The Grass is Always Greener...

There are benefits to living in both New York and in Northern Virginia. Some are fairly obvious, and some you wouldn’t initially think of. Here are some of the things that I miss. There’s so many weird things you don’t appreciate until you don’t have them anymore.

Things open late:

In New York I lived right cross the street from a Duane Reade (Manhattan’s version of Walgreens) which came in handy when I ran out of toilet paper at 3am. Duane Reade is always open. In Virginia your hard pressed to find a restaurant that’s open until 10. Not in New York; pretty much everything you can think of is open late, if not 24 hours. It’s called the city that never sleeps for a reason. 

Transportation:

This particular aspect works both ways. When I was in New York I missed never being able to drive my car wherever I wanted to go and roll the windows down while the radio was blasting. As soon as I was back in Virginia I hated having to pay $3.80 a gallon for gas and always having to find a designated driver whenever I went out with my friends. I just can’t win with this one. 

Homeless People:

This may seem like a strange thing to miss but homeless people were a surprisingly comforting sight on my walk to school everyday. They’re much more interesting and friendlier than the weirdos that stand at the light at Dale Boulevard everyday, and I grew quite used to the usuals outside of McDonald's on 35th every morning. My favorite is the homeless guy that stands outside the stock exchange everyday and at 5pm he promptly walks across the street and gets in his brand new BMW and drives away to what I can only assume is his Upper East Side penthouse apartment. 

Food delivery: 

There is this wonderful iPhone app called Seamless. It pinpoints your location and lists all the places that are still open that will deliver to your apartment. Now you can use seamless in Virginia, but unfortunately things close pretty early around here (See above post). In New York, the possibilities are endless because of the sheer volume of restaurants. Studying for exams and have an intense craving for Vietnamese food at 3am? No problem! I can guarantee you will have a vast amount of places to choose from.