lunch break

We are taking a lunch break, so I decided to get on here real quick. Yesterday was good, as we had the day off until dinner. After being so focused on "community" for a week, it was time for me to have a little alone time - so I went exploring on my own. First I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge - great experience. Then I started at the southern tip of Manhatten and worked my way north. I visited Battery Park, from which you can see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Then I took a gander in a Native American museum which had all kinds of cool artifacts and stuff like that. I stopped by the New York Stock Exchange for a minute, but to my dismay it was just a building. I visited the Trinity Church and St. Pauls Cathedral, both very old churches with intricate architecture. After these I took the subway up to Grand Central Station where I got off and went to the New York Public Library. It was an absolutely huge building with lots of art and books - it also holds the original dolls that inspired the story of Winnie the Pooh, which I thought was pretty cool. After this I was tired of walking so I took a break at Bryant Park, a nice little park where many people were taking their lunch break - actually, too many people were taking their lunch break because there were no open tables. So I joined a man named Bennet at his table and we spent the next 45 minutes getting to know each other. Bennet was about 50 and had lived in New York his whole life, so he had a lot of interesting perspective to offer on the city. After this I walked to the times square area where I visited a bunch of shops (including a Hershey's Chocolate shop and a 3-story M&M shop, both of which offered samples which I was excited about). After a while I was ready to get off my feet and out of the sun, and found shelter in an ESPN shop where I watched Tiger win the U.S. Open in sudden death - probably the most fun I've ever had watching golf. At 5 we all met up and had pizza at John's Pizza place which was probably some of the best pizza I've had in a while. After this some of us were going back to watch a movie on the lawn at Bryant Park, unfortunatly it rained again so I came back to the house and went grocery shopping. Theres the day in a nutshell. Peace.