Crazy days

I have never been so hot or so tired in my life. Our days consist of walking everywhere (and luckily the buildings are air conditioned or else we'd die) and being rushed from place to place. The staff is extremely concerned about our safety, which is nice. Not everyone is used to the city environment where yellow means go faster, not slow down. They have us doing a count off to make sure we have everyone with us, but we've definitely forgotten a few people accidentally. There's one person who is in charge of walking us everywhere, and her name is Nija. She's really nice, and I don't blame her for sticking to the rules. I just wish we had a little bit more freedom. We have to be escorted everywhere and have to do everything in a group.

Today we did one of those double decker bus tours which was absolute misery. We sat on the top in the direct sun and it was soooo hot. None of us had sunscreen or sufficient liquid, and those who did bring a bottle of water shared with everyone. A lot of people got sunburns, which is unfortunate. But it was just so hot! We cheered every time we drove into the shade of the taller buildings. We did pass by some cool places, like the huge Trump building and Ground Zero.

Then we walked to Washington Square Park and hung out there for about two hours. It was kind of boring. A lot of us wanted to go back to the dorm rooms but they weren't letting us for some reason. And there were a lot of other teenagers there, I guess they were the ones from other programs at NYU.

For the fireworks we went to the Hudson River around 7 or so to sit and wait for the fireworks to start. It was a lot cooler there because we had a breeze, so the heat was tolerable. We sat there for a very long time. I fell asleep for about an hour! I actually took three naps today. One on the tour bus, one at lunch (I crawled under the table and fell asleep), and then at the Hudson. But once the fireworks started it was really amazing. I took a bunch of pictures and videos of them. My friends and I started playing a game to see if we could name a musical for each new spurt of fireworks. It was like, "Oh! That one is all red! It must be Saigon!" Kind of silly, but it made it fun.

And the subway ride home was CRAZY! It was super packed, an absolute nightmare. We had to get on one subway and then transfer to another one. But we all made it together! I'm very proud that we didn't forget anyone. We joked that we survived the crazy New York subway. It was a definite experience.

So now we're back in the dorms, and I'm absolutely pooped. A quick shower and then I'm hitting the sheets. I've gotten so fed up with the sheets they gave us, they keep coming off and they're super stiff. Solution? I took them off. The mattress is covered anyway with some kind of waterproof material so that's good enough for me. It's weird though,  I guess the AC runs so much during the night that I actually wake up cold. It's a nice change from being super hot and having sweat dripping down my back all day...

Until next time!