September 11th

There is so, so much to do in the city and it has afforded me so many opportunities. This past Thursday was the 13th year since the Twin Towers fell. The memorial was only open to family members of victims for most of the day. They opened up the memorial to the public around 6 and I took a couple friends down with me. When we first got there I saw a man placing flowers on a name and it made me cry. To suffer such a sudden loss and then share it with an entire nation cannot be easy and I am sure it is a difficult day each year.
I really enjoyed my experience that day. So many of the people at the memorial were not American. They may not have any personal connection to what happened but everyone respected the area appropriately.  There was very little talking. People were calm, quiet, and respectful. The only noise was the water from the pools.

 

 

Dinner with these two- so grateful for their friendship!

 Backing up a little...at the beginning of September Brittany and I wandered down to Greenwich Village to soak up the local culture.

 We ended up at some burger joint called Umami Burger and it was the best burger I have ever had. And the atmosphere is so much fun! We also ordered fries with truffle oil and aged cheese and those were also yum. If there is one thing that has been consistently good in NYC it is the fries. These people know how to make French Fries. 

 Burgers were followed by gelato. Super yummy as well.

 We walked, and walked, and walked until we got to Bryant Park. Some kids were playing with what looked like glowing sky dancers. Remember those? Google it.
Anyway- I got all sucked into the magic and I bought one and then played with it. I felt like I was 7 years old and I was okay with it.

Oh and Fashion Week happened. My internship is that tall building behind the Mercedez-Benz sign so I got to see all the drama go down. It was very fun until I tried to move. Getting on the train, getting off the train, getting to my internship, leaving my internship. Those were all very difficult activities with roughly 1 million other people trying to do the same thing.

Here I am standing at the memorial with one of the pools in front of me and the two beams for the two towers in the sky.

When we were walking home I turned around to see if I could still see the beams and the view took my breath away. It was tragically beautiful. The beams of light were so strong that it made the clouds glow. While the city was so alive and busy there was this strong, beautiful reminder of what happened. Being in New York on this day was so special for me. Words cannot describe the power and unity I felt and it is an experience I recommend to everyone.