We actually met one of her friends (a Lovetteer) at Battery Park, where they are filming Nicholas Cage's new Disney movie. No one was there filming, but all the equipment -- lights, cables, trucks, new cars that were cordoned off and very obviously going to be smashed to little bits -- were there, eerily unattended.
(These are so obviously going to be smashed to little bits.)From Battery Park, we took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. The statue is the same as it is in all the pictures you've ever seen of it. I suppose I would've had a bigger impression if I'd been allowed up, but they weren't selling any more Monument passes for the rest of the way, so we couldn't even climb the pedestal. I was actually pretty disappointed, not because I wanted to stand in the lines, but because I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to climb George Eiffel's other structure, one on each side of the Atlantic. I guess I'll have to come back.
(Sadly, with neither flip-flops not swim trunks, I was ineligible to on these two boats.)
(Liberty Island)
(Tsz and I and the base of the Statue)The other stop on the ferry is Ellis Island, which I expected to be extremely boring. It wasn't! The Department of the Interior hired some really top-notch statisticians and designers to make it really interesting. The best exhibit, though, in my opinion, was the photographs from after Ellis Island was abandoned, and before LBJ incorporated it into Statue of Liberty National Park. It's haunting, especially the pictures of the old hospital -- peeling furniture, dusty mattresses, and wallpaper blossoming off the walls.
(Manhattan, from Ellis Island)We tried to find Rocco's pastry shop, which is apparently the best pastry shop in New York, but got off in the wrong part of Greenwich Village (on the opposite side of NYU in NoHo than we wanted to be) and packed it in early.
Tsz's mom had made food for dinner, and I hadn't been to a meal like that since Honghui's LNY celebration. I was the only one who didn't speak Cantonese -- and I was the only one not speaking it. I was, however, complimented on my use of chopsticks. I love being complimented for being able to use chopsticks correctly, mostly because I have no idea how I really got to know how to use them. For the record, though, I actually am very good at eating with chopsticks. Just ask Emily Norviel.
Tomorrow, Tsz has to work (she works in Central Park's press office) and so I'm going to explore Central Park on my own. And, hopefully, I'll be able to find Rocco's this time.
