Oh. My. God.

Ok, so I know I have like a buh-zillion things to write about, since I haven't posted in almost a month...(shocker, I know). I know I need to talk all about how my 2nd semester of grad school has come and gone, and that I got an A on my huge "thought I was gonna die or blow people away" kahuna paper. And I know I need to talk about how I also got a A in both classes....again. And I know I need to talk about the passing of one of my favorite icon's: Bea Arthur. This one I will elaborate on, I promise. But first, I must get into the exciting stuff. I'm currently sitting in my hotel room in Queens, NY! I've been here one day, and it has been probably the craziest day of my life. After a great flight from O'Hare Tuesday night, we arrived at the hotel around midnight. Obviously nothing much took place as we were exhausted, so the day began bright and early this morning. The three of us (myself, Melissa and her friend Yufong) took a more than interesting bus ride, and then subsequently interesting subway ride to Battery Park. **I was anxiously anticipating riding the NY subway system, only to find that it was NOTHING like I had imagined. In fact, it's the exact same thing as riding the El back home. (For those of you whom might be wondering, "The El" is Chicago's elevated train system that runs through the city).**

We arrived to Battery Park, and proceeded to take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. If you've never seen it up close and personal, make it your life's mission to see it once before you die. It's like being in a movie; completely surreal. As we stepped off the ferry and saw her in all of her glory, I seriously got lost in it. She took my breath away. It was truly amazing! After perusing Liberty Island for about 2 hours, we took the ferry to Ellis Island. In all honesty, I was bored. History is great and interesting and all that, but it's just not my cup of tea. So I amused myself by purchasing $15 worth of fudge and sitting on the front steps of the museum, working on my sunburn (left my SPF 70 in the hotel room...way to go Kelly!) and eating fudge. We finally left Ellis Island, and headed back to battery park.

After sitting at the park for a bit relaxing our tired feet, we walked to Ground Zero. It's currently under construction, so you can't see anything but cranes and fences around what was once there, but you can see the emptiness of what once was. Very moving. There's a 9/11 tribute museum set up across the street (www.tributewtc.org) with a small but very powerful display of pictures, victims personal belongings, a short but moving video, and even pieces of airplane that were recovered. When 9/11 happened, I was moved, like most Americans. However, I didn't understand its full impact, and until yesterday, I still didn't full grasp its capacity. By seeing it firsthand...seeing the actual spot where everything went down, I finally understood. I walked around the exhibit actually crying...it's something that when you're there...you're physically there, it grabs you and opens your eyes. If you ever get the opportunity, sieze it!

Our first night in NYC ended by walking around Tribeca and SOHO, and eating $16 cheeseburgers, because that's the only thing on the menu we could understand! NY can keep those places...not my cup of tea.

Well, it's Wednesday now (couldn't finish this last night...tooo tired) and we're heading off to see what Brooklyn has to offer...and then it's THE YANKEES GAME TONIGHT!!