Day 2

We started with the Statue of Liberty. Most of the kids I talked to told me they never thought that they would see her in real life! One of the girls I'm rooming with (Amelia) said that "she (Statue of Liberty) has stood there so long, and brought hope and excitement for people coming from other countries, it should do the same for me and my classmates."

The next stop was Ellis Island. Going to this island was a great opportunity for us kids; we've learned so much about Ellis Island throughout our years at Brunswick Junior High. The museum inside was amazing; the pictures, the luggage display, the recorded phone calls that you could listen to through a phone. The rooms were so big, I could only imagine how the immigrants felt when they got here.

Our next stop was Battery Park. We took a break there once we got off the boat from Ellis. It was a small park, but nice to get away from all the buildings. After that we walked to Ground Zero five blocks away. I would have to say this was the most emotional stop we had all day. All of my classmates, I could tell, were being very respectful, quiet when asked to be, and just took a moment to thank everyone who died trying to save innocent people. I saw this as a time to thank all those people, and to remember that it could have been a lot worse.

Next I'm going to write about is Seaport. The Seaport has a bunch of things happening around in and on it. We went into the mall first, so we could get out of the 103 degree weather. Most kids didn't bring money, not knowing we had shopping time. After the mall we went outside and waited for the buses to bring us to China Town. There, we just walked around and gambled/shopped at the street stores. I know most of the classmates I talked to said they got really good deals. I know I did! At this point every group was on their own with their team leaders. We ate in Little Italy! Then we gambled more! We walked down a big road to meet up with our buses and drove back to the hotel, but on the way we got to go through Times Square. This was the third time we got to see it; once in the day time, once at night time, and once at dusk. At all times, there were still the same amount of people. Crowds and crowds of people. We got back to the hotel at 9:45 PM, ready to go to bed.
-Quinn

Team Leader note: Gambling is really bartering (Ha Ha).