The Real Cost of Living in Manhattan: NYC Apartment Horror Story & $1,300 Shopping Spree

We thought we were living the American Dream moving from Queens to Manhattan. Then, we arrived at our new apartment and realized we had made a huge mistake.

You just look at what beauty Asema has here. Is this a Welcome Party? No, what is it called? It is a Housewarming.

In short, it is a gorgeous table. Here is my tired little sister. In short, I also had a hard working day today. I am something of a tired person right now. Dina has arrived over there. I am so pleased to watch what you are doing there.

Not yet, you cannot eat yet. Okay, we have Manti. Hello there. We will get acquainted a little later. Good, good. She wants to shoot content. Ah, yes. Wow, what beauty this is. This is not even everything yet. Such little hostesses. I am in shock. This is only part one, how to say it, one first part of the hot dishes. I am stunned. Wow to myself. You bothered with this powerfully, of course. Such beauty, of course.

The real cost of living in Manhattan

Without her, see how she blended in. How did she blend in? She is Cleopatra. Good evening. And didn’t you notice or what? I answer, I did not realize. And I am thinking, why is she not saying hello? Taken a photo. Over there, yes, in the stories it is happening. Take a photo of the apartment. Are you taking a photo of me? Taken a photo. Ah no, are you filming me? Are you, what, from work? They go around to restaurants and all that. Goodbye, Mom.

Nothing else is needed in this life but happiness and love. Welcome to the company of good women.

A gorgeous housewarming spread featuring Manti and tea.

🚫 The Moving Day Disaster: Why We Didn’t Move

Hello everyone, today my little sister and I are moving from the apartment which is in Briarwood. This is in Queens, to Manhattan. Well, almost. I will tell the story of why we are moving a la today. But actually not today, but a little later. But for now I just wanted to show you the process.

Here lies the little sister. Here is her neighbor. Chocolate bar. Here, in short, is like a pantry. Oh, here is a neighbor, here is the bathroom. Here was also… in general, it seems significant. Here are our bags, it turns out.

Our Packing Inventory:

• One, two, three, four suitcases.
• Various bags.
• And also these boxes we need to take.
• And also my backpack, must not forget.

The packing inventory: Suitcases, boxes, and bags ready for the move.

In general, my butt is in a sweat, we are rushing. Let’s go. You see, I am too. This is for my vlog. The more realistic, the better.

The Stalker Who Became a Roommate

Hello everyone. We are currently located in a temporary dwelling. Dwelling. Meet Ulyana. Yes, we have a very interesting story of acquaintanceship. She wrote to me on WhatsApp. This, by the way, only girls, it seems, will understand how stalkers usually do this. But since I am a girl, I understood this perfectly. In short, she found me through Instagram.

• Step 1: She found me on Instagram.
• Step 2: Then she moved, in short, to Telegram.
• Step 3: And from there found my number on WhatsApp.

And, in general, she saw that I am flying to America. And she says: “Yes, cool, let’s communicate.” I am also, in short, flying to America. And here we met, we already managed to meet in Almaty, eat together, and chat. And, strictly speaking, now we are here too, and we will be living together. So that is how it is. That is how it is, yes.

😱 The Apartment From Hell

And what, what did I want to tell you? Why are we not moving today, strictly speaking, into our apartment in Manhattan? Yesterday we took all our things. So, without hysterics. Ulyana is fine. We took all our things yesterday from the apartment which is on Briarwood. Partially I will show you. I filmed this.

Here is the reality of the situation:
And they promised us to do a repair there, some cosmetic repair, to, in short, paint the walls and assemble the furniture. But yesterday we arrived there and you know what? Nothing.

Forgive me, I like rarely swear, but this is, of course, well, impossible not to get angry, because nothing is done there. Just walls torn off, and like some kind of trash is happening there in the apartment.

The reality of the apartment: Unfinished repairs and debris.

And they inform us day of concerning that today you cannot move in. And we have, like where we lived, already everything is done. We are evicting Ulyana from her hostel, and us like, well, where we lived, other girls are already moving in there, and we need to move out. Like, well here, well, thank god, at least they understand this, therefore they provided us such a temporary dwelling.

Reviewing the Temporary “Labyrinth”

But there is a nuance. This temporary dwelling turned out even a little better than ours. Well, in terms of repair. In terms of comfort, of course, I still like ours more, but here it is more interesting. Well, here the apartment looks like a labyrinth. Because from one room you come into another. This is interesting.

• The Corridor: The corridor is too long. Too much empty space. Long without useful space. Useless. Without useful space. Here I agree.
• The Vibe: Well, and, in short, all the same, it seems to me, our apartment is more cozy. It is bright and this is, well, like, lower than the first floor.

That is, this is the basement level, yes? And we have the second floor. And all the same like it is more pleasant there. And a plus, a huge plus, is one minute on foot. That is, we turn right, and we have the metro located there. Here. And, ah, 5-7 minutes on foot to go to Central Park. I plan to run, and you? Well, come on.

Ah, in short, yes, part of my plans is destroyed, because today I planned to sign up for a gym already found near the house. Well, at least I will try to search, in short. Okay. I also hired myself a trainer, in short, for online accompaniment from Almaty. Well then it is necessary with… She writes me a program and writes me, well, like in general a program of nutrition and training. In short, I prepared, but not to the end, as you see.

🍕 Survival Mode: Pizza & Documents

Here. And right now we had such a homeless breakfast. We had pizza for breakfast from yesterday. Here we ate it. It is called Domino’s. Yes, such a pizza. Yes, by the way, it was tasty. Indeed, Kazakhstan chocolate, which is especially tasty here in America. Here is some tea they gave us. Well, also not bad. Well, tasty, in the sense. I, of course, thought that here generally nothing would be, but at least this way is pleasant.

Here, what are the plans for today with you, Ulya?
Today I want to go find out about the bank card. It is not mandatory here, but in general as an option “why not,” as they say. Here a certain package of documents is needed. For you here it is insufficient to have simply a passport and simply a contract for the apartment. It will be necessary also some certifying documents, which prove your legitimacy, that you are not a camel, but a human.

In general, such news for now, and I will definitely show how we settle into our apartment, and we will be arranging it together. For now here, I keep you in the course. Turned on.

The Room Tour: “Like a Hostel”

Well here, look, since this is the zero floor, from there goes the descent and here are rooms. Just really as if a hostel or mini-hotel. So, a room, look, a room. Here is a room. Here is a dresser here. Here is a corridor like this. Here is the kitchen. What is there now? Here, come on. Damn, their handles conversely turn in the other direction of the barrel. Generally, here is the kitchen here. Here Yana sits.

So, let’s go further. What do we have further? Further we have the bathroom room left by the course. I will not show right in detail. And here is like a common zone living room. Such a sofa. Here on video in general it looks not bad. But in life it, of course, is such already shabby enough.

From the pleasant:
Over there is a terrace, imagine. Now I will show it to you. And this is not a through door. It, well, goes nowhere, does not open. And right here is one more room. Right here we slept today, but it is for three. Nightmare, yes? Here on the right Ulyana slept, there are my things. Here we settled. We, by the way, very strongly froze at night. And here is like a dressing room, but it seems to me, for three it is nevertheless smallish. Well and inconvenient to get things out. You remember, yes, what kind of closet I had for one.

So, and now let’s look at the terrace. I hope, I will succeed to open it. Over there is already open, cool. Look, what a space. Well, this is cool, very. In the evening apparently here these lights turn on, like. And like this you can sit here with pleasure. Well or I do not know, how much pleasure. Here, by the way, from the interesting I would like nevertheless to climb to the top, of course, if this is possible. I adore climbing on roofs. Well, let’s see. Generally here along these fire escapes.

The view from the temporary dwelling’s terrace.

⛪ Massive Cathedrals & Tiny Rooms

Here, possibly, it is very noisy, but I, generally, simply went out of the house and ran into the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Nightmare, it is huge simply. Such, you see, a big, huge, beautiful cathedral, just unrealistically big. Wow! Well this is, of course, very beautiful.

Stumbling upon the massive Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Moving Into The Real Apartment:
Today we moved in. Let’s see. This is the room of Aknur and Ulyana. Here is a room, a bathroom room. Something is happening here, in general. Something will be here, probably. This is the common room. Kitchen, small basically. Unrealistically small. So. And we have here one more super small room. Just exactly our room is such needed.

All right guys, thank you to take care. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. In general, today the situation stands better. Here is everything that we asked, they fixed. And now we started cleaning. Here she is. Aknur. Hey, washing the kitchen. I am washing the refrigerator. Ulyana only just arrived. So, everything, everything.

💸 Trader Joe’s Haul: The Cost of Living Revealed

So, we just returned from Trader Joe’s or Trader Jo, purchased products there. Today we had the first purchase, and right now I am shooting a video for Reels. And let’s see how much we spent. But I already roughly know that my little sister and I spent 85 bucks for two. And from common products for three, because we will divide, for there 40 bucks. Well and yesterday we also a little bit shopped plus-minus for 30 bucks per person.

Products we took roughly for 140 dollars. Most likely, all that will suffice. Well, something for a month, something for a week plus-minus, maybe, for two maximum. Here some things we will simply partially buy additionally. This is for two. That is I and the little sister. By the way, look, what a living room we already have, beautiful. So love it. I love it. None. Today we will have the first stocking up in the supermarket. Yes, I cannot.

Our first grocery haul from Trader Joe’s and some survival pizza.

🍎 Post-Vacation Shock & The $1300 Apple Store Haul

What do I want to say, actually, it turns out it is very and very not simple to lead several social networks simultaneously, especially when one is a horizontal format, the other is a vertical format.

And today I for the first time in life will be buying myself namely major Apple production, a MacBook, not in installments, not in credit, but for cash money. And, honestly speaking, so so excited. Moreover I will be buying it at Apple on Fifth. For me this is a big event, this is very significant. Especially several years ago I worked in the company Apple not directly, but at official partners. And nevertheless for me like this is such a wow-effect, let’s say so, double, when you know all Apple processes from inside and now you already interact with them directly, as a client directly in the official Apple store. This is very significant.

The Reality of Returning to NYC

Therefore let’s go together with me. Wanted also here in the blog to tell about the fact that right literally a day ago we returned from Puerto Rico. This is a Caribbean island. And, of course, to return to New York after such is very difficult.

Why is it difficult?

• Because as soon as we exited from the airport, unreal hum meets us.
• Noise of streets, very loud people.
• Really, especially African Americans, they talk very loudly, just unrealistically.
• You sit in the automobile and music is turned on, and you all the same hear them, because they talk like this constantly.
• And also very unpleasant smell and unrealistically much trash.

This literally meets you here. Therefore, of course, in this plan nevertheless it is difficult. But on the other hand, there are very, very many pluses. And one of these pluses is that here there is practically everything that you want. Almost here everything. Everything that you would not want, this is in New York. You simply need to understand, where to take this, where to go and so on. So, I got a little lost. Where is Apple located? See you there.

Coffee and Reflection on 5th Avenue

Here, strictly speaking, we arrived. Like this looks the Apple store on Fifth Avenue. We should have bought the Mac together with my little sister. In short, we mixed up a little. I should have come to her. It turns out, as she understood, and as I wrote to her, this is we meet immediately here, at Apple. Well, in general, nothing terrible. This is literally in half an hour drive from here. Therefore while I wait, decided to peek into Starbucks, drink coffee. And also something the head hurts, honestly speaking.

Arriving at the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue.

And you know, my thought is in the fact that here is very much Starbucks. Well really, straight heaps. That is, if we talk about mmm, probably, through in one quarter, maybe, be three Starbucks, given that I cannot say that here is cool super some kind of coffee, but this is some kind of phenomenon really. But must admit, frappuccino here is really tasty. When you want something verified, of course, better to go here. Ah it turns out one -ccino in the region of 8 dollars. How do you like that? Well, on average coffee here costs 6 dollars, therefore, in principle, in principle normally.

And you know, you get used to it. The most important here is not to translate into tenge, otherwise horror.

A Moment of Gratitude
While I wait for the little sister, I want here a little to reflect. This, of course, is very cool and unusual. The very fact that after 2 years, since I left the company, which is the official partner of Apple in Kazakhstan, and I didn’t even think that I like this will be sitting. This, by the way, are tables, which are located right by the Apple store. Taking coffee and Starbucks and being such an agitated agitated in anticipation of the purchase of my MacBook in the official Apple store.

Well, in short, like, I’m so proud of me myself. I so proud of myself. In short, I need to learn the language, as you understood. Here I feel only joy, happiness, gratitude. Thank you, universe, to my close people, who help me to embody into reality all my dreams, desires and any wants. May I always have cool health. This is very important, especially when you are sick. You realize this very clearly and distinctly.

Life Update: 3 Weeks In

At the current moment I have already been 3 weeks in America. Let’s do a small update from my life. What is happening now? What did I already manage? In general, the first week it was such super chaotic. I lived for some time with the girls of my little sister. Then we were moving, with the move also were troubles. About this also I told. In general, with grief in half we settled in.

Now we are slowly settling in. That is, in the apartment was only basic furniture, and everything else we here bought additionally, yes, are buying additionally. Still these are items for the kitchen. Everything, in what to cook, how in what to eat. Everything that is needed for the bathroom, plus also need to buy additionally a mirror, TV, dresser, in general, such things, which can will help us to make the dwelling even more comfortable, even more cozy. Here. Mmm, by the way, made a calculation of my spendings, about this also I will definitely tell. And we managed to go to Puerto Rico.

Ah, it seems, the little sister is searching for me. It turns out, Apple. And on the right side there are tables. But I consider that she is always beautiful. I took for her a cap. Camera, on camera.

The Purchase & The Student Hack

In short, MacBook Air is bought. I bought in the configuration thirteen-inch on 512 GB, 16 gig RAM and GPU ten. In general, I looked on the site, they cost 1,200 bucks. Also together with taxes should have come out 1,300. But my favorite little sister is a student here in America. And thanks to this for us also came out a discount.

Success! A new MacBook and free AirPods thanks to the student discount.

And also I wanted for myself headphones, but for us, well, for me, more precisely, was not enough money. I was like: “Well, nothing terrible, will buy next week.” But again, thanks to my little sister, who is a student, it turns out, for them right now passes an action for students seemingly like until September 30. And Airpods of the fourth generation noise cancellation as a gift, which cost 179 bucks. In short, I am happy.