"Today" has been exhausting so far, physically and emotionally. I woke up this morning (or yesterday?) about 9am in Bayonne, NJ to go for a walk. I walked up an down the peninsula , through some parks, by the water and the many quaint homes and people. Then, Mickey's mother took me to see the Tear of Grief Memorial, which was pretty neat in and of itself, but the most interesting part was when she looked out over the water (towards ny) and pointed and said something along the lines of , 'the towers used to be somewhere over there, but I can't remember exactly where anymore. how sad.'
I am sad to say that it was the first time since September 11, 2001, that the tragedy actually moved me. I actually began to hold my breath a little as she later pointed to this man walking down the street in their neighborhood with his two children and told me that he had worked in one of the towers and had escaped in time. I suppose that because I was so young and I had not known anyone who had died that day that the whole thing just went over my head. The only thing I had ever felt about that day was anger. Anger because I felt that my government had used it as an excuse to begin an unnecessary war--It only makes me more upset now to understand at whose expense.
We then had lunch at a really adorable cafe where I had an avocado wrap and then we returned to their house for me to re-pack and get on the Light Rail. So, I expected the transit to the airport from Jersey to be long, but damn... I got on the light rail but accidentally got on an express version that didn't stop at the stop I needed, so I had to hop onto another. When I got to my destination at Hoboken I got on the PATH train, which was packed so I had to wait for the 2nd one. I took that to 33rd in Manhattan, hauled my thousand pounds of luggage up the 3 flights of stairs to the street, walked a couple of blocks to Penn Station and hopped onto a train that should have taken me to JFK, except it stopped underground, in between stops, for some kind of emergency track repair that took 45 minutes!! So, needless to say, I was running hella late at this point. So at the next stop I just got off and hailed a cab to the airport only to find out that my flight had been delayed 2 hours and I had just spent nearly $50 on a taxi ride.
While I was waiting to board I ended up chatting with this nice Iranian/Iraqi/American man about his experiences all over the Middle East while working for the government. It was exactly at this moment that I finally felt scared (I mean, I had been worried and nervous for a while, but this was different). So, I took my terror to the ladies' room and cried it out and ate my feelings in the form of a huge slice of NY style pizza. All better. Finally, I boarded my flight to London and got here just fine, no puking or anything, but unfortunately I could not sleep (but I did play sweet Japanese video games!). So, at this point I have no idea how long I have been awake because of all of the time changes, but I am sitting in the London airport (7 hour layover) awaiting my flight to Sanaa, dreadfully tired. Hopefully I can sleep for 24 hours when I get there.
I miss you all!
Almost to Sana'a!
(I'll post pictures from my walk and the Memorial when I get to Yemen)
I am sad to say that it was the first time since September 11, 2001, that the tragedy actually moved me. I actually began to hold my breath a little as she later pointed to this man walking down the street in their neighborhood with his two children and told me that he had worked in one of the towers and had escaped in time. I suppose that because I was so young and I had not known anyone who had died that day that the whole thing just went over my head. The only thing I had ever felt about that day was anger. Anger because I felt that my government had used it as an excuse to begin an unnecessary war--It only makes me more upset now to understand at whose expense.
We then had lunch at a really adorable cafe where I had an avocado wrap and then we returned to their house for me to re-pack and get on the Light Rail. So, I expected the transit to the airport from Jersey to be long, but damn... I got on the light rail but accidentally got on an express version that didn't stop at the stop I needed, so I had to hop onto another. When I got to my destination at Hoboken I got on the PATH train, which was packed so I had to wait for the 2nd one. I took that to 33rd in Manhattan, hauled my thousand pounds of luggage up the 3 flights of stairs to the street, walked a couple of blocks to Penn Station and hopped onto a train that should have taken me to JFK, except it stopped underground, in between stops, for some kind of emergency track repair that took 45 minutes!! So, needless to say, I was running hella late at this point. So at the next stop I just got off and hailed a cab to the airport only to find out that my flight had been delayed 2 hours and I had just spent nearly $50 on a taxi ride.
While I was waiting to board I ended up chatting with this nice Iranian/Iraqi/American man about his experiences all over the Middle East while working for the government. It was exactly at this moment that I finally felt scared (I mean, I had been worried and nervous for a while, but this was different). So, I took my terror to the ladies' room and cried it out and ate my feelings in the form of a huge slice of NY style pizza. All better. Finally, I boarded my flight to London and got here just fine, no puking or anything, but unfortunately I could not sleep (but I did play sweet Japanese video games!). So, at this point I have no idea how long I have been awake because of all of the time changes, but I am sitting in the London airport (7 hour layover) awaiting my flight to Sanaa, dreadfully tired. Hopefully I can sleep for 24 hours when I get there.
I miss you all!
Almost to Sana'a!
(I'll post pictures from my walk and the Memorial when I get to Yemen)
