Where it all begins

New York. Not as colourful as I imagined, and not as crowded (except around tourist Mecka Times Square, where it’s both). So I couldn’t help but crack a smile when I saw a yellow cab slowly driving by a manhole with white steam pouring out. What is it with tourism and confirming preconceived clichés? I had some time to kill, so I thought what the heck and actually rolled with it when being picked up by one of those Scientology guys. Watched their little well-produced but really oh so stupid film, followed by a “survey”, which of course aimed at getting me to sign up for all kinds of stuff and devote the rest of my life to practicing their religion. But as it turned out, the survey dude was really harmless, and we ended up having a nice discussion about all kinds of stuff. Well, nice at least for me. He probably felt a little stupid. Not that I was all that smart, but when making parallels to the science of psychology (of which I really know little) he was totally lost. Which was weird to me.

Today we followed some Jews. They were so many, on the subway, so we thought let’s follow them and see what happens. Nothing happened. They just never wanted to get off. Finally we ended up somewhere in Brooklyn, far far away from Manhattan. We walked a couple of blocks and back, and then subway again to the now familiar realms of Manhattan. There’s no place like home.