i like new york better when it rains

rain as a paradoxical reminder to find calm in all the chaos

so I moved to New York ~3 weeks ago fresh off of a 21-hour flight from Singapore. Even though I came here on my own, I've found a ton of exciting things to do and incredible people to meet - it's been different than any city I've ever experienced.

But despite this, I wanted to share how ironically my favourite day in New York, was actually when it rained.

I started the morning walking the rain-soaked streets of the Lower East Side on a Saturday at 8 am when the city stirred from its slumber. I saw a group of street cleaners diligently scrubbing off the remnants of last night's escapades - erasing any tell-tale signs of intoxicated madness and late-night bodega visits after a night out at the bar.

Walking a bit further, I saw a girl that was the definition of "that girl" - head to toe in Pilates attire - Lululemon body suit and Trader Joe's bag in hand, walking back home after a 6 am workout class, tackling all her major errands within a few hours of the rising sun.

I trudge down the sidewalk and finally make it to the cafe, where I'm sitting down and writing this very post. I'm wearing sweatpants, have no make-up on, and canceled all of my plans for today, all things I've done for the first time in three weeks in New York (no makeup, no plans, and sweatpants on a Saturday).

It almost feels paradoxical in a sense, to love something when it’s supposedly at its worst, to love New York when it rains, a flower when it's about to wilt, or books when the pages are all scribbled and bent. But the rain gives a certain bit of charm to the city.

Today was a departure from the whirlwind of activity that consumed my past few weeks and I’m grateful for the moment to sit down and make sense of it all. New York is intense, almost too intense, and the rain is a reminder for me to create moments for myself where I balance moments of constant exploration and stimulation with solitude and personal reflection.

~ mathu

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what I've been up to these past few weeks:

• I moved to New York! I’m here until mid-June. I’m living with a stranger I met on airbnb who is so nice and also likes watching glimore girls like I do!
• I surprisingly adjusted from a 12 hr time-zone difference within a few days and moved here straight from Singapore! Sleeping on the plane helped a lot.
• I went to my first comedy show at Boris & Horton (a dog cafe, would definitely check it out if you’re in the LES/East Village), and was a ton of fun.
• I met 5 twitter friends in real life for the first time. I love this bird app. I attended broadcastsummit.xyz and it really interesting listening in on conversations on what the next generation of media on-chain could look like.
• I had levain cookies!
• I’ve been drinking a lot of iced coffee. My go-to is vanilla decaf iced lattes
• I’ve been getting back into photography a bit more and researching different film stimulations to use for my Fujifilm camera - excited to to continue taking more photos
• I joined a writing club in new york, attended work in progress NYC, and met a ton of creative people working on interesting projects.
• I’m organizing an event in early june in NYC - if you want to learn how to build a gen AI app with a group of cool creative technologists in the city sign up here :)