The City Never Sleeps

On Saturdays, Summer Discovery hires charter buses to bring us to other states. The first, today, was New York! We split into six bus groups and drove for about two hours to Columbia University for those who have not been able to see it. A lot of people already had, though, so we were allowed to wander the area and explore. Audrey and I found ourselves not knowing what to do, so even though we already ate, we went with some RCs to Tom's Restaurant, which is famous for being on Seinfeld. We met two girls from around the area there and hung out with them until we met up again to go to the Times Square area.

We explored around Times Square for about half and hour and then met up at one of the many Starbucks in New York. A couple days ago, Audrey and I signed up to do "Top of the Rock" while in New York, not knowing what it was. Turned out, it meant going up seventy floors of the Rockefeller building to see an awesome view of all of Manhattan! There was about fifteen of us going to see it. I was amazed at how huge the city is; the buildings never seem to stop. We got some nice pictures, then left and got some pretzels and ice cream. 

We wandered around again for a while and then found ourselves at H&M, which was having a huge sale! I bought a lot of stuff but didn't end up having to spend that much. I'm happy with all my purchases! It was a lot of fun. Then we looked around at some souvenir shops and tried to find some air conditioning until it was time to get back on our buses. Luckily, they were air conditioned. While on the bus, a girl named Sophia was giving henna tattoos to anyone who wanted them. She says she loves to do henna because while she does the tattoo, she gets to have a one on one conversation with the person, which I admire. We got to know each other and she is pretty cool! We arrived back at UPENN about two hours later.

When we got back, a few of my friends and I went to Hummus Grill, which my RC recommended to us. It was really good and the workers there were super friendly. We walked back to the dorm and joined a big group of people playing Mafia in one of the many lounges. Overall, I had a great day today and got to know a lot of new people!