Hello again! Sorry for the long silence - I guess language class has taken up most of our free time. Not all of it, though, as you'll see below. Stay tuned for my next posting: on the trials and tribulations of language training.
Last week I reminded J that we get Columbus Day off from class, so we decided to make last minute plans to go to New York City. Priceline gave us a smashing deal (4 star hotel on Wall Street!), TripperBus made the trip at a relatively low rate, and so we were set. Saturday morning started off with a (false) fire alarm and climbing down 10 flights of stairs to get out of the building, then our 5 hour bus ride. But after that, things were great – we saw the sunset over Manhattan from the Top of the Rock, window shopped in the Lego Store, and then strolled down Times Square.
I feel compelled to mention that we actually "occupied" Wall Street for two nights, unlike the protesters, who were actually several blocks northwest of Wall Street in a small park. We walked through the protest area one night - it was full of sleeping bags and also tables set up with the various causes that protesters are championing... you know, stuff like sustainable agriculture. And of course people had signs against income inequality and the "big, evil" bankers, and beat drums while chanting slogans. It seemed like a pretty tame protest to me. So, back to Wall Street: it's actually quite a short, narrow one-way street. I always pictured something more like Broadway, but this street is tiny - you can't see anything but the walls of skyscrapers all crowded in around you. Go figure. All weekend, as we walked down Wall Street to get to the subway, we saw nothing but temporary barricades and about a million policemen standing around or on horseback. I guess they were serious about protecting Wall Street.
Sunday we had a leisurely morning with brunch in the West Village, and then walked through the High Line Park. It’s amazing to me, a rural Midwestern girl, how much a place can be in need of greenery. The park is really unique and I would recommend it as a nice break from some of the traditional sightseeing spots. (I loved the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, too!). After that we caught the last sail of the year with a ‘green’ ship out of Chelsea Piers. The weather was amazing – truly one of the last dog days of summer. We sailed past the Statue of Liberty and over to the Brooklyn Bridge before returning to land. While sailing, we saw a plane writing in sky smoke. I had to look up the story later, since we sort of lost interest after a while and didn’t catch all the words. We thought that it was a lovesick pilot, writing things like “Lost our love” and “last chance.” Evidently, these ominous messages were actually “Lost our lease,” “Last chance,” and “Now open” and were supposed to be art by the High Line Park. According to this article, some New Yorkers didn't particularly take a liking to the “Last Chance” sign in the sky.Finally, we rounded out the day by walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the US, and grabbing some dinner in Brooklyn. We walked over to Grimaldi’s pizza, but that line was at least 40 people long waiting to get a table, and at 8:30 at night, that was too much of a wait for us. Maybe next time… I should note here that J particularly enjoyed the taxi ride back home (the only one we took this weekend!), because the taxi comes equipped with it’s own TV screen in the back seat, where you can watch your route on GPS and also catch the local news. In the end, that ride took us door to door, and only cost twice as much as two subway tickets home. I think the convenience was definitely worth it!
Monday we were back on a boat, this time to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Lady Liberty is beautiful! We enjoyed going through the Ellis Island Museum. They do a great job of illustrating the process that immigrants had to go through, including medical and legal inspections, to the hospital (still on the island), where children with infectious diseases were kept until they got better. Over 12 million people came through Ellis Island in the late 1800’s until the 1920’s. I was surprised to find out that Ellis Island fell into disrepair from the 1950’s until the 1980’s, when restoration began. It really is an amazing national park and I’m glad we got to see it.
That was our "New York in three days" experience - we loved it!
Sounds like you enjoyed yourselves :)
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