NYC!!!!

Ok, so Drew and I are officially in New York, as most people know. It is so crazy here!! We live in the upper Manhattan area, right next to Harlem. Drew and I actually went to the Harlem Family Ward today. It is something so different to experience, especially after being at BYU for the past four years. But no matter where you are, the Church is always true. Isn't that amazing?

Well, yesterday Drew and I went to Ground Zero. We thought there was going to be a monument but I guess they haven't made one quite yet. There is still some stuff from the original buildings standing. It was weird because there were people there trying to convince us that 9/11 was an inside job. There was also tons of vendors selling fake designer purses. I thought, Can't you do that somewhere else? I guess I think of Ground Zero as a more special place than that.

New York is something that I never could have readied myself for. The city is so big and there are so many people. Most of them don't even speak English, which I guess stands true to how it was in the beginning: a place of refuge for those from other lands. We use the Subway all the time. We don't want to pay for a taxi and we paid a lot for the use of a MetroCard, which allows you to unlimited access to the subway and the buses.

Yesterday we also went to our first Broadway musical ever!! We went and saw Mary Poppins on Broadway and paid for the cheapest tickets so of course we were super far away. But we had a pretty good view--well, except Drew because he had a guy's head in his way. But it was really magical and I am so excited to see all the other Broadway shows. We got tickets for The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, and we are going to try to get tickets for Wicked. I have to see Wicked while I am here. Drew doesn't really care--all he really wanted to see was The Lion King. Anyway, that's it so far!! I'll try to keep this as updated as possible.

We will include a list of the stuff we have seen or done so far. The craziest thing you don't really understand until you are here is how close all of this stuff is to each other. You walk down and every block you see one of these things (almost).

Things we have seen or done so far:
- Seen Mary Poppins
- Walked around Columbia University
- Went to church in Harlem
- Visited Ground Zero
- Seen the Empire State Building (Drew works inside)
- Bought stuff at K-Mart
- Shopped (kinda) on Fifth Ave.
- Wandered around Times Square
- Ate $5 Footlongs from Subway like 3 times
- Seen the (in)famous Apollo Theater in Harlem
- Had authentic New York style pizza
- Bought Broadway tickets for Lion King and Phantom
- Seen Madison Square Garden
- Viewed artwork at the Museum of Modern Art (Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Warhol's Monroe Pop art)
- Seen but not visited (and we plan to go and visit later): Rockefeller Center, New York Public Library, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Empire State Building, ESPN Zone, David Letterman, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park