thoughts from places blog.

since moving to new york in january, i can't say i've done anything truly touristy. but when family members ask if they can come in and visit me and "see new york" i won't ever say no. because seeing family is nice, but it also means that they will fill me with food, and probably spending cash. so we began our trip in my dorm. i don't often understand anyone who wants to tour my dorm, because you can see the entire dorm from almost any standing point in the dorm. after eating lunch, we headed to the 4 train, no 5, no 4. we had a little trouble navigating with the many construction sites in subway stations at the moment. i love riding the subway. i love the dirty floors. i love the germy metal poles. i love sitting, watching people. we got off on fulton st. a quick caffine stop and off to-- to-- well, we didn't have much of a plan. we wanted to see ground zero, but there isn't much to see. in fact, what lies in ground zero is construction. lots and lots of construction. i wanted to know where the towers once stood. no one really seemed to know exactly. and by no one, i mean no one in my family. the construction site is nothing to oo and ahh at, the whole point of seeing ground zero is remembering. remembering that two towers once stood and defined the new york city skyline. remembering that on september 11, 2001 two planes were flown into those towers. remembering that people -- lots of people-- died by simply going to work that day. remembering that in that one day, the world changed from one anxious little bubble, to the scariest thing i've ever heard of.

before we went to the overlook at ground zero, we stopped at st. paul's church. a very small church. a church that has some of the oldest graves in america. george washington used to attend services there. to think that a small church with such old and frankly crumbly looking graves still stands while two very powerful buildings filled with thousands of people fell. st. paul's church was a site of rest for firefighters and volunteers who were working through the rubble of those fallen building. they slept on benches and child size cots. in a church that was plastered with notes of encouragement from children all over the country. but now, what we have are memorials. odes to the fallen. it's very interesting that the phrase always attached to 9/11 is "never forget" because i do believe some people have forgotten. it's good that there are these odes, piles of teddy bears sent, a giant banner from students in oklahoma, patches from every fire dept in the country. i remember.