New York City, here we come!
Thursday started out as an intense day. Somehow with all of the crazy weather I had managed to set my alarm clock wrong and woke up Thursday morning at the time I was supposed to leave the house to go catch the train. Needless to say I ran out the door and almost missed my train to New York! Thank God for the fact that I was already packed and ready to go and that I didn’t have to drive and park at the train station. K was a lifesaver and just dropped me off.
Once on the train I ran into everyone on the committee who was traveling from DC and Baltimore to NYC to attend this meeting. It was funny to see 4 of my colleagues on the train. We all got off together and walked our frozen bodies over to the meeting, which, thankfully was only a few blocks from the train station.
The meeting was long and intense. The problem with long, intense meetings like that is that a lot that sometimes the things that are said are based on personality. Those with a strong personality or those who are more extroverted dominate the conversation. If you want to take more time to think about your response, forget it. You can’t get a word in edge wise. Since I tend to be the latter, the meeting got me all riled up because I had to yell and jump into the conversation more than I would have done in normal discussion. I was tense and tired by the time the whole thing was done. We all came to the consensus afterward that we’re going to be raising hands from now on in order to have more orderly discussion. (Thank God!)
After the meeting I had to figure out how to get from there to the hotel, where we (my friend L and I) were staying. I only had a slight idea how to get from Manhattan to Queens. I knew that if I could find the subway, I should be able to get within ½ mile of the hotel and then walk. I got on the 1, then the 7 and viola, I was in Queens. The only thing is that I didn’t know exactly which stop I was supposed to get off, so I ended up riding the 7 all the way to the end and then taking it back again…the scenic route of Queens via the #7 subway….hmmmm!
One thing that struck me again about NY is just how diverse it is! Sometimes when you’re just there for a short period of time doing touristy things it’s easy to miss the rich cultural heritage of the city. The subway was filled with people from every corner of the earth. It was refreshing and I realized that NYC is really a city after my own heart. Although it’s crowded, noisy, bustling with life and I wouldn’t want to live around so many people all of the time, it’s a joy to explore. The city that never sleeps…I now have a better understanding of what that looks like.
Once on the train I ran into everyone on the committee who was traveling from DC and Baltimore to NYC to attend this meeting. It was funny to see 4 of my colleagues on the train. We all got off together and walked our frozen bodies over to the meeting, which, thankfully was only a few blocks from the train station.
The meeting was long and intense. The problem with long, intense meetings like that is that a lot that sometimes the things that are said are based on personality. Those with a strong personality or those who are more extroverted dominate the conversation. If you want to take more time to think about your response, forget it. You can’t get a word in edge wise. Since I tend to be the latter, the meeting got me all riled up because I had to yell and jump into the conversation more than I would have done in normal discussion. I was tense and tired by the time the whole thing was done. We all came to the consensus afterward that we’re going to be raising hands from now on in order to have more orderly discussion. (Thank God!)
After the meeting I had to figure out how to get from there to the hotel, where we (my friend L and I) were staying. I only had a slight idea how to get from Manhattan to Queens. I knew that if I could find the subway, I should be able to get within ½ mile of the hotel and then walk. I got on the 1, then the 7 and viola, I was in Queens. The only thing is that I didn’t know exactly which stop I was supposed to get off, so I ended up riding the 7 all the way to the end and then taking it back again…the scenic route of Queens via the #7 subway….hmmmm!
One thing that struck me again about NY is just how diverse it is! Sometimes when you’re just there for a short period of time doing touristy things it’s easy to miss the rich cultural heritage of the city. The subway was filled with people from every corner of the earth. It was refreshing and I realized that NYC is really a city after my own heart. Although it’s crowded, noisy, bustling with life and I wouldn’t want to live around so many people all of the time, it’s a joy to explore. The city that never sleeps…I now have a better understanding of what that looks like.
posted by macbosnia @ 1:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home