That City That Never Sleeps

 Well, it has now been a week since my big adventure to the other side of the pond and it already feels like it has been months since visiting. For those of you that maybe didn't know, I took a trip during my midterm break to New York City to visit my dad and to have some much needed time in good ol' americana for ten days and the trip could not have gone smoother.
The flight to NYC was actually quite a quick and pleasant (as pleasant as being jammed into a 3 seater side aisle could be) seven and a half hours with no connections. I landed in NY by lunchtime and made my way to our hotel which was located near Central Park in Midtown. We were so close to famous areas like 5th avenue, Rockerfeller center, and Times Square; it was a beautiful thing to be able to have a leisurely stroll in Central Park and then walk just a bit further and arrive at such places. Needless to say, I immediately fell for the Big Apple.

Rockerfeller Center

NY Subway

                                                   

                                                               Empire State

We did all of the touristy things such as go up to the tops of the Rockerfeller and Empire State buildings, see the Statue of Liberty, take a tour of NBC studios, see a taping of David Letterman (I made it on tv!), visit Yankee stadium, experience top-notch art at the MoMA and Metropolitan, and have some ah-mazing meals out. Two definite highlights were seeing both a Broadway play (Anything Goes by Cole Porter- laugh out loud funny and catchy score) and an opera at the Met (Madame Butterfly). I can now say that I've seen theatre in the two best theatre towns in the world, London and New York. I adore theatre and so getting to go to one on Broadway (pricey as it was-theatre is SO much more expensive in NYC than London!) was a dream come true. 

View from the top of the Empire State of Brooklyn Bridge

View of Central Park

Grand Central Station

For all you Seinfeld fans....

In the Yankee's dugout

Degas at the Met; he never fails to inspire me

Central Park in twilight

I was also fortunate to get a chance to spend time with some new people on my trip as well. My dad invited his new girlfriend, Kathy and I had the pleasure of spending half of the trip (she left halfway through) getting acquainted with her. We also got to meet her nephew, John, who is a third year at Columbia University and he was good enough to show us around his neck of the woods and join us for dinner occasionally. I enjoy meeting new faces as I feel different backgrounds and perspectives change one's way of viewing this crazy world and I was, and am, very grateful to spend time with someone who is beginning to factor so significantly in my father's life. Kathy, it was a pleasure, and hopefully we will do it again soon. 

What can I say that hasn't been said so many times before about New York? Probably not much more than the cliched idea that the city feels so alive and dynamic. There is simply something magical about being in a place that contains SO much of one's own history that you can't help but feel connected. I have travelled all over the world and learned about everyone else's history tens of times but this was the first time that I really felt my own history. It made me intensely proud not only to be there but to be from a nation so diverse yet unified under one flag. Walking the streets you would hear every language yet over the top you would still hear plenty of "fogedaboudit's" reminding you of exactly where you were. 

New York is gritty yet beautiful and nostalgic; I thoroughly enjoyed the strikingly different neighborhoods such as Midtown, Brooklyn, or Greenwich as it reminded me of London in ways. It's a good place to be, put simply, and I do hope to visit many more times over my lifetime. It was a breath of fresh air and I felt exhausted yet rejuvenated once I boarded my plane to return to England. The trip put my literary and scholastic goals into focus once again and I realized that if I ever want to land a job in a place like NYC I had better get cracking now. 

Not to steal from Bogie but New York, New York, I have the feeling that it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Brooklyn Bridge

Times Square

Met Opera House