Leaving Tonight!

Friends!  I am flying out of JFK Airport, New York City tonight at midnight and will be landing tomorrow in Tel Aviv, Israel!  I cannot wait!  I wanted to write you all and catch you up on a few things that have happened to me in the past few days leading up to my trip! 

            JNF booked our flight out of New York for us, but when I was booking my flight up to the city, I realized it was much cheaper to fly in a day earlier than to fly in on the Saturday after Christmas.  I have lots of amazing friends that are doing cool things with their lives that live in New York City, so I reached out to many of them to see if any may be able to host me for the night between my flight in and my flight out.  Not surprisingly, almost all of my friends were not in the city the day after Christmas, which made my finding a place to stay a little tricky.  However, a good friend of mine from high school at Stanton, named David Emami, works in research and development on Wall Street, and he said I was welcome to stay at his place although he and his roommates would not be there!  So amazing.  I mentioned that he works on Wall Street?  Well he also LIVES on Wall Street.  He is the man.  He left me a key with his doorman when he left town so that I could pick it up and stay at his empty 11^th floor apartment.  SO thankful, David! 

            I had been working in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area for the holidays, so my flight to NY was from there.  My best friend J dropped me off at the RDU airport at 5 AM on Friday morning like a trooper.  I flew into JFK at 6 AM, took the airtrain and the subway, and made my way to Wall Street.  I first went to drop off my bags at David’s apartment.  Then I contacted my friend Alyssa Gatke, who also lives in the city and I knew would actually be there.  Alyssa was my boss at Abercrombie Kids for my freshman year of college.  Kind of embarrassing, but it is a cool, random connection to still be maintaining!  She moved up to NY with the Abercrombie & Fitch company but now works with Wings Worldquest, a women’s explorer’s club founded by a living descendent of President Andrew K Polk.  She and I met up in the East Village and had Tibetan food!  It was probably the first time I had seen her in person for two or three years, and it was so fun to catch up!  She showed me around the Greenwich Village where she lives.  Thank you so much Alyssa!  Cannot wait to see you again!

Bye J ~

First view off of Wall Street!

Walked by City Hall to meet up with Alyssa.  Cue Law & Order
Theme song.

Solo subwaying!

Washington Square Park

Alyssa claims that in the movie I Am Legend, Will Smith's
character lives in one of these row houses.

Alyssa is the best ~

            After parting with Alyssa, I explored a little more and then went back to David’s apartment to catch a quick nap.  I woke in the early evening and headed back out into the city to meet up with my one other friend (I knew of!) that lives in the city that was there.  Grace McAuliffe has been a good friend of mine since I was like a sophomore in high school.  She was studying and working in Chicago, and now works in New York City.  I met her at her beautiful apartment off of 107^th in the upper west side of Manhattan.  From there, her roommate Austin, her, and I grabbed an Uber car to one of their favorite spots in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  We met up with some more of their friends at a Polish restaurant, and then walked down the street to another place for drinks and some Skee Ball (yes the children’s game).  It was really fun, and also great to see them!  I have been to New York a few times, but I loved getting to see some of these people I haven’t seen in a while on this trip.  From Williamsburg, we caught a cab that dropped me off at David’s apartment.

Typical Williamsburg Bar Scene.

            Saturday morning I woke up and went exploring!  I always loving getting reacquainted with the subway system each time I’m here.  I’d say I did pretty well!  No wrong trains or anything.  Here are some pictures I took of the city!  Hope you enjoy!

New World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial,
only blocks from David's place.

Grand Central Station

Time Square 

Ice Skating at the Rock!

Christmas Tree in front of Rockefeller Center!

Radio City

View from the Brooklyn Bridge

I just felt like this sign was trying to tell me something...

Spent a lot of time walking up and down Wall Street!

NYSE

            Now I am back at David’s apartment at Water and Wall, packing up, enjoying probably my last free wifi access in the United States, and getting ready to head over to the airport to meet up with my 30 new friends and leaders!  I’ll keep you posted!!