Avi now writes for Driss-A-Blog
| 2001-02-18, 7:18 PM:
I was driving home from a computer meeting the other day, and it was so frustrating as every single traffic light seemed to turn itself red just as I was approaching. That's always been my dystopian vision--not really the 1984-ish Big Brother thing, but a world where all the traffic lights are timed so that in normal driving you'd hit every single red light. That would almost be enough to make me want to kill myself. Talking of dystopia reminds me of New York City. No, I don't regard NYC as a dystopia, it's just that there was an exhibit on the concept of "utopia" at the Public Library, and the related concept of "dystopia" was included. My trip to New York didn't really follow much of an agenda. Since the main purpose was to visit the city and see certain people, I figured that in the morning I'd just find something that was in my AAA TourBook, and in the afternoons I'd meet up with all the people who I arranged to meet. It worked pretty well overall. Shira was going to a Shabbaton in Connecticut, so she flew with me to and from New York. Early on the morning of the 18th we were at Metro, and we flew to JFK airport in a little Jetstream turboprop plane. The "prop" in turboprop means propeller, so the ride was a little rough. We got to New York and took the subway to where I was staying, in Washington Heights. Washington Heights is in the very north part of Manhattan, so we took the A pretty much its entire length. We got to my apartment, and dropped off my bags. The apartment is right next to Yeshiva University, but the trip to and from the 181st Street station (the one for the A line on 184th Street) was through a bit of a rough neighborhood. I didn't really have a problem, though. I just looked straight ahead and kept walking, and didn't have a problem. Shira and I went to the Javits center for the last day of the World Jewish Expo. In the lobby, we ran into Ilan Woll, an old acquaintance who we knew from Wayne State's Hillel. He'd moved to Connecticut, but was in town for the expo. It was good to see him. By the time we got to the expo, there was only an hour and a half left, but we walked through it and looked around. We signed up for the free drawings and tasted the free food samples (yum). It was strange, though, as Shira seemed to find girl after girl who she knew from Neve Yerushalayim. I realized that I lost my (7-day unlimited) MetroCard. Argh. After the expo, I went to meet Mazal. She'd called me before I'd gone in to the expo, and told me to meet her at the Manhattan Mall (6th Ave and 32nd St) at six. I had a bit of trouble finding the place, but I eventually got there. I was supposed to call her and arrange a meeting place, but my phone couldn't find a signal at all. So I went into the mall, and started looking around for a pay phone. I hadn't gotten very far when I ran into someone who said, "Avi?" It turned out to be Mazal, who'd just gotten there herself. (And she was also using a SprintPCS phone, so her phone was inactive too.) Tuesday morning I bought a new MetroCard and went to Wall Street. I did the tour of the NYSE, and looked at Federal Hall. There wasn't much else to see, so I looked at the TourBook map and pulled out places that looked interesting. First was Grand Central Station. It was huge, and I almost lost my camera case there. Then I visited the New York Public Library, and saw the Utopia exhibit there. It was interesting how they'd dug up all these old books. Nothing I'd really read, though. Then I went to Times Square. I didn't do anything there--I just went there, went up from the subway station, looked around, took some pictures, and left. Wednesday morning I went to the South Street Seaport. I went into the museums and on the ships. They paint an interesting life, one that I wouldn't really like to live. Crammed on a ship hauling spices doesn't sound like much fun. Thursday, I met up with Shira at the Jewish Museum. We wandered around the exhibits. There was one about the Jews of Morocco that was co-sponsored by the king of Morocco, so it was rather non-critical. I didn't do much on Friday morning. I just prepared for Shabbos, and I wasn't sure enough of the subway schedules to risk missing a train. Friday night I davened with a group of YU students, and Shabbos I went to a different minyan at YU. On Sunday, I visited Rockefeller Center, and looked around. There's lots of shopping there, but they were mostly closed. I looked at the skaters in the ice rink, and looked at the buildings. On Monday, I packed, hopped the subway to the airport, met up with Shira on the shuttle bus, and went home. Overall, it was pretty good. I like New York. There's no way I'd live there, but I do like the subways, and I like the layout. The people are nice, too. :-) |
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· 2002-12-16: A Unicode problem · 2002-12-15: Soul affliction · 2002-12-15: No power? · 2002-12-13: Camera's ready · 2002-12-12: Grr... �