NYC

My parents and I arrived in NYC Tuesday, and began our stay in a hotel on the border of Soho and Chinatown. After we got settled in, we spent some time walking around Soho, and Nolita. With the help of a guide book, we had lunch at a great place called Bread. It was a good introduction to my new surroundings: I am pretty sure every person in the restaurant was a model, the food was very good, prices were reasonable, and it had a great atmosphere. (I think I will be stopping by in the future). Wednesday was spent entirely in the southern part of Manhattan. We walked through the financial district and Tribeca, and took a trip on the FREE Staten Island Ferry. The ferry provided a great view of the Statue of Liberty, and twenty minutes later we were on Staten Island. Not being aware of anything to do on Staten Island, we boarded the next ferry back to Manhattan.


Thursday, previous BVC volunteers Michael Hahn and Andy Dirkson, as well as Brother Dan Morgan drove from the Newark to pick up my parents and I and take us back to the Newark Abbey and school. After I got settled in, Brother Dan and Michael walked my parents to Penn Station, Newark and took the Path train to Manhattan. Along the way they encountered some colorful characters who felt compelled to contribute to the already on-going conversation. Thursday night, fellow BVC volunteers Jake and Pat showed me around some of the Portugeese section of Newark, and we met up with Michael, Andy, and Dan later that night.



Friday morning, everyone who went out the night before and I journeyed to Manhattan via the Newark Path. We spent some time on the Brooklyn bridge and spent the rest of the day walking back to the western part of the island.



Over the course of the weekend, Father Augustine and Brother Patrick showed us around Newark by car, and Father Mark and I went for a walk through the downtown area.



So far, I have learned a few interesting things about the city: It has great tap water - spuring on the development of many breweries throughout the years, Thomas Edison spent some of his life in Newark - as a result, military park in Newark had the first public electric lights in the U.S., at one point the intersection of Broad and Market was the busiest in the U.S. - 280,000 pedestrian crossings were recorded in a thirteen hour period, and the climate is classified as humid subtropical - meaning the winters are not extremely harsh.



This weekend, Jake, Pat, Father Augustine, and Mike Hawking - a volunteer who went to Notre Dame, and I will be visiting the Abbey's cabin up in Munsee, New Jersey.