NYC

       My second trip to New York City certainly did not disappoint. Jackie and I took the train from New Haven and had a very leisurely and enjoyable time in Manhattan. We had a few places we wanted to hit and to be honest, not surprisingly we did not get to them all, but we really had a great time at the places we did make it to. We visited Chinatown, Little Italy, Ground Zero, the waterfront looking out towards the Statue of Liberty, and Time Square. It was also really cool to just be in Grand Central Station when our train came in.
       It was Jackie's first time in NYC and we both agreed that it was nice to just walk around without worrying too much about where we'd end up. I was really proud of us for being able to navigate the big city all by ourselves as silly as that may sound. We did get a little turned around once when we took the wrong subway, but we probably didn't really even need to have taken the subway half as much as we did. We realized later that we could have easily walked the distance to most of our destinations. Manhattan isn't half as big as we had envisioned it and the weather was just right for walking around town.

       The highlight of the trip was probably the people we met and interacted with. It's such a diverse place and meeting people from all over the country and the world in one place is awesome. We met one man in particular who was a construction worker that has worked at Ground Zero for the past nine years. He said that he had lost 17 friends in the World Trade Center attacks and that some days it's still hard to come to work, but mostly he feels that it is a privilege and an honor. He was so great to talk to and we spent a good twenty-five minutes sharing our lives and getting to know each other and I really appreciated his honesty and genuine nature. Overall it was a wonderful experience and for me it felt like practice for this summer when I will be navigating London. I can tell you this much, London will certainly be an adventure.