Last summer the people of World Classrooms collaborated with our school to go on a trip to the one and only New York City.

From July 28 to July 31, six Amherst High School students — Ryan Pikka, Emma Taylor, Sam Ruggles, Tiris Byrd, Maxim Wise, Isaac Snyder, and Mason Colligan — and one teacher experienced the wonders of the Big Apple. The following describes what happened during these four days of city wonder. Now, starting as every multi-day trip or event does.

Day 1:

Day one involved two flights: one from Milwaukee to Nashville, and the other from Nashville to New York City. After the back-t0-back flights we took a bus to meet our tour guide and walked over to the Hudson River Mall to eat lunch. After about an hour of eating and shopping, we went to World Trade Center One to see the extraordinary view from the 360° Observatory. We could see the Statue of Liberty from afar, tour boats passing by, the sunset casting its orange hue on the city, and buildings upon buildings upon buildings. We learned about the railroad that connected New Jersey to New York and how it made World Trade Center One the main center for economics in the area. And after all that, we headed to the hotel that was held for us and went to sleep excited for the days to come.

Day 2:

Day 2 we woke up and were very quickly taken onto a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The tour guide told us about the Statue of Liberty and how it was both made as a symbol of freedom and an insult to their current leader, which was both interesting and extremely funny. Afterward, we entered Ellis Island to see its wonderfully fascinating museum full of history and artifacts from immigrants long ago.

Soon it became lunch and we headed back into the main city for some pizza, where we fed some pigeons pepperoni for fun. The pizza was delicious, and other students certainly agreed. When asked for his favorite food from the trip, Isaac Snyder said, “Pizza from a local restaurant for sure.” 

After lunch, we were led to the subway to get to the shockingly tall Grand Central Terminal, where there were even walkways in the windows of it. We were told that Cornelius Vanderbilt had made it mainly to show off his money by filling it with marble and gold and even putting his birth chart on the ceiling. 

We then went to the New York City Public Library which has 120,000 square feet of underground book storage just for this one library. We got to explore the library and see the treasure that the library holds, which includes the original stuffed animals that inspired Winnie the Pooh! After that we went to Washington Square Park where we had two hours to just go and explore the nearby city and the park. Some people went thrift shopping, some people got Crumbl cookies, and some people stayed by the gigantic fountain in the middle of the park. To end the day, we took a subway back to the hotel and walked all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge where the tour guide explained how it was built.

Day 3:

Day 3, we went from our hotel to the surprisingly nature packed Central Park. It was like a cross section of the rural set in the middle of the city. It was full of trees, nice rocks, a decent sized lake, and even a zoo. As we walked through the park, we got to see the Bethesda Terrace and Bethesda fountain, which used to be praised for the fact that the water that went through the fountain was clean enough for you to drink from it. After walking a while, our tour guide showed us John Lennon’s grave near the Strawberry Fields section of the park. Someone was even playing the guitar while singing the Beatles song, “Strawberry Fields.” 

Soon it was lunch time where he had a choice of where to eat. Some went to the local juice shop, some went to another pizza place, and some went to the deli called Pastrami Queen. “The best dining experience was probably Pastrami Queen on the Upper West Side,” Ryan Pikka said. “My favorite food that I ate in New York was the hot pastrami sandwich that I had at the Deli we stopped at one day,” Maxim Wise added.

After lunch we went to the biggest shopping epicenter we’ve ever seen: Rockefeller Center. Shops galore awaited for us to explore and purchase random things close by. It was incredible how many options there were to spend your money on. 

After a somewhat thorough exploration of the outdoor mall that was Rockefeller Center, we were brought to St. Patrick’s cathedral, a beautiful stone place of worship with wonderfully painted glass windows and carvings of biblical figures from rock. It also holds the body of the nine Archbishops of New York within its crypts. But what the tour held next was something that wasn’t on the itinerary – an unexpected visit to Trump Tower. Mirrors were put on the bottoms and sides of escalators to make it uncertain how tall it really was. Donald Trump-themed items were held in a glass shelf, and I don’t believe that these things were sold to the public. We were told there was an ice cream shop downstairs but sadly it was closed. 

The day was getting close to its last parts, and it had been a lot of walking these past days. But now we were somewhere big with opportunities for dinner. The busy center with the most options: Times Square. It was a good hour or so with hundreds of options for eating and shopping alongside huge electronic billboards containing advertisements for many many products and digital entertainment. Then to end off the day, we went and saw a broadway showing of the musical Wicked, a different take on the Wicked Witch of the West from Wizard of Oz. 

Day 4:

Day 4 we went to the 9/11 Museum and got to see more of the true tragedy that was the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. It contained preserved parts of the Twin Towers and an engine from one of the planes. It also contained art about 9/11, plaques about 9/11, and even information on the people who died during 9/11. 

Some people really liked the museum for how real it felt and how much info it gave on the event. For example, when Ryan Pikka and Isaac Snyder were asked what their favorite part of the trip was, they said, “My favorite part was probably the 9/11 Memorial and Museum – it was really heavy and brought a watershed historical moment in my lifetime to life; made the day feel extremely real” and “I liked the 9/11 memorial because it really showed you how devastating it was.” Next, we stopped by the 9/11 memorial where the tour guide talked about important people which included firemen, a priest, and the people inside the buildings rescuing other people. We gave our respects to names engraved in the memorial and moved on. We soon had to pack our things and head to the New York City airport. We flew from New York City to St. Louis, and from St. Louis to Milwaukee. And around 3 in the morning we were driven back to where it all began: Amherst.

New York City was truly an amazing experience for all of the students, staff, and parents involved. It was truly incredible to see the history behind New York City and all of the sights that it had to offer for all of us. It was truly a wonder to be able to experience such a thing, and I’d love to experience it all again. I’d recommend going to New York City and experiencing it all yourself because someone explaining it doesn’t even give a splinter to how amazing it is. To end it off, we have this piece of advice from Maxim Wise: “The advice I would give someone if they were going to New York is to pay attention to your surroundings because you can easily get lost. But also have fun and see as much stuff as you can.”