NC vs NY

When I was in North Carolina last week, I started thinking about all the differences between the South and New York City. If I was trying to decide which I liked best, I never came up with an answer. There are great things about both places, but here are some of the areas of comparison:

Weather
The South is very hot and humid for about half the year. It never gets unbearably cold. New York on the other hand is very hot and humid all summer, and does get unbearably cold for a while in the winter. The difference is that in NC practically everywhere you go you have air conditioning, whereas in New York city, there are millions of places without it, including the post office I was in this morning where I had to wait a half hour in line to pick up a package in 90 degree stuffiness. And in New York, the pavement and buildings contribute to the heat, whereas in NC you've got trees and grass to counteract it a bit.

Food
There is nothing like Southern food. I love it! I could eat it for the rest of my life and be perfectly satisfied. But New York is like the Epcott Center of food, with the option to travel to any nation just by going to the proper restaurant. There are restaurants featuring any type of food you've ever imagined. Which reminds me: I still need to go to the place in the Village that only serves mac and cheese... And speaking of food, it is interesting to note that North Carolina has its Krispy Kreme while New York has Dunkin Donuts. Which is better? I know people are crazy about Krispy Kremes, and I certainly have enjoyed my share of those sticky sweets. However, I've come to the conclusion that I'm a Dunkin Donuts person. They have more variety of flavors, including maple-frosted, which may be my favorite. When I was in North Carolina, I kept looking around, subconciously wondering where all the Dunkin Donuts stores were, because here there's one on every block. I actually missed them.

Shopping
Of course if I was a bazillionaire, I would have the time of my life shopping in New York. But since I can't afford much, I don't really shop much, unless its a big sale at H&M or something. There is no H&M in North Carolina, which is a major drawback, and yet, every time I walk around NYC I recognize people wearing things I saw at H&M, and even though I really like the clothes, I don't want to wear something recognizable, or something that everyone else is wearing. Besides clothes shopping, yarn shopping is hard in New York for similar reasons. If I were rich, I'd have no problem, because all the yarn stores here are packed with gorgeous yet exotic and expensive yarns. There is no Red Heart, no Caron to be found. Thank goodness for online shopping!

Art
North Carolina has art, but New York has Art. New York definitely takes the cake here. Where else could you see a giant sculpture of a wind-up Hello Kitty? Or a skyscraper made of erector set pieces?

Nature
I love the landscape of North Carolina: the rolling hills and farmland, the kudzu jungles, the honesuckle, the cedar forests. But it has a lot of spiders. Forget about going outside in the summer--you'll walk through about 5 spiderwebs every day. New York doesn't have much nature in the city besides the park, which hardly counts, even though it can be peaceful and bucolic in places. There are way less mosquitoes, and the birds here will eat right out of your hands--and I'm not talking pigeons. Yesterday a tiny brown sparrow landed beside me and took a piece of donut right out of my hand.

I guess I could ramble on and on, but it never resolves itself. No one state or city is better than another, is it? Each has its own beauty and strengths, capable of being loved for entirely different reasons. I'm just glad I get to enjoy them both!