Let Freedom Ring

Why do you never hear knock knock jokes about freedom? Because freedom rings. Happy Fourth of July America! 

Our most intricate day started at 9:40 AM, our agreed meeting time. The sad thing about this though, is that I never got out of bed until 9:40 AM. I got ready in a record time of five minutes and got down as fast as I could, hoping that someone else would be as late as me. Unfortunately enough, I was the only tardy one.

We left the university later than we anticipated due to my tardiness until we faced another roadblock: our subway passes had ran out. Upon realizing this, we all spent money on single ride passes, just good enough to meet Ms. Thrift at the 79th Street station. 

The stage of the hot dog eating contest.

Fast forward a bit through some boiling subway stations and subway naps, we arrived at Coney Island by around noon time. Once we took our first steps into Brooklyn, we were met with a huge crowd of spectators watching the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. We joined the crowd and the millions watching on TV to witness, in my opinion, a true American Event. I remember being both satisfied and disgusted to watch each contestant cram five inch hot dogs down their throat in under ten seconds. As time ran out, it became obvious that the real competition lay between last years champ, Joey Chestnut, and Matt Stonie. Both stayed neck at neck for a majority of the allotted time but ended with Matt Stone pushing through and taking home the gold.

Stuffing 17,000 calories of pure awesome into their bodies.

After grabbing a quick lunch, we stopped by the Coney Island Freakshow on our way to the beach. The show was filled with many stomach turning performances like: hanging bowling balls from nostrils, sword swallowing and even performances from an electric chair! One of the performers was even crazy enough to hang clocks from his eyelids! I need to learn how to do that!

Photo credits to Deborah Kyong

We ended up skipping the rides and the roller coasters for the beach instead. Ms. Thrift was awesome enough to let us walk around for a bit while she stayed behind to watch our stuff and relax. Once we came back to our original space, Deborah and Alyanna decided it would be a great time to create a sand turtle- on my feet. This activity took less than fifteen minutes and in no time my feet had lost all feeling and there was a smiling turtle on my feet! 

As time went on, we noticed the beach becoming more and more crowded. Ms. Thrift made the suggestion of heading back early before facing the consequences of long over packed subway rides. We all agreed, and headed back towards Downtown Manhattan to catch the fireworks there. 

Following the heavy security screenings by the NYPD, we found a decent spot on the pavement. The crowd was clearly hyped up about America's birthday as some college students would gather around in circles singing songs like Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA". By 9:30 PM, the first fireworks had burst in the air. One by one, clusters of fiery lights would rise up steadily and then soon spread out in an artistic formation.  It was a huge spectacle of different bright flashing colors and lights that lit up the already fantastic New York skyline. 

*Freedom intensifies*