Day 2

Woke up and just started walking again today. Went through Times Square, through the Toys R Us there this time. Walked through the East Village - there were definitely some characters there. Walked through Little Italy and had lunch in Chinatown. Continued on into the financial district and stumbled upon Ground Zero.

I had been told of the street vendors so they weren't a surprise, but I was expecting a more somber tone from everyone else. A few people had serious expressions on their faces when reading the sign with the timeline of 9/11, but on the whole it seemed like a simple tourist destination. I definitely wasn't expecting to see people cheerily posing for photographs or going on about how there was too much salt on their pretzels or whatever. On the other hand I was overcome. Just picturing the people jumping out and firemen running in and the nursery. I kept thinking of this Walt Whitman poem I read a lot around 9/11 (written from frontlines of the civil war)

Aroused and angry,
I thought to beat the alarm, and urge relentless war;
But soon my fingers faild me, my face droopd, and I resignd myself,
To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or silently watch the dead.

Somehow I ended up being the one out of place.

I continued south and found a nice little grassy park with the statue of liberty in the background. I put in my headphones and dozed off for a bit. I woke up and started north again, there was a huge police and fire parade that came by with their sirens blazing. Behind them was a parade of bikers. It seemed to go on forever. I went north through Tribeca and stopped and ate some fruit from a little grocer in Greenwich Village.

I continued up through Chelsea and decided to take a subway back the rest of the way. I was waiting for my subway and talking to this girl on her way back in to the city after a week in D.C. We were waiting forever so she talked to a conductor who said they were running a little behind. Another woman started waiting with us. She was from Hungary but living in London, vacationing in Boston and just in NYC for the weekend. We waited longer and finally she got up and saw this little piece of paper that explained why our subway wasn't coming. She said shes going to take a different route if we wanted to follow her. The Hungarian woman and myself, who basically have no idea what we are doing follow her up some stairs onto a different subway where we get off and go around the corner and get on a different subway and finally I get off and came back to the Hostel. All the natives continue to be thoughtful and friendly and really helpful. Everybody likes my cowboy hat and has good impressions of Texas. This city has so many shops. I passed a store with nothing but espresso machines in the east village and in Greenwich Village there was a store with nothing but cheese. Down the street is a supplement and vitamins store for pets. Im not sure how these would fare in Dallas.

Everybody in my room went to bed early today and I didn't feel like sleeping or going too far so I stayed in my neighborhood. I went the opposite way down my street than I usually do and found a cool area I hadn't seen before. I almost went into this bar but decided against it. Turns out I'm 3 doors down from a firehouse and when I walked by there were 3 firemen hanging out and I asked if I could chill there. They were all very cool and we talked about a lot of different things, they were pretty interested in what I was doing and one of them had a friend that also wanted to go train Muay Thai in Bangkok. They asked what I had been doing and when I told them about people posing for pictures in front of ground zero one of them said Jesus its like the f****** Grand Canyon. I didnt really know how to describe others reactions with the site but he nailed it quite succinctly. They did explain though that it had been 5 years now and a lot had changed and people may be moving on. None of them were working that day. One of them was supposed to work but traded shifts, the other two werent working there yet. One of them had been doing construction in one of the towers for weeks, and was supposed to be working there that day but his boss sent him somewhere else. They did have one guy from the station that died and had a nice memorial setup for him. They said thats where they used to put hay for the horses, and the stables were the current offices. This neighborhood was built around the turn of the century and its interesting to hear some of that history. Last week they got a call that an entire floor of a building had smoke. The culprit ended up being a guy washing his clothes by boiling them on the stove, and he had forgotten about them.

The bartender from the bar I almost went in walked by and one of the guys knew him so he talked with us for awhile. He started a jean company about a year ago and just worked out a distribution deal with Victorias Secret and his stuff is on the current cover of the catalog. K jeans I think, very interesting to talk with him about distribution, manufacturing, and business. He is about to open up a store here. Still wasnt too tired when I got back so I am writing this from the fire escape on the 4^th floor.