Joy!

It shakes, it trembles, it makes noise in a way people have to shout to hear one another. I’m on the New York Subway. The train has diversity written all over it; two gangsters – Yankee outfit included - across of me; further down the carriage three Chinese girls are giggling about something I cannot hear nor understand; and two seats next to me an older woman is cheerfully chatting to herself. I don’t feel in place, it feels like people are aware of that and mark me: “not a New Yorker”. It reminds me of the film Cast Away in which a bewildered Tom Hanks uneasily and unwillingly tries to find his way on a deserted island. The urge to be adventurous is a steady feature of my personality and it recently led me to an island too, however, not a deserted one. It – willingly- led me to New York.

And so my challenge was set; survive on this island and take up the adventure of becoming a true New Yorker. To gain insight into ‘my’ territory for the next ten days I started off at the top of the rock where I felt like I was part of a busy skyscraper get-together. The sun was treating me well up there and I can remember thinking: “Why shouldn’t I stay here all day, the view cannot possibly get any better than this.” Back on street level I continued my discovery and wandered my way around the different neighbourhoods of Manhattan; Greenwich Village, Soho and Chinatown.

Some days of struggling with avenues and streets went by and I experienced less and less hilarious incidents in which I was certain I was heading east while in fact I was going west. The test in the quest of becoming a New Yorker came when I reached the Brooklyn Bridge. I left my comfort-zone and crossed the bridge to explore what else is New York. I was pleasantly surprised by Brooklyn; in fact crossing the Brooklyn Bridge brought me back to Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Why not take a chance and conquer the waves to discover what’s out there? A number of hidden gems are out there, including one-of-a-kind vintage shops in Williamsburg, extraordinary art galleries and culinary delights in Dumbo.

I don’t exactly know how, but in the end I do feel like I successfully completed my challenge of becoming a New Yorker. Maybe it was the man on the subway who asked: “Did you read the Brooklyn News today?”, the vendor at the vintage market in Williamsburg who asked: “From which part of New York are you?”, or maybe it were the two Spanish tourists asking me for directions. Of one thing I am sure, it is impossible to discover this island in only ten days. This actually leads to the main difference between me and Tom Hanks in Cast Away: he came unwillingly and left willingly, I came willingly and unwillingly have to leave this island full of adventure.