Traveling really allows us to form new perspectives but it also teaches us things from other's viewpoints. After traveling around busy Manhattan the first few days, today we took the ferry past the Statue of Liberty to Staten Island. We stopped in Grand Central Station on the way. It was old, clean, and charming.
As our tour bus drove through a residential neighborhood with small houses, our tour guide stated, "Look at the size of those lots!" I smiled hearing that from a gentlemen who's lived in New York for 66 years because I knew that he was exclaiming at how large the lots were compared to other places in the city. He was assuming my perspective; he didn't know I grew up on a 10 acre place with full woods and my own tree fort. I just found it interesting how everyone sees the world from their own little peephole.A structure I was cuious about the second I saw it from the ferry was explained on he tour. The slender curved walls held the names of the people lost on 9/11 as well as a view to where the Manhattan skyline had lost its Twin Towers.
Staten Island is more laid back, green, and spacious than Manhattan (only 5 miles away). Staten Island is home to 450,000 people on a 59 sq. mile island. Whereas Manhattan has 1.6 Million people living in a 23 sq. mile area. On Staten Island, we saw Ft. Wardsworth which was used during the Revolutionary War.
On the ferry ride back, a few people from Ireland were asking about the rain that was supposed to happen this evening. This one guy stood under a light on while saying, "Ooo look guys! Oy got anoyther broyt idea! How bout we just don't go walking and we don't get rained on at'all!"
In New York, it is all too common to see and hear people of different nationalities. I love listening to their accents.
