“I have thawed out, I have learned to show more empathy. A journalist has to put himself in the shoes of other people, but I was quick to judge. Like: how strange, what a hassle. And that Dutch thing: just do it,” says Erik, who has written a book about his life in the metropolis. “I really like the carefulness with which New Yorkers interact with each other when it comes to gender expression, race and things like that.”
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In New York, the dream city, the book that will be published on Tuesday, Erik is also open about personal matters such as his love life. “I write personal things about my relationships, including one-night stands. I think it’s part of New York. People also want to know,” he says. “It’s never meant to talk about my sex life or go into details, but to say something about New York. This is a city full of young, ambitious people who may not be very much looking for relationships, but they are fun want contact, I’ll just say. What it’s really like here, that also applies to people. I’m not just going to tell stories about the Empire State Building.”
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He does not yet know whether Erik also wants to grow old in New York. “I think the Netherlands is a great country, I always have a lot of fun there,” he says. “But for now I really feel like an American, a New Yorker.”
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