Making it Home
But on the eight days off a month–always less due to overtime–that Christmas does get, New York’s fast-paced way of life is to her advantage. In the Philippines, one’s work doesn’t necessarily dominate a person’s daily schedule; many hours are commonly spent idly socializing with extended family and gossiping with neighbors. A worker’s day off is perhaps not as cherished as it is in the U.S. But for Christmas her New York day off is not only an occasion to look forward to, but to plan out in advance.
“I like that in New York, you work hard, but you play hard too,” Christmas says. “In the Philippines a day off is like not so big a deal. But here it’s something I really look forward to. Also, I can do more things in the day since everything in the city is so accessible. In the Philippines, it might take hours just to do one thing like watch a movie. Here, I can go explore so many places in one day.”
In Christmas’s particular area of the Upper East Side, there doesn’t seem like much to explore at first glance. There are neighborhood staples: the Marx Brothers Playground on Lexington Avenue, St. Francis Church on East 96th Street, and of course the dozens of franchise restaurants and fast food joints such as KFC and Domino’s Pizza that can be found mostly anywhere in any American city. However, what most people pass by daily without a blink of the eye, and what some might even find annoying markers of American mass consumerism and greasy fast food, Christmas finds comforting.
“I got so happy when I saw the McDonald’s on Second Avenue for the first time,” Christmas says with dead seriousness. “It’s comforting to see certain places I know. Of course the McDonald’s in the Philippines sells fried chicken and spaghetti and is much, much cheaper, but that’s another story,” she laughs.
But aside from commercial institutions common to virtually all New York neighborhoods, Christmas’s area of the Upper East Side, below 96th Street, has its own unique atmosphere. A medical vibe resounds throughout the area, reflecting the dozens of clinics scattered about as well as the main medical center, Metropolitan Hospital, in the very heart of the neighborhood. Her dorm, itself a bleak hulking gray building reminiscent of a hospital, sits directly across from the Metropolitan as if to remind its residents what they’re really here for–to work.
“All I think about is work, work, work,” Christmas says. “Right when I get out of my apartment the hospital is staring at me right in the face. Everyone who lives in my apartment building works in medicine. All my friends work at the Metropolitan. Sometimes I forget that there are actually people who aren’t nurses, whose lives don’t revolve around the hospital.”
Then there is the very issue of communicating with and properly treating the patients. For Christmas it was not the work itself that took the most getting used to. It was New Yorkers themselves.
“Everyone here talks slang,” she says. “They also talk very fast, so sometimes it’s hard for me to understand.” She smiles and says: “But I’m getting better.” After passing a Taco Bell she proudly adds, “I even know a little Spanish from the patients.”
From these same patients Christmas has also learned to adapt to American culture. Passing by an African-American co-worker on her way to the hospital, she shouts, “Hey Girrrrl!” As the two hug and talk about Christmas’s recently straightened hair, Christmas shifts to the rhythms of an unnatural urban American slang.
“Oh, you know I had to get my hair done. Girl, it’s cheap in Queens!” she exclaims.
As the two women carry on a casual conversation, complaining about the hospital and their busy work schedules, the issue of Christmas’s name is brought up. A doctor passes by and exclaims, “It’s almost Christmas, Christmas!” As he laughs heartily, Christmas can barely muster a fake giggle.
