Hey family,

I’ve just arrived to the great America and boy is there a lot to appreciate about this place. It’s so very beautiful and I’m so excited to see what this land has to offer. It’s very very nice but the trip here, not so much. The trip obviously started when I was back home in Ireland me and a few pals set foot and trekked hundreds and hundreds of gruesome miles to where we were expected to board the ship. It was a very hard trip just to the ship as we ran low on supplies like food, water, and clothes before nearing the port. I lost a hefty amount of weight and was pretty warn out by the time of our arrival to the port.  I was expecting a nice ship where we could enjoy our ride as we made our way to the land of the free, I was terribly wrong. We boarded the ship and they immediately sent us to the bottom of it which they like to call the “steerage”. It is a big, widespread open space at the bottom of the ship where we were packed pretty tightly and it was very very hot. They separated us by our wealth so of course I was at the very bottom. I think I saw the previous mayor boarding the top deck. I was amazed as I boarded the ship as I see people from all different countries speaking all different languages and wearing all different kinds of things that I’ve never even seen before. The ships were so very crowded, and lacked proper hygiene. About 2 weeks passed and I’ve never been so excited to see land in my life. My first sight at this beautiful country was a big statue of a lady holding a book and a torch and that’s when I knew. I could tell by the way the passengers cheered that we finally made it. Some people that must have been doctors or something immediately board the ship and seemed to be inspecting all of the passengers. We then waited about 5 hours until a fairly smaller boat pulled up and took us to a building. This building was called the processing center. It was very loud, chaotic and unorganized and we could only bring our essentials like our bag and money. We were examined even further by doctors with tests like breathing tests and walking tests. We then were moved into what must’ve been the biggest room I’ve ever step foot into. Here after waiting quite a while, a doctor came up to me, asked for my information, then proceeded to lift my eye with a hook, then told me I was clear to go. Pretty weird huh. Anyways next after all the examinations and tests, I finally made my way to the final stage where I exchanged my pounds for American dollars and finally set off into the great New York City where I’m hoping I can find any job that pays. Lately I’ve just been able to buy food so I’ve been living on the streets. Soon enough I will find a well paying job and will be sending money back home as soon as you know it!

Sincerely, Manny