My day in NYC

Harvard Medical School's Social Committee arranged a bus to New York City. We met at the school at 6am and we were in New York by 10am. Lots of movies and songs about New York floated through my head as I wandered the streets of this larger-than-life city.

" I recall / Central Park in fall." Actually, I guess it's not fall anymore, but Central Park still looked great. I kept looking for the building from Ghostbusters, which I believe faces the Park, but I didn't see it.

I'm not sure how romantic the Central Park carriage rides are with the drivers chatting on their cell phones...

I was tempted to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, but I didn't. And there would have been a very cute picture of me in front of the Radio City tree, but each try by a stranger on the street came out unfocused.

Here's a small holiday-themed shop window. Many department stores really go all-out with their holiday window displays, many of which you can see on youtube. They're very elaborate; it was a little like being at Disneyland. And the holiday shoppers were out this weekend in force. Good thing I don't get claustrophobic.

Lots of guys stand on the street, handing out fliers and selling tickets to shows. The picture above of Time Square includes people waiting in line for tickets.
It was great to see the city decorated for the holidays.
Aside from all of those fours looking cool, I thought this was a nice representation of the temperature. It was clear most of the day. I've gotten to the point that temperatures in the 40s don't bother me much. I feel that I have the gear, so I haven't been very cold, unless it's been in the 30s. All those people who didn't think I could make it through a real winter have to keep waiting.
Maybe it's because New York City doesn't do anything halfway, but even their Salvation Army bell ringers are cool. In San Diego, it's easy in the winter to see folks ringing the bell by the Salvation Army donation bucket. In NYC, the Salvation Army folks sing or play instruments, and they're really good. Except for a couple of young women, who must have done it out of the kindness of their hearts, but were terrible singers (they were as bad as I am). I walked more quickly down their block; ouch. I know I have a bad singing voice, so although I enjoy singing, I now know I should never do it for more than a few lines, and never in front of crowds. I feel guilty for all of the karaoke audiences I tortured when I was on cruise ships. My logic was that since I was the hostess, I should fill in the gaps when no one wanted to sing. I now realize how mistaken I was.