Things I Don’t Understand

For a long time after arriving here I found myself mentally converting the cost of everything to GBP. It’s a really bad habit, because it makes everything seem stupidly inexpensive, which is the exact opposite of what living in New York is. I’ve stopped doing that now, but this story in the NYT just about blew my mind. You can buy a two bedroom in the East Village for less than half of what the 2 bedroom I lived in in the middle of nowhere, Wales cost, where property costs “nothing”. And you’d need to be a millionaire to get something like that just about anywhere in London. The cost of renting, on the other hand, seems to be the exact opposite, with it being wildly expensive here and relatively cheap in comparison in the UK, and even in London. Fully understanding how any of this is possible evades me for now, but while I’m figuring it out I think I’ll buy 3 condos in Manhattan before someone catches on.