This is post number 200 for my blog. Which is appropriate because I have at least 200 things I could talk about right now. Don't worry... I won't. :) But let's just say this is probably going to be a long post.
On Thursday night I packed up my bags and got ready to leave for my trip to the East. We had a red-eye flight out at 11:15. This is my pre-trip picture. My mom never would let me leave looking like this but I fully intended to get some sleep so yes, I went like a bum. But I had all my essentials: sweats, long sleeve t-shirt, vitamin water, blanket, oversized bag. I wore my peacoat because I didn't want to pack/carry two and my shoes and socks definitely did not match. But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. So don't judge me. :)
We landed at 5:30 in New York City. That doesn't seem all that bad except when you realize that 5:30 is actually 3:30 for my body. So early! But it was time to go. It took us forever to find restrooms but we finally did and we changed our clothes and got ready for the day there. Which, for future reference is very possible but not very convenient. Not having a plug accessible for my flat iron meant that my hair was a little goofy all day.
After a train and a subway ride to Penn Station, our first stop was to a luggage storage place for our big bags so we wouldn't have to lug them around for the day. A million thanks to my awesome and super smart sister who is basically the best travel agent ever. She had sent me maps and train schedules and the location of this storage place so that we didn't have to spend our time trying to figure things out.
After that we took the subway up to Central Park and began our day there. It was absolutely beautiful! The fall colors were absolutely gorgeous and the temperature wasn't too cold. I couldn't have asked for a better way to start a morning. It made me miss London a lot. The gardens were my favorite part of London and I felt the empty spot in my heart ache for London more than normal. There is just something so wonderful to be found as you escape from the rush and the noise of the city and find the quiet of trees and water. It reminded me that even if I'm not in the midst of a big city my life can definitely be noisy and go too fast. I need to find a way to get to the calm of my own thoughts here in Provo so I can feel that peace more often.
We started down 5th avenue as we left Central Park and it was all I could do to stop myself from rushing into every other shop. I am not really that much of a shopper but especially when I don't actually need anything I love to look at pretty things. :). We did at least get some fabulous window shopping in.
Our next stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral. Our group in London spent so much time in Cathedrals and so I have a great appreciation for them. St. Patrick's was beautiful. It was amazing to be just inside of 5th avenue and yet have it be so still and peaceful. That is something I very much appreciate about attending our temples (especially Boise, which is right off the freeway). I also loved being there because we just finished our unit on Catholicism in my Religion in the Home class and so I understood so much more than I have in the past. We reached the back of the church to the Lady Chapel right as a special mass was starting for a confirmation class. We were invited to sit in by one of the priests. I needed to attend a religious service for my class - how many people can say they did it at St. Patrick's? It was a really interesting experience and I'm actually glad we were there with a confirmation class because they did a lot of explaining along the way. Something that really stood out to me was that the priest talked about the role the class had to stand as a light to the people around them. This is very similar to what we believe and are taught in our church. We believe that since we have truth we have a responsibility to share that with others around us.
Next stop was Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Center. The ice rink was closed for the day because they were in the process of lowering the Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree with a crane! CRAZY cool!
Next we stopped at the New York Public Library. It was undergoing some renovations so part of the building was covered but it is SUCH a beautiful building. Inside they had an exhibit on the three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It was fascinating and because it was a library exhibit it was base don religious texts. A Gutenberg Bible, ancient Torah scrolls, old Qur'an texts. They had it divided by various themes and then discussed similarities and differences between all of the religions such as prayer, scripture, revelation, etc.... I absolutely love learning about other faiths.
Next we went to the U.N. Building. Greer wanted to stop to see a memorial for Raoul Wallenberg [she's a history major and he's someone she has studied and admires]. We went through security and went into the building. We didn't actually pay to go on the tour partially because we didn't want to spend the money and partially because we still had lots of things to do but we did go through a beautiful exhibit on AIDS and other diseases that the U.N. is trying to help fight in various different countries. It was really moving. Sometimes I think I forget how blessed I am. I take for granted my body, my health. I know I take for granted treatment for healthcare with Dad being a doctor. I expect that my living conditions - clothing, housing, food - will meet certain standards. And I just assume that I will be able to finish my education. I'm glad for things that make me stop and remember to be grateful.
Next we walked back into the city to Times Square. Greer had never traveled to New York City before and while the rest of the city is something to see for sure - there is nothing quite like Times Square. The lights, the people.
This song kept coming to mind... "concrete jungle where dreams are made of.... there's nothing you can't do... these lights will inspire you... now you're in new york..." I really am a country girl at heart and I like the city... especially one like downtown Manhattan... for about two days. But there is something there in the middle of Times Square that just makes you think that maybe you can make it. Maybe your dreams aren't so far off... after all if all of this came true, why not for you?
We ate lunch at Olive Garden in the middle of the square and stopped at the Hershey's store and then went to the Empire State Building. We hadn't done that the last time I was in New York and so I for sure wanted to go up.
Finally, after all of that we picked up our bags and hopped on a train to Princeton. We really hadn't sat for more than the 15 minutes at lunch from 5:30 when we landed until 5:30 when we got on the train. Yeah - we fit all of that into 12 hours. My back was so sore after carrying my bag and sleeping on the plane. And my legs were tired like they were in London but it was all so worth it. I slept for the hour on the train and then we took a taxi from the train station to Princeton where we checked in for the conference, tried to wash some of the filthiness off of us and changed into nice clothes.
Then Greer's aunt and uncle took us to dinner. They were fabulous. George had lived in New York for his whole life and had a fabulous accent and Roberta was so sweet to make sure we had enough to eat and to take care of us. They made me laugh so so much. We were dropped off with classic cheek kisses and then our conference started.
Now I have about a million and a half things that I could say about the conference itself. We had a fabulous keynote speaker on Friday night and a full day on Saturday. There were speakers on friends with benefits (hooking up, hanging out culture) and the benefits of friendship. We talked about the state of the family with current data. We talked about femininity and masculinity. We discussed why the traditional family matters and why same-sex marriage really will have an impact on many things related to traditional family. We had breakout sessions on how to share our messages on campus and a q&a with a panel of experts. I came away feeling motivated and encouraged. Because we talked about so many different things on so many different levels I want to save a full discussion of these for further posts where I can expand and elaborate on my thoughts. [This post is already so long that I doubt if anyone is still reading it.]
One thing I do want to talk about is how many different people I got to interact with. I met 25 year old priests and nuns. I met students from Harvard, Yale. I met a Catholic missionary. I talked with boys studying philosophy, theology, law. I met someone from Australia. I met devout Catholics and members of other Christian groups. I was the first person several people had met from Idaho and I was the first Mormon many of these people had met. What was so wonderful was that at the end of the day no matter how different our practices or specific doctrines were we were all there because we had beliefs in the same things: family, the value of chastity and fidelity and we were all willing to stand up and fight for that.
I also got to spend a lot of time with some BYU alumni. These were the people who started Stand for the Family and worked so hard to put the Symposium together last year. We all crammed into a compact car on the drive home and just laughed together. I have been so blessed to have good people in my life.
This is a good picture of all of the Stand for the Family kids: me, Casey, Greer, Alisa, Nicole and Kendel. (Shirene also was there but she works for Love & Fidelity so she wasn't in the picture.)
On Sunday morning we went to church at one of the Princeton family wards. We caused quite a few heads to turn when we walked in. Imagine six strange 20-something year old girls walking in to your family ward... you'd be surprised too. "Where are you from? Why are you here?" were the questions we answered over and over again. These are girls from the Fidelio Society, the other BYU group that came to the conference. Left to Right: Madeline, me, Greer, Amelia, Nanci.
I went to a brunch for the student fellows after church and then Greer and I went to the train station. We had plenty of time so we decided to just hang out at the station rather than end up waiting in the airport. We spent a couple of hours just talking and reading in the beautiful fall weather. A train, subway, train and plane ride later we were finally back. Greer's parents picked us up and I got home about 1:00 and was asleep around 1:30.
I am pretty tired after all of this. A red-eye, two nights with new ideas and new friends and a late night flight back don't really add up to sleep. I'm sore - my back got pretty messed up. [Luckily I'll be home on Sunday and my chiropractor is my next door neighbor!]. But I have chocolates from Times Square on my desk, a Princeton University waterbottle in my bag and a mind full of new ideas and plans.
Other things of note: I haven't been to the gym in at least a week and I'm not really happy about it. Packages from home make life ever so much better. Especially when they are filled with happy notes. I have a large paper due tomorrow that I am no where near finished with. And I'm not really motivated to stress about it either. Not good. Tomorrow is the midnight premiere of Harry Potter. Be excited. Friday is Kelsey's wedding and Jessica will be here. Saturday Jessica and I will go to Kelsey's reception and then drive home. If I can just make it to there.
