I'm sitting here tonight, reflecting on my journey to the Big Apple, a place I once dreamed of going to. This past week, during spring break, my dream came true. Not only that but included so much more than I dreamed of. It's insane to think that someday, if you wish hard enough, your dream could come true.
Last weekend, I went home to see my new house. My family and I still live in Noblesville, but a lot is changing. My brother is moving out and my other brother and I just aren't home as often, so my parents downsized to a different house. I basically spent the weekend organizing all my things and setting up my new room. On Sunday, I went back to Purdue to start our journey to New York. 3 of my best friends joined me on this trip and I wouldn't have picked anyone else to spend those 6 days with. I got even more close to them than I originally was, which was pretty awesome. We rode a charter bus to New York and back as our way of transportation. It was a pretty cool setup and I hadn't ever rode one before. It had movie screens every 4 seats, it's own bathroom, charger outlets, and all of us even got our own row (which made things so much more comfortable). The ride to New York was supposedly a 13 hour car ride. On the way there, however, we hit an accident and traffic that ended up taking us 16 hours. I had never rode longer than 12 hours before in one day so it was definitely a whole new adventure for me. We also stopped every 3 hours to stretch and let the bus driver take some time. It was for sure a long ride but it was actually fun hanging with all these people.
We got to New York at about 11a.m. Monday morning and got to our hotel. We all basically threw our stuff into the rooms and headed out to Times Square with the rest of the group to take a group picture. Monday was pretty gross out. It was rainy and windy and freezing. Luckily, it was the worst day of weather that we had. Something that our group did was create an event in this app called Goose Chase and it's basically an app that creates missions for you to complete (ex. Take a picture in Times Square) and you earn points. The competition for this trip was to complete as many missions as possible. My group decided to go hard. Haha. After Times Square, we all made our way to Central Park. OMG. Even in the rain, Central Park is the prettiest park. There is something about it that is so calm and enjoyable. All while we were walking through it, I couldn't stop thinking of Home Alone and Elf. It was pretty cool. We kept walking till we reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This museum was interesting to me. It had a lot of old art in it which I thought was pretty cool and we got to see it up close and personal. There were SO many art pieces that we didn't even make it through all of them. But it was really cool all in all. We were hungry after that and went to a place called "Shake Shack" which omg, was the best sandwich place I have ever been to. I can't even describe it. All 4 people in my group agree that it was the best restaurant we had while in New York. After, the Museum of Natural History was near so we went to that. That was one of my favorites. We got to see this show there called "Dark Universe" that had a screen all around you and you were "taken" to outer space. It was so sick. Also the museum contained a lot of different subjects. There were exhibits on earth, space, ocean, etc. It was neat to see. We then went back to Central Park to see Strawberry Fields (a tribute to John Lennon). There wasn't too much to see but it was nice to go and see it. We had New York Pizza that night at Luigi's. I didn't think it was outstanding. It just tasted like pizza to me. By the time we made it back to the general area of our hotel, we were all exhausted from pulling an all nighter the night before and walking 10+ miles, so we went back to our hotel and chilled out until we all fell asleep.
The next morning we were all refreshed an ready to hit the streets. This day was my favorite day on this trip. In the morning we went and got New York bagels which were killer. I'm a total fan of bagels and New York killed it. It was just a plain bagel with regular cream cheese but boy, was it good. Today we had the Double Decker bus that took us around the city. I absolutely love this bus. It's so peaceful and calming just to sit on the top of the bus and look at New York. It was a good experience to take really good pictures of the city and learn more facts. This day we also got to spend with the group leaders on the trip. They are so awesome and fun. I like to poke fun at them a lot, but there really fun to be around and they make me happy (: Our first stop was the 9/11 memorial. This was my favorite thing that we did all of New York. I never really had an emotional attachment to 9/11 because I was so young, but after going there I do. It was weird walking up to where the towers once stood and now stands flowing water. New York is so crazy loud all the time, but when you walk up to it, all you hear is the water. It was amazing. The museum was extremely emotional but REALLY well done. We saw people speak on screens about there experience with 9/11, pieces from the collapse, the only stairs that withstood, missing people flyers, etc. It was truly one of the best things I could experience. It makes you really have an appreciation. One of the group leaders also told me about this thing called the "Survivor Tree." It's this tree that was dying from the attack and people nursed it back to life and still stands there to this day (we even took a picture by it). It was really cool. It relates not only to just the situation but to almost every persons situation. I was really happy she shared it with me. I also bought a journal from the gift shop to add to my collection. After the memorial, we took a taxi ride to Chinatown. We only walked around Chinatown for like 20 minutes because it was super sketch. I did not like it at all. We then walked our way to Little Italy which was a bit nicer and a really cute little town. We even stopped in to this little pastry/gelato place and got dessert. I got New York Cheesecake (which honestly tastes like any other New York Cheesecake, haha, I just wanted some). After that, my group split from the group leaders and went to the Rockefeller tower. It was super cool. You could see for miles. It was just the time where the sunset started to form too so we were able to see it from the top. I was super scared the whole time, but man it was crazy beautiful up there. Not so much peaceful, it was pretty chaotic, but really pretty. We also went to the Irish Cathedral and the Waldorf Hotel (where I took some soap with me, lol). They were also crazy beautiful. I feel like almost everything in New York is. Later that night, my group went to the Empire State Building as well. We wanted to see the city all lit up at night. It as GORGEOUS! It was 86 stories so we were up really high and I was still so frightened, but man. It was a sight to see. It was pretty calm up there and just slightly windy that it felt really good. It was about 10 o'clock after that and our curfew was 11 so we ate at this really good place called Pensy's right across from our hotel and then went inside to sleep.
Wednesday morning, we got up pretty early to start our day. One of the people in my group went to go hangout with her boyfriend who lives in New York, so it was only the three of us. We again went and got bagels (WE HAD TO! THEY ARE SO GOOD!!) and then got on the double decker bus again. We still hadn't had street food and one of our missions was to take a picture with some so we got lunch at a food cart. I got a chicken Gyro. It was good when I had it but our next stop was the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island and my stomach regretted it a little on the ferry. The Statue of Liberty was amazing. It didn't even feel real. It was so surreal to see it right in front of you and think that people way back when saw this when they came into America. It was such a big symbol of hope for them so it made me really have a new appreciation for our country. Ellis Island was also really cool just to see how hard it was to immigrate into America. It's something that I don't think about because I have lived here my whole life. And to think it's even harder now.... It amazes me. After, I realized there was a Korean War Memorial and I absolutely had to visit it. My grandpa was in the Korean War and earned a Purple Heart from it so it was something special to my heart. It was pretty emotional to see the numbers and know that my grandpa was part of it. I'm so grateful for him and for everyone who fought in it. We also saw the Titanic monument on our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge was interesting. We saw a lot of college students and people walking/riding bikes on it. It was a pretty popular place, which I didn't know. For dinner, we ended up going to a nicer place since we hadn't been going to many just so that we could save a little cash. We went to Bubba Gumps (ONE OF MY FAVORITE RESTAURANTS) and ate. Me and my friend also go matching Bubba Gump shirts. It was super fun and it was nice to just sit down and hangout and talk for a little while since everything had been so on-the-go all the time. After we had an hour to go to Forever 21 before curfew so we went there. IT WAS 4 STORIES!! 4 STORIES!!! I literally cried. Everyone knows that is my favorite stores on earth. I did good though! I only bought two shirts!!
Thursday was our last day in New York and also a big day for the city. It was St. Patricks day!!! We got up pretty early and went to the parade in New York. It was so cool to see and be there on that day! It lasted for 5 hours and we got to really see the culture of the Irish. Everyone was pretty much drunk so it was pretty interesting haha. It was like a swarm of green everywhere you went too. The parade took up most of our day and we just hung out at the Rockefeller again and visited the United Nations. The UN was really neat to me as well as just this trip in general. In New York (an especially at the UN) you see so many different types of cultures. You could be standing in one spot and hear like 8 different languages. The culture is just so diverse. It was really interesting. We had to be back at the hotel by 5:30 to load the bus at 6 so that was the end of our trip. It took us about 14 hours this time to get home and GUESS WHAT!!! My group completed all the missions and ended up winning the game! We got a super cute New York picture frame as our prize. Overall, this trip was absolutely amazing. A whole new adventure that was a blessing to be on and to spend time with friends and get closer to the group leaders(: I can't wait to go back!!!
"Can't complain about much these days, I believe we'll be okay...
We're screaming out, I believe we'll be okay,
Sun kissed skin, on my lips,
Thank the Lord, I am here and now."
"Be Okay" by Oh Honey
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