Top of the world to the top of the theatre...

Today, we went to the top of the rock (aka Rockefeller Center). The city view was specatcular. After that, I traveled with my outreach group to a campus in west brooklyn for ministry. For lunch, I had some hushal's shalal food (or something like that), but it was basically a gyro with lamb and chicken meat and some other assorted goods. The road-side booth reminded me of when Homer bought kakalash in that episode where he goes to NYC and drank krab juice to wash it all down. My food was actually good, even if it was an outdoor treat in the cold.

During our day of ministry, I had a really in-depth conversation with a guy named Adam, who was visiting one of his friends after traveling from up-state NY. It was really cool getting to know him and learn about his growth in his relationship with Christ, especially how it had picked up in the last month. Despite having these surveys on hand that we could use, we just kept talking (and I threw some food to the pigeons.) We prayed together, and when leaving I found out the friend he had been waiting for had sat down near us and left, but he didn't seem to mind, so it was all good. We had a very deep, meaningful conversation that was good for both myself and for him in our growth as Christians.

Later in the day, we went into Chinatown and saw all the roadside stands and blackmarket goods, etc. Pretty much all of the stores have false walls in the back where they sell super cheap designer purses, dvds, and other bootleg goods. When I went in one store with some of the girls, the chinese store owners were like "guy stay here" and wouldn't let me go in the back area for some reason, and then they were really cautious, with the lady that went in calling the guy out front to make sure the coast was clear for them to come out from the back room. Also, most of the stores really, really did not like you taking their pictures.

After chinatown, we went to dallas barbq in Times Square with the entire NCSU Crusade group before going to my first ever Broadway show! We went and saw Phantom of the Opera in The Majestic theatre. Get this - Matt Woelfler from Becton was there with his family and walked up and talked with me while our group was waiting in line. I just got done pummeling him in dodgeball last week, so it was so weird seeing someone I know randomly like that - in NYC of all places :O.

But anyway, Phantom of the Opera was exciting, a really pivoting experience. I enjoyed the special effects and some of the singing. There was a lot to look at and the orchestra that was playing was really top-notch. Other than that, things are going great. I'll be coming home Friday (it was up in the air), but hopefully I'll be able to go by and see Stacy sometime tomorrow night or something.

Anyway, I'm going to go settle in for a nice Manhattan sleep.

1st day on campus, French food!

We finally got started on campus Tuesday after going to a local church by the natural history museum for a quick briefing. We split into our groups and we ended up going to FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) and NYU, both of which had really restrictive access, wanting to see student id's etc.

So, we went into a few local coffee shops and eateries to talk to college students. I had many interesting conversations about Christ and salvation. Some of the people I spoke to were Jessica (an episcipalion originally from CO), Jose (a Christian from Dominician Republic), and a group of agnostic students.

After sharing our experiences, we split up and went back to the Office and debriefed. Then, we went back to the hostel before a group of us went out to _. While there we ate at a really nice, authentic French restaurant. The waiters were superb, but after asking for water for all of us a few times, we realized that we already had it, it was in wine bottles on our table. To eat, I ordered a posshe ratatouille sandwich, which was amazing! It was so delicious, one of my new favorite foods. Aside from some added chicken, I'm not entirely sure what was in it, but I loved it. RATATOUILLE ftw!

Then, we went to a nice bakery where I had 3 or 4 delicious choc. chip cookies. After that we went back to Times Sq. for like the third time after 10 p.m., which is sadly when everything closes in that area :(.

No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn!!! (and snow!!!)

I'm in the hostel right now after one of the funnest days yet. We had a free day today because of the snow in NYC which closed schools in the manhattan area for the first time since 1996. So basically, we went to training this morning for about an hour and went over a few things. After that, we split up and I went with a few members of "Big Red" to the Natural History Museum (if only briefly) and then to lunch at Shakes (blast my terrible short term memory, I can't think of the full name). Anyway, I actually went for the NYC experience :) eating a shake burger (not the name, again I can't remember), it was really good, at least the meat was. And, the fries were amazing. The milkshake really was overrated, but it was worth a try.

After lunch, we set out on a big adventure (this is where we ride the subways all over the place). First, we went to South Seaport in Lower manhattan. There we went by dunkin donuts, toured around some shops and eventually got on the staton Island Ferry. The Statue of Liberty was pretty cool, especially in the snow, but it was freezing on the ferry. Oh BTW, it's amazing how tame pigeons are in NYC, I could literally touch/kick them if I wanted to. After Staton Island, we were trying to walk over to get on the subway to ... I lost my train of thought, there are a bunch of Brits in the lounge distracting me with their charming accents.

Anyway, we went in the Empire State Building, but couldn't go to the top cause of construction or ice or something, but we did get the privilege of going in a legit office, due to one of our leaders knowing the president of King's College. Also, we went down to the very bottom of the building, and despite what "ELF" may have you believe, there is not a mailroom down there, there is a library, a student hangout, and the rest of the classrooms of King's College.

We then tried going to the World Trade Center site later in the day, but couldn't cause it was closed, but we did see ground zero from afar, looked just like on TV. Then the five of us went over to Brooklyn to this amazing pizza restaurant under the Bridge. It was called Gharadelli's or something like that, and was awesome! Arguably, it ranks in the top-10 in my list of best pizza restaurants - not an easy feat at all! (possibly top-7 if I had more chances to try it out) But yeah, we had a crazy fun night the five of us hanging out, we went back to Times sq/ 42nd street for a lil while, but mainly spent time on the subway lol.

Stace also returned my call and let me know about how she was doing. Apparently, she is staying at what looks like lower brooklyn and she spent most of the day touring all five boroughs. (Although, I must argue Brooklyn is the best, followed by Manhattan) I felt sorry for her, cause she didn't have any good shoes to repel the soggy snow mush. That's right, snow isn't pretty in NY, it just turns into a grey, gloopy mush that you have to dodge as you walk. ALso, I always find that New Yorkers are in so much of a hurry, running past me on escalators, jumping into subways while having the doors squish them, and one of the STING guys said they really value their time. Also, so far, I've ran into 3 separate guys that come onto the subways, state their homeless state, then either perform, or ask for food/money, say god bless you or whatever, and jump across from train to train. Also, the values must be different in NY, cause when someone asked the pres about diversity at king's college he didn't really have an answer (maybe they don't think about it cause they have so much already?)

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll be coming back on Friday or Saturday due to a mix-up in the bookings, but either way I'm having a good time. Heard there was snow for the 2nd time in NC, hope it's nice there.

Day late, dollar short (Sunday Training)

So, yeah, sorry about the delay in getting a post about my second day (sunday).

Basically, sunday we got up and a few of us guys went and got breakfast at a small hole-in the wall place a few blocks from the hostel. While there, I had some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had in my life. Also, I got to know Ross, who is also a PRT major that's interning with Crusade. He's a pretty cool guy, and I ended up staying with him and a couple of other guys and going with them to training. But, we ended up thinking we could get off the subway and walk instead of switching over, but we soon found out that the subway maps are not to scale.

After getting to training with the STINT team late, we found out some stuff about NYC, navigating the subway (although I'm almost an expert after going on them at least 50 times in the past few days), and about the upcoming days of ministry on campus.

The training session took place in this fairly nice building just past Grand Central Station. It was extremely hot in the building for some reason, though. After training we went as a whole to a Presbyterian church in Raleigh that was really different than what I'm used to back home. The preacher was an Asian and the message was really focused on evangelism (which isn't a bad thing), but he was very in your face and the message seemed as if was geared more towards people who are experimenting with a variety of religions (which may be more suitable for NYC?)

After the service, I went with Mark, Erin, Alex, and one other girl to Little Italy for supper. (btw I ate sesame chicken at grand central station for lunch, it was ok) ((Also, apparently there are two little italys, one is in manhattan and is the fake one, that is the one we went to, the other is in the bronx or somewhere) )
Anyway, I ate some pizza and it was really good and I had a great time hanging out and talking with everyone. Afterwards, we met back up with another group and went to the subway station and went through a long ordeal of closed trains that eventually led us waiting in one station for like 25 mins. I enjoyed listening to a pair of jazz musicians playing while we waited, though.

At night we played this really cool group game back in the hostel called "Signs." I'll have to play it sometime when I get back to N.C.

First day in NYC!

Okay, so my first version of this totally just got deleted. I hope nothing got deleted. I've got to start doing this in wordpad.

Anyway, I'm about to turn in after a really long day in NYC. Getting up at 5 a.m. for a 9.5 hour drive isn't exactly my idea of fun. But, on a lighter note, I did enjoy the company of those I was riding with and the delicious chocolate milkshake from the Chik-Fil-A that we stopped at in Maryland.

I slept intermittedly throughout my ride in the back-seat of an 8-passenger van, but was awake while we were passing through New Jersey. I was surprised by how dilapidated and run-down everything look, especially the overwhelming number of cement industrial complexes, gratuitous power arrays, and stacks of warehouse crates. Also, I realized that northern states have way too many toll booths.

Coming into NYC the first thing I noticed was the statue of liberty, empire state building, and many skyscrapers. When we arrived in the city, the traffic was crazy with people cutting each other off, etc. Also, maybe it was the weather, but the sky just didn't seem blue in NYC... it seemed to be tinted grey and the state of New Jersey and the city appeared to be completely void of grassy landscapes.

Anyway, our hostel is pretty nice, I'm sitting in the basement/lounge of it right now. When I first tried getting my key from the guy at the desk, I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I just said "OK" and he handed me my key and I thanked him.

After we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we went out as a group to central park, which is literally a step outside of our building. Overall, I thought the park was a little lackluster, but it did have a cool tunnel and was really large. I really liked the ice skating rink and hockey rink on the outskirts of the park. (I have yet to upload any pictures because I forgot my camera cord and haven't found anyone with one that will fit my camera.) When we left the park, we went back through the Harlem district, which had a lot of black folk, lots of small bakery shops, barber shops, and other small shops.

After that, we came back and I played pool in the lounge of the hostel with this guy named Stephen. We went undefeated (3-0 or 4-0), but most if it was mainly luck. :)

Then, we had some authentic NYC pizza, which was awesome and probably tasted even better because I was starving. After supper, we were free to do what we wanted. I went with some girls (many of whom I rode up here with) to Columbus Circle via the subway. Riding the NYC subway for the first time was an experience (a fun one at that).

Columbus Circle was pretty nice, with a statue of columbus, big skyscrapers and an elegant shopping center. After walking around the bookstore and exploring the shopping center, we just started walking down the streets toward anything that looked interesting. While we were in the mall and walking it was just so interesting to people watch. The people of NYC just are so unique, different and varied. Many speak different languages, have unusual appearances (no offense) or just behave differently in public. The city also feels so enclosed, with all the tall buildings looming overhead - very different with anything I've ever experienced.

On our walk that eventually led to Times Square, we stopped in a variety of stores like the M&M world store, a gift shop, and more. (Again, I'll upload pictures of the stuff I saw like Carnegie Hall)

At one point, my batteries ran out on my 2nd camera. I decided to buy some from a roadside stand resembling the one in Men In Black. It was really cool. Times square was pure eye candy. I could've stood there forever and still not grasped everything going on around me. The streets were so busy and full of life.

Anyway, I'm getting pretty tired now and need to get some sleep before my training tomorrow.

Later,

Ready for departure

It's 1 a.m. in Raleigh and I'm excited and ready to depart for NYC in 5 hours. I was talking to my time travel professor today about the trip and since he apparently had a good deal of experience traveling there (he lived there for a little bit) he had some good restaurant advice. I'm hoping to go to this really authentic, old-school pizza place under the Brooklyn Bridge area. It starts with a "g" and I'm sure I'll remember the name if I see it. Also, my time travel professor seemed to have a really good grasp on barbq places in N.C. Oh, and yeah, the presentation at Wake Forest went well, the campus isn't anything special and it looks dead - no students walking around or anything. But anyway, It looks like the "school bus" will be coming by to pick me up soon, so I'm gonna try to get a few hours of zzz's....

Next Blog in NYC! (and with photos too!)