Day 3 of the Metro Trip will not be soon forgotten. Firstly, because we are only going into day 4 now and it is less than 24hrs behind us, (if I was forgetting it… that would be a medical condition undiagnosed) but also for the general awesomeness of the day. We started off with a 5am wake-up call, courtesy of our loving madrichim (counselors), one of whom we now have a restraining order on. Our first stop was the set of “Good Morning America,” where we toured the studio and got up-close and personal with Diane Sawyer. Diane Sawyer is both friendly and charismatic. Also, if she is reading this, I am her long lost son and should be included in her will.
From there we walked over to Café K, not too far from the cross roads of the world, Times Square, where we had a delicious full breakfast with all the perks. It could have stopped there and we could have headed on to our next destination but Aish had organized a guest speaker who would change the whole day for us. Ari Schoenfeld, is a successful wall Street business man with a large family and the same kind of success in both his private and personal life most of us would dream of. More importantly, Ari was a 9/11 survivor who worked in Tower 1 and was on the 75th floor when the first plane hit. He recounted his story with such graphic detail, that it left many of us with tears in our eyes and a new appreciation for the preciousness of life and family. It is an event both I and the whole world watched, and may have wondered what we would have done in such a horrific situation, but to hear it from someone who lived and survived it, and to hear how his life was forever changed, it made me appreciate my own and the opportunities I have even more. Following the speech, we took the subway down to ‘Ground Zero’ where we viewed the site from the Winter Garden & World Financial Center. Only a few hours after hearing the words of a survivor, seeing the names of those who perished brought this world changing event closer to me than when I watched it on television, or had read in the papers. This day was one which might stay with me for years, and it was not even half way gone.
After, we headed to the South Street Seaport to take a quick lunch break. Our eagerly anticipated ride along the Hudson river in the Shark speedboat was only moments away. Hope, however, was almost lost when our SHARK RIDE broke down, how does a boat break??? Instead, New York’s finest, the water taxi, came to our rescue and took us on a bumpy ride where we got a great view of the Lady Liberty herself, holding the torch high and laughing at us in our yellow cab on the water. On another note, we almost lost a few group members overboard. Turns out walking the plank is not as funny when Johhny Depp is not involved. CURSE YOU DEPP AND YOUR $20 MILLION ASKING FEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our marathon day ended with a scrumptious meal in the Aish Manhhatan upper West side building. We heard some great speeches about Free Willy and Unity. When I think back, it is more likely it was about free will, and less about the captured killer whale. All in all, day 3 was long, inspiring, emotional, and a bit nauseating; it’s gonna be great to see the day that tops this one.

-Max Cronk

p.s. If Johnny Depp is reading this, STOP CALLING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know it’s going to be a good day when a rabbi starts off the first discussion by asking the group to describe the meaning of “pleasure”. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Apparently, there are five levels of pleasure and to the surprise of the group, physical pleasure is the lesser of them all. Rabbi Gluckin proved to the entire group today that there is no reason for us to go to a comedy club! The discussion went smoothly with great bouts of laughter. It ended with a profound thought about our need to find transcendental pleasure.
The following discussion quickly altered our moods as it delved into a topic, considered by all as “deep”. When Rabbi Markowitz asked us why people who are born a mere border apart fight each other, the atmosphere in the room changed. It is difficult to understand why we do what we are told without questioning it and how we consider things true without empirical proof. “Why do we do what we do?” and “how are we sure that we “know” anything?” were the key questions of the hour. The answers were not necessarily found, but reflecting upon the questions was definitely profound for most.
The pace changed rapidly once again where we were thrown onto the streets of Manhattan and challenged to beat our fellow metro trippers in a nice and friendly scavenger hunt. And so, teams of five ran around the Times Square area searching for lawyers, red headed children, and matzah balls. With over 50 items to find and only three hours to do so, the race was on. Some of the items on the list lead some to do some pretty bizarre things; like digging through trash and lying out in the middle of a crosswalk!

Then we were off to an interesting train ride to see the Mets!! As we all learned today, NY trains are rather uncomfortably claustrophobic. We all got to the game safe and sound and were ready to watch the Mets win on the home field! After about 3-4 hours of sitting in the bleachers laughing, dancing, yelling, and taking pictures, the Mets lost. To their credit, it was a close game.
And so our night came to an end rather early tonight, midnight to be specific. The morning should be quite interesting, especially with a 5 am wake up call! I have a feeling Good Morning America is going to have a lot of grumpy, sleepy Jews in the audience!