Well it came and now it’s almost gone. I write this on the evening of my final full day in New York City. With this being my first ever trip to the Big Apple I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Yet the sheer size of the place really left me awestruck. The supersized buildings and the mass amounts of people is really something to marvel at. In order to get everything I wanted to do here I would need at least a month but what I managed to see was worth the wait.
We started our New York experience with the first day completely free to ourselves, left to wonder the streets and take in as much of it as we could. Although I loved the Staten Island Ferry, and the Brooklyn Bridge offered some incredible views, by far my favourite part of that day was Central Park. By spending hours walking through it I realised how it is somehow woven into the city life. It somehow feels like New York, but just a little more peaceful.
It was important to remember that this trip is primarily an academic one. So to start off the flurry of academic excursions we set off to the 9/11 memorial museum. The events on that day hold a huge significance to many people and how we go about our daily lives. To finally see the place where it happened was both intriguing and moving. 9/11 has certainly changed my life in many ways and visiting the museum, I felt, was an excellent way to assess the event in a way not available in history books. To actually look at the crushed vehicles that suffered on that day and the stories of those affected has definitely had an impact on how I see and analyse the tragedy.
Today, our third day, was by far the busiest. To start we had a tour of the UN headquarters in New York. As a student interested in international affairs this was hugely exciting. To be able to see the halls where deliberations took place and briefly look into a UN meeting on Climate Change (even if it was just briefly) was an amazing thing to see. Although I have to say, the UN may be committed to keeping the peace, but their gift shop prices are criminal.
To finish off the day we had a Lancaster University alumni event on the 43rd floor of the New York Times building, the views from which were incredible. We went in the late afternoon and to be able to see the New York skyline transition from day into night was simply stunning. Lancaster University organised this event to facilitate a networking opportunity. It was honestly fascinating to hear what previous students had ended up doing and the possibilities that were available to me as a current student in the future.
Although tomorrow is our last day, I’m quite relieved to be finished. The amount of walking these past 9 days has really exhausted me and the constant learning and cultural exposure really does a number on you, but if I was offered the chance to go back and do it all again next week and jump at the opportunity. I still have a half a day left however so I plan to fully stock up on baseball memorabilia before the trip home (I’m a Mets fan).