Had a blast in NYC this weekend. Though the city was still recovering from Thursday’s blackout, I took a risk and stood outside the South Norwalk train station after work on Friday hoping to catch a train into the city. One hour later, I saw my first train. Lucky for me, it was heading my way.
Two hours later I made it to Grand Central Station (it usually takes only one hour). There I met up with Guyana Peace Corps volunteers Jan Bracket, Tammy Cole, and Jessica Shannon for a weekend reunion. Jan and Jess are still serving; Tammy has been back in the US (Texas) for about nine months. To top off the reunion, we also spoke with Emily Sutherland on the phone, who was unable to make it for she was still in DC taking care of Peace Corps things.
It was so great to see these three. I expected to spend the entire weekend catching up on Guyana stories. Little did I know we’d be re-living many of them.
Though much of the power had been restored, a good deal of the city was still crippled. Friday evening, the subway was still not running. Many restaurants were closed. And worst of all, the hotel had NO hot water. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that the hot water tanks cranked back up. Sure, we were staying in a four-star hotel and we weren’t bathing out of buckets, but it was still a big, cold ordeal none the less.
On Saturday, the four of us walked to Times Square to look for theater tickets for that evening. We ended up scoring four tickets to Billy Joel’s “Moving Out.” Jumping ahead, the girls really liked the dancing and I thought the band did a good job.
Saturday afternoon we headed down to the site of the World Trade Center. For the most part, it looked like a huge construction site. But there were plenty of memorials and an area to learn about what is going to be built in its place.
On Sunday, we headed to the MET to see some art. We spent about three hours there before I had to head home, Jess had to meet a friend, and Tammy and Jan went to meet up with one of their host Guyana host moms who happened to also be in the city.
It was great catching up with the three of them, hear new stories about current volunteers, and remember the three months that 21 of us had together when we met in Guyana one year ago.