Many New Yorkers are leaving the city for many different holiday celebrations. We know all about that. We know all about all those planes, trains, and buses, and how to ride them all like real New Yorkers.
The thing is though, once you've stepped off that plane, train, or bus, you're out of the city. Once you're out of the city, all the rules are different.
People are much more liberal about eye contact, for instance, and much slower about doing, well, everything.
So you're going to be spending much less cash on drinks, but you're also going to have to stay sober enough to drive. Here's the worst part of all: there's no Seamless in the suburbs.
Here are some tips on how to keep it together if you're a New Yorker that's out of New York City this holiday season.
1. Try and remember how to drive

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Odds are, you might be renting a vehicle. Or you'll be borrowing your dad's old Chevy Tahoe, we don't know. We're just guessing you're going to be reunited with that whole concept of "driving."
We know this struggle all too well: being thrust behind the wheel of a speeding car after not driving for months is terrifying for you, and terrifying for your passenger.
We urge you not to panic. Also, it's important to remember there are different rules of the road in the quaint suburbs than there are in the big city. Like, people elsewhere use their turn signals. Also, people in other cities are allowed to turn right on red.
So if you do all this, and you don't panic, you might just find that driving is pretty fun. Like, it sucks that you can't just walk anywhere, but it's cool there's no one begging you for money and getting all up in your space, right?
2. Deal with restaurants closing early AF

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So it turns out that most restaurants in the suburbs close around 9 p.m. This comes as a huge shock to plenty of New Yorkers who are used to bars being open until 4 a.m., and restaurants staying open until at least midnight.
Like, for instance, you might've been very stoked to go to this huge, new Suburban metroplex posing as a Mexican restaurant called Uncle Julio's. Then, it was 9:30 and Uncle Julio's was closed.
So, you and your friend begrudgingly drove to Applebee's of all places, because it's the only restaurant in the suburbs that stays open until a reasonable time. You went to Applebee's even though the New Yorker inside you was screaming out against it.
3. Stay sober enough to drive

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Turns out, in the suburbs, people have to do this whole "stay sober enough to drive" thing. If they go out to the bar with their friends, they can only have a couple of drinks before they have to drive home.
It's true that Uber's infiltrated its way into some suburban lifestyles, but you've got to plan on it. If you drive to a bar, you can't just Uber home because you have to worry about your car in the parking lot. Plus, the Uber might not come until, like, a half hour after you've requested it.
All this is to say that having fun in the suburbs is way more difficult than having fun in the city. You'll probably find yourself pretty wistful for that cab driver that yelled at you while you're waiting for your watch to tick to the next hour so you can safely have another beer.
4. Get used to never walking anywhere
We're not saying don't jaywalk. We're just saying the suburbs are so much less pedestrian friendly than NYC. This should be obvious, and it's not even like NYC is that pedestrian friendly.
The NYPD did just vow to increase citations for jaywalking in NYC, so maybe the rushing highway you're trying to get across isn't so bad?
We're kidding. It's obviously that bad. What we're saying is that no one in the suburbs walks anywhere.
You'll probably wonder why you have so much extra energy, and it's because you're not walking 1,000 steps every day. New Yorkers walk more than anyone else in the country. People in the suburbs ... don't. So you actually have to burn all that NYC energy some other way while you're out of the city for Thanksgiving.
,5. Deal with slow people
You're going to have to resist the urge to drop-kick the people taking their sweet time on the sidewalk, the cashier that's taking his good old, glacial time to ring you up for your coffee, and the guy who doesn't start jogging because you're holding the door.
This doesn't really jive with you. You didn't abandon your sense of urgency just because you left New York. We're just warning you, the rest of the country doesn't sprint everywhere they go. They don't walk with purpose, or rush places like they're escaping a fire.
So you're just going to have to take deep breaths through all this, we guess.
6. Drink less coffee

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Or just hide your coffee consumption?
Is the family you're visiting for the holidays going to think you're a weirdo if you're guzzling a constant stream of coffee throughout the day? Is your body going to stage a mutiny if you don't keep it stocked with its usual caffeine jolt?
You shouldn't be surprised to hear that people in NYC drink seven times more coffee than the rest of the country. So no, there aren't craft coffee shops on every corner outside the city. You won't be able to hit up your street cart guy who knows your name, what you want, and that you only like one sugar.
You'll have go to to those dreaded chains and pretend to care about the things people in the suburbs care about. Like, did you hear people were upset about the decorations on Starbuck's cups or something?
7. Don't cheer when the bill comes

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Or, cheer when the bill comes, but just know you're blowing your cover.
We'd prefer, though, if you maintained the idea that NYC is this perfect, idyllic place to live, so you leaping out of your seat to celebrate the bill at the bar sort of gives it away that sometimes living in NYC can be a struggle
Still, it's great when your frozen margarita at dinner only costs $4, when you're acutely aware that it would've cost at least $11 in NYC.
Check out 8 Ways to Travel Like a Real New Yorker.
[Feature Image Courtesy RailFanWindow.com]

