As David peered out of the window amazed as the buildings grew bigger and the ants became people. An image caught my eye, that of a graveyard increasing in size until the gravestones filled the entire view out the airplane’s window.
I was nervous with anticipation. wonder what would happen. my mind was filled with scenes from movies and television shows depicting New York as a sewer of crime and filth. The plane landed and we went to retrieve our bags. Strangely enough they had arrived before the plane had. We gather them and walked over to the Transit desk and reserved a spot with the shuttle. The van driver arrived 30mins later and motioned for us to come with him. This was our first glimpse of a New York citizen. He was impatient and rude to everyone except the ones under his care. He sped from airline to airline gathering people until the van was full, then rushed to Manhattan honking and swirving between lanes. Later I mapped out where he had went and realized we had been given a quick tour of the island. He had driven through the garment district, central park, down broadway, along the fdr, and through many of the various side streets. 2 hours later we arrived at our hotel, Chelsea Inn.
We were informed upon our arrival that power was lost to the bathroom we shared with another room. It was quite interesting since the bathroom had no windows. Our room was facing the street in front of the inn, west 17th street. The energy flowing outside the window was intense. The street never rested, if taxis, delivery vans, and police cars were not racing down it, garbage trucks and ambulances were. I realized quickly that this was how the city ran, it never rested. 3 am in the morning only changed the crowd of people walking around outside, business men in the daytime and homeless at night, with college kids all the time.
We walked around most of the night trying to map out our surroundings. I noticed quickly how organized each neighborhood was. One could live only in the few surrounding blocks of their home with little need to go any further away. An example of this was the two Barnes and Nobles on opposite sides of Washington Square. These two buildings were merely 5 blocks from each other, but somehow could manage enough business to remain open. Mcdonald’s were nearly on every street corner. Drug stores every other.
We were exhausted when we finally crashed into our small beds. The window a/c unit purred, but couldnt drown out the noise from the street. I slept with the window shades open. Watching the headlight reflections on the ceiling and the activity through the windows of the neighboring buildings.