I finally visited the US this February, and generally had a very good time. NY was espically nice, but a few things about the city made my mind boggle.
First, I visited in cold times, and I saw people drinking iced drinks, whether soda, or juice. Don’t New Yorkers feel deterred by the cold weather? I mean, it was snowing outside and the mercury was in the minus and you wanted a nice chilled drink??
Secondly, inspite of it being a big city, there were so few restroms…I had to eat something everytime I needed to use one. Do New Yorkers have an especially strong bladder control? Or are they the reason for the $ 600 million adult diapers industry??:dubious:
And lastly, in the coldest of weathers, the women still wore tiny skirts. Don’t they feel the cold on their legs? They did wear the warmet of coats, though.
This being the place to dispel al ignorance, I have come here for enlightenment. For now, I am going with the theory that NYers put up this elaborate show for me. They just wanted to pull a very fast one on me.
Well, I’m not sure where you live, but obviously people who live in colder climates are going to have a higher threshold for cold weather. I’m not saying I’m going to wear a bathing suit in 15-degree weather, but I certainly don’t need to really bundle up unless it’s below, say, 35. Plus you’re walking everywhere, so you generate heat that way.
As for the women dressing in tiny skirts, all I can say about that is the desire to look good at a club or something is going to heavily outweigh a few minutes of being cold on your way there.
RE: the restrooms, I hate that too, but if there were public restrooms all over the place they’d probably eventually charge for them anyway.
Warm soda taste just as nasty when it is cold outside as when it is hot outside.
That’s what alleyways are for, duh! And bars. And malls.
People wear tiny little mini-skirts when it is 30 degrees with a windchill of 17 because they are stupid slaves to fashion. Even though the fashion looks extremely idiotic to all. That, plus us NYc women grow a special undercoat of pubic hair that keeps our tuti warm.
Cold drinks? There’s an ice cream shop near my apartment that does brisk business in the winter. at night. during a cold snap. People are weird.
You can usually find restrooms to use in Starbucks and Barnes & Noble. I’m not sure if any US cities are big on the public restroom thing. You just plan your day a bit better, to make sure you don’t get stuck restroomless.
Oh, and FTR, I approve of women wearing skirts in all weather, carry on, ladies!
I’ll eat ice cream in the dead of winter, but my friends think I’m weird.
As for the bathrooms, those that aren’t in restaurants or stores are highly suspicious and probably have not been cleaned since they were built, so people avoided them like the plague. Soon so few people were using them that there was no point in even putting up signs indicating their location. That’s my theory, anyway. :dubious: I mean, I’d like more bathrooms in the subway stations, but I doubt they’d be cleaned regularly, and I don’t trust some people to flush, or even make it into the toilet.
I’m American. When I went to Britain for the first time (my mid 20s), I was baffled at the practice of drinking coke without ice. But when I realized it made sense in cold weather, I adopted it, and I think it tastes fine. (I tend to be comfortable in warmer temperatures – YMMV).
I landed in a blizzard at Chicago Midway Airport one time and on the taxi ride to the Palmer House the driver and I saw a guy delivering a 50 lb. block of ice. We both said, almost simultaneously, “He probably started with 25 lb.”
