Holyoke

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I arrived to a very interesting area in the city of Holyoke, MA. This neighbourhood could best be described as “worn down”. This is the sort of areas most people have seen on film; boarded windows, derelict buildings, high population of “minorities”. Bluntly put – a “bad neighbourhood”.

In one of these buildings lived my host and his family and he showed me a side of America I have never witnessed before. I am happy to have experienced if, for it only shows what I have always been suspecting. Even though the area is “bad” the people living there are very much friendly and supportive. Make no mistake, I would not want to walk around mid-night as per first choice here, but nothing bad happened. People are just trying to get along and get around do their everyday business as most people generally do and I learned quite a lot from my visit here.

Oh, I managed to soil myself too..I was really tired from my activities that day and halfway fell asleep, on a chair, holding a cup of Mountain Dew in my hand. The content ended up in my lap and it really looked like I wet myself. Talk about crude awakenings.

We went out, later, to go to the Basketball Hall Of Fame, but it was already closed, so we went on to get some Porturican food from a non-highclass place. Let me assure that it was really good ..

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Photos

An building in the area
This is what the area looked like, but don't let it's rugged exterior fool you.

Puerto Rican food
Tasted much better than it looked.. Don't look for strands of dog-hair though..

Comments

[J.K. Kelley]

just a tip...
...in English, when we say we soiled ourselves, we usually mean that we shit our pants.

[The Naughty Choirboy]

..Soiling...
.. Yupp.. I know that.. It looked *that* bad too.. That was the whole thing.. I was wet up front AND back :p I am pretty glad it was ONLY Mountain Dew though..

[Terri]

puerto rican food
mmmmm...looks like arroz con pollo (aka chicken & rice)..yum! And I am assuming the dog hair is because everyone's dogs fall in mad love with you Matti! Amber still misses you...she looks disappointed when George & I come home....like "oh...it's just you"