A Few Days In NYC

It was a busy but wonderful four days visiting New York City. Visiting such a lively, diverse, and unique city in my own country of origin was a great way to start a four month journey around the world.

While in New York, my class began our investigation of citizenship and how people find belonging in the various contexts in which they find themselves. This started with a tour of the UN building in New York and hearing specifically about the UN’s work on human rights around the world. This was a wonderful start my journey because learning about the UN’s Declaration of Human rights is what inspired my studies and majors at St. Olaf, in addition to being a driving factor for why I wanted to travel around the world on this semester abroad.

How can you go to New York and not see a show? I was ecstatic about seeing The Play That Goes Wrong at the Lyceum on this trip. It was a phenomenal comedy unlike anything I have attended in the past.

Additionally, our class visited the 9/11 Memorial. This was a very solemn but important experience. Although I have visited this site a few times in the past, the emotions which overtake you while reflecting in this area are incredibly powerful. Additionally, seeing how others reacted to the site, especially those who have never visited it before or who had direct connections to that day, was very moving.

While in New York I also visited several other must see and iconic sites – the Tenement Museum, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Brooklyn Bridge. These monuments were very interesting because as you wander around, you realize that you are surrounded by people visiting from all around the world. Locations such as this demonstrate just how international of a city New York is – but these also caused me to reflect on how unaccessible the city is linguistically for someone who may not speak or read English. Seeing if this lack of translation on signs occurs in other parts of the world will be interesting to watch – especially since soon I wont understand the dominant languages of the countries I am visiting.