Plans for today are to go for lunch with Mike at Google, wander around downtown to find stuff Ryan and Sam have already done, and then enter the lottery tonight for Wicked as Jeff wants to see it.
9:30AM - Apartment - Waking up after less than 3 hours of sleep was painful. As usual, I was the last one out of bed. Jeff and I had a bit of a debate around where Mike’s office was but we figured it out with much yelling and an e-mail from Mike when we finally found reception in the subway system.
Noon - Google, NY - We’re enjoying our free lunch at the Google NY offices with Mike: Jeff’s highlight was his fresh roasted turkey breast sandwich on rye with caramelized onions and bacon, Yassir’s highlight was the funny breads he got, and mine was the fresh blackberries in French Vanilla whipped cream. There are multiple cafeterias, a games room, and all kinds of creative random stuff. I would love to work here! It seems to be a wicked place both for the social aspect and the freedom to create. Some pictures from the balcony outside the cafeteria:
1PM - WTC and Wall Street - After Google, we took the subway south to the site of the World Trade Center. There was a large chapel across the road from the site (see here for that and other non-blog photos) which must have been there for hundreds of years. An interesting detour was a visit to the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Computer Research steps from the NYSE: it was completely empty of anything, including furniture, and we were apparently the first people to see it. We also went to see the New York Stock Exchange (of course):
2:30PM - Subway to Times Square - We’ve decided to head up to the north end of town to see Times Square and Central Park. On the way, I wondered out loud: “I wonder what people in New York did before they had the subway?” Yassir quickly replied: “They dug the tunnels for the subway trains!” Jerk.
4:30PM - Deli in Times Square - I think this afternoon we learned a very valuable lesson: Jeff loses all sense of direction underground. First, he wanted to get off at a stop that would force us to have to walk ten extra blocks to get to the Apple Store. Then he thought the train we were taking on the way back was going the wrong direction. Suffice it to say he won’t be navigating anything alone. We’re now having a snack in a deli for a bathroom, snack, and blogging break. Here’s a picture of the Apple Store we went to:
5:30PM - Mike met us in order to enter the lottery to get tickets for Wicked. While in line we met a friendly family (60s parents with their 30s daughter) from the maritimes. While we were explaining what we had done for the day, Jeff mentioned that we had gone to see the World Trade Center. Yassir, being Yassir, piped up with “But they weren’t there!” The aforementioned family then burst into a fit of laughter for the next 10 minutes. Ah, Yassir. Then Mike informed us we needed cash to purchase the tickets, so we went over to an ATM to get some. Turns out he doesn’t know his pin (or something) and the bank couldn’t help him over the phone so Jeff had to take out money. In the end we didn’t win the lottery (and Jeff pouted for a bit) so we’re off for food.
7:30PM - Thai Restaurant/Bar - Sorry for the late update, we were having fun. We stopped off at this restaurant for dinner: Jeff and Mike had crispy duck, I had a beef see-ew (big flat noodles and broccoli stir fry), and Yassir a spicy shrimp dish. They were very well presented, which apparently justified the $100 US bill.
10PM - Apartment - Back to the apartment for snacks and a movie. We watched MallRats, as Jeff and Yassir hadn’t seen it yet. Ryan and Sam were showing up around 11 so Mike had to go meet them. They took the Chinatown Bus from Boston downtown to NY downtown: $15!
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