General impressions of the Big Apple

Continuing my travels in New York, the first thing we did is walk through the city. Taxis cost an arm and a leg, so walking is an attractive alternative. And really, walking 5-12 blocks is not such a big deal (what's 20 minutes?). Unless it's pouring rain!!! I was prepared for snow, but not the rain that was a continuous presence for the first two days. If it wasn't raining, there were still lots of puddles. I had raisin toes pretty much continually, and once I got back to my room, I washed my feet and kept my shoes in a plastic bag so as not to offend my hapless roommate. In any case, I began to understand what they meant by the "canyons" of the city. Block after block after block of skyscrapers. After a while of looking at them, I began to wonder why they don't topple. They are so thin and so vertical, and what holds them together? I can't build anything even close to that height with jenga blocks! And if I made it solid enough, what holds them upright? The foundations must go very deep.

Despite the March weather, and the leafless trees, I was surprised that there were ANY trees at all. Not much light gets down into the canyons (our tour giude informed us that New York is one of the greenest cities in America because of all it's parks, but it WAS late winter after all, and I didn't see much green). The Rockerfeller Center had a few. Being wired for lights is stressful so these are tough trees to hold so many--the tree in the picture is a living growing tree, not like the giant, decorated, for-the-season-only tree that we see here at the Rockerfeller Center in movies set in New York at Christmas. This famous place was only maybe 4 blocks from our hotel, although it took me two days to get oriented enough to figure that out.
This is as close as we got to the Statue of Liberty, and without the zoom function of the camera, it would be barely visible. It's 1-2 hours by subway and ferry to get to the statue, since it is on another island, and we didn't have that much time since we also had quite a few Workshops to attend. The place I took this picture is on the shore of the Hudson river, one block from ground zero. Ground zero just looks like a construction site. The mess is cleaned up, and all the buildings on the periphery are repaired, except the "Deutsche Bank" building, which is being torn down, floor by floor so as not to cause damage, and in which they are still finding body parts among the debris. It has taken them a long time to decide what to put in that space, but apparently most New Yorkers prefer life and shopping to return to that block of the city, rather than a huge memorial (there is a memorial already in a nearby park). But, since the land of that area of the city was built on landfill that extends into the Hudson River (as also the place I'm taking the picture from), they have to do a lot of work to secure the foundations and redo all the subway lines that were underneath.
Having seen a few (very) cathedrals in Europe, I wanted especially to see the famous St. Patrick's cathedral in New York--about 3 blocks from our hotel. It is dwarfed by the skyscrapers all around, but still a beautiful building. I think 2 or 3 of them might fit into one of the european cathedrals, but nevertheless it is a magnificent building and very, very beautiful.
It was Monday morning when I visited this building, and there were a few worshippers sitting or praying, so I was advised to restrict my photo taking to where I wouldn't disturb people, but that still gave me lots of places to choose from. Doesn't it look huge?? It is mind boggling to think that these cathedrals (including in Europe) were built without the use of much modern technology--they may have had a bit of it when building St. Patrick's, but what a labor it was.
There is a continual tug-of-war in New York between what should stay and which buildings could be replaced with a modern, many square footed, revenue generating skyscraper. We look at the magnificent old buildings and appreciate their architecture and history, but there must be enormous tension between the history and the money when one considers that a 2-3 bedroom apartment in this part of Manhattan could be valued at close to a million dollars--I wonder what a small office rents for?
Just in case anyone is wondering if I'm just doing a travelogue without actually having been in New York, here is an official picture of me on Times Square. It is actually much nicer traveling with family or friends, and doing silly group pictures. Not that I wasn't with nice people--how can 120 exchange student coordinators and support staff be anything but nice, but we were not (yet) good friends, although I had a lot of congenial conversation about some of my favorite subjects--exchange students, foreign cultures, what makes people tick. For the record, I walked across Times Square at least 2-3 times before I figured out that's where I was. Talk about country bumpkin! Broadway is around here somewhere too, and I had the opportunity to see Phantom of the Opera. What an interesting experience. I have very much enjoyed the music for a long time, but had never seen the story. Even though I was way up high and didn't have a good view, and wasn't supposed to take pictures, seeing the whole thing live kinda spoiled me for watching it on TV. One would think that the TV was better--you can see closeups, different angles, lots of details, but there is no substitute for the real thing. I hope our kids don't get too caught up in the virtual world of the internet and media to appreciate real, in-your-face, life.

Grand Central Station. For years now I have envied the public transportation systems that I hear of in so many of the home countries of our exchange students--they can come and go as they wish, when they wish, without worrying about car insurance, parking spaces, or access. In New York I realized the problem isn't America, it's Kennewick!!! In New York I walked, took taxis, buses, subways, and trains, all convenient and inexpensive (well, not the taxis!). It's a nice way to live. There are at least 117 trains, subways (if I can believe the sign that said "tracks 100-117"), and other forms of transportation that feed into and out of Grand Central Station. Some of the New Yorkers complained about how chaotic the system is, but for me it was amazing. I suppose ignorance is bliss. Well, there's more, but not on this post. Until next time...