My First week New York

Today I completed my first week at New York city as part of My Fulbright assignment. Since technically my assignment at Stern starts from 1 September, I got about 5 days time to explore the city. I would like to narrate a few interesting facts.

I went to open a bank account at a famous bank. The receptionist told me "Are you sure... ok why not..."and dhen led me to another guy. That guy opened a new packet of visiting cards and told me "...ever since I joined here, I never got a chance to give this to any one..." He said bring all the documents in the next 30 minutes. I am waiting for you. I was surprised. I did a google check and found that a rating agency downgraded the bonds issued by the bank to default category a few days back. Which bank is safe any way now? But I decided to search for another bank.

My real estate agent told me that always give tips to taxi drivers, waiters, etc. I was desperately looking for an Indian restaurant in NY and finally found that there are many closer to Stern. In fact NY Dosa is there just opposite the library. I had a buffet in one of the restaurant. The bill was 10.85$. I paid $11; forgot to pay the tips. The waiter probably thought I am giving 15 cents as tips. He shouted at me "Clear the change please". I felt bad. Took the 15 cents change back and came out. In another restaurant, the waiter was more polite. He told me the bill does not include tips. In fact, I heard that many restaurants add the tips to the bill on their own. Indian waiters are better :)

The sub-way system is thoroughly confusing (in the beginning) and it will take somebody a month to understand which train goes where. But it is an excellent system and is similar to the Metro system of Singapore.

And finally, the University and the school. They use highly sophisticated IT infrastruture. The library access, email access, etc is all controlled from the same website. It is just amazing. No IIM will come anywhere close to what they use here.

Looking forward to exciting time ahead!