I quickly learned why no one drives within New York City as I traversed the roads to Brooklyn, where friends I had made in medical school were currently living while they did clinical rotations. I had heard enough offhand jokes from comedians about not taking right turns at red lights that I was second-guessing myself throughout, and was thankful that I kept having a car in front of me that tended to go in the same direction. I did what anyone visiting New York does on the first visit by going to the most tourist-laden area of Times Square. It bore a striking resemblance to the pictures I had seen.
"New York City" by Among Savages played in the background as I walked the streets. There are many things to be said for NYC, but perhaps my favorite was just how much of a culturally diverse place it was. Central Park was the place I frequented most, and as I strolled through the green hilly areas with buildings scraping the upper edges of the thickets, I was as likely to hear accents and languages from any other country as I was to hear one from the U.S., as if I was given the privilege of traveling to another country without having to leave these shores.
I learned from my medical friends that clinical rotations would in many ways be the opposite of my studies thus far, with so much interaction with humans that they were all fed up with people in general. I also learned that many of them did not care for alcohol except on nights when they desired to become blackout drunk, which is not at all my own take on the drink.
I finally got to meet my nonbinary (attractive phenotypic female human) friend from my same hometown who was trying to work in acting, specifically in the comedy realm. They (the correct pronoun to use with those who identify this way) was as witty as I had hoped, and we went to see an improvised comedy show at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater. Unlike most improvised shows, this was done by real professionals, people who wrote for late night shows and for The Onion. Though I maintained that I was not impressed by their blocking with respect to the audience, the biggest thing I noticed was how quickly they cut their sketches short. Nothing went on for too long or became stagnant. If anything, scenes felt as if they were stopped prematurely.
On my last night there, I met up with this friend again, along with their boyfriend, and I invited them to speak freely of their feelings toward faith and politics without fear of what I would think. They (singular) shared that she thought little of the idea of some man in heaven calling the shots, and introduced me to the idea of the Unitarian denomination. At their services, they are read texts from holy books outside of the Bible (such as the Qur'an and others), and though I do not wish to criticize faiths about which I know little, this one sounded closer to Oprahism than to a branch of the Christian faith. Its origins can apparently be traced back to the Protestant Reformation, when the religious divide pushed some to jump from the extreme structure and corruption of the Catholic church to the opposite extreme. Such a progression makes sense I suppose.
Following our conversation at a bar, the three of us went back to her apartment. Since they had terrible hangovers with more than one beverage, the boyfriend and I set to work on half of a bottle of scotch that I had brought. As he was Jewish, we discussed theology to some extent, but for one of a very few times in my life (due to the lovely scotch), my memory becomes spotty around this time. Though I specifically remember that when I was notably under the influence of alcohol, I began to strongly adopt the speech patterns of the John Mulaney and Nick Kroll as seen in the broadway show "Oh Hello".
The following morning, I departed, only mildly hung over, heading for Canada.
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