Tuesday, 07 January 2003 | Ten things I have recently learned

1. It snows a lot here.

2. It's a good idea to look at the price tag, regardless of how insignificant the item appears to be. A container of yogurt and a Rice Krispies treat drove my otherwise $6 lunch up to $10. So I put the extra items back and annoyed the cashier.

3. It's okay to both make eye contact with strangers you pass, and to not make eye contact with strangers you pass. No one seems to care either way.

4. Don't bother arguing with someone on the other side of the political spectrum, especially if that person claims to be well informed. It's exhausting and frustrating and goes nowhere. (I knew that already, but sometimes it still happens.)

5. Don't wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row, no matter how comfortable you think they are. They will find a way to hurt you.

6. It's possible to feel as if you can step in and out of several countries without ever leaving the city (something like a really authentic Busch Gardens).

7. It's easy to meet people here, to the extent that if you exchange information, you realize you don't have enough time to follow through with the majority of the potential friendships that are wadded up on scraps of paper in your pocket, so you just choose to stop exchanging information altogether. Other people seem to have understood this as well. Lots of conversations end with, "Nice talking with you; maybe I'll see you around," where the "maybe" is a gigantic word. It's nice in a way, I think.

8. My upstairs neighbor is not a solitary American about my age, as I had guessed, but two German sisters about my age. I discovered that after making the split-second decision to knock on their door and tell them that I like their music and ask them who was currently playing. "Is it too loud?" one of them asked. "No, no. It's good."

9. Vegetables are often packaged in threes. If you live alone, meet your neighbors so that you can pass off some zucchini and corn to them, rather than throwing it in the garbage. Also, if you want to use that entire bunch of cilantro you just bought, you are going to have to include it in every meal for a week.

10. (related to number 2) Ask the price of an item before handing over your money. A few months ago, I visited my friend Scott in the Midtown bar where he works. I ordered a below-average beer and handed him $5. He asked, "Would you like any change?" I said, "I don't know, how much is it?" He replied, smiling, "Six dollars."