new york, new york

Last week I took the $10 Chinatown bus to New York City. I met up with my brother-in-law BC (I like the semi-anonymous use of initials), and we trekked around the city for a few days. We stayed with some old friends, B&MT, from my church in LA, that moved to NY about 3 years ago. Really the best part of the trip was catching up with them.

Being in the city (it is the city, afterall) was an experience in itself. It was so fast paced, I don't know I could live there for more than a couple of years. The subway was a bit of fun to learn. BC and I managed not to make any mistakes. The one time we hopped on an express, it was the exact one we wanted. Kind of fun starting to learn a new city.

BT recommended an Italian place for BC and I to eat one evening. I am not the biggest fan of Italian, but I decided to give it a shot. I remember when I lived in LA, GK asked me if I liked Japanese food. I flatly told him, "No," to which he responded, "That's probably just because you've never had good Japanese." He was right. After I had good Japanese food, I loved it. This little Italian place recommended to us did the same thing - it changed my opinion of Italian food.

BC and I had never been to the top of the Empire State building, so against our better judgement, visited that tourist trap. And it is the first time I have used the term "tourist trap" and really meant it. We were stuck in lines that we just couldn't get out of. Once they have you in line, you are there for the duration. The whole process was really very annoying. The first line we got into was to get a ticket to go to the top. We expected long lines. That's just the way tourist attractions are. What we did not expect was to be advertised to in very annoying ways the whole time. While waiting in the first line, we were surrounded by advertising posters and televisions. Not a big deal. I am used to ignoring those. But they also had 4 people on microphones trying to sell you stuff in a round-about way. They asked absurd trivia questions that had no actual specific answer. Any answer was right. The prize for the brave winner? 10% off some restaurant that you would never consider going to The whole time they were trying to upsell you into the "premium" packages. It included some silly things like an audio tour of what you were looking at from the top and some video helicopter tour of the city. All stuff no one really wanted. One girl even said, "Really, if you don't get the audio tour, there isn't any point to going to the top." Absurd. What annoyed me even more was that only 2 of 4 ticket booths were in use. With 10 total people just hanging around the area, not really doing much.

After we had the ticket to the top, we waited in another line for to go through a metal detector, and another line to get on the elevator. This elevator took us up to the 80th floor. But the observation deck is on the 86th floor. Why didn't we just go to the top? So they could try to sell us more crap. We waited in more lines to get our picture taken. It might have been nice if it was actually a view out a window or something, but no. Just a terrible background of clouds and a really bad replica of the Empire State building. BC and I passed on the photo. Then we waited in another line where they tried to sell us the audio tour again. Finally we took an elevator the final 6 floors to the top of the tallest building in New York. And it was worth it. That's why they can get away with treating you so poorly.

The view that day was beautiful for about 15 minutes, then it started to rain. But I managed to get several excellent shots of Manhattan before the clouds rolled in, so check back here in a couple of days for some of the best.

The trip really was great. Wish I could have spent more time in the city, but it is only a 4 hour bus ride away.

Bush declared a national holiday this Friday in mourning for Reagan's passing. The markets are closed, but I don't get the day off. Doesn't really matter anyways. I don't get paid for any days off.

Transition is going on with my job right now. It might be a stretch to have any sort of a job next semester, if I want to go to school. They are offering me a permanent full-time position, but for a variety of reasons doesn't look good. There are some other options, and one might turn out to be a pretty good thing. We will just have to see. At least I have my job till the end of the summer, which is the important part. Looks like I might have to quit my job in order to go to school full-time next semester.

Also thinking more about the near future. The desire to go to seminary is steadily increasing. Would be fun to do a lot of theology learning and writing.

Entry posted by byscuits on June 8, 2004 12:16 PM

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Comment posted by adam at June 8, 2004 06:37 PM

Comment posted by sly at June 13, 2004 04:14 PM

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