Boiling Pot

I just realized that this is probably a better title of the various people I meet in New York. I only have a couple for this blogisode.

Grimaldi's: Very obviously Brooklyn man sat next to me in the famous pizza place (think German). When the woman sitting across from him went to the bathroom, he confided in me that he was on a date. We mainly just chatted about pizza, but my favorite interaction moment was when he asked me if I was from New York.

"Do I sound like it?" I said, appalled that he would even ask.

"Well no.."

"But to answer your question, I'm from Texas," I said.

"Well I wouldn't have guessed that place either!"

Ha.

Ellis Island ferry: Jen and Richard are Christians. We got to talk about my upcoming travels and they encouraged me. The other fun tidbit is Richard works for a company that makes the ballots we vote on. I asked him a question he apparently gets asked all the time--"So whose fault was it with all the chads?"

Corner of 54th and 8th: I noticed a man reading a thick book. I was too nervous the first time I passed him, but the second time, I prayed and stopped. "Excuse me," I said. "What are you reading?"

He took pause before answering the Bible. "It's a Thai-English Bible. I study."

The man is short, dark skinned, and balding. He asked me to sit with him since he found out that I am a Christian too. "You are si-ter in Chri'," he smiled at me. "You come to Thailan' an' teach English. Help build church!"

He talked about feeling God call him to bring the Thai people in New York together. That they may stop worshipping Buddha and start serving our Lord. He said that he used to own a big water company in Thailand, but when he became a believer he felt he was supposed to leave and sell what he had.

I explained to him what I was doing. He smiled again, excited that I am young and willing to work.

"That is great. Come over to Thailan' afterward."

Hehe. He didn't give up. He even gave me his address, because he wants to write to me about what he is studying in the Bible (he's currently working on memorizing Ephesians) and make sure that I come afterward to teach. All I could think is who knows? I prayed for him before we parted ways, as he had to get back to work.

Kaleidoscope

Throughout New York, I have taken several opportunities to meet people. Unfortunately, I only got one name, but here are the plethora of experiences:

Airport: In DFW, a man introduced himself to me as he saw me putting away my Mac. He wanted to know how the computer run, because he was looking into buying one himself. Of course, I had many great things to say. I also got to learn about him, a geologist, on his way to the Arctic Circle for a cruise and hoping to see some polar bears. He shared with me his other adventures, as he and his wife enjoy taking the National Geographic tours. One of them just so happened to be to Ushaia, you know, the southernmost city in the world. In Argentina. :)

Taxi: My driver was from Punjab. But as I have run into several other Indians in NYC, I'm starting to wonder if they just give that address because it's one of the easiest to say. Any way, he had turned on NPR which was discussing the Proposition 8 issue. He scoffed. So I asked him why, and he went into a rant about his homophobia. Interesting.

Empire 1: State building that is. Rode up the elevator with a couple from Holland. They shared with me some places to go, and were shocked when I told them I was going so I could talk with people about Jesus. Unfortunately, the elevator ride ended before I could continue.

Empire 2: I got a name this time--Tajmil. I was trying to figure out where the old Woolworth building was so naturally I asked one of the workers. Little did I know that he knew everything there was to know about the buildings and their history. (Duh, he works there!) Any way, he was also very kind, and I'm thinking was wanting to meet up sometime later as he kept shoo-ing away his fellow workers who wanted something from him. Too bad he actually had to go eventually.

Flatiron: It started raining, and as the India independence party was close by, some older gentlemen asked if they could share the umbrella that went over my table. Of course! I told them, and then they continued conversing without me. It was not too big of a deal, but it was lovely to hear Hindi again, and to catch a few sounds.