9-11-2009

It's been eight years....

Earlier today, I listened for Tu Anh Pham's name to be called, and tonight I payed my respects at Ground Zero....

I took the PATH to New Jersey to get a better view of those ghostly Twin Towers, known as "Tribute in Light"....

eternal rest grant unto them and let perpetual light shine upon them....may they rest in peace....

TECHNORATI TAGS: 9-11 2009, new york city

Scenes from the Other Side of the Hudson River

Driving around Jersey City reminds me of the opening segment of the Sopranos, or is it vise versa... I don't watch the Sopranos, but when I'm flipping through the channels and it's on, I usually stick around to watch the opening segment just to see the Jersey sights.... So let me share some scenes from the other side of the Hudson River....

First, let's get on the Holland Tunnel which runs under the Hudson River connecting Manhattan and New Jersey....
Here it is on the Jersey side....I didn't realized that you had to pay to use it if you were going from Jersey to Manhattan. I had gotten on on the Manhattan side, and it was free. The traffic to get on was horrible.... just imagine 6 or 7 lanes trying to merge into 2 lanes.... Needless to say I had to kick in with the city driving skills.... Luckily, I've driven in Manila.... driving in New York City is still relatively civilized though....

Why are there so many bridges around here?.... Speaking of bridges, I had to cross two bridges and ended up paying $10 just to get to Queens.... I thought at first that it was just my stupid GPS taking me through unnecessary routes, but apparently there was no other way to get there.... d'oh! wrong way, this is headed back to Manhattan....On the way to my cousin's house in Bloomfield, you'll pass by.....that's Pizzaland from the Sopranos' opening segment....

Anyways, after lunch with the cousins, I asked to take a walk to see the New York skyline.... So here it is, from across the Hudson River....

Still can't imagine how the WTC could be gone.... I remember growing up, we would take turns with my cousins Jing and Teng visiting each other over the summer.... alternating between Toronto and Jersey.... I remember how I dreaded those long drives to New Jersey.... it was always the site of those twin towers off in the distance, through the car window, that told me that the long drive was almost over.... it meant that the dream of finally being able to stretch my butt and legs, would soon be realized.... and we'd soon be hanging out with the cousins too...

Driving to Jersey again in 2002 was a bit disorienting.... my childhood landmark/beacon of butt and leg stretching was gone.... it didn't really look like New York City, and it felt like a part of my childhood was missing somehow?.... anyways, I came across a "Poetry In Motion" that I thought was appropriate.... doubly appropriate because it was written by a child....

Here's a 9-11 memorial.... you can imagine where the twin towers used to stand off in the distance there.....There's the Empire State Building.....And there's Lady Liberty off in the distance.... It's been a while since I last visited her too..... this time I'd like to climb up to her crown.... if we're allowed up there again....But of course, my favourite "scenery" on the other side of the Hudson River would have to be my cousins Jing....and Teng, Andrew and Paolo.... and Udz, sorry man, Jing didn't take your picture with my camera.... here he is holding some red thing at Teng's wedding back in November....Thanks for letting me crash at your place guys.... New Year's eve was a blast, especially with Te-Teng in the trunk, the homo-erotic shenanigans going on in the front, and poor ninang, Andrew, and tito pom just confused in the middle.... we must get wasted again soon, hey, it's tradition .... If you guys are actually reading this, here's that pic of Teng drinking that Indian wine two years ago.... little did we know! Cheers!

TECHNORATI TAGS: new jersey, new york city skyline, pizzaland, poetry in motion, twin towers

Restoration

This is a spin-off from my previous post.... let me set the scene for you by going back to the scene on the PATH train from Journal Square to World Trade Center, and we'll continue from there....

"On the PATH train from Journal Square, I decide to get off at the re-opened World Trade Center station to get into Manhattan.... I hadn't visited Ground Zero since 2002 despite visiting NYC several times since then.... I was traumatized by that first visit.... decided to pay a well overdue courtesy call.... as the train pulled into the station, passengers get up to look out the windows at the gaping hole and construction site that is Ground Zero.... a reverent hush falls on the subway car.... despite the screeching of the train, the pounding of construction, and the scattered piles of twisted metal, this is a sacred place.... thousands of innocent souls sleep here.... Tu Anh Pham, The Falling Man, Father Mychal Judge, countless firefighters and police officers etc..... we all understood this.... the hush was maintained as we disembarked the subway car and was only broken as we rode the escalators to the surface where the rest of the tourists were climbing the fence and snapping pictures of Ground Zero...."

My arms were long enough for me to get a picture of what everyone was clambering to see, without having to scale the fence haha...

The plan to restore the World Trade Center will see the construction of the Freedom Tower and four smaller towers...

The PATH terminal..... will be transformed into this....Where the Twin Towers stood will be the memorials....I stopped to remember Tu Anh Pham, and found her name on the list of the deceased....Across the street is St. Paul's Chapel, built in 1766, it was undamaged during 9-11 thanks to a sycamore tree that shielded it from the debris from Ground Zero. It became the rest and refreshment center....for both body and spirit.... for the rescue workers. I remember that it used to be plastered with memorials, tributes, and signs of family members searching for their missing loved ones, from the gate outside to the church walls, pillars and pews. They've left up a few of those memorials inside the church...I also remember the area surrounded by vendors all over the place selling pictures and other memorabilia of 9-11. Those are all gone now, in fact I think I saw a sign prohibiting those kinds of vendors. Despite the appearances of normalcy outside and the passage of six years, inside the chapel still invoked those same old feelings of deep sadness. I stopped for a moment of reflection and a quick prayer, but decided to leave when a group of little girls stood at the sanctuary and started singing "The Star Spangled Banner", if they started to sing God Bless America, it would have been too intense in there..... Luckily I got a cell phone call from my friend to tell me the meeting time and place for our reunion with the rest of the classmates, so I headed out to find the nearest subway. Not knowing exactly where I was going, I just decided to walk. On my way, I bumped into this....It was the "cross" that was found in the ruble of 9-11...I remember buying a picture of this being blessed by a Franciscan, from one of those vendors back in 2002.... I thought of another famous picture, with another Franciscan... Father Mychal Judge being carried out of the rubble by firefighters....He was a chaplain in the FDNY, and the first recorded fatality from Ground Zero.... He died after he rushed into the burning WTC to administer the last rites to a fallen firefighter, and was himself struck by falling debris.... I read again his eulogy, and it helped to lead me back to the restoration of my dangerously waning faith that a loving, all-knowing hand still guides and carries us through the chaos of this world and this life....

TECHNORATI TAGS: ground zero, 9-11

9-11-2001

Mine is one of a billion stories and blog entries out there..... but five years ago today I was in Manila sleeping through it all..... I remember waking up from a long and deep sleep..... I had been on call for 36 hrs the "day" before and was dead tired, I didn't even realize that my then gf had dropped by to check up on me.... she was worried, but didn't wake me when she realized I was blissfully unaware......

I made my way to the kitchen, my roomate was watching t.v. in the living room..... the World Trade Center was on fire....."what movie is that" I asked him....."it's no movie!" he replied, "they got the pentagon too"..... as I watched in horror and disbelief, it dawned on me..... my dad lives in NY city and usually gets off at the WTC subway station to get to work.... at that moment, I felt so far from home, and although I was thousands of miles away, I felt personally attacked..... I ran for the phone and immediately called my mom in Toronto.... she had spoken to my godmother in Hackensack and said that my dad had made it to the office (thank you God), but they hadn't heard from him or my godfather since then (he later told me that the subway train he was on was stopped before it reached the WTC because the first plane had already hit the first tower..... all the riders had to get off and walk... he was on the surface when the towers collapsed)..... my thoughts then went to my cousins and family/friends in New York/New Jersey.... my mom told me of my cousin Jing, and how she was scheduled to be at the WTC on 9-12 for work (thank you God).... my Ninong was okay, so was Teng and the rest of the family, Tito Rene was missing (he made his way home eventually).....

Later that day, I was called to the CCU..... a patient was being transferred and I needed to ambo-bag..... as I stood there pumping air into this person's lungs, I caught the CNN coverage on the t.v. that the nurses were glued to..... I thanked God that my family was spared from such tragedy, then my thoughts turned to anger..... as we worked so hard to save people's lives, there were people out there equally dedicated to taking lives..... innocent lives..... then my thoughts turned to sorrow for all those people in those buildings, and the families that would mourn them.....

I watched the 9/11 documentaries last night and the news coverage this morning..... I am still overwhelmed when I watch those towers come down.... the horror of hearing bodies falling from the sky..... the heroism of the rescue workers..... and the spirit that brought New Yorkers together in solidarity and cooperation, which spread to the rest of America and the world......

For the 2996 we all lost that day..... requiem aeternam et lux perpetua luceat eis.... peace to the families they left behind.... as I browsed through this list, I noticed one name (almost) close to my heart, Tu Anh Pham.... she was a vice president and chief financial analyst for Fred Alger Management..... just one letter change, and its the name of my own Tu Anh.... it reminded me again of how close I came to loosing so much more....
TECHNORATI TAGS: 9/11, 911, September 11