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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Supercenter Here We Come...
So I have been in New York City 3 1/2 weeks now and guess what I did today? I went to the FAMILIAR, WONDERFUL store of TARGET! okay, so that is a normal thing to go to Target in the suburbs, but not in NYC. I mean there are no such things as "supercenters" here. So last night I was hanging out with some girls and we were talking about how much we love us some Target and we just decided that we would go to one! The closest one is in Brooklyn, which is actually just an easy express train away! We originally said we were not going to buy anything, but would just go and look at the clothes and such. Oh well you better believe when we saw the prices we started loading up our cart! By the end of the trip you couldn't even see when pushing the cart because it was so piled up! Seeing those prices made us realize how expensive Manhattan really is! The funny thing was we had to get this stuff home! It was quite interesting getting through the small subway entrance with all our goods. I have to admit though it was totally worth it. For me just being in a familiar place was great! It was like a weird comfort to me to see the Red walls and the Target symbol! I know that sounds crazy, but I just realize how unfamiliar everything is to me here. We walked outside some too just to see Brooklyn and it really felt like we were in Atlanta or someplace like that. I haven't really thought about it, but in Manhattan you never see the horizon of the sky because of all the tall buildings. In Brooklyn we felt like the sky was so big! I am already getting use to always been around tall buildings and congestion and so it really is a weird feeling to have that open air! Both places are crazy busy all the time. It is fun going to these places, but overwhelming at the same time. It just amazes me continually how many people there are in this city! One thing I love is that it really is people of all types. I pass people all the time from all different countries and from all different economic backgrounds. It really is a "hodge podge" of people. There is no such thing as a "norm" here. I actually really love that! I love that people are from all over the world. I love that I have the opportunity to interact with the wealthy and the poor. I love that when you meet someone they always have a story of why they are here! It is such a fascinating place. I have really been praying specifically the last few days that the Lord would really use me in this city! I don't want to be here just to take from the city. I want to be a giver. I want to serve this city. Sometimes I think, "God how are you going to use me here." Right now I feel like I am just trying to get through the day alive:-), but I know that God has a plan for me here. I want to be a witness to the little man I pass everyday on my way to work who sits in a hot newsstand and makes his money by selling magazines, candy, and soda , I want to be a witness to the people on the overcrowded subways, I want to be a witness to the celebrity's who live all around me. I know that it will take time, but I am praying for relationships to form and I am praying that I would be bold with the gospel as I live my life here. Out of all the people in this influential city, there really are so few Christians. It is really sad to walk around this place and just see the lostness of the world engrained in this city. There are a lot of hurting people here and a lot of people who are searching for a savior and don't even know it! Anyways, I think of Isaiah in Isaiah 6 where he says, "Here am I! Send me." I am here and I really do want to be used here. So that was a little tangent, but that is just what has been on my heart the last few days.
ta ta for now!
Bethany
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Welcome to New York City...
So I finally decided to start a blog. I thought it would be a more fun way to keep people updated on my life. I am not sure how interesting it will be, but I thought I would give the life of "blogging" a shot! I am not sure what to say about my first three weeks in New York City! First off, for many of you, you know how much I have always wanted to live in the city. It really has been a dream of mine since I was little. I prayed continually that the Lord would open up a door for me to be able to move one day. I really had no idea how soon it would be. The Lord really did open up this door! It was such a crazy 6 months of truly having to trust the Lord as He led me along this path. I kept thinking "is this really going to happen". In many ways it was hard for me to believe, but God continued to confirm in my heart that this was the direction he was moving me in and he was so faithful! July 1 was when I flew up here. I was privileged to sit on the side of the plane where I could see all of Manhattan as we flew over! As I looked down on the Statue of Liberty and then all the tall buildings my first thought was "oh my goodness this is a big city", and my second thought was "thank you so much God for allowing my dream to come true!" There really has not been a day that has gone by since I have been here that I have not thanked God for allowing me to be here! We all have different dreams and this was mine! I never knew whether it would actually come true or not, but it has and for that I am thankful! I do not know how long I will be in this crazy city, but for now I know that this is exactly where God has me! Now with all that said, I can't say that everything has been great! I mean I am definitely falling more in love with the city each day that I am here, but I am also experiencing some of the hard things of living here! My first day of frustration was when I tried to go to the market! First off, they had NONE of the food that I was use to. I felt like I was in a foreign country. Everything was weird brands or organic. Besides that imagine your grocery store, cut it in half, be there the day before Thanksgiving, and then add another few hundred people to the store! That is what my shopping experience was like. There was no way to get down any of the aisles without being shoved or shoving someone else. I thought, "I am going to leave this place with all kinds of bruises." A girl I know up here actually got shoved into the freezer by a 70 year 0ld woman at the same store! All that to say, I have recently decided to start having my grocery's delivered! That is actually a common thing up here. In fact, everything gets delivered here! No one has cars so all the stores have to deliver. I went to K mart the other day to buy some Tupperware and they asked me if I would like to get it delivered. I was like are you crazy, but then I soon realized how hard it is to get Tupperware home without a car and in the pouring rain!
In 3 weeks I have already had so many adventures. Last night a girl from work and I went to the sneak peak of the movie Stepbrothers. we had been at the movies a couple days before that and this guy on the street was handing out free tickets. We had no idea what we were getting into, but the first thing we noticed when we got there was that there were tons of paparazzi. Once we were ushered into the theatre a guy got up in front and welcomed us. All the sudden we look back and the cast of the movie is walking down the aisle right past us! That's right, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly came to the sneak peak! They were so funny standing up in front cracking jokes with us. I was able to shake Will Ferrell's hand as he walked by. It was so crazy! We were like, I guess these are the things that happen in New York City!
Overall, I have really enjoyed being here and think that I will continue to enjoy it. I know I will also continue to have moments, like in the market, where I want to scream but I guess that is all part of the experience. :-) okay so I know this was a long first post, but I promise they won't all be this long:-)
ta ta for now...
bethany
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