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Saturday, December 5, 2009
Laundry Day
Okay sure, I know there are a few that send their clothes out, but for many, this is a perfect chance to chill out, as it's not always the best idea to leave your underwear unattended for too long.
It's also reasonably affordable. $2 gets you a double load wash done, and it's 25 cents for six minutes in the drier. So a load of sheets (today's adventure!) will only cost me around $2.75 - much cheaper than washing your laundry in Sweden ($40).
It's raining today, so not much with the sightseeing. I'll probably just hang out and catch up on some work, and also maybe some DVDs. Also it's rather chilly, and the natives are thinking it's going to snow soon.
Exciting! Maybe I'll get a white Christmas after all?
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Friday, December 4, 2009
Brooklyn and her Bridge
I walked to Brooklyn instead.
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Tipping: not just a place in China
One thing I've noticed here is that, aside from the cost of accommodation, the price of everyday items is generally either comparable or lower to the cost of things back home.
Clothes are cheaper, movies and entertainment are a similar price, and food is cheaper. Or so you would think.
Eating out at a restaurant is great fun, and New York has great restaurants every few metres. Mains (here they call them 'entrees') are generally cheaper back home; where you might pay $30 for a steak in Wellington, you could pay $20-$25 here for the same. This is especially impressive given that Manhattan generally has to import everything.
But New York (well actually the entire country) doesn't make it that simple. Why would you, when you can make it confusing and difficult to predict? You see sales tax (their version of GST) is never included in the menu price. Of anything. Food, clothes, goods and services all exclude tax until it's time to pay the bill, which just gets confusing. A $20 steak will now cost $23.
Why tax is excluded I'll never understand. McDonald's have a commercial over here which has a man wandering the streets with a $1 note, asking people 'what can I get for this?'. Of course when he gets to McD's he is answered wit a swagger of burgers and items that I would just as soon eat as I would run a marathon. But the point is, they lie.
I went into the offending restaurant my first week here, with all of $1.25 in my pocket to satisfy my craving for self destruction, and ordered a 'sweet tea' from there $1 menu.
"That will be $1.09"
"Excuse me?"
"Plus tax, sir"
"Then it's not really a dollar, is it?"
"Of course it is sir. The tea is a dollar, but the tax is nine cents"
I gave him my $1.25, took my sweet tea and change (which I didn't put in the charity box), and nearly lapsed into a diabetic coma from the sweetness of the tea. So I gave it to a homeless man. It's what Jesus would do.
So we have sales tax, to help compensate for the relatively low price of food and such. But then there's tipping. Here you tip anytime anybody does anything for you, outside of simple retail or deli service. This is particularly true of any place with table service.
Typically a tip should be at least 15% of the total bill: 18% is expected, anything more is to reward good service. So basically you tip for service, not good service (though you don't have to tip for bad service, a smaller tip is generally still expected). Also the nicer the restaurant, usually the higher the tip (thanks, peer pressure!). It's not unusual for a $400 bill to have a $100-150 tip.
So.
What initially seems to be a good deal in this city will usually screw you with the fine print. Something I'm starting to become very familiar with, the longer I spend here.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
First night: little sleep
There's a pipe in my room which connects the whole building's hot water. Every time someone uses hot water it gets noisy. The more that use it, the noisier it gets. Keeps my room warm though.
Today, I buy earplugs.
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