Taking the subway every day makes me miss London. In the Underground, everything is so simple. It's logical. At every stop, a soothing British voice tells you very clearly what station it is, what the next will be, what other Tube lines you might be able to transfer to, and sometimes even what well-known landmarks are nearby. Tube maps are helpfully plastered all over the inside of the train, on the platforms, and throughout the stations. An electronic marquis at every platform tells you how soon the next train is coming and, if applicable, which route on the line it's taking. Platforms for each direction of a line (e.g. Central Line Westbound and Eastbound) are located adjacent to one another, and are easily accessible and clearly labeled.
Not so with the New York City Metro. Say, for example, you are waiting for the C train to take you home after work, and you wonder when it might be coming. Three minutes? Fifteen? It's anybody's guess! In the meantime, three E trains and two A trains come, and due to your fiercely growling stomach, you secretly vow that if the next train isn't a C, you will throw yourself onto the tracks in front of it. (These are all hypothetical situations, obviously. But for the record, the next train
was a C.) And what if you get down into the station, only to realize that you can only get to the Northbound line, when you are intending to travel South? Oh, no problem, just go back up the stairs and wait at the crosswalk in the pouring rain so you can search for the other entrance down the street. Perhaps you need to find a new destination, and you're not sure of the route. Surprise! We've hidden all the maps, so it looks like you'll just have to pick a train at random and hope you don't end up in the Bronx! And as an added bonus, the train you choose may or may not be stopping at its scheduled stations, depending on the day, time, and phase of the moon. Just a fun little game we cooked up for you to keep things interesting. Enjoy!
That being said, I love it here. My apartment is great, my roommates are cool, and best of all, only three of the days after my parents left were spent unemployed. On the advice of a friend of a friend of a sister, I emailed the Human Resources department of
EMI Music Publishing to see if they had any temp work, as a way of getting my foot in the door. The next day, I got a call from a woman in EMI's licensing department, asking if I'd like to come in and talk about a full-time paid internship. Um, yes? This was especially hilarious to me, because when I had to do my (unpaid!) internship for Media Music, EMI was one of the 40 or so companies to which I applied and never heard from again. This was almost ridiculously easy. Anyway, I've worked here about a week and half now, and I really like it. I help with the requests that come in for licensing songs for TV and films. And while the pay for the internship isn't great, I'm learning a ton and I get a lot of real work to do, which is awesome. Plus, we get free concert tickets! And from everything I've been told, EMI hires a lot of their interns - many of the people I work with started as interns, actually. All in all, I can't complain.
Also, a homeless guy told me yesterday that he liked my hair. Everything's coming up Laura!
