The New York trip was eventful though NYC didn't live up to the hype. My first impression is its "a better Bangalore" ;-). I wondered what is so fascinating about the Times square to become a major tourist attraction. But I liked the students crowd hanging out at that place. Like everyone else, I also took some snaps though I didn't understand what is so attractive in it.
The funniest part of my trip was the hotel where the stay was arranged.
The hotel has no marked entry or anything to identify the hotel. The only mean to locate this hotel was its building number. When entered through the door, there is an escalator leading to a twilit hall and it took me sometime before realizing that its the lobby and the counter looked like the bar was the reception. Every inch of the hotel looked like a night club - no lights on the ceiling not even inside the room. The room has queen size bed and space barely enough to walk around it. The bathroom is made of glass which is see through from the bedroom. Fortunately there was curtain. All these were facilitated only for 250$+tax per night. The Internet costed an additional 10$ per day. The TV had only news channel and Movies come with additional charge.
The best thing I enjoyed in NY was the food from street side vendors. There were many different chain of street food vendors and most of them are run by Arabs. I had some spicy food after a long time.
At the Bloomberg office, I was the only intern candidate. All others were on their final year and had full time offers. My seat was with a MIT guy and the other guy on the table was from Harvard. Later people mistaken me also from MIT. Being a proud Hopkins student, inspired from the
Facebook movie incident I eagerly corrected them pronouncing the name of the "one of the nation's most selective colleges". After all Micheal Bloomberg is a Hopkins Alumnus.
Later in the evening, we all went for Bowling and not without loosing the modesty I am saying I was unbeaten. I hit turkey in one of the game and to give others a fair chance I started bowling with my left arm.
On Saturday due to the checkout time pressure (or rather the haunting thought about paying 250$ from my own pocket for the room rent if I miss the checkout time) I ran out of the queue for the Emperor State building observatory deck. After checking out, I joined with a few students from RPI and I went for an Indian Buffet Lunch. Once again I was disappointed with the taste though the guys with me really liked the food. Looks like my standard about Indian food hasn't come down yet (comment from one of the senior student in Hopkins about my dissatisfaction about the taste of food in O's place - an Indian restaurant in down town Baltimore).
The train journey between Baltimore and New York made me proud and feel happy about the quality of the Indian Railway service. Here the tracks are very shaky and even for the Business class, there is no reserved seats. Considering the similar train service - the the Shatabdi Express, the Amtrak service is not even match for comparison. Some of the trains are even late by 2 to 3 hours. At the NY Penn station, not even a bench was provided for passengers waiting for the train. People were sitting on the floor. A flight ticket booked as early this train ticket, a round trip flight ticket would have come cheaper than one way train ticket.
Overall the trip was a nice experience. I accepted the Bloomberg offer and so I will be spending the summer in New York. Hope I can enjoy NY even more during my internship time.
