In A New York State of Mind...Day Four.

Our first day in New York City! Everyone was full of excitement and anticipation for what the Big Apple had in store for us. The bus ride from D.C. to New York went smoothly and we found various ways to kill the time. Between scavenger hunt races, karaoke sing-alongs, and the occasional breaks at the rest stops throughout New Jersey, we found no trouble burning the 4-hour car ride. The drive was all too familiar for me and I was excited to share my "neighborhood" with the students. As we approached the New York City skyline, I blasted Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" at which point there was an eruption of cheers and singing. Pictures, stories, and references from song lyrics, textbooks, and movies were all these kids knew when it came to New York. now they were going to have a first-hand interaction with the greatest city in the world.

As we approached our hotel in Fairfield, NJ, I pointed out to the kids that my hometown was a mere 10 minutes away. We had to take a minor detour, however, because of the excessive flooding that occurred over the weekend's Nor'easter, a very powerful rain and wind storm that swelled the surrounding river to record-high levels. The transition into the hotel was smooth and within an hour of our arrival, the troupe was fast asleep with New York City on their minds.

The group was up and at 'em in the A.M. and we enjoyed a tasty omelet breakfast in the hotel dining room. Everyone donned their "I (heart) NY" shirts that my mom had sent a couple months ago so we hopped on the bus with our new tourist-looking threads and made our way into Manhattan. We handed out a bunch of gifts like pencils, stickers, notepads, etc. labeled "Live Aloha" and "Hawaii" that I received from the Hawaii Visitor Bureau for kids to give to people they met along the way. I challenged the students to find the New Jersey-New York dividing line marked inside the tunnel--for a split second, they were in two states hundreds of feet underwater! For many, it was the first major underwater tunnel they ever passed through. Once, we reemerged from the tunnel, we were in the middle of Skyscraper Madness. The expressions on all of the students' faces were priceless--they had never seen so many tall buildings crammed together! And all the people walking fast down the streets! For the first twenty minutes, they went into sensory overload, taking in as much as possible with mouths gaped open in astonishment.

We proceeded to pick up Mary Beth, our licensed NYC tour guide. Over the next four hours, she navigated us all over the city, from Wall Street on the south side of the island to Strawberry Fields on the Upper West Side to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side. Within a 12-hour period, we managed to traverse nearly the entire 23 square miles of the island. The energy was high and the sun finally poked through the clouds and dried up the rain for the first time all trip. No umbrellas for today.

We first started off downtown and checked out Ground Zero, the site where the World Trade Center stood before its collapse. The students had no prior knowledge of what the area looked like before the attacks, so at first, it just seemed like a rare open space in the dense urban landscape. There was construction taking place with several huge cranes, and we could see the exoskeleton of one structure already erected. We walked into a store that was converted into a gallery display of the new building, Freedom Tower. We got to see the blueprints and the miniature architectural prototypes with its futuristic design, but more importantly, there was a detailed timeline with accompanying images of the attacks on September 11th. Once they saw how the actual buildings fit into the landscape of the surrounding area, they quickly realized the magnitude of the void that once was the Twin Towers.

 We walked through St. Paul's Chapel, which stood right across from the WTC site. Surprisingly (and some would argue by a stroke of God), the church survived the tower collapse unscathed while other surrounding buildings were severely damaged or destroyed. Outside the church, tombstones dated back to the 1600's, while the cemetery was surrounded by a wrought iron fence. Inside, the church was converted into a memorial. Tons of letter, badges, flags, pictures, banners and other items of remembrance from the victims' families and sympathizers of 9/11 decorated interior. After reading some personal, heartbreaking letters and images addressed to deceased firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers, a couple kids noted that they were moved by what they saw. On another note, also inside the church was George Washington's pew and chair that he prayed from after his inauguration as President. He worshipped at the church until the capital was moved from New York to Philadelphia. As we left this area, I believe students had a strong sense of what it means to make the ultimate sacrifice for one's country, and were grateful and proud of the fact that our country is comprised of so many of these patriots.

Not far away from Ground Zero was Wall Street, the epicenter of the financial business. Though the students didn't have a strong understand of the inner workings of the New York Stock Exchange or Federal Reserve, they caught on when I explained the origins of the recession and bank bailouts occurred here. The buildings were reminisced of Greek architecture, as were most government buildings and other structures in New York and D.C.
The interesting part of this area was that there were no vehicle traffic, unlike nearly every other part of the city. We were able to freely walk around without fear of the crazy taxi drivers. A couple students came up to me and asked me why people were dressed in "fancy clothes" and I explained that it was the norm for banking jobs.

We couldn't resist a group photo with the 30-foot statue of George Washington (he never gets boring) and once we found the famous Merrill Lynch bull, we threw up our own horns in imitation. We stopped by South Street Seaport to check out the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. This was yet another first for them and the kids couldn't get enough pictures. 
I wanted the students to get a chance to experience some of the bazaar parts of the city and what better place to go than Chinatown.

We pulled over on a corner with several bazaar-esque shops and after a few pointers from the advisors, the kids began their first lesson in Bargaining 101. I was laughing hysterically as I walked around and supervised the students conducting business with the anxious Chinese salespeople--"What you like? What you like?"--they hovered like hungry seagulls and squawked like parrots as the kids weaved in and out of the shops, trying on cheap sunglasses, hats, and t-shirts with funny slogans. A seller even told a student that they would give her the Asian discount. I was impressed to see students bargaining the prices of bootleg designer wallets and good down from the ticketed price. Nicole wanted a crocheted polar bear ski hat and was able to work the man down to a reasonable price. After everyone picked up a trinket or two for friends and family back home, we hopped on the bus to continue our sight-seeing tour.

As we headed up towards the Upper West Side, we passed through Little Italy (whoo whoo!!), Greenwich and the East Village and gave the kids the historical context behind each area.

We arrived on the outskirts of Central Park across from the Dakota apartment, where John Lennon lived before he was assassinated on its front steps in 1980. The weather was finally beautiful and very warm outside, compared to the rainy coldness we dealt with in D.C. so we decided to take a walkabout through the park. We entered the park through the Strawberry Fields entrance, eponymously named after Lennon's song, and meandered along the path, observing all the people going about their day.


 We came across a huge tile mosaic titled "Imagine" and were surrounded by a bunch of John Lennon
wanna-be's who wore his signature round-shaped spectacles.
The scene was very laid-back, with folks reading newspapers or just conversing on the benches and a gentleman playing a steel lap guitar that captivated the boys and my attentions for a good 10 minutes. However, once one student exclaimed, "SQUIRREL!", the peace turned into a frenzy to capture the furry rodent on film. The new focus of the walk became a squirrel photo-hunting. However, a mob of 27 students is good cause for a squirrel in pursuit to find safety up a tree so the focus turned to the horse-and-carriage buggies that trotted around the park.

Around noon, we dropped off Mary Beth and thanked her for her company and commentary during the sight-seeing tour and headed back into Times Square to get a bite to eat. The kids were SO excited and taken back with the action going on. Bright, flashing lights, Megatron screens, huge storefront displays, massive video billboards, taxis honking and swerving around, on top of the thousands of people walking in a blur. We couldn't decide what to check out first!

Quignon decided to give a performer from the Broadway show Chicago a gift of Aloha and this turned into a theatrical photo op. After getting a bite to eat at McDonald's with the super-sized arches, we waited along a side street for our bus driver Skip to pick us up.

I noticed there was this humongous pothole in the road and every time a car ran over it, the whole car got rocked and sometimes bottomed out. I took a guilty pleasure in watching this and the kids caught on. Within a couple of minutes, we began counting the number of cars that flew over the hole and every time we saw it, we went crazy.

Our cheers and laughter drew the attention of the disgruntled pothole-afflicted drivers and two police officers across the street chuckled at the sight of our game. By the time Skip arrived, there were 23 cards that had mowed over the hole in a 10 minute period. Luckily, none of the drivers were hurt, but their pride might have been taken down a notch. We stopped at the flagship Hershey's and M&M's stores, the latter proving to be the superior one. Everyone had the opportunity in manhandle humongo chocolate bars and bottles of syrup. Surprisingly, the kids didn't buy as much candy as I'd anticipated so at least any cavities couldn't be attributed the visit to the chocolate factory.

As we poured into the M&M store, we were greeted by the rapping duo, M&M boys.

This store was three stories of milk chocolate mayhem, but I found myself dancing in the lobby and freestyling with the rapping duo. Soon after, a handful of the kids, led by their fearless leader, were Dance Dance Revolutioning all over the place. Customers entering the store assumed we worked there but were amused to find that we traveled 5,000 miles just to dance in the lobby. As we left, Jayde gave one of the M&M boys a gift of Aloha and left them feeling stoked! On the bus ride to the Met, with Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" blaring over the bus speaker, I taught the students the art of the signature Jersey fist pump, a novelty in the Garden State.

 Needless to say, they passed with straight A's. I have the video and it is HILARIOUS.

We arrived at the Metropolitan Museum and I wasn't sure how the students would react to walking around a museum filled with art and sculptures. However, once we entered inside, they immediately darted to the exhibits of knights in shinig armor, the Egyptian temple displays with original hieroglyphics, and Samurai swords with warrior outfits. The museum was incredibly massive and since time was of the essence, we focused on the Egyptian section (including two mummy sarcophagi).

The students got a kick out of the nude Greek/Roman statues so once the inappropriate jokes began coming out, we made our way to the exit.

The nighttime was reserved for the Broadway show so we decided to head back to Times Square to prepare. We had dinner at Schnipper's, known for it's Sloppy Joe burgers, right across from Port Authority.We were joined for dinner by Grace, our tour coordinator form Boston. While at the restaurant, the kids did a great job of taking turns and changing in the small bathroom from their streets clothes to nicer outfits for the show. As were eating, a couple students asked when they were going to have a meal that included rice. "Expand your palettes!" I replied, but I could tell they really missed their rice. "At least we have free soda refills," one kid noted.
One of the students approached an older couple sitting in our vicinity (how brave) and offered them some "Live Aloha" buttons and they were so appreciative. I really loved watching the kids interact with the random people we encountered and out of the goodness of their hearts, offer the Aloha spirit in the form of a gift. People living in New York City typically aren't used to people (kids, furthermore) giving them free gifts for the sake of being nice so there were mixed reactions that provided a great learning opportunity. After we dressed, we were stoked for West Side Story.

I for one had never been to a Broadway show, nor would I have pictured myself attending one anytime soon.

The kids all looked dashing in their dress outfits and I'm proud to say that they were the best dressed student group in the theater. After we hiked up to our nose bleed seats in the balcony, we took in the red velvet carpeting and giant curtain that draped across the stage. How fancy it all was! As the performance began, I was totally impressed with the talent level of the actors. A couple pseudo romantic scenes made the kids giggle but most of the kids thought the first half was exhilarating. At the beginning of the second half, Ms. Skedeleski let out an outburst of laughter that set off a chain reaction amongst the students, for what reason we are still trying to figure out. The play climaxed with a gunshot to Tony and everyone jumped out of their seats. As we left the theater, everyone excitedly talked about the show and a couple of students got to meet the actors in the lobby. Here, Kaleialoha poses with the lead actor, Tony.

On the bus ride back to the hotel, the show continued, thanks to Ms. Inouye's purchase of the soundtrack (note the sarcasm here). By the time we made it back, most of us memorized the lyrics to "Maria", "America", "The Jet Song", and Dillon's favorite, "I Feel Pretty." Our first day in New York was a memorable one and Thursday couldn't come any sooner.