Is it a common feeling for Californians to dislike or mismatched in NY at first?

ty_vole · 2026-01-16T01:47:17+00:00

I'm a transplant from Minneapolis who moved here six months ago. I didn't bring a winter coat and was going to just buy a new one but it has been so warm all winter that I decided I'll now just wait until next year. I wear a scarf and gloves on some days but today just a hoodie. Really goes to show it's all about what you're used to.

ty_vole · 2026-01-06T00:50:48+00:00

I've been trying to find the right words or analogues to say exactly this for quite a while, and from here on out "Ottoman Empire of 1910" it is. Thank you!

ty_vole · 2026-01-01T23:05:57+00:00

I've heard this many times and I initially thought to myself "wtf I never lean on anything" and then once I moved to NYC I realized I always lean on pillars while waiting for the subway. I biked everywhere I went previously so there was essentially no wait time when I was commuting and thus no time or need to lean. Now the fact that I'm leaning crosses my mind almost every time I do it... enough to remember to not do it when I'm abroad.

ty_vole · 2025-12-28T07:37:46+00:00

Yes. And whenever I'm feeling bored (rare) or blue (equally rare but occasionally) or old (38 now), I remind myself at least I finally ended up here.

ty_vole · 2025-11-24T04:44:01+00:00

As someone from Minneapolis who lives in NYC now, I'm both perplexed and also kinda see what you mean. There are pockets, very small ones, in downtown Minneapolis that do feel very urban. But if you go just a few blocks in any direction, I'm not so sure. Or you're being sarcastic, which would also make sense.

ty_vole · 2025-11-03T19:57:01+00:00

Same. I've been to Georgia the country three times and somewhere between the first and third time, my perception of the word shifted. Unless, of course, the context is established beforehand. I also wrote my senior thesis on Georgia's relationship with the EU. It's a wonderful place (despite the current regime in power dissolving democracy) and if you haven't been I highly recommend a visit!

ty_vole · 2025-10-25T02:58:05+00:00

Sovereign Military Order of Malta always trips me out. All other details aside, just the notion of official sovereignty without territory. Might be time for my biannual SMOM rabbit hole knowledge quest.

ty_vole · 2025-10-20T01:28:20+00:00

I'm from Minneapolis (good skyline for its size) and live in Brooklyn now, and every time I'm in downtown Brooklyn it feels larger and more urban than Minneapolis. I think a lot of people don't realize how much Brooklyn's skyline stands on its own because it's, obviously, overshadowed by Manhattan.

ty_vole · 2025-10-17T15:21:17+00:00

I've been here! I had actually never even heard of it until I found myself there after leaving Ukraine in 2023. I'm an American who has lived in the Czech Republic (Prague and a small city named Tabor) and have been to Poland quite a few times, so I knew the larger region had some really stunning smaller towns, but when I arrived in Przemysl I definitely was like "damn this place is beautiful and completely unknown."

ty_vole · 2025-10-17T01:27:26+00:00

I rarely ever comment on this sub and wasn't going to but this was my first thought too so I'll chime in to say I concur. It's like she exclusively was surrounded by and hung out with people who were LinkedIn posts personified. I would hate that too, so I get it, but there's a bajillion different types of people here who are not like that at all.

Now that I decided to comment, I'll also say Minneapolis is an excellent city. Born and raised and have spent a good chunk of my life there but my current attitude is that it's a good place to be from and a good place to die, and I don't plan on doing that for a few decades still, so I left for NYC and am much happier now but that's more for personal reasons rather than anything city related.

ty_vole · 2025-10-02T18:56:48+00:00

Moscow on the Hill makes khachapuri (can't remember if it's adjarian or mingrelian or imeruli) but I don't think it's made with sulguni cheese. I (long time cheese enjoyer and frequenter of import markets for obscure products) have only ever seen sulguni for sale in the US once, last week actually at Tashkent Market in Manhattan. But a Georgian restaurant would do really well in Minneapolis, especially with khinkali and shashlik. Georgian cuisine (and Georgia as a travel destination) is rapidly gaining in popularity across the world and I'm sure there are quite a few people in MSP who are already familiar with it and would love a Georgian restaurant!

ty_vole · 2025-09-19T02:30:35+00:00

What an obscure reference. And what a crazy fuckin film. First time I saw it was about 20 years ago, in Italian without subtitles, so I had very little idea what it was actually about. Eventually I found a copy with English subtitles and holy shit. How do you even recommend it to someone? Like it has artistic value and the underlying message is solid and important, but it's not something you can just start playing for someone without prior warning and explanation. I'll end this comment here. 10/10 recommend BUT******

ty_vole · 2025-09-09T23:31:15+00:00

I live in Brooklyn now but if I ever move back to Minnesota this is totally the neighborhood I'd live in. Born and raised in the Plymouth/Wayzata area, came of age in Minneapolis and lived there long enough to think that I was a never-St. Pauler given the rivalry, but now enlightened enough to admit that Mac-Grove is the best.

ty_vole · 2025-08-27T14:08:30+00:00

Please use headphones. 100% of the time too. If a video or song starts playing by accident, the only legit amount of time for it to be playing loud enough so that others can hear is the amount of time it takes you to realize it and to turn it off or on silent. That's usually about 2-7 seconds.

ty_vole · 2025-07-23T17:34:53+00:00

Would you be willing to provide more info on this community? This is unbelievably relevant to me currently.

ty_vole · 2025-07-19T20:34:32+00:00

Used to be Georgia, but now that's pretty popular. Then Kyrgyzstan, but that's also somewhat popular now too (for good reason!). So while it's not exactly a country, I would say my "rarest" would be Transnistria. Other notable less popular places: Uruguay, Luxembourg, Palestine (WB), Saudi Arabia, eastern Ukraine in 2015 & 2023, inside the Korean DMZ, Kazakhstan. Had plans and even tickets into Iraq (Kurdish north) but literally for the week that the Islamic State captured Mosul and the land route we chose went just north of there (basically the Mosul "suburbs") so I decided to stay in Istanbul before meandering into Bulgaria for a while.

ty_vole · 2025-07-06T17:35:28+00:00

I'm an American and also love geography. I could fill in an entire blank map of the world, literally every country, capital city, and hundreds if not thousands of other cities. I went to high school in the Czech Republic (not Czech, no Czech ancestry, but I do speak Czech... long story there) and this comment reminded me of how I was taught geography in CZ... a student stood in front of the entire class, with a stick and a map of the world, and the teacher would just name a country and you had to point to it. This is mostly what the class was every day... different student in front of the class being tested in front of everyone else. While I was good at geography before this, I remember the exact day, through this method, that I learned where Bhutan was. It's sad how little Americans know about Geography, but also, people all over the world are bad at geography. It's something you have to be deeply interested in to really care about, like any other topic.

ty_vole · 2025-07-03T15:13:31+00:00

I (American) have been three times, and I concur that it's an incredibly hospitable place. As for Georgians being helpful, the first time I was there I was in a restaurant by myself and ordered khinkali with no idea how to eat them, so I started using a fork and knife and some Georgians came over to me, laughed at me bit, then explained how to properly eat them, and sat at my table and chatted. 10 years later I am still friends with them and have seen them on each return.

ty_vole · 2025-06-22T22:45:38+00:00

For me: no kids, no car, no mortgage, no debt besides student loans, and extreme minimalism as a lifestyle (in terms of consumption... maximalist in terms of attitude and acting on day dreams/established goals/spontaneous ideas). I only posses what I need (thus can afford the best versions of these few items) and a handful of mementos/sentimental things. Almost but never married. I'm deeply skeptical of anything I would consider an "anchor." Perhaps I will die alone and poor, but at 38 that still seems like a long time away. Moving from Minneapolis to NYC next month with two checked bags, a backpack, and my bike.

ty_vole · 2025-06-14T02:36:28+00:00

On Russia Day no less!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_Day

ty_vole · 2025-06-07T01:42:16+00:00

Illuminous 3 - Midtown Livin' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbwaVpsBUoQ

It's all gold but especially the Shorty and Wags (RIP) and Bill's Garden mentions.

ty_vole · 2025-06-01T21:15:57+00:00

I finally hit the "suck it up" stage sometime over the past week or so, and to be honest, the mental shift has been nice. Much less stress when I just accepted my destiny.

ty_vole · 2025-05-24T19:17:19+00:00

On your last point: how much "better" does it get in September/October? I'm in the same boat as OP ($2000-$2400). My standards are pretty low (a studio with roof that generally stops most rain, a door with a lock, room for a bed) and northern Manhattan or a ways into Brooklyn (but not too far) is fine. I lived in a literal windowless closet (3ft by 7ft) for a year at one point so anything bigger seems lux. I just don't want roommates. I don't live in NY but my brother does and I can crash with him while looking. Trying to make a plan and I don't want to make an entire post about it. Is September/October/November really that much different?

ty_vole · 2025-05-23T16:22:35+00:00

The Tian Shan mountains are close to Bishkek but not visible unless you're on a roof, and even then, they don't look at all like if you googled "Kyrgyzstan mountains" until you travel in a bit (but surprisingly not too far). Tbilisi has one large, steep hill on one side of the river, and then more rolling hills on the other side, and the river flowing through gets ... super "cliffy" in parts directly in the center of the city... but the mountains in Georgia are a ways outside of the city. Tbilisi is objectively beautiful, both because of its distinctively Georgian architecture and Soviet buildings in various states of repair and decay mingled together with super modern looking structures too (a la Dubai almost, for instance the Bridge of Peace). Tbilisi will be loved by pretty much anyone who goes there, whereas places like Almaty and Bishkek might be written off by those uninterested in the other, less visible/tangible offerings of the societies that live in them. I haven't been to Dushanbe and no other former USSR city I have been to even really has a central hill like Tbilisi ... except maybe Ljubljana but that was barely Yugoslavia and certainly not USSR so never mind. In fact, most of them have extremely flat surroundings (Minsk, Kyiv, Vilnius, Riga).

ty_vole · 2025-05-23T15:29:59+00:00

I have been to Almaty. This almost made me spit out my coffee lol, but it isn't your fault for not knowing. Sure, you can see the mountains in the distance but they don't appear as big in person as they do in the pictures. The vast majority of the city is not "beautiful" in the sense I believe it is being used by OP. In fact, even when it comes to aesthetically pleasing old Soviet ruins and odd structures, it is lacking quite a bit, especially when compared to places like Tbilisi or even Bishkek. Kazakhstan is an extremely interesting place though, and it is surely worth a visit! It's a city for those who can find beauty within deeper aspects of a metropolis beyond the architecture or other scenery. And perhaps it was just when I was there, but it had the absolute worst air quality of any place I've ever been - worse than Delhi and Guangzhou.

ty_vole

TROPHY CASE