No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn!!! (and snow!!!)

I'm in the hostel right now after one of the funnest days yet. We had a free day today because of the snow in NYC which closed schools in the manhattan area for the first time since 1996. So basically, we went to training this morning for about an hour and went over a few things. After that, we split up and I went with a few members of "Big Red" to the Natural History Museum (if only briefly) and then to lunch at Shakes (blast my terrible short term memory, I can't think of the full name). Anyway, I actually went for the NYC experience :) eating a shake burger (not the name, again I can't remember), it was really good, at least the meat was. And, the fries were amazing. The milkshake really was overrated, but it was worth a try.

After lunch, we set out on a big adventure (this is where we ride the subways all over the place). First, we went to South Seaport in Lower manhattan. There we went by dunkin donuts, toured around some shops and eventually got on the staton Island Ferry. The Statue of Liberty was pretty cool, especially in the snow, but it was freezing on the ferry. Oh BTW, it's amazing how tame pigeons are in NYC, I could literally touch/kick them if I wanted to. After Staton Island, we were trying to walk over to get on the subway to ... I lost my train of thought, there are a bunch of Brits in the lounge distracting me with their charming accents.

Anyway, we went in the Empire State Building, but couldn't go to the top cause of construction or ice or something, but we did get the privilege of going in a legit office, due to one of our leaders knowing the president of King's College. Also, we went down to the very bottom of the building, and despite what "ELF" may have you believe, there is not a mailroom down there, there is a library, a student hangout, and the rest of the classrooms of King's College.

We then tried going to the World Trade Center site later in the day, but couldn't cause it was closed, but we did see ground zero from afar, looked just like on TV. Then the five of us went over to Brooklyn to this amazing pizza restaurant under the Bridge. It was called Gharadelli's or something like that, and was awesome! Arguably, it ranks in the top-10 in my list of best pizza restaurants - not an easy feat at all! (possibly top-7 if I had more chances to try it out) But yeah, we had a crazy fun night the five of us hanging out, we went back to Times sq/ 42nd street for a lil while, but mainly spent time on the subway lol.

Stace also returned my call and let me know about how she was doing. Apparently, she is staying at what looks like lower brooklyn and she spent most of the day touring all five boroughs. (Although, I must argue Brooklyn is the best, followed by Manhattan) I felt sorry for her, cause she didn't have any good shoes to repel the soggy snow mush. That's right, snow isn't pretty in NY, it just turns into a grey, gloopy mush that you have to dodge as you walk. ALso, I always find that New Yorkers are in so much of a hurry, running past me on escalators, jumping into subways while having the doors squish them, and one of the STING guys said they really value their time. Also, so far, I've ran into 3 separate guys that come onto the subways, state their homeless state, then either perform, or ask for food/money, say god bless you or whatever, and jump across from train to train. Also, the values must be different in NY, cause when someone asked the pres about diversity at king's college he didn't really have an answer (maybe they don't think about it cause they have so much already?)

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll be coming back on Friday or Saturday due to a mix-up in the bookings, but either way I'm having a good time. Heard there was snow for the 2nd time in NC, hope it's nice there.