NY, NY, the Whirlpool. April, 2012

"Just go under, no one cares". My friend had just ducked under the gate in a subway station and was telling me to so the same. I was completely out of money so I couldn't buy a train ticket, but I needed to get somewhere! Its incredibly easy to ride the train for free and I'm sure its a common occurrence. It carries a hefty fine if you are caught however. I only did it once. It seems like most people here are just barely getting by financially and fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat. NY is the best description of a melting pot city I know of, there are people from all over the world here. The only demographics are students and young adults, between the ages of 18 and 40. Young hopefuls, people with big dreams, trying to "make it big". Some are some aren't. It's the experience that counts for the temporary non-New Yorkers. When we finally leave we will have satisfied a very specific and common desire.

As I write this I am in the middle of preparing for an accent into the crazy, quite, quiantness of the Maine wilderness. My objective for the past two months, the duration of my stay here, has been to raise money for a summer-European-bike-tour. I have not yet succeeded in finding a way to do this in New York; the cost of rent is the biggest obstacle. In addition I feel the need to breath fresh air and soak in the sun for long periods of time, not just for the 3 minutes it peeps out between buildings. To throw in a positive observation umong so many nagative ones I will say that the population here is quite energetic, geared towards success. The Big Apple is a whirlpool that sucks in it's inhabitants and creates it's own little world connected by subway lines.

To chronicalize my time here I will start with my buddies couch. The first four days I spent lost in the metro system; Its not so bad once one gets used to it. My first job was at a cafe in Times Square. I walked in and asked to see the manager, a loud man who liked shaking hands. He and I immediately became friends. I was told to sign some papers, was asked if I could cook eggs, and was then hired. Wow! That was the caziest and most intense job I ever worked. The cafe was divided by one long counter with three feet for the workers and seven for the customers. Those three feet were packed, open to close, with the cafe's twenty plus busy employees.  I made omelets in the morning and salads in the afternoon, lots of salads. At about a minute per salad with no break in-between. Im estimateing I made over two-hundred salads per day. After a month working at "The Bread Market Cafe" (I know its a boring name; you know its a dead end job when you work inside and the uniform includes a basball cap) it became clear that I was not saving any money, I was loosing it. I bounced, hopped, skipped from through interviews and trial work days until I landed as a street canvaser pesuading people to sponser a child through Children International.

People are busy in NY, getting them to stop isn't easy, but its fun. It seemed like the best thing to do was just be original, every time. There was no catch all stopping method. People can sense an act and they distrust it. At the end of the day I felt emotionaly exhausted. It got easier the second and third days but I knew there was nothing in it for me. The wild was calling me, telling me to escape from the whirlpool. I made arangments to leave, bought a bike and rode out of the city, north, to Maine........