My friends in Redding and I had been wanting to take a trip to the “Big Apple,” or New York City, for a while now. It was originally just timing and money holding us back—buses are expensive!—so when we found out that the English Language Institute was sponsoring a bus ride there and back for only twenty dollars, we hopped on it.
There were way more people than we had expected, and the crowd filled five or six coach buses. We boarded at seven in the morning and arrived just before ten in NYC, where they let everyone loose on the city. This wasn’t before handing out instructions on what to do if you got left behind at the end of the day, which wasn’t super reassuring, but I guess some information is better than no information.
Having never been to the city before, it was way bigger and more crowded than I was expecting. Our small group nearly got lost several times. Everywhere we wanted to go was incredibly crowded, to the point where some places had lines out the door. Luckily, most of the places we really wanted to hit were touristy, so were built to accommodate huge amounts of people.
Our first stop was the Rockefeller Center, every NYC visitor’s goal during the Christmas season. We then migrated to Central Park, and Times Square, and even a cute open-air Christmas market near the park. We also wandered through a mall with some… questionable statues apparently called “Adam and Eve.” You can look them up yourself.
I think the coolest thing about the day was just the excitement about being able to wander around a new place with friends. My original group was just people from my section (including my RA), but we were joined by two people from another floor. It was nice to get to know people I probably wouldn’t have otherwise met.
That’s actually something I enjoy about living in Redding. Everyone there is an Honors student, so we already have something in common. Plus, we often have classes together, so we see each other everywhere. It’s just nice being part of a community.
While we were in NYC, we had to work together to figure out where we were going. My friend, Amanda, was in charge of directions, but we still ended up taking a few wrong turns. Near the end of the day, we were just searching for things to do, as we had run out of ideas and our plans didn’t account for having extra time. We decided to search for a bakery, but after encountering three with lines out the door, we decided to get dinner instead. This proved to be its own challenge and we debated back and forth for a while, until finally just getting Chipotle.
Overall, the day was really fun, even if the temperature was in the twenties all day (I really wish I’d brought gloves). I exchanged Instagram handles with the two people I’d just met, and then we all slept on the way back to UD.
Pictured from left to right: Avery Houle, Tara Cain, Galen Nare, Me, Abbie Pierson, Amanda Reed (in the back), and Kya Lomax (in the front)
