Central Park is for Lovers!

OK not really, I just wanted you to start reading :)

 

 I spent Saturday night in Secaucus, NJ.   I liked the location.  There was a bus stop right across the street from my hotel and it was only a 10-minute bus ride into NYC.  I checked out of my hotel on Sunday morning and took the bus into the city.

I walked from the Bus Station to my friend's hotel.  It was a little farther than I anticipated and did not leave myself a lot of time to get from the station to the hotel before I was supposed to meet Liz to go to church, so I was rushing.  (I did stop to take this picture of the Chrysler Building though.)

I made it to the hotel.  Although I rushed to get there on time, we ended up waiting about 20 minutes for some other people to get ready to come to church with us.

I was a little frustrated at this point, for more reasons than one.  But thankfully we made it to church only about 2 minutes late.  

This is where we went to church! (Obviously not the part of the temple:)  Sacrament meeting was amazing! And the singing group Vocal Point from BYU was visiting and they sang the musical number and it was pure awesomeness!

After church, we headed to Times Square to meet some more of the dancing group.  Liz and I waiting for the subway.

Tara, Liz and I on the subway to Times Square.  (Tara is a dancer from Liz's school that was at church with us)

We made it to Times Square.  It was my second time there on this trip and I must say it is different seeing it in the sunshine than it is in the rain.  It's a pretty cool place!  We ate lunch here and then I parted ways with Liz and Karyn and their group.  It was good to see them, although I did not get to spend a lot of time with them.

And I might have stopped at the Hershey Store and bought some chocolate after I parted ways with them :)

Since I ended up not spending the day with Liz and Karyn as I thought I would, I decided to walk from Times Square to Central Park. It was a beautiful day!  The sun was shining and the temperature was cool.

I liked the contrast of the tall new glass building next to the short old brick buildings. 

Here are the brick buildings up close with their fire escapes and shops below!

This is Columbus Circle!

I ran into the NYC Ballet and Opera House and I think this was part of it.  I liked the architecture of this building.  I went inside this building because I thought it was cool and there was a museum in there, but it was closed on Sundays.  It's OK though.  I just kept on walking! 

I saw the temple again. I didn't really have time to take pictures of the temple before, so I was happy to see it again :)  Even though I had seen pictures of the temple before, I didn't realize how big it really was.  I mean it's not huge, but it's bigger than I thought.

I went to Central Park.  Here it is (at least part of it)!  I loved this place! It's so beautiful! I loved seeing the big green field with the cityscape in the background.

There were so many people there enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon!

More Central Park scenery!

Isn't it beautiful?!

I liked this picture with the twin buildings in the background!

Look at those awesome trees over the trail!

On the trail of awesome trees :)

Families and friends basking in the sunlight!

As I was walking on the trail of awesome trees, I stopped and listened to this little musical group play!
They were pretty good!  I enjoyed it!

 

 Some more beautiful scenery in Central Park!

After Central Park, It was time for me to head back to catch my bus to D.C.  I walked towards Penn Station, where my bus was going to be. I had a few detours on my way to the bus.  I stopped at  a delicious cupcake place called Crumbs (recommended by Heather).  I got dinner at Subway and I went through Times Square again.

Although things did not turn out the way I expected on Sunday, it was a good day!  I enjoyed the company of my friends, went to church, walked a lot, enjoyed some of God's beautiful creations!  

We Built This City on Walk and Stroll!

 I went to NYC this weekend! It was cloudy, rainy and windy on Saturday, but that just adds more to the adventure.  Right? Of course right!   In spite all of the rain and wind, the streets were still crowded, especially around Times Square.

 Times Square!

 This picture turned out better than I thought it had.  It has a screen, the bleachers, and a Daniel Radcliffe poster in the background on Times Square.

 Instead of taking the subway from the Port Authority Bus Station to Hunter College (where Liz and Karyn, my old roommates from Taiwan, were performing their modern dance concert), I walked.  I basically just wandered in the direction I needed to go.  I ran into Radio City Music Hall.

 Sorry it's a little blurry.  (I felt a little bit self conscious taking self-portraits in NYC among so many people, so I didn't try to take as many to get a good picture)

 Then I saw the Rockefeller Plaza with the melted ice-skating rink.

 I ran into this awesome church on my way to the school!

 Isn't it beautiful?!   

 Look at the detail!

 

Here's FAO Schwarz! I didn't go inside, but look at the guard! At first when I saw this picture, after I took it, I thought he was laughing. When I looked again, I think he was yelling.

 This was just past FAO Schwarz.  Trump Tower is tall!

 Notice the awesome metal flowers on the median in the middle of the road.  They had them all along this road.  I especially liked them in front of this church!

 I was trying to capture how hard it was raining, but you can't really tell from the picture.

Under my pink umbrella!

I made it to Hunter College where the performance took place.  As I was waiting for the doors to open up, I saw Karyn and Liz come in.  I spoke with them briefly before they had to go and get ready for the show. 

There were a bunch of schools performing modern dance pieces by Alwin Nikolais.  I actually really enjoyed it! All of the performances were very unique.  It was different from anything I've ever seen before.

After the performances, I headed toward the metro in the wrong direction and a kind older man, with a strong European accent, pointed me in the right direction.  At this point it was 11:00 PM.  I was a little nervous about riding the metro in NYC that late at night by myself, but it ended up being all right.  There were a lot more people on the train than I thought there would be, which made me feel better.   

Overall I had a pleasant first day in NYC.  I was exhausted at the end of the day, but it was a good day!

Journal Writing!

 

I like to write. It's a way for me to vent. It's a way for me to express and sort out my feelings. It's a way for me to remember spiritual experiences.  It's a way to organize my thoughts.  It's a way to remember my travels and other events and memories.   

Recently I was at Mom and Dad's house cleaning out my room when I came upon some of my old journals.  I decided I would take a gander and read some of the entries from my really old ones.  I had some good laughs.  It's funny seeing the thought processes I had when I was ten. 

Right now I actually have three journals.   I have my gratitude journal which I write in every day.  I have my spiritual journal, which I write in almost every day.  And I have my regular journal, which I write in at least every other week.   

This entry really made me laugh.  Here's a quote from my journal on May 31, 1994 when we lived in Russia: "Matt is going to go with the Matthews when he goes back. About two weeks before we go.  I don't know why he is going with the Matthews.  I think Matt is kind of weird.  I guess Matt wants to go back earlier than Mom, Dad, Tim and me.  So that when we get there he can show off to me that he went back earlier. By the way we are in Russia and we are going to Utah this summer."

Here's the end of another entry from May 3, 1994: "There was a bus station near the metro. Which went to our house.  So we got on the bus and we made it home and Kristina made it to the bathroom."

Here's an entry from March 26, 1994: "A couple of days ago Peter was pulling up his sock and then he ripped it while he was pulling it up.  Now Peter thinks it is his Lucky Sock." 

Here's one from November 25, 1994: "My dad had to go on a business trip and he asked me and Heather if we wanted to go.  We said Yes of course.  We flew from Moscow to Frankfurt from Frankfurt to Budapest.  Here we are at the Novotel in Hungary.  While we are on our trip we are going to Paris, France, Prague and Frankfurt, Germany. I hope this trip is fun."

December 1992 in Minnesota: "I was in a play on December 12, 1992.  It was a Christmas play.  It was fun to be in the play.  My bus driver was there I was inberest.  My sister, My mom and brothers were there too."

Well I think that's all I'll write for now.  I hope you enjoyed a few journal entries of a ten year old.  I kind of enjoyed this trip down memory lane.  I might have to do some more journal entry posts :)

Learning From the Master

So my sister, Lara, wrote here about how I burp a lot.  Being a professional burper didn't just come naturally, I took lessons from the best... my sister, Kristina.  I had some intensive two-week training when I first got back from Taiwan in January.  We worked from sunrise to sunset, where I watched and listened as she burped at different times of the day. 

After a week of observation, I started the practice of burping. Burping my ABC's and singing some songs in burps was hard. I cried and yelled and burped a lot to show my frustration. I was fired a few times from my job.  But at the end of the two-week boot camp  training, I was officially declared an amateur professional burper.  Thank you, K, for teaching me the art of burping and my new livelihood.