Backlog Bloggin' - The end of the NYC trip

Thoughts going on in my mind around Sept 5th:

The trip to NYC is coming to an end. After 6 incredible days of walking all over town, Hubby and I are finally on our way back home after a pit stop in Milwaukee to attend Hubby's Best Man's wedding.

As I sit in the cabin, waiting for the plane to take off I already start to think of the standard answer I'm going to give everyone back at the office when they ask me how I liked New York: "It was awesome... I could move there tomorrow!!".....

.... because, really? What else can you say about a city like New York? In the six days Hubby and I spent there we know that we only got to see the tip of the iceberg. The city is like a dormant beast with so many things to be discovered. We walked and ate and shopped and museum-visited, and park-strolled and roof-garden hopped, and celebrity-spied like there was no tomorrow and yet we both agree we didn't get to see a tenth of what the city has to offer....

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And yet, deep down inside, as I look out the cabin window, I hear that voice inside of me asking, very clearly and yet very annoyingly, "but, wait, if you did live there, how would your life be any different than it is now?"

As I was walking in that amazing city time and again I couldn't help asking myself over and over again in which way my life would change in regards to our current life in Paris. I know, it's pretty simplistic to compare both cities when obviously the vibe of each is so totally different. Yet, the "vibe of a city" isn't usually what Hubby and I pick up on. In a way Hubby and I don't really take advantage of living in a city like Paris and therefore, we'd probably wouldn't take advantage of living in a city like New York either. We don't go out to party every night, we don't meet up with 200 different friends every night for dinner, we don't go to gallery inaugurations or club openings, we rarely remember to go to the theater once in a while and seldom check out outdoor concerts or spectacles. We do movies quite often though.

So what is left? Our day to day lifestyle.... and how would that change?

As I walked around Wall Street and watched all those power men and women rush their way towards and from offices, grab a quick sandwich to wolf down while checking their BlackBerry, struggle with briefcases and high heels, I felt as if all I needed to do was grab any stupid old suit currently hanging in my own closet back home and I would be able to fade into the crowd. The familiarity with the entire scene made me almost certain that at any moment I was going to bump into someone I knew.

As I walked in the awesome East side and Greenwitch neighborhoods and watched all the cute wacky cafes and cool chic artsy restaurants, I felt like putting on the jeans and ballerinas I usually wear to go brunch at the Marais or in the Saint Germain quartiers in Paris during the weekends and I was sure I would totally blend in with the crowd. I could see myself already sitting at one of those terrasses, like I do back home, sipping my Perrier while Hubby and I people-watch or chat about how our week had gone.

I know already that if we lived in NY I would rarely go to Madison Avenue or Park ave just as I rarely walk on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris.... certain high ends streets simply intimidate me to the point I feel uncomfortable even walking on the sidewalk..... just as other high end streets like the Champs Elysées and Fifth Ave feel ok thanks to all the tourists that, to the stores' utter horror, brazenly cross the thresholds of such luxury names like Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's & Co wearing New Balance sneakers and carrying the Gap and Zara carrier bags.

Hubby doesn't agree with me on all this. He totally loved the city and thinks it would be a great place to move to if the opportunity presented itself. I can see why he says this. New York is to him what Paris was to me 8 years ago. A strange, exciting different place.. a different culture, a different language, a different country, a different lifestyle, a different food.... Different.

I loved New York. Seriously, I did. I know I could live there and I would probably be happy there. But it wouldn't be different to me. It didn't feel different to me at all. It felt the same as the US feels like to me every time I go back home.

It felt the same as Paris feels to me now.

Fned.

P.S. On the other hand, the 6 days we spent there were awesome and if you want to make up your own mind on weather you would like to live there or not, check out Hubby's pics at Got Light.