Day 10: "Half an American"

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus.

I woke up at 6 a.m. to make it down to Battery Park before 9 to get on the ship that would take me to Liberty and Ellis Island.

I've been getting closer and closer to this Statue since I arrived and today was the day I finally stood on the same piece of land as she does and saw her right up close.

I knew there was no way I was going to get Crown tickets, where you walk up the entire Statue and go out onto the Crown and look at whatever there is to look at up there. I'm scared of heights. That doesn't change because I'm in love with a Statue. I also skipped Pedestal tickets where you go into the Pedestal, but I literally spent about an hour sitting and staring at the front of her, so I don't think I missed anything.

But first, a description of my day.

I got to Battery Park and went to Castle Clinton, which was originally established to stop a British invasion in 1812 is now, the place where you get tickets to go to the Islands. I had ordered my tickets online so I got to stand in the short line and skip through a lot of security.

My tip if you're going: Buy ahead online. Buy the flex express tickets. Same price as the regular reserve tickets but you get to skip some of the security line and you have a 3 day window in which to use your ticket.

So I get in line and there's a memorial to fallen American Merchant Marine's in the water that's slightly depressing but amazing. The Pier didn't smell like the ocean I'm used to. In California, Florida, British Columbia, places where I've been to the beach it smells like salt. It wasn't that way here. It was really windy and chilly like I would expect New York to be and there were seagulls that followed the boats to and from the Islands.

There were also the sounds of a homeless man playing the flute, obviously a new skill. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was the only song this guy "knew" and it was pretty brutal. The security line can best be described as airport security, so imagine it if you will. Waiting in line for a while (not that long because I had got there early) hearing the same "song" "played" over and over in between his bites of sandwich and getting meat caught in his beard, and the sounds of the couple behind me kissing. Either they were on their honeymoon or the Statue of Liberty is sexier than I thought.

I get through security and onto a boat just as it's getting ready to leave. I make my way up to the top deck to watch everything as we pull away from Manhattan. I don't have sea legs so I definitely fell on a lady and grabbed at her purse to right myself. Whoops. She was cool though, and the water was pretty choppy so I'm only half a spaz. I made my way back to a railing and didn't let go for the rest of the trip. Just kidding, it wasn't that bad and I was able to get some pictures. A pair of ladies I was standing next to didn't know it was Ellis Island we were passing, I wonder if they knew why they were on the boat.

It was a quick ride from Manhattan to Liberty Island and getting set up for my tour was easy. I had paid for the audio tour and I'm so glad I did. Hearing the history of the Statue, it's design and renovation, how things have changed, what she represents, hearing the voices of immigrants and Americans tell us what she means to them was so wonderful! I would have been fine just staring at her, which I did, but the history of the Statue is incredible and a lot of it I didn't know.

It was insanely busy so the picture I got of me, and my second one of me in it while here, is full of people but that's ok. It's me, my green scarf, and the Mother of Exiles. It's a great picture and I'm so glad I got it.

I was sad when I decided to leave. I'm ridiculous. But I wanted to have enough time to see all of Ellis Island before they stop running the boats so I turned in my audio and got in line for the next boat.

Earlier this year I made a wish on a quarter and tossed it into the Hoover Dam as I was driving to Las Vegas with some friends. I figured Lady Liberty should give me some good luck too and made a wish on a quarter and tossed it into whatever body of water we were on. It's the Atlantic, it's the Hudson, it's a plethora of rivers and oceans all combining and now it's .25 cents richer.

Ellis Island hit me so differently than the Statue had and I didn't expect it. The Statue to me represents everything being an American is to me. "Liberty Enlightening the World" was given as a gift to America representing friendship between us and France, but it is a bold and daring engineering masterpiece that remains one of the most recognizable symbols of America. To me, she is fierce and challenging, daring and brave. She protects both future innovation and old world traditions. She is welcoming, warm, strong, determined.

Ellis Island is the representation of my life, leading up to 2 years ago when I got my citizenship. The ways the immigration process was described back in the early 1900's is exactly the way it was when my family went through it. Exactly. Some things have changed, for example no one lifts your eyelids with a button hook when you step off the plane to make sure you don't have Trachoma, but the process was essentially the same. The people who passed through Ellis Island did it all at once, whereas we got to do it over a period of 12 years. I wouldn't have wanted to come through Ellis Island as it was, but I definitely felt connected to it.

The Island has been renovated and restored from complete disrepair to a lovely museum and tribute to this amazing piece of history. While, in no way does, my experience reflect the hardships others have gone through it's a life altering choice to become an American. I no longer feel any strong familial ties to Canada, but I am so proud of who I am and where I'm from. And for the opportunity to allow all of it to shape me as a person making me the best Canadian American I can be. I feel honored and privileged everyday to live here and to be an American. My life is blessed and I'll never forget how special the day I waved my little American flag (tiny flag not sarcastic wording) and sang "Proud to be an American" for the rest of my life.

There are so many stories and too much to describe. I took it all really personally which is why I almost killed some kids who decided it would be funny to flick the lights in one of the rooms I was in. I turned into the cranky old lady who tells them to grow up and stay away from me. If only I had a broom and some cats.

One of my favorite parts, though, was walking around they had all these displays with pictures of people and the exhibits described their lives and what it was like for them in the various stages of passing through Ellis Island and their lives in America once they were accepted to come into the country but they would also have places on the wall or under glass where the original building was showing through and was graffitied! People from all over the world wrote their names or drew pictures and signed the date to the walls of Ellis Island! I could feel all those people there, and the place really is made of magic.

Getting the boat back to Manhattan was ridiculous! That's the authentic part of visiting Ellis Island is that you get cattle herded onto and off of the boats. I thought we were going to sink when we were getting off because it was rocking so hard and people could not stand straight enough to walk off the boat and onto the land that doesn't move, although sometimes I think it does. It's an island built on a landfill. I'm constantly amazed that New York hasn't sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Eventually I made it off the boat and back to the train station where I got off at Times Square and made my way to Gray's Papaya. I had the recession special which is 2 hot dogs and a drink for under $5 and I don't care who you are or what the food tastes like that's a great deal! I got everything on both and a Pina Colada and it was pretty delicious. I don't know that I'll be craving it like some people have said once I go home, but it was good food. It was actually the perfect food after a day like today.

I feel like, aside from my description of Gray's Papaya, that this entry is not what it should be. But today was about inner reflection for me and it's not that I don't want to share, it's just that there's so much. I thought about who I was in relation to this country, how I'm helping and making a difference, what the symbols of our country mean like the Statue and Ellis Island, like the World Trade Centers. Who are we when those are gone? Because the symbol stands doesn't mean we stand for the same things, but I chose to believe we do. The American Dream is unrealistic and unreachable for a majority of people, but our own individual aspirations is what America is about. Living for ourselves, for our interests as an individual and as a country.

"While I am not a whole American, neither am I what I was when I first landed here, that is a Bulgarian. Still retaining some inherited native traits, enough to bar me forever from complete assimilation, I have outwardly and inwardly deviated so much from a Bulgarian that when recently visiting in that country I felt like a foreigner and was so regarded...In Bulgaria I am not wholly a Bulgarian; in the United States not wholly an American."
by Stoyan Christowe, "Half an American," 1919.

Tomorrow's Goal: Central Park Zoo. I hope it doesn't rain but I think it will. Shopping. I still need to get some souvenirs. Sex and the City 2. I flipped out when I realized I would be in New York when this movie came out. I. Can't. Wait.

A few of my favorite pictures:

July 4, 1776.