New York Moments

The last couple days have been characterized by a crankiness which I only become conscious of when conversations in random offices and internet cafes go south and I suddenly find myself speaking through clenched teeth or insisting in something one time more than necessary. It´s the type of thing I find myself doing on a daily basis in New York and one of the things that makes that particular city so exhausting. One person is rude to you and you feel the need to ramp up the rudeness by ten so you have the impression you defended yourself adequately. And you walk away from the conversation asking yourself who was rude first, what tone was it that you took that resulted in the conversation ending so disagreeably. And jeez, how come it had to be that way?

And here its really even more silly, because you are working in an entirely different context where on one hand the various rituals of greetings and civility often buffer little antagonisms that emerge. On the other hand though basic principles of customer service that I might take for granted don´t exist here and so I find myself furious with the internet cafe because of saying, "yes the computers are slow, give Nero a minute," the girl says to me: "Your flash drive doesn´t work." And I hear myself giving the most New Yorkish of speeches about how my flash drive is perfectly fine, etc etc, desperately embarassing my Ecuadorian friend with who I am working.