Bad Habits to Have While Riding Public Transportation

(picture's from: http://stuffunemployedpeoplelike.com/)

Going from one part of the city to another one is often a long ride that not everyone can tolerate, and we ought to be sympathetic to those for whom a 2-hour trip by train or bus is a daily routine. However, not only we don't sympathize with them, we make their being there more miserable by demonstrating poor manners. Here are some bad habits that people should leave at home before getting on a train or another means of public transportation.

Coughing or sneezing and not covering their mouths. Imagine how frightened a person next to you is: his/her stop is not coming up soon, and you might have a flu that they don't want to catch. It is highly recommended that you cough or sneeze into your elbow, as your hand may keep the bacteria if you don't use sanitizer and don't wash your hands all the time and then spread the illness through a handshake. A good idea is also to use a handkerchief, whether it is a piece of Cleenex or a cloth.

Blowing one's nose and throwing mucus on the floor. It's gross. Would you like to step on something like that? No one would. Carry a napkin, blow your nose into it and hold on to the paper until you find a trash can. If you happen not to have one, keep your nose congested until you get off and find something to relieve it into.

Littering. You know that you are not supposed to eat on the train. Food smells and disturbs other hugry people around you. Yes, there are moments when you do have to swallow your food on the way, but it doesn't mean that you have to leave your rubbish for other people to kick. It happens often that a Snapple bottle is rolling from one side of a car to another one, and commuters push it with their feet. Even though there are no garbage cans in the subway cars, you will always find one at any station; therefore, don't be lazy and dispose of your litter.

Putting a wet umbrella on the seat next to you. Even if the car is almost empty, there will always be someone who may want to take that seat, and it is doubtful that they would want to wipe it with their pants. A good place for an umbrella is below the seat, as if a day is rainy, the floor will be wet anyway, and you will just add up to it.

Taking more than one seat. It's fine if you have a large body, and you do need two seats. But it often happens that a person spreads his/her legs or puts a huge bag on a seat, which prevents other people from occupying that seat. They may be tired, and they would be glad to sit down if your stuff wasn't displayed there.

Producing loud noises. This includes discussing something on the phone two tones higher than normally, snoring, listening to your I-pod exploiting maximum volume and everything else that doesn't let people sleep, read their books or Kindles, or merely think about something pleasant. It is hilarious to see New Yorkers sitting far away from each other and yelling back and forth. If there are no two seats together, stand up close or keep silent until you get off. There is nothing urgent that you have to discuss for all the people in the train to hear, is it?

Verbally abusing or sexually harrassing people. This is inappropriate, and you know it well. Leave people alone: they rush somewhere the same way you are, so let them have a happy ride, and enjoy one yourself.

Here are some useful devices for blocking the noise and being busy with something, so that you won't have to bother other people:

                                                  

Valentine's Day on a Student Budget

It is February, 14, 2011. Valentine's Day is here, and the sunny and beautiful one. The weather is so sping-like that the smile gets on your face without an effort. You see people rushing to their loved ones with bouquets of flowers and gift bags full of love. In this holiday rush you may be thinking, "Where should I go to make this day special?" If in addition to this, you are a student and looking to spend as little as possible, while still having a great time, I could give you a piece of advice about where to go the last minute if you haven't decided upon anything yet.

With the weather tremendous as it is, I would recommend that you spend this afternoon outside in the sun. A walk along the Brooklyn Bridge may be a romantic one, if you like being on your feet holding hands with your loved one. If you think that there will be too many people there, and you would like a more intimate setting, you may head to Central Park in the city or to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. You can bring a throw and make a picnic out of things you both enjoy savoring. There are picturous lakes in both parks, and if you enjoy being by the water as much as I do (I use every opportunity to sit by a river bank or on a beach), this would be a great scenery for you. This is also a great day for ice-skating, if you know how to do it. I would recommend the skating rink at a Bryant Park. If it is not overcrowded today, which you will find out once you see the line of people waiting to get in, you will get a large space to skate on and the skates for about $13, and I think, this is "skate as much as you want." They may offer you to pay $20 and skip the line, which you shouldn't do because what that means is that the rink will be overcrowded, and you won't really enjoy it.

Some couples love to go window-shopping, looking through stores hoping to find something. This is a great idea for those who haven't yet bought a gift for the special one. You can go shopping with your boyfriend/girlfriend and buy him/her something that you see he/she likes right on the spot. This is actually a great surprise, even though it doesn't seem to be. My boyfriend met me at Union Square last week and said, "Let's go take a look at Kindles." I wasn't eager to do it, as I wanted to have one, and every time looking at it was pretty painful. However, we went to a couple of stores, and he finally bought me a Kindle, which I didn't expect to happen that particular day. It was an awesome surprise, and you can do the same thing with your loved one.

Another romantic way to celebrate St. Valentine's Day may be going on a cruise around New York. There are varios boats leaving from 45 street and 12 avenue. You can get a short trip that lasts 2 hours or a longer one that will keep you on a boat for 4 hours. Whichever you choose, you will enjoy riding a cruise boat in the sun with you beloved. These trips are not cheap, though, but you can always go there and ask if they have any students savings program; maybe, they will give you 10-15% off, which never hurts if you are on a student budget. Anywhere you go, try to get the best deal with your student ID: if you use it only on campus, you are not getting everything you could from it.

If you prefer eating at a fine restaurant to wandering outside, or if you need great ideas for a later dinner, you may try romantic "Tanti Baci Caffe." It is an Italian place located at 31 West 8^th Street between 6^th Avenue and MacDougal Street. It has a nice quiet place with a homey feeling to it where you would love to sit with someone you love. The manager and the waiters are always at your service, and the food price range is approximately $15-20 for an entree. Another good place to go is an Argentinian restaurant "Buenos Aires" at 513 East 6th Street. It is not decorated specially for romantic dinners, but as it gets later, they put out candles. But what you really go there for is their wine collection and their famous steaks imported from Argentina, the country well-known as the best for meat exports. Good as it is, it is not crazily expensive, as the portions are big and could be easily shared.

I also enjoy having coffee and dessert at "The View," a restaurant at the Marriott Hotel in the Times Square area. This restaurant is moving around, and you have a chance to see the city from different sides. Their dinner prices are too high for a student budget, so try to get there in the afternoon, better before 5pm. There is no minimum at this time, and you can sip your coffee and enjoy the beautiful panoramic view.

And finally, if you are planning to stay home, make this experience special as well. You may cook or order your dinner from a local restaurant (no pizza, please, it is too casual), decorate your appartment and think of something special your loved one would enjoy. Spread the wings of your creativity here, and remember that you can get student discounts at many restaurants even if you order take out or delivery, for chocolate and other sweet treats you would like to be spoiled with on this special day.

Wherever you go and whatever you do, remember that this holiday is not about going somewhere; it is an opportunity to spend some time with the one you love, so make sure you do something that you both will remember for years!

 Images are taken from XKCD and Gawker websites.  

http://xkcd.com/223/

http://gawker.com/#!5468955/thats-the-way-love-goes-a-valentines-day-for-everyone

For discount coupons for students, go to http://www.campusclipper.com/

Social Networking vs Virtual Friendship



 image credit: mediabistro.com


With the development of such social networks as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and many international variations of them, it became so easy to connect to your friends and acquaintances no matter at what part of the world they are. Instead of ordering prints of photos from a current party and then showing them to all of your friends who were there with you, you now can upload the pictures on your Facebook page and send a link to it to anyone you want via an e-mail or a text message. "Great," you must be thinking. "It saves me time, money and effort." True. However, it also deprives you of personal interaction with people who are important to you. Instead of inviting a friend to an event over the phone, you usually send him or her an impersonal invitation through a social network. The big concern is: do you see a clear line between social networking and virtual friendship?

To distinguish the two, you may compare social networking to going outside your house and yell your message out hoping that as many of your neighbors as possible will hear it. Chances are that they are not home or they are not interested, then you will never get a reply. However, if they care about your proposal, they will come right out of their houses to give you a response. It works the same way on Facebook: if you have no time to call everyone, you usually send the same text to all your contacts and wait for them to reply. As opposed to this, virtual friendship is avoiding face-to-face or phone conversations intentionally, or even transferring all your social experience to the Internet. If this is the situation you are in now, here are some tips on how to make the most of social networking resources and communicate with people on a regular basis at the same time:

1. Call rather than send an impersonal message whenever possible. If it is the question of whether or not you reach out to someone (no time or no other contact information, for example), it's better to use social media than nothing at all. However, if you have a chance to connect to a friend or business partner on a personal level, do that. You will be given more attention and hopefully, a concrete reply. For instance, if you plan to invite a girl to your birthday party, you should call her and ask whether or not she will be able to come. If she answers, "I'm sorry I will be in Florida with my parents," there is absolutely no need to pursue her with the same idea.

2.  Meet your friends often. There is nothing more rewarding than a nice friendly chat or advice. Even if you agree on going out for coffee once a week, and no other time works well for you, that's fine. Social media alone is not enough to communicate with people you care about, and it does not matter that you comment on their status every day.

3. Remember that eye contact is irreplaceable. When you make an eye contact with someone, you can see if they are telling you the truth and whether or not they will go along with your proposal. Professional advertisers and telemarketers frequently claim that a pleasant voice can close a sale. Since your charming personality is more persuasive than perfectly written message, you should take advantage of it as often as you can.

4. Don't forget that there are folks who do not visit their Facebook page for months. They are not online every day, like you are. Considering that, make sure that they get your messages. If you have their contact information, call them up to make sure that your proposal got to them. Check profile pages for phone numbers if you have no idea how to connect to them.

5. Avoid putting naughty pictures and making juicy confessions. Employers do check Facebook pages of those who they plan to hire, and you shouldn't lose the opportunity of a lifetime because of a silly comment or an inappropriate photo.



                                              

Indifference Is Your Most Dangerous Enemy



image credit: wildomarmagazine.wordpress.com


Living in a huge city like New York often makes people feel isolated. They separate themselves from others by blocking their hearing with an I-pod and their vision of the world with their sunglasses. What's even worse, we often block our heart from those who ask for our help. It is so easy to pass by a homeless person making a statement, "They should be working instead," or to wait for others to call the dispatcher if someone is having a heart attack in a subway car.

I remember a saying from a book I read while being at high school, which stated, "Don't be afraid of your friends: the worst they can do is to betray you. Don't be afraid of your enemies: the worst they can do is to kill you. Do be afraid of those indifferent: they neither kill nor betray, but with their silent agreement murder and treason exist in the world." If we are being indifferent, if we separate ourselves from the world around us, we may not be directly hurting our fellowmen, but we definitely deprive them of something they need: attention, help or even acknowledgment of their existence.

Imagine that you are in an unfamiliar city. You have just gotten off a bus and you have no idea where to go. You know the address of a friend who is waiting for you, but you don't have a cell phone and you have no clue how to get to your destination. You tried to stop people passing by and ask them for directions, but they ignored you, as though you weren't there at all. You finally decided to call your friend from a pay phone, but you needed quarters, and no one was willing to give you change for a dollar. You wanted to buy a map, but where were they sold? You feel frustrated and no one cares.

Scary to imagine, isn't it?

Scary, but useful, I must say. Imagining that you will understand how others feel while asking you for help. Explain to your college mate the material he or she cannot comprehend and you can, assist an elderly woman trying to get on a bus, give up your seat for a pregnant lady, or merely smile at a stranger, - those are the little things that don't cost you money, but make the world a tiny bit better place.

Whatever you do, don't be indifferent, as indifference is your worst enemy.