tourist

Classes for the Summer B Session are officially over! As usual, I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - but this time I'm really free! No reading or writing assignments to swallow up my time. So I decided to spend today as a New York City tourist.

I went to bed at midnight last night after finishing the last of the assignments. Then I got up at 3:00 and Alison and I headed to Bryant Park to stand in line for the Good Morning America Summer Concert Series. Christina Aguilera was singing, and Alison wanted to see her. I knew I'd never make it to one of the concerts unless I went with someone, so we ventured out bright (or dark) and early this morning. We arrived about 4:30, were allowed in at 6:45, and the concert (3 songs) started at 8:20. They were done by 9:00. After the concert, we walked up to the Times Square area, and had bagels for breakfast. I'm not sure they were real NY bagels, as the shop was called Seattle Cafe. It was cheap, though. Breakfast for $3.14! Pictures from the concert are below (one also shows Chef Emeril).



This afternoon, I took a little nap, visited the student accounts office to give them more money, and went to the Reading and Writing Project Office to make sure I'm enrolled in next week's institute. Then I hopped on the subway again and headed down to the South Street Seaport. What a beautiful day it turned out to be! After exploring there for a bit, I went to Wall Street, where I saw the New York Stock Exchange. Then I rode the subway up to 34th Street. I wanted to visit H&M, a clothing store I often see on TV shows. The clothes and prices were great, but the experience... not so much. A lady walking down the aisle behind me threw up all over the floor and my feet. Yuck, yuck, yuck! She just kept walking! I told one of the employees, and while he went to get someone to clean up, a lady with a cane slipped in the mess. Yuck, yuck, yuck again. A nice bystander gave me a wet wipe to clean off my feet. The afternoon perked back up after that. I walked up to Times Square (42nd Street) through the Fashion District. I had dinner on the second floor of the Olive Garden smack dab in the middle of Times Square, with a great view of all the passers by and of the lights as they were turned on for the night.

Pictures below include several around the South Street Seaport, me in front of the Brooklyn Bridge, a New York River Taxi, the New York Stock Exchange building, a police officer in front of the JP Morgan building on Wall Street, and a sculpture of a button and a needle in the Fashion District.