9/11 Memorial Is About 9/12

We were excited to be walking in New York

NEMOW (cohorts of Women and Leadership at Brown University) met up at the lobby of the Beacon Hotel here in NYC at 8:45 and walked to the subway. Jenny, our chaperone, had trouble using the ticket machine so she went to an employee and she helped her get 10 tickets. The subway in New York is different from the BART in the Bay Area. The seats face each other, the air is humid, and the stairs smell horrible. Coming to New York has made me appreciate the things that are available to me at home  in California. I always thought the BART and streets were unsafe and dirty in my community because I compared it to South Korea. Now, I feel lucky to live in a place where you can actually breathe in a subway. 

A cute poster in the window of a store

When we got off the subway, we walked around for thirty minutes to look for a cafe. All of the stores that we wanted to go to were either full or closed. We ate pastries at Patisserie Claude and drinks at Oren's Daily Roast Coffees & Teas. I noticed one similarity between these two places. There was an informational poster hung up on the wall about what to do if someone is choking. It was on my mind all day so I searched it up on Google. Apparently, there are required signs for restaurants by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. It made me wonder if California will start doing that too, or if they already started. One more thing that I noticed during my stay in the East Coast is that stores don't charge you for plastic bags. It's become an instinct for me to refuse a plastic bag when the cashier offers, which is a good thing. I hope New York will start to ban plastic bags soon.

Pedestrian Signals in New York

Just like how the pedestrian signals in Rhode Island differs from the ones in California, I noticed that pedestrian signals in New York are different from both of those. The yellow on the signals match the color of taxis, making those two stand out the most when you are walking in the streets of New York.

Our next destination was New York University and we had a tour of the campus. First, we had to sit in and watch a video about how wonderful NYU is. I didn't know that NYU is not only located in New York City, but also in Shanghai and other cities in the world. I thought that it was different how NYU doesn't look like a University and blends in with the other buildings in New York. The campus is not surrounded by a gate, but it is still a safe place to be in. If any student feels unsafe at night, he or she can use their school ID to enter a building where they will be safe. The campus looked so beautiful and huge compared to my school. The tour guide talked about and showed us different places where we can get financial or academic help. It seemed like everyone at the school was so willing to help their students with their problems. That's definitely the type of people I want to see in my future school. After the tour I can say that I liked New York a little better than before, but I am still not sure about attending a University in suck a busy city. It's really hard to get around the city because there are just so many people walking or taking the subway at the same time. Having a car in New York isn't helpful when there is always traffic. It seems like the subway would be better, but it's so humid inside the subway station.

Beautiful New York University

After our NYU tour, we went to the bookstore and I bought t-shirts for my family and a simple pin that had NYU written on it. I plan on buying a pin from all of the Universities that I visit because it's really cheap and meaningful. After shopping, we stopped by an athletic store because Jessie and Maria were really anxious to find Nike products.  Jenny only let us go in the store for five minutes if we agreed to not go to another store until we are at Times Square. In the end, only Cynthia and I bought five dollar running shorts because they were on sale. 

Hiding behind a melon at the Farmer's Market

NEMOW took the subway again to a farmers market at Union Square. Jenny suggested that we spend half an hour walking around the farmers market, trying samples. There weren't a lot of samples but the food there looked great. I was so sad because I accidentally ate lamb because I thought that it was pork. Sorry to all the lambs in the world because I ate one of your kind. After the farmers market, we ate pizza at a famous restaurant called Joe's Pizza. A lot of celebrities, like the main character from Princess Diaries, ate pizza there before. The pizza was definitely delicious and I wish I could take some home to Cali. 

Feeling sorry for the lives lost during 9/11

Our next stop was the September 11 Memorial. The vibe in the museum was very depressing because we were learning about the negative effects 9/11 had on people. There are many stories of people who were trapped in the building during the crash. What was great about all of these stories was that they all made it out alive because of their determination to leave the building. I thought it was interesting when the tour guide told us that the memorial was more about the day after 9/11, the events following the crash of the two buildings. I wished that we had more time to look around the museum but we had to take another subway to the boat cruise. 

The boat cruise was absolutely amazing. I saw Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, and a far view of New York. I learned many stories like the meanings of different parts of the Statue of Liberty and the history of Ellis Island. Towards the end of the cruise, Maria, Thao, Magaly, and I sang songs from High School Musical at the furthest part of the boat.

The Statue of Liberty and New York City

Group Photo!

A beautiful picture of Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge

Times Square was only a couple blocks from the boat cruise so that was convenient. Times Square wasn't as great as I expected it to be and I didn't have time to take any pictures there. I hope to go there again one day and actually enjoy my time. I felt so rushed and confused when I was walking in Times Square. I went to Forever 21 and to a random store that sold five New York t-shirts for eleven dollars. I think that was a really good deal, especially because those are usually super expensive. I can't wait to go home to show my family the things that I bought them during my trip.