Wow, what a day! Melani here!

We don’t start at GMHC until tomorrow, so we spent our Sunday sight seeing and getting to know New York City and the diverse cultures within the city. After all, the mission of this trip is Diversity and Inclusion!

A group of us started out nice and early at 6:30 to go to Tom’s Diner for breakfast. Most of you have probably seen the inside of the diner and you didn’t even know it! Tom’s Diner was the diner that many scenes of the show Seinfeld were filmed in. It was pretty neat, and the food was delicious!

After breakfast, we met up with the rest of the group to hop on a fairy to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. These sites are such a huge part of American history, and were such an amazing place to visit. We have all seen pictures of these monuments, however the pictures do not do justice to just how breath taking  the view actually is! That being said, here’s a picture of our group leader Brooke high-fiving the Statue of Liberty!

For lunch, we made our way to Harlem for some Soul Food at Sylvias! It was SO delicious! Every Sunday they do a Gospel Breakfast with a gospel singer for entertainment. It made me want to dance! It was such a fun, warm, and welcoming environment, I would HIGHLY recommend Sylvias if you ever find yourself in New York City. There hot sauce is amazing! So amazing that between all of us, we bought 12 bottles to take home with us!

After lunch, we tried to go to The Studio, a museum in Harlem devoted to African American artwork, but they were closed due to a change in exhibits. Bummer! We then split up to do some shopping! The group I was with went to Little Italy for cannolis and China Town for some souvenir shopping. These neighborhoods were so amazing unlike anything I have ever seen before. The people are so diverse, and it was such a cool experience. The food there is to die for! We also payed a visit to the New York Public Library, which is quite the building. They have an exhibit going on right now titled, “In The Public Eye” I thought it was a fitting message considering the volunteerism we are all so passionate about, both in Oshkosh and New York, and how we are working to make the world a better place.

We originally had a big dinner planned, but we were all still stuffed from Sylvia’s so some of us went walking again, and the other half went to the Empire State Building. Since I only went in the lobby, I’ll let Rachel tell you all about that! 🙂

We were all pretty exhausted after such a long day and we’re hoping to get a good nights rest before our first day tomorrow at GMHC!