We had a whirlwind trip - twenty four hours on a bus there, hit the ground running, and never stopped until we boarded the bus for another twenty four hour ride to go back to Kansas. I have always considered myself a "city girl", but I realized that I have absolutely no idea what real city life is like. Manhattan is an amazing world in and of itself, and if I'd had the chance to visit any of the other boroughs, I'm certain I would have been just as lost.
In Times Square, the press of bodies was unbelievable. I felt like a mother duck with my train of ducklings--we seriously had hold of the jackets of the person in front of us so we didn't lose anybody, but we still lost three in the bowels of a gift shop on the way to the M&M/Hershey store. Fortunately, we didn't leave any students behind, even the boys ogling the pretty street character wearing not much more than body paint and a smile.
It was an amazing trip, but I have to admit that New York has now lost the mystique it once held for me. After all, the buildings and skyscrapers are just buildings, people are just people, and taxi drivers are freaking insane. I felt that way after visiting London many years ago--it made me sad in a way, but at the same time I learned that all over the world, people live in cities, work, play, fight, love, and plead for your spare change.
We're all the same, no matter where we live. Let that be a lesson for me in my writing: No matter what world I'm writing in, people have a common core. The dialect might be a little different (like the difference between Long Island and Lawn Guyland), but inside, the language of humanity is identical.
