So far the trip has gone swimmingly. We had no trouble flying there nor getting from JFK to our hostel in the YMCA in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much sleep on the flight and so by the time we met up with some Sri Lankan friends for a Christmas party on Staten Island, I was tired. I shouldn’t have imbibed so much on no sleep and little food.So today, I started out well although a little dehydrated. The weather report has said it was going to be a rainy day and it certainly has been. We first went to meet up with Jay’s bother at his work. It wasn’t far to Times Square from there, so we walked around with umbrellas. Of course Macy’s was crowded; it was a wall-to-wall, floor-to-floor type of crowded. We walked away with no purchases but a feeling of accomplishment at just being un-trampled. It was nice feeling the ‘vib’ of the city. There really is something about New York City that makes just being in town seem eternally unique.