-
Day #4:New York City
Honestly, I don’t even know where to start this blog. So I’ll just be logical and start from the beginning of my day. My first morning in New Jersey started off by waking up at 9:28. Now I realize that that doesn’t sound significant at all. The thing about it is, we were supposed to be on the bus, ready to go at 9:30. Boy did Kelton, Michael, and I freak out. But we ended up making it just in time to join the rest of the group as they were boarding the bus.
Then, we rode the bus into New York City! The excitement on the bus was outrageous. If it wasn’t for my small little pointless argument with some CI (Central’s self-proclaimed #1 news show) staff member, I could’ve paid more attention to the NYC skyline. Thanks Jackie, you were right. NOT!
P.S. HTV won their 4th consecutive STN Excellence award.
Our bus driver Eli dropped us off right in front of Central Park, a great place to start our day in the Big Apple. There we took our big group photo with the skyline in the background.
After the picture, everyone, except the few shooting their package, boarded the subway, headed for Canal St. But before all of us even boarded the train, little miss Chelsy Rea nearly got chopped in half by the train doors. Thanks to the nice civilian hulk-man, it didn’t end with Chelsy dying. All I knew about Canal St. was that it had super deals on clothes, sunglasses, and most importantly, purses. I didn’t care too much about the possible great deal on purses, but I was hoping to find me a pair of some genuine, bootlegged kicks. No one happened to tell me where Canal St. was located necessarily. I soon found out. Canal St. is a part of NYC’s Chinatown… I had no idea. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference if I ‘d known. It was nasty. I thought the subway smelled bad, but it didn’t compare to the fishy scent of Chinatown. Seriously, there was raw fish just chilling in a market on a corner. One word, gross!
There was something about the essence of Chinatown that made me very protective of the people of my group. Especially the girls. It may have been the overpopulated area, the creepy dudes walking around, or the fact that I felt like the minority. It didn’t help much that when we got to Canal St., we had this small lady navigating us through Chinatown, all the way to this small room way up in the top of a building. I decided to stay on the ground next to the street. All the girls decided differently.
About twenty minutes later, all the girls and Michael came back down the stairs, each holding a black trash bag. It wasn’t suspicious one bit. After everyone grouped back up, we all walked down the street a bit, looking for more deals. At that time we hadn’t found any shoes, but I did find a nice pair of sunglasses. We shopped for about another hour, and then we met up with the crew that was shooting their story at the Chinatown McDonalds.
I know it’s off topic, but fast food joints outside of Springfield are expensive, well at least compared Southern Missouri fast food. Ten bucks for two McChickens, a small fry, and a PowerAde? Come on.
Alright, back to real life. While we were at McDonalds, we all got to relieve our bladders. It was personally the best restroom break of my life.
From there, Davis, the dudes of HTV, and Marlee and Olivia departed for Ground Zero. On the way there, I found a pair of shoes! They are a metallic gold pair of Chuck Taylor Converse (seen below). The day was still to get better. Finally, we arrived at Ground Zero. I’ve always heard about the feeling you get while there, but had never experienced it. I can’t even explain in words the feelings I had during my time there. It gave me what you could describe as a slop bucket of emotions. If I were to only remember one thing about this trip, it’d have to be visiting that site. It was the best part of the trip for me so far.
Next, the gang walked over to Battery Park to get the chance to see Lady Liberty. It was unreal. All my life I had seen pictures and videos of that statue, but there I was, looking at the Statue of Liberty in real life. It was an awesome moment.
Once we were through with that, I had the privilege of experiencing my first ever taxi ride. It was pretty cool if you take out the fact that I didn’t have a chair to sit on. All I basically had was an eighth of a seat and my good ole legs to hold me up. It was about a six-mile ride, but the end result was completely worth it. Mr. Tony (the 76 year-old taxi driver) dropped us off in Times Square. WOW! That pretty much explains it all. You can see it on TV, but it will never compare to experiencing Times Square in real life.
We walked around and shopped for a while, and eventually we ate. It wasn’t just food though. It was the official pizza of the New York Yankees, so it must have been packed with steroids. That could have been why I wasn’t too fond of it.
After a lot more walking around, Michael, Kelton, Chase, and I came upon a fellow by the name of Joey BM. He was a rapper that was working hard at trying to get his name out there. Michael bought his CD, which isn’t too great, but the best part of the whole ordeal was that he freestyled for us. He was actually pretty good too. I wish his CD was as good as his freestyle. Then maybe he’d get discovered. But I do respect the man for trying to get noticed.
We left Joey, and we were on our way to the ESPN Zone. My kind of sightseeing. We made it just in time to catch the late games of round two of the NCAA tournament. It was by far the best place that I have ever experienced to watch a game. Not necessarily the cheapest though.
Ahh…my day in NYC was finally over. Physically, I was exhausted, but mentally, I could’ve gone another week. New York was everything I expected and much, much more. I’m never going to forget it. Stay tuned for more.
P.S.S. I’m sorry this blog is so long. I had a lot to say.
