Friday, June 21, 2013

Day 2 - Sophia

Once our bellies were full from a delicious hotel breakfast we started the day head on. First we had a walking tour of Lower East Side Manhattan where we saw many different places and learned about the different areas. Did you know that each culture, such as Irish, Jewish, German, etc., had a different region each lived in? I didn't,  but I learned a lot about it during the tour.

Sadly, we were unable to visit the 9/11 Memorial because it would have taken to long to get everyone through security. Hopefully we will be privileged to visit it an another day.

My highlight of the day was visiting the Apollo Theater. Each of us was given the chance to preform on stage. Not many took that chance. But all of us can say, in honest truth, that we walked across the stage and rubbed the stump. The interesting story of the stump was one that I believe intrigued us all. Street performers would take off a piece of the bark as a symbol of hope to get discovered that day. Some were privileged to be discovered and the tree was known as the Hope Tree. The tree was torn down but the owner of Apollo was able to salvage a small portion of the stump and before going on stage each act would rub the stump in hope to not be booed off. We finished off the day with dinner at Little Italy. Some of us got to eat at a place called Puglia. This was not any old restaurant, I'll tell you that! While waiting for our food two people started singing songs that everyone sang along with. When we ate dinner there were people from New York, of course, Australia, and us being from Maine. The best part of dinner was at the end when the entertainers sang the best song I ever heard. Was it catchy? Yes, after dinner we were all singing it. Does it play on the radio? No. The whole time they kept singing "get up, get up, get up and shake your napkin." At the end of the sing the whole restaurant was standing in their chairs waving their paper napkins. It was by far the best and most interesting dinner I've ever had. I can't wait to see what we have planned for tomorrow!

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