80 Days in America

Although last night in the cheap-ass hostel I had the thought of maybe going back earlier, by the time my feet hit the streets again this morning I already made up my mind again. I just love it so much to walk through the city of New York. Like I wrote yesterday, there is so much life out here. It really gives me a lot of energy.

I left my baggage at the hostel, so it would be easier to travel through New York. I took the subway to the south-side of Manhattan and walked around in the financial district for a while. It was a bit rainy, but just like in San Francisco that couldn’t steal my joy. I kept on walking until I reached pier 11 where I took the ferry to Brooklyn. I can really recommend doing that, you can also stay on the ferry and come back to Manhattan and it’s only four dollars for one way. Going with the ferry gives you a beautiful view of New York’s skyline from the water.

The moment I arrived in Brooklyn I knew that I was in a different place than Manhattan. The whole atmosphere is different. Also when I took the subway a little later and discovered that I was almost the only white guy. I traveled to the heart of Brooklyn to visit a place one of my Dutch friends told me about. It’s called Metro Ministries, an organization that gives sundayschool classes to kids in Brooklyn, Harlem, The Bronx and more places. They teach the kids, play games with them and more like that. It was a little hard to find, but when I finally did I met a lot of nice people. A really friendly guy called Willie showed me around in the offices and in the other buildings of the ministry. A while ago they bought a big hospital one block away and are now renovating it, there are many rooms in there and I could sleep in one of them.

I decided that I would stay here and help the ministry for a while, so I went back to the hostel in Manhattan to pick-up my baggage. I had some food on the way and came back with the subway to Brooklyn. It was already dark, but fortunately the hospital was only one block away from the subway station. In the evening I met a lot of the internships, people of about my age that stay here for three months, a lot of cool people from all over the world. I’m really happy to be here and am excited about the coming days!

P.S. I love photography, but I also enjoyed walking through the city without taking pictures for a while, so no new pictures now. I’ll probably shoot some new pictures soon! 🙂