Ilana, 3e-jaars student Lerarenopleiding Engels.

Our first day in the City, we decided to take the subway from Brooklyn to Union Square in Manhattan. We started with the Flatiron building and made our way up Broadway to Times Square. We paid a quick visit to the Disney Store before we headed to Central Park. From there we made our way to Fifth Avenue where we of course did a lot of window shopping.

Saks Fifth Avenue is famous for their Christmas windows, so we made sure to stop by. They were celebrating the 80^th anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  It was extremely cold, around -19 degrees Celsius, so it was a constant battle between warm hands and pictures. Fortunately for me, Hillary was kind enough to take photos for me as well. Then we stopped by Rockefeller Center to see the GIANT Christmas tree and watched people ice skating in the rink. We went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then headed on to Grand Central Terminal, where we had lunch. After lunch, we went to the New York Public Library and concluded our day at Bryant Park. Along Bryant Park there were little Holiday Shops, we made sure to visit.

The next day, we had dim sum with Michael and his wife, Yuu, in Flushing, Queens. (Side note: where I actually held an ENORMOUS live crab!!) After dim sum, we made our way down to Lower Manhattan, where visited the World Trade Center transportation hub (the Oculus). The Oculus has a very impressive design and inside there is even a shopping mall. Outside we visited the 9/11 Memorial, the names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed around the twin memorial pools. We continued our trip down to Battery Park, where we were had a good view of the Statue of Liberty and even Ellis Island in the distance. At this point, we were absolutely freezing so we decided to go check out the National Museum of the American Indian. The building itself is beautiful, admission is free, and they have really interesting collections. After we warmed up, we went up to Wall Street and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Where of course we took more photos! Before we headed home, we had some delicious empanadas in a little Cuban restaurant.