My past experiences in the big apple!
September 5, 2014
Journal Entry #1
My memories from New York City are from when I was a child. However, I did have some traditions with my family over the years. The first big tradition in the family was going to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. Every year around Christmas time my family and I would take a trip to the city, have dinner and go see the tree after. I always remember getting roasted peanuts on the corner for the car ride home. Of course now, as a college student I realized that almost the entire Christmas season is now known as the "end of the semester." Which leaves less time for fun New York City experiences, and more stressing over handing in assignments, and taking finals.
There are two more traditions I remember as a child, the first was going to see the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center with my Mother. I grew up taking dance classes (I thought I was a "Prima Ballerina"). I would watch in amazement every time, as if I did not see the same show the year before. Every time we were there she would buy me a different ballerina ornament with the year on it and my name, so we could hang it on the Christmas tree. I must have about 15 different ballerina ornaments on my tree! Last but certainly not least, my family and I would go into the city to see The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. My grandmother would come with us. She would buy my sister and I the huge bucket of popcorn to share. It was a wonderful family bonding experience for the holiday!
Journal Entry #1
My memories from New York City are from when I was a child. However, I did have some traditions with my family over the years. The first big tradition in the family was going to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. Every year around Christmas time my family and I would take a trip to the city, have dinner and go see the tree after. I always remember getting roasted peanuts on the corner for the car ride home. Of course now, as a college student I realized that almost the entire Christmas season is now known as the "end of the semester." Which leaves less time for fun New York City experiences, and more stressing over handing in assignments, and taking finals.
There are two more traditions I remember as a child, the first was going to see the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center with my Mother. I grew up taking dance classes (I thought I was a "Prima Ballerina"). I would watch in amazement every time, as if I did not see the same show the year before. Every time we were there she would buy me a different ballerina ornament with the year on it and my name, so we could hang it on the Christmas tree. I must have about 15 different ballerina ornaments on my tree! Last but certainly not least, my family and I would go into the city to see The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. My grandmother would come with us. She would buy my sister and I the huge bucket of popcorn to share. It was a wonderful family bonding experience for the holiday!
What will happen tomorrow?
Tomorrow is my first day exploring New York City! I am beyond excited. I expect to learn a lot of new interesting facts about the city that I was not familiar with before. I am interested to see the New York Architecture Styles including, The Legacy of the Dutch, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, The New York Brownstones and more. The architecture that I am most exciting about seeing is the Greek Revival. Throughout my High School years I studied a lot of Greek mythology and architecture, it was very fascinating to me and beautiful. I can not wait to see the imagery I have researched come to life.
QUIXOTIC QUEENS
September 7,2014
Journal Entry #2
Journal Entry #2
The day had finally arrived! Saturday, September 6, 2014. 6:30am I woke up, excited to go about my day. I made sure I was prepared for the day that was ahead of me. I pulled out my brand new back pack and stocked it up with a bunch of necessities that were going to get me through the day. I made sure I brought my hand sanitizer, water bottle, sunglasses, bag of cheerios, and of course I wore my new incredibly comfortable Nike's! 8:45 rolls around and I hoped into my car got my pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and headed over to the train station where I met Alexandra and Shannon. We made sure we were all prepared and that nobody left anything behind.
On the train we discussed our expectations for the day, when we arrived at Penn Station at about 10:15am (extremely too early) we had a bit of a wait before the rest of the class met up at 11:00am. We bought our Metro-cards and went to buy $5.00 umbrella's for the expected thunderstorms that were supposed to occur. Finally, 11:00 came around and we started our journey...
On the train we discussed our expectations for the day, when we arrived at Penn Station at about 10:15am (extremely too early) we had a bit of a wait before the rest of the class met up at 11:00am. We bought our Metro-cards and went to buy $5.00 umbrella's for the expected thunderstorms that were supposed to occur. Finally, 11:00 came around and we started our journey...
First stop! -
Flushing Meadow park
Flushing Meadow Park and Corona
To be perfectly honest, I have never been to Flushing Meadow Park. However, I grew up in Glendale, New York and my grandmother lives in Flushing and I spent a majority of my child hood at her house. It amazes me that a person can be in one place for multiple years, and never explore any of the atmospheres besides that one specific area. When I hear Corona, Italian ices come to mind. When I was younger my father used to take me to Corona Ice King and we would get peach Italian ices and watch the "old men" play Baci.
I have to say, visiting Flushing Meadow Park was really interesting to me, especially when our class visited the monumental Unisphere. This was built to symbolize "Man's achievements on a Shrinking Globe and an Expanding Universe (ENY, pg. 218)." The unisphere is the most iconic structure in the Queens Borough. It was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke and constructed by the American Bridge Company. It was particularly made for the 1964-1965 World's Fair. It is 12 stories high and 120 feet wide. As I looked up at this colossal piece of art in front of me, I felt so small. I must say, standing in front of the Unisphere on a scorching hot day felt refreshing, as the mist from the water fountains sprayed everywhere.
To be perfectly honest, I have never been to Flushing Meadow Park. However, I grew up in Glendale, New York and my grandmother lives in Flushing and I spent a majority of my child hood at her house. It amazes me that a person can be in one place for multiple years, and never explore any of the atmospheres besides that one specific area. When I hear Corona, Italian ices come to mind. When I was younger my father used to take me to Corona Ice King and we would get peach Italian ices and watch the "old men" play Baci.
I have to say, visiting Flushing Meadow Park was really interesting to me, especially when our class visited the monumental Unisphere. This was built to symbolize "Man's achievements on a Shrinking Globe and an Expanding Universe (ENY, pg. 218)." The unisphere is the most iconic structure in the Queens Borough. It was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke and constructed by the American Bridge Company. It was particularly made for the 1964-1965 World's Fair. It is 12 stories high and 120 feet wide. As I looked up at this colossal piece of art in front of me, I felt so small. I must say, standing in front of the Unisphere on a scorching hot day felt refreshing, as the mist from the water fountains sprayed everywhere.
After leaving the Unisphere, we walked a few minutes over to The Queens Museum of Art. This building was created for the 1939-1940's World's Fair (NYE, pg 221). My favorite part of this Museum was the Panorama of New York City. It covered more than 9.335 square feet and containing more than 895,000 buildings. It was built to a scale of one inch and 100 feet. The tour guide said this was equivalent to putting your thumb and index finger in the shape of about one inch. The panorama includes every single building in New York before 1992.
Unfortunately, having cheerios for breakfast wasn’t that good of an idea. Considering I woke up at 6:30 and we didn’t have lunch until about 2:30! I was sweating, starving, and cranky. We were heading towards Jackson Heights "Little India" to eat at an Indian Restaurant. Trying the food was definitely a new experience for me. It was not as spicy as I thought it was going to be (which is a good thing.) I'm not quite sure if I liked it or not. To be perfectly honest, I think I was too hungry to even care what I was eating at that point.
The next museum we visited on 36-01 35th street, was called The Museum of Moving Images. First Mike lectured us about our papers, and what they must contain, and then he sent us off to explore! The whole first floor was cartoon images, original sketches and more! It was really cool, especially the Dr. Seuss section, that was my favorite. When we went downstairs, we were in for a surprise! We saw original masks, costumes, make up, etc. from many famous television shows, and movies. It was sad to come across the section all about Robin Williams, it showed the costumes he wore for the movie Mrs. Doubtfire. It also showed the actually mold of his face (which was a little creepy). Also, they had the original mask from the movie "The Mask" with Jim Carey, which is my favorite movie of all time.
We were supposed to go to Long Island City after the museum. However, it was scorching hot out, and we were exhausted. Mike said we could head back home. I am excited for Brooklyn next week!! |
Bodacious Brooklyn
September 13, 2014
Journal Entry #3
Journal Entry #3
Next Stop!
The next stop was Brooklyn Heights. There are many architectural styles in these house, for example... Federal Style, Greek Revival, and Gothic Revival. However, nothing compares to the famous Brownstone buildings. These Brownstone buildings in Brooklyn Heights were built from the original brown sandstone from the Portland Brownstones in Quarries in Connecticut (ENY pg. 204). These building were known for being built in the exact same way. They say that if you were to walk through a brownstone house with the lights off, you would know exactly where you were going because of how each house was set up.
After walking for a while we had our lunch break! We grabbed some $3.00 taco's (that were delicious), and then it started to pour. We headed to the Brooklyn Historical Society, which was founded in 1863, by Henry Pierrepont as the Long Island Historical Society. This organization is known as not only a museum, but also a library and educational center for the study of Brooklyn (ENY, pg. 205). By this time, I almost passed out in museum from a horrible migraine. I took some advil and drank a lot of water to try to reduce the pain. We had to walk up and down the stairs (which was not helping). I managed to pull it together, and keep moving forward. In my opinion, the most beautiful part of the historical center was the Library. It reminded me of the Library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
When we left the Museum, Mike said we could head home a little early. The weather was horrible, and everyone was exhausted. We headed home, excited for what next week will bring!
After walking for a while we had our lunch break! We grabbed some $3.00 taco's (that were delicious), and then it started to pour. We headed to the Brooklyn Historical Society, which was founded in 1863, by Henry Pierrepont as the Long Island Historical Society. This organization is known as not only a museum, but also a library and educational center for the study of Brooklyn (ENY, pg. 205). By this time, I almost passed out in museum from a horrible migraine. I took some advil and drank a lot of water to try to reduce the pain. We had to walk up and down the stairs (which was not helping). I managed to pull it together, and keep moving forward. In my opinion, the most beautiful part of the historical center was the Library. It reminded me of the Library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
When we left the Museum, Mike said we could head home a little early. The weather was horrible, and everyone was exhausted. We headed home, excited for what next week will bring!
The Village
September 20, 2014
Journal Entry #4 Today started off on a rough start, since the Bellmore train station (where I usually meet the girls) was blocked off, I ended up missing the train. The girls left so that they wouldn't be late for class. Unfortunately for me... I had to go alone. To be perfectly honest... I WAS FREAKING OUT. I never take the train by myself (sad... I know). However, I called Mike and he told me exact directions on how to get to the high-line. It was on 10th avenue and 30th street, at first when he told me this it was like Japanese to me, since I don't even know what street it is when you leave Penn Station. However, I wrote it down in my little notebook, asked a few people on the train if they knew where it was, and I calmed myself down. On the long, and lonely train ride...I had sometime alone time to think. I looked out the window the entire time. I thought to myself how truly thankful I am to have an opportunity to take a class as wonderful as this one. Not everyone can afford to take this type of class, and I am grateful that I am. I never really though the city was that spectacular and always wondered why people spoke so highly of it. This class has showed me how beautiful the borough's are, and how much fascinating history they hold. Okay... enough about my thoughts on the train, lets talk about when I actually got off of the train. This is it, I was off the train. I went to the meeting spot where we usually meet Mike with hope that the class would still be there. Guess what? they weren't... I found my way to 10th avenue and 30th, and saw the class. Thankfully, I was just in time to walk to High-line. In the 19th century, the high-line was used to transport produce through the city. Unfortunately, the existence of train lines on the city streets lead to several fatalities. This street became known as "Death Avenue."However, in 2006 it officially opened and the New Yorkers/Tourists loved it (ENY, pg. 84). |
We passed through Christopher Park, where the gay rights movement was celebrated in 1922. It was interesting, there were statues of lesbian and gay couples talking in the park, symbolizing that it was acceptable to communicate with your significant other publicly (ENY, pg. 93). Finally, it was lunch time... Most of us went to the restaurant Mike recommended which was called 1849. The service was HORRIBLE. I got my food 5 minutes before we had to leave, and I had to shove it down my throat. That was not a good experience for me at all...I was very annoyed. After lunch we went somewhere that I found extremely interesting. The Merchant's House Museum, this house was built by Joseph Brewster in 1832 and sold to Seabury Tredwell, a wealthy merchant in 1835 for 18,000 (NYE, pg. 99). The house was eventually passed down to Tredwell's younger daughter Gertrude. Being inside the house was kind of creepy at first. I don't know why I felt like I actually lives in the 1800's when I went inside. Everything that was inside the house was the original furniture that was there in the 19th century. The house was beautiful, from the architecture on the outside, to the beautiful hand made curtains on the inside. What made me a little bit sad, is that the servants were all the way up about 5 flights of stairs, with thin mattresses stuffed together in a tiny room. After passing St. Marks place, we went to the BIG GAY ICE CREAM SHOP! I had an absolutely delicious ice cream called titled "The Salty Pimp." I'd say, it was a great way to end a very long day.