2014 is going to be a big year of travelling for me! I'll be spending a weekend in Atlanta later this month; most likely popping up to Burlington, Vermont where my sister goes to school during my Spring Break; going on a cruise in the Bahamas or Caribbean this summer; and heading to Dublin, Bath and London, England, and Paris and Lyon, France in the Fall. But to kick everything off, I recently spent some time in New York City and Washington, DC!
My university has something called Winter Term in which students take one class during the month of January. Classes on campus meet 3 hours per day, 5 days per week, but there are also a bunch of classes that travel. Most travel abroad for the month, but there are also some domestic ones that travel in the USA too. My class studied the differences between Wealth and Poverty, focusing especially on New York and DC. I'd been to New York five times before but was so excited to visit again! I mean, it's New York--you can't possibly get tired of visiting New York! I was also so excited for DC because I had only been there once before when I was in middle school, so I did not remember it too well. Rather than go into lots of detail about the two cities, here are some pictures so you can see how great of a time I had!
New York City:
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| the amazing Times Square |
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| As part of the class, we took a tour of Wall Street. Here is where all the magic happens—the New York Stock Exchange |
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| This is the Freedom Tower which is part of the 9/11 Memorial. Last time I was in New York, they were finishing construction on this, so it was so cool to see the completed tower! |
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| Also as part of the 9/11 Memorial, there are huge pools of water where the two towers used to be. Around the pools are the names of all of the people who died on September 11th. I think the monument was such a great way to honour all of the people who lost their lives that day. |
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| exploring New York at night. That's the Chrysler Building in the back! |
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| One night, the 11 of us in the class decided to check out Chinatown for dinner. We walked down Canal Street and decided on a tiny little hole in the wall restaurant. The food was amazing and so, so cheap! |
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| After we ate our dinner, I got this fortune cookie and thought it was pretty funny :) |
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| This is the view from the NYU student centre overlooking Washington Square Park. So beautiful! |
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| One night, the class went to see the broadway show "Newsies" which was so good! And a guy who graduated from our university two years ago was in the show, so we met him afterwards which was awesome! |
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| Our class spent two days meeting with people at the United Nations. Here we are standing outside under some of the many world flags that line the street outside of the UN! |
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| This is a piece of the Berlin Wall that is at the United Nations. |
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| We also decided to go to the huge Toys R Us in Times Square! My favourite part—the enormous lego structure of the Statue of Liberty! |
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| And here's one more picture of Times Square because it's just so amazing looking :) |
Washington, D.C.:
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| some really cool street art |
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| the Washington Monument |
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| the class posing near the Jefferson Memorial |
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| the Jefferson Memorial |
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| the World War II Memorial |
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| representing my state in the World War II Memorial |
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| We had a free afternoon to explore and decided to check out the Smithsonian Natural History Museum! |
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| T-rex! |
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| a cougar on the prowl |
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| the Hope Diamond |
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| the Capital Building! On our third day in DC, we were supposed to come to the Capital to lobby representatives from North Carolina. But unfortunately DC was hit by some snow, the entire city shut down, and we were forced to head back to North Carolina a day early. |
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| We were lucky enough to be in DC for Martin Luther King Day and went to the MLK Monument! |
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| the White House! I was so excited to see the White House from this angle. When I had been in DC before, we only saw the other side of the White House (which is below). But this was the exciting side that you always see in movies! |
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| selfie at the White House! Hey Obama :) |
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| And lastly, here is the White House from the other side |
I had such a great experience in both New York City and Washington, DC revisiting spots that I love and getting to explore and see so many new places too!
Now it's time to start planning for my second adventure of 2014... Atlanta two weekends from now!
xo Christie
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