When in Rome

Well, S&P has already covered some of this, but while we're doing the month-long "debrief" of our visit, I've been thinking of some of the customs that we came across:

- Tipping: Well, this goes without saying. It's in all the guidebooks, horror stories, and the eyes of every waiter and hotel bellman. My guess is that it originated from when these entry-level service personnel weren't paid, thus a generous tip is expected for good service to enable low- or no-wage workers to live in an expensive city. Well - I highly doubt that such workers don't make a wage nowadays, but the tipping practice lives on. AFter our first day we made huge efforts to retain singles in our wallets for the inevitable tipping need. I still feel guilty though that our bellman didn't really get anything from us - and he wasn't on when we checked out.




- Crossing the street - another one I'd heard about, but this took a bit of getting used to. As S&P mentions, they have no real delay between the end of the crossing period and the start of the crossing period for the other street. I also found it confusing that the intersections near our hotel seemed to have a crossing pattern that was unrecognizable to my foreign eyes. It's no wonder that there are so many intersection cops everywhere - they are needed, and believe me, they are the only effective way to enforce the crosswalk rules. Elsewhere, crosswalks and streets were ruled by the smart - woe to the cars who get stuck in the intersection, for you will be stuck there for longer if you get trapped by the swarm of crossing pedestrians.
It didn't take too long to get used to how people cross - especially on the small one-way streets I didn't have much trouble, but I did seem to have a blind spot for cabs and more than once S&P or someone else saved me from stepping in front of a speeding cab turning the corner at mach 10.



- staring - I can't recall whether I've mentioned this already on this blog, but boy did we ever notice how much people there stare. We began to be able to tell locals from tourists by the amount they stared. It became obvious to us that they weren't staring at me in particular - it's sort of a non-verbal New Yawker greeting - and if you stare right back, they know you're local. If you look away in embarassment, it's a dead giveaay that you're not from around here, Toto.