My favorite day in New York City was the third day of our trip, May 10, where the main event was our meeting with the staff of Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press, one of the Big Five publishing houses. We started the day by taking a southbound train to our first stop, the Oculus and the 9/11 Memorial. It felt surreal to visit the place where the attacks took place after hearing about them throughout my life, and I think the two large reflecting pools are a beautiful use of the space where the Twin Towers once stood.
Our next stop was the Macmillan offices on 120 Broadway where we met with members of the company’s staff from various departments, such as editorial in fiction and nonfiction, publicity, and marketing. Everyone was very accommodating and ready to answer all of our questions. One response in particular was able to help settle an internal conflict of mine. They even had a pizza lunch prepared for us, which was a huge plus since I had already gotten a taste of dining at New York prices by then.
After our fulfilling meeting, we stopped by a placed called “Eataly” for a bathroom break (because, interestingly, there aren’t a lot of public bathrooms in New York) and to try some authentic Italian gelato, which I found to be a bit pricey, but it just looked too good to pass up.
Next was our walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, and this is where New York City really shines as a tourist trap because there were street vendors lined up across the entire bridge, eager to sell us New York-themed keychains and hats, snacks, and 360° photo ops, every single photo booth playing “Empire State of Mind,” for some reason. Another thing that the bridge brought to my attention is the air pollution in the city. As we were walking towards it, I couldn’t help but notice that the bridge appeared to be surrounded by a brownish haze from afar; however, the air did look clearer while standing on the bridge. I also caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty in the distance while walking across the bridge, which was nice since we didn’t visit it during our trip.
Now in Brooklyn, our class went to the Eastville Comedy Club together in support of our classmate, Olivia’s, first ever stand-up comedy routine, and I think she did a great job as a newcomer. It was my first time seeing a live stand-up comedy show as well.
After the show, we went to a Mexican restaurant called “El Zason” for dinner, where I had the enchiladas that were garnished with a cute purple orchid, which I held on to for the rest of the night. During the meal, our classmate, Maddy, talked about how her desire to ride the ferry back to Manhattan since she thought it would be cool to be on the water at night, and I was very much on board with that plan after hearing it.
The view of the Lower Manhattan skyline at night from the other side of the East River was beautiful as we waited for the next ferry back to Manhattan. The ferry ride was much shorter and bumpier than we expected, but we still had a great time.
By the time we got off the ferry, it was around 10 PM, and we were exhausted, but we still had to make our way back to the West Side YMCA, which was still over five miles away. We got a taste of how much less reliable New York’s public transportation system could be at night as it ended up taking us another 45 minutes to get to our beds, meaning that it had almost been a whole 12 hours since we started our day at 11 AM. Despite the exhaustion that ended up carrying over to the next day of our trip, that night was the most fun I had during this trip because I feel like I really got to know my classmates, and I don’t often get to hang out with friends late at night, so I’m really grateful to all of them for the experience.