Happy Birthday, America!

A sneak preview from the subway.

Despite having the day off from school today, my morning started off as early as usual. Why would I ever want to wake up so early, you ask? It’s because today, the girls, Mrs. L, and I were visiting Coney Island!  Rather than spending the majority of my time getting myself ready, I spent it packing my beach bag—you can never be too prepared for a beach trip! When I was finished with everything, I met up with the girls at the dining hall for a quick breakfast, before heading off to the subway meet with Mrs. L.

After an hour subway ride, we finally arrived at Coney Island! While exiting the train station, we were met with the sight of the sponsor of the annual hot dog eating contest, the world famous Nathan’s, home to some of the best hotdogs in the world. We settled down for an early lunch of the Nathan’s prized hotdogs and cheese fries. The food really does live up to its hype; those were some of the best hot dogs that I ever had!  

Next came the women’s hot dog eating contest. The area around the stage was absolutely crowded; you couldn't so much as turn your head without bumping into someone! Not only that, but the announcers were giving away free towels, which made the crowd go crazy—someone even hit me to get to one of them! I honestly couldn't believe it; people were so passionate about this event that they were willing to fight over commemorative towels.If there’s one thing that I learned today, it’s that Coney Island’s hot dog eating contest is certainly serious business. 

In the end, the women’s competition champion, Sonya Thomas, took home the trophy once again. Sonya also beat the all-time women’s record of 41 hot dogs—a record that she set herself during last year’s competition—by 4 hot dogs, bringing the new record total to 45!

Instead of waiting around of the beginning of the men’s hot dog eating contest, we decided to head down to the beach, for some surf, sand, and sun.

My sandcastle--The impervious Fort Tomi!

We then set off towards the amusement park. Morvarid and Aurea rode the more thrilling attractions, while Adrianne and I were content with just riding the kiddie rides.

We ended up returning to the dorms for another trip, this time it was a RA trip to Riverside Park to watch the fireworks over the Hudson River. The trip left 5:30 PM, in order to ensure that we’d be able to get decent spots. On the way to the park, the RAs had us pick up our dinner from a nearby market. For dinner, I had picked up a turkey wrap and a bottle of water.

I enjoyed a picnic with my usual group of friends, Lenny, Adrianne, Aurea, Morvarid, and Demi as well as my new friends Francesca, Jimmy, Hinata, and J.J. We passed the time by playing games like Charades and Truth or Dare and enjoying various drinks and snacks.  

The fireworks were somewhat of a letdown. I had expected them to spread across the river, instead of just focusing on the end of it. That’s not to say, however, that I didn’t fully enjoy them! They were absolutely beautiful and I’m glad that I was able to see them in person. I’m also glad that I was able to spend these moments with my friends, both old and new.  

Unfortunaetly, my camera died in the middle of the show!

What I didn’t enjoy was coming back from the fireworks. Our RAs ended up leaving long before any of the students, so the rest of us were left to find our way back to campus by memory! Not only that, but we still had a 11:00 PM curfew, and we ended up leaving the park at 10:00. With the combination of the large, slow crowds, dwindling time limit, and looming fear of getting lost we were rightfully panicking. Fortunately, we arrived on campus safe and with half an hour to spare!

While hectic, today was also very fun, just as I had hoped. Today was high adventure, fast-paced day that I’d been hoping for lately! The change of pace was very nice, but now that I’m home and exhausted, I’m starting to miss my old routine. Here’s hoping for more exciting days such as this! And Happy Fourth of July!