New York Journal Part 3 - Home Alone, Apartments and WTC

 I think I might have mixed up my days so I wrote this according to the places even though it wasn't on the same day this events happened. Please comment if there is mis-types or wrong defenitions. I wasn't pretty sure anyways but I wrote it down. So here it is.

        4th avenue like a dream, i wouldn't even dare peek and look at those clothes displayed on the windows of those  high classed branded shops, guess, luois vuitton and such. It feels like touching gold. The designs around the avenues were incredible, I love the "love" statues settled on the streets; the thinker in the middle of the fountains. So many workers busy  with their busy schedules and smart phones. I wish I could work here one day.

         So my group headed for the Rockefeller building, another dream coming true for a true home alone lost in new York fan, I made them go see. (There's a particular reason for that, all my kid life I have been exposed with awesome movies and the one that was popular in those days and it was Home Alone. Dad would record some movies on the tape for us to watch including Home Alone, Baby's day out, Dunston and such enough and appropriate for kids to watch. But my all time favorite was Home Alone (you would even catch my siblings and mouth every scene as we know it by heart). )My favorite was and is till today is the scene where kevin was lost and praying to the big christmas tree asking for him to get back home and regretting all the decisions he made and finally meeting his mom right in the middle of the iced angels. I wish  it was christmas, i totally wanted to see the big christmas tree and the pond filled with ice and angels dancing.

I got my wish but it was June, the wind was warm and i was in a tee. Taking pictures here and there, at the statue of Rockeffeler and the beautiful angels, it was purely a wish that came true I sat taking every moment in to remember what happened so I could tell this and make my siblings jealous, that I could go and see it in person, to feel what it was like "lost in NY".

         Night was getting to us soon but not the craving to keep walking around this big city and see everything in it.  My liasson had the group split in girls and guys, because we had to stay in different apartments and hotel. So we went to an apartment of a friend of my liasson, and it was filled with art exhibition along the hallway, more like an art studio (a little description: it was like apartment in movies; with brick walls unpainted, dim lighting, empty. wooden floor) with bed bunked in corners of the room, unfinished paintings (as I recall the guy is a professor in one of the universities there) and a kitchen bar on the left, with windows across it outlooking the pavements below, straight to the heart of the city where people walking, bistroes, cafes, and shops just barely full with customers.

         The girls (including myself) wanted so much to be in this apartment but the owner was a man. so we had to stay in a motel that was hidden for the wondering eye to see. it was much like a mini apartment but built for tourists like myself.  There were local and foreign tourist walking about in that small apartment. I loved (the view of) my windows, i got the one looking out the alleys of New York. it was not as creepy as i thought it would be, it was bright and neatly placed. There was even a garden behind of the buildings, a basketball court was there too. 

 It didn't feel like New York at all. A regulation from the mayor to make all alleys safe was made and one way was to make a house in the middle of the city, that peered through skyscrapers; a mini neighbourhood in the alley. I even saw  some kids still out (it was at least 9 o'clock at the time) and sitting by their porch talking the hours away. so no more gangsters and robbers in the alleys of New York it was peace. really cool idea for Jakarta i would say. (you probably have guessed where I come from now)

           The next morning was hot, we woke up a tad bit too late to go and catch the ferry to staten island. so we moved the plan down to the afternoon. We walked from the apartment down to the subway to get to the monuments of the world trade centre which was at Downtown manhattan (as I recall, correct me if I am wrong). We  passed the cathedral just two blocks away as we got out of the subway from the monument or was the World Trade Centre.

             The Cathedral stood tall but its former color wasn't there anymore, it was filled with black back  from back on the D-day (well a part of it). if you could recall the day of the disaster struck NY, where terrorists as they claimed to be muslims crashed three airplanes unto the two former tallest buildings in the world. Walking passed it already gave me a story of what happened here 5 years ago. We walked passed the hilton hotel, i still wonder though was it there when the accident happened? Standing, watching as the two buildings collapsed with bodies around them? Not trying to sound freaky but the aura as i would say was filled with memories of pain as I walked and watched where the two towers used to stand with fences and a gigantic hole, i think was the basement filled with roses and posters of grieve from families of lost loved ones. The eiry feeling (because everyone there was either weeping quietly or was in silence and so were we) crept but also the feeling of sadness. You could still feel like you were there when it happened the screams the cries of lost ones, the ambulance and the firetrucks trying to get a hold of the situation. Yes it felt real. as if the spirits of the lost ones are still trying to get justice as if God trying to give some kind of justice a part of the steel henges was left there forming a cross as if telling us there is still hope somewhere.

           We walked a bit more to go see the monument of the WTC, a giant golden or maybe bronze ball in front a kind of torch with fire burning says " for the spirit of the lost loved ones"( I don't think it literally said that but close). That's was all it said and the six of us walked in silence since we walked past the cathedral. It was quite amazing for us these foreigns to feel the loss of people we didn't know and fall in utter silence as we walked through the park maybe lost in thought.

         We got into the center of the park and there were street performers, stunt people actually. They were dressed in reds consisting of 7 people; 2 women and others all men. They had the boombox filling the place with music.They were tourists or travelers when they introduced themselves spread across the globe, some from france, brazil, Japan and also from the states as well that joined in a group maybe to raise money for them to travel. they didnt feel out of place, yes this was the city of dreams, people and things  (they introduced themselves this is why I knew where they came from) becoming one. It was the tourist destination for every person to come. the stunt the performers were a mere jumping over 5 people bent over, the brazilian man did a capoeira dance before starting to jump. He made it in all the 3 tries taking all the people watching’s breath away. Not far from the performance was springs that comes out the ground, I saw little boys running back and forth trying not to get wet, i couldn't resist not to take a picture and it was pretty yet blurry because of the lack of me being an amature photographer at that age. But the happiness of those kids took away the eiry feeling from today and made it somehow nice to be thankful for what is still breathing and alive today.

Dedicated to the victims and family of the 911 incident, be strong.

Peekz