into the next one, things are a bit different. It is all one line, going on and on, and the point of it all is to enjoy it.

Worrying about simple things, becoming upset and frustrated about mundane situations or people, these things that are so difficult to avoid for many, are amongst many of the pointless activities in which we focus this precious life. When you think about it, can you see how pointless and idiotic it is?

It is sad how so many people spend day after day missing out on so much, ignoring so much, pushing aside so much. And instead they choose to spend all their energy into things that will never give them the happiness, enjoyment and satisfaction that their souls are really craving.

Fear, shame, worry…..controlling us, holding us back, taking everything from us.

Say what you really want to say, do what you really want to do, think what you really want to think. Everything is constantly moving, evolving, changing. Live.
Really…..what are you waiting for?

~L