Sleepless In New York

New York is the city that never sleeps. While this chronic insomnia may suit a sprawling metropolis of over 8 million people it is not a prescription I would recommend for the weary WIPer.

After shuffling into our NYU dormitories at half twelve and not sleeping until half one this intern found himself in a wobbly position on the fence separating wakedness from sleep. The situation was not ameliorated with a 7 a.m. wake up to get to the New York Stock Exchange. The Stock itself was an amazing experience. Due to our luck at the Israeli Prime Minister pulling out of the opening bell ceremony, three of our program (Marty and Sarah (both MTs) and Cormac, an economics student) were randomly selected to join in the ringing of the bell. As this is broadcast to 120 million people worldwide it may well have been WIPs biggest media event yet. The stock market itself is byzantine. There flowed so many numbers and so many three letter combinations of letters that after an explanation of how stock trading works I think I came out knowing less.

A few lucid hours later and we found ourselves at a talk given by John Heilemann (Co-Author of "Race of a Lifetime" / "Game Change") and Patrick Timlin (NYPD Deputy Commission of Operations.) Both of these speeches were highly informative and a lot of gratitude was felt by the class that both these highly accomplished men would give of their time to come and see us.

Dinner came to us by way of an Irish restaurant on Pier 17. If you are going to note that for a cultural experience we are sticking to the traditional Irish food, I would take this time to point out that due to the large amount of Irish people in NYC an Irish Restaurant is practically native food. Given that traditional Irish food is so rarely eaten by the Irish this was also another culture horizon expansion.

Following this, we interns had the evening to ourselves. Along with some of my friends I found myself in Central Park and ambling around Grenwich village by Christopher Street (near which the Stonewall riots of 1969 occurred). At this point my sleepiness had reached a stage where I had the mental acuity of a zombie. All I perhaps lacked was the requisite forward raised arms stride. Alas I hadn’t even the energy for that.

The next morning was also a typical WIP morning by which we arose at hours which many of us would like to forget actually occur twice in the day.  This morning took us to the Irish UN mission where we received talks from the Irish member of the UN Secretary General’s staff and a member of the Irish Defense Forces who was stationed at the mission. This was followed by a small group meeting with some of the WIP class and a representative from UNICEF.

Emerging after these meetings onto the street myself, Edith and Ruth found ourselves being felt up by the arms of Morpheus. Deciding we could no longer resist his sleepy allure we grabbed a taxi back to the dorms for an hour long nap. It was probably the best decision of the day.

After recharging the batteries the class met at City Hall to receive a talk from Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council. Quinn, the first openly LGBT speaker of the council, spoke to us inspirationally and shot straight from the hip. It was a great talk to wake one up. My one complaint would have been she did not have spare tickets to the Lady Gaga concert happening in New York that night. Nobody’s perfect I suppose.

Later that evening I found myself book-shopping at the Strand bookstore in Grenwich village. It was a capacious second hand bookstore and I would suggest to anyone with an opportunity to visit to take an hour to browse and shop.

Saturday brought a spirited jaunt around Manhattan Island on the Shark Boat. With the Statue of Liberty a stone’s throw away (for Olympians) and the music beating as we sped around Manhattan Island, any remaining Sandman’s dust would have been knocked from anyone’s hair. Being our last day in New York, myself and Neill, a classmate, took to seeing the Rockerfeller tower. A trip in a psychedelic elevator with lights and projections on the roof as we ascended provided the closest approximation of an acid trip I reckon I will ever experience. The view from the roof was panoramic and well worth the ticket price.

As the day drew to a close we boarded our bus to take us home to rest from the indefatigable city. It was an amazing experience and thanks to everyone who came and spoke to us and to all who made the trip possible. 

Derwin Brennan Bio.