Looking Back at NYC Trips, Again!

As we continue our midcoast 50th anniversary posts, we are looking at more memories from NYC! For many years, our residential students took an annual trip to explore the sights and sounds of New York City. Take a moment to enjoy a few of these photos, as well as the blog posts. If you have any memories you would like to share, please leave them in the comments below!

New York City was in many ways what I thought it would be and yet in other ways it was totally different than what I had expected. There were tall buildings, tons of restaurants, subways, and cars everywhere. There were so many people, so many different people. The first day we were there was so crazy. Walking through the city and seeing all the people heading to work or going about their everyday routine was crazy. And with the rain and all the umbrellas - it was kind of overwhelming. One of the first interactions that Billie, KJ, Mo, and I had with a lady on the street in Jersey City was not a pleasant one, and so I kind of thought that all people in the city were going to talk to us rudely. But when I first got on the subway and was talking to one of the other students, we were trying to figure out what stop was ours and this kind lady helped me out. She was so sweet. It made me realize, not all city people are rude. I can’t just clump them all into a group of rude people because of one bad interaction I had. It kind of lifted some weight off of my shoulders. Coming back to Maine was so weird, walking on the streets that were so bare; no one on them, just Billie and I. I always thought that living in the city (when I move out on my own) was what I really wanted. But I realized while I was in the city that it’s not really what I want at all. I mean being there for a week or two every now and then would be a great vacation, but I wouldn’t be able to live there every day... – Khia Newell

I didn't sleep that well on the drive down because it felt like we were never going to get there. Finally 8 hours later we got to New York City, and, oh my goodness, was the traffic nuts. People were honking their horns! (And honking your horn is a three hundred and fifty dollar fine - now that’s pretty crazy.) So we drove through New York City and all I saw were these big tall buildings and a lot of people. Then we got to New Jersey and found the firehouse that we we’re going to stay in for the week. When we got there we went inside and it was way nicer then I thought that it was going to be. It had a swing and a rope inside. Russell and his wife were very nice to us. That night we had dinner and walked to the waterfront to see the backside of New York. It was so pretty. Tuesday was pretty crazy, too. We went for a ride on the subway and, oh my goodness, there were a lot of people on it. (Way past my comfort zone!) Then we went to Ground Zero and that was pretty shocking, being able to see where the twin towers fell.... – Karen Johnson

Going into the museums and the library was really amazing just because of the size of the buildings. They were so much bigger than the ones that I've been into around here in Maine. Obviously the stuff inside was really cool, too, but the buildings themselves were so detailed and massive in size. It’s kind of funny to take a look at some of the bigger cities in Maine now and compare them to NYC. They really don't even compare...I also really liked going to China Town and seeing a different culture than I am normally used to. It was really cool to see the signs that were in English and Chinese. It was also really interesting going into a store and seeing brands and names that I couldn't understand... – Billie Pirruccello

The first dinosaur I decided to seek out was T-Rex. It had stubby little arms with small claws and huge legs with large feet connected to a lengthy body that contained a tail on one end and a thick skull on the other. It also had teeth the size of daggers...Next I met up with an exceptionally tall, goofy-looking creature that had a wide body with huge arms and legs and thick curved claws at the end. Its head looked like it was wearing a little helmet and it had wide stretched eye sockets with a zombie-like expression on its face. Never seeing something like this before I decided to read up on it and it turned out that it was a giant sloth...Now I see several suits of armor made from different materials consisting of leather chainmail and steel all woven with cloth on the inside to comfortably fit the wearer...After a while of walking through the armor exhibit a sad feeling came over me as I thought of the era of skilled and honorable warriors giving way to a wave of modern gun technology in which a child could bear arms and a man could be killed before he even realized what happened... – Ian Betts