Day 28: 9/11 Tribute Centre

Today was harrowing. I'm sorry, I didn't take many pictures. No sexy poses of me, this time. I'm sure you understand.
I don't really want to rehash what we did today. It was very emotional and eye opening. I didn't know many details on the event, and this tour we did was lead by 300 volunteer staff members who witnessed and survived 9/11. I had to go to the bathroom 2x to bawl my eyes out. The museum had collected so much from the families. I was reminded of the stupid memes of 9/11 half way through, which I was already sensitive to, but then while hearing some of the phone calls... I cried and cried and cried at how awful somebody must be to joke about it. Thankfully, there were tissues every corner you passed. We were given the privilege to hear 2 survival stories, in person. Our tour guide lived literally across the road from the centre, I can't believe he voluntarily retells the story day in, day out. At the end of the tour, the guides said they are so thankful we chose to spend the day listening, they strive to make sure everybody remembers the event. They did a fantastic job giving detail... Yeah, that's about it. It was a haunting experience, but I'm very glad I went to see it. We tried to tip the volunteer at the end, but he said all he does with the money is donate it to the memorial (btw I ended up donating about $20, I'm glad I did, after seeing all the effort they have put into the memory).

Pictures:

Bus broke down so all of their people had to hop on our full bus gr8888

Trying more Starbucks oooh yes

She didn't like it (SHE DOESN'T LIKE CHINESE FOOD?-- Inside joke, you wouldn't get it)

Squanky train announcements (also funny to hear the driver say in a southern accent "Do not stand in between the doors when closing, PLEASE.")

:(

All the missing peoples' reports

LOOK HOW LONG IT GOES

This killed me

Powerful af and so interesting to read

Children from each 50 states sending a tile to remember 9/11

Tissues everywhere

The closest fire department (which didn't get to the "world's largest murder crime scene", it was a visiting dep. on West St who initially tried to help)

The 6 that they lost

8 sides to represent the 8 they lost in the 2 buildings

A stream dedicated to each person lost in the Southern building

A centre you can't see the end of to represent the emptiness locals feel. Also, on a victim's bday, a white rose is placed in their engraving. If a family member visits, they can dip their hand under the plague and pour water onto the name. 

The people who ran under the southern bridge all survived, but unfortunately just 20m down, under the north bridge, all were crushed.

The plaza

WTC

Visited some Christmas trees to lighten the mood

A lawyer (who knew Rockefeller, who owned all of the Trade Centre district, ofc he did) who ran into the buildings to save ppl. He died while going upstairs.

This is technically the cemetery for all the bodies they didn't identify. 

The memorial museum. 

The only tree that survived 9/11

The plans

Such a beautiful place for all to visit :/ 

The guide's apartment, which he returned to. Still lives there today. 

Where they would've been. 

Scary doors that were hard to navigate

Videos:

Afterwards, Char and I went back to a ShakeShack. Best milkshakes ever, I must agree w Char. Really rude New Yorkers, though. Whatever, I'm beginning to learn how to deal with them.

Then we went grocery shopping, and made it back for a bus. Char was awesome and ended up carrying 7L of my water uphill, on the ice. I am a weak bean who had managed to carry it for most of the trip, but the hardest part for sure was at this point. SO TY CHAR U R A LEGEND. 

Once we returned home, I sat down for a little to reflect on today. I hope I never forget their stories. I won't forget the phone calls; that's for sure. Or the collage of all the victims, overlaid on 3 walls.

If you ever have the chance, go for the tour. You'll probably hear a whole different story, since there's 300 recounts available. I loved going, despite how horrendous the actual event was,

From Calypso.