New York City Subway

to school. The groggy morning fog coated the buildings like a blanket and it kept the day feeling young and crisp. I walked down the steps of the subway and my train was pulled up, as if it was waiting for me. I hopped in, found a seat, and everything was perfect. The day couldn't get any better. More people had invaded the city when I exited the subway station. I struggled to make my way through the crowd but finally, I had made it through the chaos. When I turned the corner, I was startled…

“Welcome to New York,” was all it took for me to wake me from my four hour and a half nap. I readjusted in my seat to look out the large window that my head had just been resting only to observe grimy white subway tiles and cracked gray concrete. Quickly, I realized that we were driving through the Lincoln Tunnel that connects New Jersey to New York City. The small, hazy, yellow lights that filled the tunnel bounced off the red velour bus seats, creating strange patterns; I held my breathe,…

Jonathan Timothy Su Professor Nina d’Alessandro Writing 1, Sect. 103 22 September 2014 Braving Bridges “Yet I had come here […] to bridge the things here to things there, to rewrite the present so as not to write off the past.” — André Aciman, Shadow Cities Bridges are structures connecting two separate entities, sometimes extending over vast abysses of things unknown: ravines and obstacles that often frighten the traveler. They provide the crosser with the thought of safety, connecting the…

movement of customs and ideas from one place to another, technological discoveries and invention, introduction of new ideas and perspectives, and environment. Among them, environment greatly affects culture change. In Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “The Power of Context”, Gladwell suggests his theory that environment and surroundings affect people’s behavior by giving an example of New York City crime that happened in 1980’s, Broken Window theory, Law of the…

century, an immigration processing office, a detainment camp during WWII as well as a training facility, as well as a museum. Did you know, Ellis Isle was originally only 3.3 acres, but was filled with dirt and stone from the excavation of the New York City subways to make it a total area of 27.5 acres to house the immigration station. The immigration processing station first opened in 1892 and processed almost 450,000 immigrants in its first year. But then tragedy struck on June 15, 1897, as a…

As the New York City Official guide, states on their website this is a “science museum with dinosaur fossils, exhibitions chronicling virtually all known animal and human history and, yes, some eye-popping IMAX movie action” with 5 million of visitors each year. For this reason, this museum is the second from the top 5 museums visited in New York. While I was visiting the museum I noticed people from all over the world as I could hear different languages like Mandarin, French, Spanish, German…

in a small city in southeastern China, and lived in my grandparents’ house until I was eight. That was when I immigrated to the United States with my Dad. Although it was a fascinating experience, it was also my first time leaving my home country and integrating into a new culture. It was also the first time that I was introduced to a new language other than Mandarin. The occasional modification of homes directly impacted my ability to adapt to new societies and assimilate into the new…

During my time at New Life Community Development and at the St. John’s Bread and Life Mobile Soup Kitchen, I learned quite a few valuable things. When I first started my academic service learning, I went in with the attitude of getting the job done and leaving. I had no intention of enjoying the experience. Although that changed when I walked into the Mobile Soup Kitchen on a grimy Monday afternoon with a whole line of people waiting outside the truck. I immediately started to prepare for the…

against the United States of America on September the 11th, 2001. The events of September 11th were carried out by members of the terrorist group Al Queda. The terrorists, lead by Osama Bin Laden, had taken control of four flights: departing from Boston, New Jersey, and Washington D.C. The terrorists killed the flights' pilots in order to gain full control of the aircrafts. At 8:56 AM, the first plane flew into the World Trade Center's north tower, leaving a hole in the building and setting the…

Mess of My Life New York, Central Park, Saturday, 12:45 pm. The noises are of a day in full swing, traffic heavy, cars honking, and children playing. The harsh rays of the afternoon sun impale my shut eyelids and I awake suddenly, every thought in high definition. My eyes take in every ray of light and I see the colors of brown and red, flood the park’s grass. I stretch, reaching my arms forward, breathing in the polluted, yet crisp autumn air of New York and without a doubt I know it’s the…