Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York

Sometime over the course of a person’s first year in New York, there usually comes that moment. It can happen in the first days or weeks, or after 10 months. It can happen repeatedly, or without people noticing, at least not at first. Newcomers suddenly realize either that the city is not working for them or that they are inexorably becoming part of it, or both. They find themselves walking and talking faster. The subway begins to make sense. Patience is whittled away; sarcasm often ensues. New friends are made, routines established, and city life begins to feel like second nature. In other words, newcomers find themselves becoming New Yorkers.

Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York, by Cara Buckley

Comments

[Bernd Goldschmidt]

Isn't that true for any new and unfamiliar place? Anything that is substantially different from the place you lived before?
I don't think this phenomenon ins New-York-specific. Maybe the increased speed is, though :-)

[joanna goddard]

it took me two years!

[Elit Alice]

i never lived in NY, but I lived in 4 different european capitals, and I must say, it happened in all of them. sometimes earlier than a year, sometimes later, but its a lovely feeling. :)

[Heather R.]

I think I had that about four months in. It all suddenly made sense. Now I've left NY and am at month four in San Francisco, waiting for that click...

[Montse]

As a Chilean living in NY, I could totally relate to that article.
Fantastic blog, by the way!