Back to the adventure. Getting to church Sunday morning was quite the journey! Walk to the Path Train station (one of the subway systems from NJ to NY), take the Path Train to 33rd Street in NYC, get out, walk to NY Penn Station on 34th, take the Subway to 103rd Street, then walk to International Hostel a block away on Amsterdam Ave. Whew! It was a lot of steps, but I made it with no problems... I was even early! =) Church was great. Class was excellent, and they were studying II Samuel, which is what my daily Bible reading schedule includes this week! People were very friendly and welcoming, and I even met two women from as far South as Kentucky! =)
I had to jet out right after church to get down to the World Financial Center for work, and I stopped at a hole-in-the-wall little place to get something to eat on the way. Since I'm in New York, I decided I better get something super New York-y, and this looked like just the place. It was packed inside (thank goodness they had a separate section for take-out!), and the accents were STRONG! I went for George's Breakfast Bagel: smoked salmon with herbed cream cheese and capers on a massive and DELICIOUS bagel. It was awesome! I actually couldn't believe how good it was! I'm sure I'd never be able to find the place again, but it sure was a hunger saver on Sunday afternoon!
I'd already been to the venue for set up, but finding it on foot from the subway with no one to follow was trickier than you'd think. I thought surely I'd just be able to walk toward the Freedom Tower, but from the ground, all the other skyscrapers obstructed the view of even the tallest building in the area! Anyway, I finally made it (after crossing several lanes of traffic and stopping to talk to a couple of ladies who asked me where I got my awesome lunch), and we got to work! Others were there already, just talking to people about the cars and answering questions. We didn't play the Platinum Code game Sunday afternoon, but we sure did talk to a lot of people. I got to work with lots of people I was familiar with from previous events, so it was nice to see some friendly and familiar faces. =) We closed up about 5:00, and that was it! I had some trouble finding the right Path Train to get on so I could go back to my hotel (they change the routes on the weekends and there is ZERO signage! Super irritating!), but I finally made it and picked up something to eat before going back to my room.
Speaking of my room, I have a lovely, large King sized bed all to myself. I realized after a couple of nights that I'd only been using the left 1/3 of it. So that night, I decided I was sleeping in the middle! It was fabulous. =)
Monday! I found out I didn't have to be at work till 10, which is pretty great since I thought I had to be there at 8. That's an extra two hours to explore! And explore I did. I got to be honest, I'm not impressed with Jersey. The area I'm in now is better than Newark, the only other place I've been in New Jersey, but it's just not my preference. Anyway, I wandered around for a while looking for a good breakfast place before catching the ferry, but it was kind of a bust. Oh well. The ferry ride was nice!
Work on Monday was quite the New York experience, actually. All these awesome cars are set up inside and outside of the World Financial Center, and it was a nice day. People were coming over asking questions and playing our promotional game (the prize is a $500 AmEx gift card--woohoo!), and then around 1:00 or so, the Motor Expo leaders came over and told us to lock all the car doors and keep the keys close at hand. Then we started to notice all these people dressed in hippie clothes, cheap suits, costumes, masks, etc., holding signs and shouting something unintelligible, and then we notice police and security people hovering around them, watching to see them make just one wrong move...
That's right, we were front-seat witnesses for the Occupy Wall Street, 99% one-year anniversary!
Yes, they were as unorganized as they look there. No one could understand what exactly some of their chants were, but a few people walked by holding signs and looking disgruntled saying, "We're going to find democracy for you!" Nice. Pretty sure that's not a democratic attitude. ;)
Anyway, the police and security guards had things all under control. One of the officers in front of our Lincoln tent laughed when he told us they know who all these people are--they use facial recognition technology to find out who the "99%" are, and they know all about them, including who has trust funds and what kind of money these people actually have. At one point, about 20-30 motorcycle cops were in formation and ready to rock and roll as soon as someone got out of line. Others walked around looking intimidating with handcuffs and other weapons of mass crowd control hanging down from their pants.
The rest of the day, security and cops and even some undercover people walked around to make sure no one came and bothered us. There were Occupy floaters walking around the rest of the afternoon, but we didn't have any problems where we were. Around the other side of the building, though, 80 protestors got arrested. SO bummed I missed it!
That was really the most exciting thing that happened, as you may imagine. Got to love a good protest! I almost felt like I was back home in DC for a minute. =)
And today was much the same as yesterday, protestors excluded. More exploring this morning (found a better breakfast place, but not much else), set up for work, talked to some people. It rained and we even got a tornado watch up here due to high winds, so we closed up shop about an hour early and headed out. Just one more day and then I'm off again!
I have to be quite honest with you. There are not many places in the world where I feel absolutely uncomfortable, but the New York area is one of those unique places where I just feel completely out of my element! It's just not my favorite place to be. Just one more day! I can make it! =) Please keep me company along the way!
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