reflections on...New York City 2

On my last weekend in Syracuse, following my last final turned in right at 5 o'clock on Thursday, Dave and I decided to make another run down to New York City. I stayed with him and his family on Thursday night, enjoying an early Christmas as Kathy gave me a beautiful hand-crafted snowman and a Bath and Body Works set. Then, Dave went to one of his finals Friday morning and we got on the road. It was a quick trip, arriving Friday night and leaving Sunday morning, but it was a great way to end the semester. Just after getting back to Syracuse, I packed my bags and finished last minute details and jumped on a jet plane on Monday to go back to Utah for the winter break. Here are some highlights:

Enjoying a Frosty on the road...

Mmm.

Trying to get a look at the amazing ice storm that attacked the Northeast. All along the route, trees were bent over with ice even though most of the way the ground was dry. I'd never seen such a storm.

One of the biggest blessings of this trip was getting to see my wonderful friend Angelica. We first met in 2005 while I was working in Guatemala, where she is from. Her mom was my best translator and they are both part of an amazing household of women (mom, Angelica, and four other daughters). They became my best friends outside of Tambrizap and I will forever be grateful for their kindness and sincere friendship. I was blessed to be able to visit her family both in 2006 and 2007 when I returned to Guatemala and they even came down to meet my host family in 2007 in Santa Maria Visitacion. Constantly supportive of my education and repeating how careful I should be before attaching myself to any man, Angelica's mom also instilled the same respect for education and hope for the future for her daughters. Angelica received a scholarship to come to Suffern, New York and study English in an international program at Rockland Community College and will be in the States for the next 2 years. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the emails that she was coming to the States, and then even more amazed when I read that she was going to be living in New York while I was going to be out there for graduate school. I hadn't been able to see her until now after she'd already spent almost 4 months in New York and already her English is outstanding. She's such an inspiration and I'm so grateful I got to see her. It was the blending of two worlds and I am still honestly in shock at seeing her in my own country, dressed in jeans rather than in traditional Maya textiles, and speaking English. Regardless of any other activity, I was immensely grateful to see her.

And, on top of everything, my wonderful Dave cheauffered us around and was supportive enough to sit through the entire dinner as Angelica and I spoke in Spanish and K'iche'.

After getting to Rye and finding the apartment where my friends the Bonhams generously offered for us to stay, we crashed for the night and then headed out on the morning train, straight to Grand Central Station. Not only filled with the daily bustle, we happened to arrive in time to catch an International Santa Convention, thus the sea of red velvet pouring in on the left-hand side. We stopped to ask what the commotion was all about and heard intermittent "Ho! Ho! Ho!" chants fill the immense hallway. There were your traditional bearded Santas but also a million unconventional Santas with red and green checkers, mohawks, skater pants, and everything in between.



While we were in the neighborhood, we headed over to see the very impressive headquarters of the UN. Sadly, whether due to being Saturday or whatever the reason, the flags were not on display and everything was closed off. The reflection of the skyscrapers in the windows is truly spectacular.






Directly opposite the huge U.N. building is U.N. Way, a short and arguably dingy small alleyway connecting to Grand Central. The funny thing is, rather than leading you to the U.N. building, it is a one-way street, in the opposite direction! We laughed about how the U.N. is not only so large an unapproachable as a bureaucracy but they literally build themselves out of contact but are happy to send people away into the world. It is, after all, the "U.N. Way"! Haha.


Walking around town, we passed the MetLife Building, beautifully adorned with a GIGANTIC wreath and beautiful tree.


We finally made it to the TKTS booth to hang out for Broadway tickets, and jumped in line despite the cold in hopes of getting matinee tickets. We waited for about 20 minutes only to get up to the front of the line and have the guy at the window look at us, the last two in line with nobody behind us, and be told it was 2 o'clock and they were closed and we would have to come back at 3. Thanks New York. So, furious but helpless, we jumped in line to wait for a VERY cold hour to get evening tickets. I offered to go get some food and walked up to the Olive Garden around the corner when I saw people still buying tickets at two of the TKTS windows. I was so confused and found out that, rather than having completely closed, our window was ONE of the windows that closed while they kept 2 open until changing to evening tickets at 3. I was floored. So, rather than just telling us that we had to walk 5 feet to the other window to get our matinee tickets, the wonderful ticket agent just pushed us away and claimed they were closed....thanks New York. I got up to the window and asked if they had some Cirque de Soleil tickets but they only had separate seats available. So, I continued with the lunch run as planned and, after being ridiculously overcharged but blessedly warmed by being inside, I headed over to meet Dave again in line. He was almost frozen and despite initial attempts to stick around and wait till 3, I finally convinced him to go inside somewhere and warm up. He found the Times Square Information Center and hung out there for a little while before we finally got the line moving and bought our tickets for the evening show. We immediately returned to the info center and ate our delightlfully still warm food and Dave got some McDonald's hot chocolate to speed up the dethawing process. My feet were tingling so I got them out of the cold shoes and socks and rubbed them warm while Dave attended to his hands. We really were THAT cold. Following the encounter with the TKTS agent and the frigid wind despite the sun shining, I told Dave that New York was simply too cold. He agreed and added, "and not just the weather."



Here is Dave inside the Times Square Info center in front of the famous New Year's Eve ball that will drop over Times Square this year. Glistening with Waterford Crystal and brilliantly shining various designs and many colors, it was cool to see the ball up close.

Even after a half hour of rest time, I was still cold.

We had a couple of hours before the show started, so we decided to check out some of the big shops there at Times Square. We headed into the M & M's factory and bought some cheesy but warm hats at a corner news stand.

We then saw the Hershey's store and headed down the street on our way to the big tree at Rockefeller Center. Here is the famous Radio City Music Hall.

Me at the big tree. Gigantic and full of lights, it was a beautiful sight in the midst of the very cold NYC. Honestly, though, I had expected more than just lights and was sad to see no ornaments or other decorations but just multicolored lights. But, the sheer size of the tree was cool.

Yeah, we look like nerdy tourists, but we were a LOT warmer.

Heading down to Madison Square Garden to get to the show.

Meandering through the theater district, I found this dedication to Les Mes, one of my absolutely favorite musicals.




At the Garden to see Cirque de Soleil! It was a very unique show incorporating an urban theme with BMX biking and roller blading with traditional circus tricks of trapeze acts and gymnastics. Live energetic music and a quirky mystical atmosphere accompanied the physical feats and I enjoyed the show. I struggled to identify with the urban setting and thought that I would have liked a more plot-driven show than the helter-skelter antics of big dogs and big birds circling cops and robbers. But, it was still entertaining and Dave and I relished in the chance to sit down in a warm theater and just relax next to each other. In the end, we got covered in a flurry of paper snowflakes pouring down from the ceiling.

We finished out the night getting back on a train to Rye and went straight to bed, up early on Sunday to return on the 4 hour drive to Syracuse, arriving just as sacrament meeting began. It was a WONDERFUL trip and even with the cold we were really blessed to have safe roads and safe accomodations. Thanks Bonhams for the apartment, thanks Angelica for the great visit, and thanks Dave for a perfect end-of-semester send-off.