JOurnals 5-9
5. EASTSIDE BOYZ
Today for our core class, we met at Penn Station and decided to head to the East Side. We took the E train from Penn and arrived at our first destination, the Museum of the City of New York. I really liked the statue of Alexander Hamilton that was outside the museum. Located on 1220 Fifth Avenue, between 103rd and 104th Streets, this museum not only talks about the history of New York but also its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation (Russo, 2014, p. 162). There was a quick twenty minute video shown about the history of New York. It’s fascinating to hear how much the city has evolved from back then to now. Once the tour around the museum was finished, we went near another museum called ‘El Barrio’. There, we met with Luke, our tour guide who talked alittle bit about the museum and showed us around some parts of the neighborhood. Luke is not only a tour guide, but he is an empowering and intellectual poet. Luke’s first poem was about activism and he called his poem ‘Solidarity’. I liked his poem. He had us in a circle before he was preaching. Right on, brother!
Luke showed us around the neighborhood. As we were walking and listening, Luke was mentioning how some sidewalks are very meaningful in the city. In this neighborhood, sidewalks are used as intergenerational space for the people living in that community. This being said, people used the space to gather and socialize. We also discovered some paintings and writings hanging on gates. We had to watch our steps as well because, well, let’s just say… there was a lot of true ‘Manhattan schist’ on the ground. But it was so interesting to hear Luke talk about East Harlem being like a family-based community. It is very Spanish based as well. According to Mike’s textbook, and I quote, “Today East Harlem has one of the largest Latino communities in the country, and, despite demographic changes, the neighborhood still retains it’s distinctively Latino flavor” (Russo, 2014, p. 161). Pretty much, most of the names of the stores and museums are going to be Spanish orientated, like ‘El Barrio’. As we were walking, we went into a small garden to discuss a controversial painting of two women with each of their heart muscles visibly anterior to their chest and connected is parts of the aorta. The painting was called ‘Soldadares’. The women in this mural were political radicals and feminists that were devoted to their homeland (Russo, 2014, p. 164). Along with that mural I saw the Fallopian tube sculpture. Apparently according to Luke, this sculpture represents what a women should be represented as and the fact that they should not be sexually depicted in anyway, whatsoever. Seeing these two artworks made me realize the East Side of New York City is so respectful of one another and made me realize that its not as bad as how people describe Harlem, as being dangerous and the people being rude.
For our last stop with Luke, he brought us to an ancient herbal medicine shop called ‘Justo Bonatica’. This place was so interesting to go to. The man who owned, Jorge Vargas, was a very nice man who tried to not scam anyone and wanted the best for everyone. During that time, I wanted to buy concentration oil because I felt that could increase my concentration energy. As I told him about why I wanted it, Jorge explained in order for the oil to work, I needed to clear my mind first before I can take it. I couldn’t believe he was so honest about it. Most of the time, business owners would try to scam and get you to buy it anyway, but Jorge was clearly honest about. I am really liking East Harlem so far. Unto our lunch break!
Lunch was pretty decent. I had tostadas with chicken and cheese, which was very delicious! After that, me and a bunch of my classmates walked on back to the El Barrio museum and from there, we headed to one of my childhood parks, that’s right, drum roll please… Central Park! I was really looking forward to this trip through the park. One interesting thing to note, the entrance our class took was through the Vanderbilt gate. “This impressive entryway to Central Park was made in Paris in 1894 and originally stood before the Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth Avenue and 58th street. It was later donated by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney to the City of New York” (ENY, 150). I liked the design of the gate, it reminded me of medieval times. Through the gates, we arrived at the Conservatory Garden. This garden is named for an 1989 greenhouse that once stood at Central Park. It was torn down around 1934 (ENY, 151). The Secret Garden statue of the two little children looked really epic. I liked how the sculptor made the little boy laying down play a flute. Very creative! And last but not least, we managed to see and talk about the Egyptian Obelisk. Considered the oldest monument by far in New York City, this 3,500 year old monument was built on the Nile in honor of Pharaoh Thutmose III (ENY, 153). Along with all that, we ended the trip on Bethesda Terrace. It was so much to see. A lot of people there with their friends and families. There were also some live entertainment, such as a singer, ballerina and a guy with a huge bubble stick to make snake-like bubbles. I had A LOT of fun for today’s class. I liked just as much as the first two days of class. I can’t wait to see what activities will go on next week!
Today for our core class, we met at Penn Station and decided to head to the East Side. We took the E train from Penn and arrived at our first destination, the Museum of the City of New York. I really liked the statue of Alexander Hamilton that was outside the museum. Located on 1220 Fifth Avenue, between 103rd and 104th Streets, this museum not only talks about the history of New York but also its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation (Russo, 2014, p. 162). There was a quick twenty minute video shown about the history of New York. It’s fascinating to hear how much the city has evolved from back then to now. Once the tour around the museum was finished, we went near another museum called ‘El Barrio’. There, we met with Luke, our tour guide who talked alittle bit about the museum and showed us around some parts of the neighborhood. Luke is not only a tour guide, but he is an empowering and intellectual poet. Luke’s first poem was about activism and he called his poem ‘Solidarity’. I liked his poem. He had us in a circle before he was preaching. Right on, brother!
Luke showed us around the neighborhood. As we were walking and listening, Luke was mentioning how some sidewalks are very meaningful in the city. In this neighborhood, sidewalks are used as intergenerational space for the people living in that community. This being said, people used the space to gather and socialize. We also discovered some paintings and writings hanging on gates. We had to watch our steps as well because, well, let’s just say… there was a lot of true ‘Manhattan schist’ on the ground. But it was so interesting to hear Luke talk about East Harlem being like a family-based community. It is very Spanish based as well. According to Mike’s textbook, and I quote, “Today East Harlem has one of the largest Latino communities in the country, and, despite demographic changes, the neighborhood still retains it’s distinctively Latino flavor” (Russo, 2014, p. 161). Pretty much, most of the names of the stores and museums are going to be Spanish orientated, like ‘El Barrio’. As we were walking, we went into a small garden to discuss a controversial painting of two women with each of their heart muscles visibly anterior to their chest and connected is parts of the aorta. The painting was called ‘Soldadares’. The women in this mural were political radicals and feminists that were devoted to their homeland (Russo, 2014, p. 164). Along with that mural I saw the Fallopian tube sculpture. Apparently according to Luke, this sculpture represents what a women should be represented as and the fact that they should not be sexually depicted in anyway, whatsoever. Seeing these two artworks made me realize the East Side of New York City is so respectful of one another and made me realize that its not as bad as how people describe Harlem, as being dangerous and the people being rude.
For our last stop with Luke, he brought us to an ancient herbal medicine shop called ‘Justo Bonatica’. This place was so interesting to go to. The man who owned, Jorge Vargas, was a very nice man who tried to not scam anyone and wanted the best for everyone. During that time, I wanted to buy concentration oil because I felt that could increase my concentration energy. As I told him about why I wanted it, Jorge explained in order for the oil to work, I needed to clear my mind first before I can take it. I couldn’t believe he was so honest about it. Most of the time, business owners would try to scam and get you to buy it anyway, but Jorge was clearly honest about. I am really liking East Harlem so far. Unto our lunch break!
Lunch was pretty decent. I had tostadas with chicken and cheese, which was very delicious! After that, me and a bunch of my classmates walked on back to the El Barrio museum and from there, we headed to one of my childhood parks, that’s right, drum roll please… Central Park! I was really looking forward to this trip through the park. One interesting thing to note, the entrance our class took was through the Vanderbilt gate. “This impressive entryway to Central Park was made in Paris in 1894 and originally stood before the Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth Avenue and 58th street. It was later donated by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney to the City of New York” (ENY, 150). I liked the design of the gate, it reminded me of medieval times. Through the gates, we arrived at the Conservatory Garden. This garden is named for an 1989 greenhouse that once stood at Central Park. It was torn down around 1934 (ENY, 151). The Secret Garden statue of the two little children looked really epic. I liked how the sculptor made the little boy laying down play a flute. Very creative! And last but not least, we managed to see and talk about the Egyptian Obelisk. Considered the oldest monument by far in New York City, this 3,500 year old monument was built on the Nile in honor of Pharaoh Thutmose III (ENY, 153). Along with all that, we ended the trip on Bethesda Terrace. It was so much to see. A lot of people there with their friends and families. There were also some live entertainment, such as a singer, ballerina and a guy with a huge bubble stick to make snake-like bubbles. I had A LOT of fun for today’s class. I liked just as much as the first two days of class. I can’t wait to see what activities will go on next week!
6. WELCOME TO THE WILD, WILD WEST
Today was my sixth day of my core class. As usual, our class met Mike and Meritta at Penn Station and discussed what the plan was for the whole day. Today we were going to start a journey the Frisk House Museum, which is located on 1 East 70th Street, by 5th avenue. Before it was a museum, it used to be a house. I personally loved the garden area we went into. It was huge and peaceful to be in. A lot of people were probably wondering, how big was the mansion? According to the book, it states, “The mansion, which was six stories tall and had its own stables and private gardens next to it, contained 130 rooms that included a five-story entrance hall, a library, two stations, a two-story ballroom, and a two-story formal dining room – all too accommodate Vanderbilt’s family of eight!” (ENY, p.130). It felt like it was large enough to have a huge basketball court inside. I took some pictures of the main entrance outside. But once we stepped in, we were NOT allowed to take anymore pics. As we stepped in, I was told by security to hand in my backpack at the front security check-in desk. As we walked around, we learned more about Henry Clark Frisk from our tour guide. It was also mentioned that the only reason that Frisk’s house was transformed into a museum was because that’s what he wanted after his death. This museum was so huge it had my rooms, including the Garden Court, North Hall, Living Hall, Library, South Hall, etc… My favorite room was the Living Hall. In this room, both Hastings and Allom worked on making the room be very symmetric. The portraits were from artists such as Holbein and El Greco. That room was so symmetric with how the portraits, tables, chairs and the chandelier was placed. Everything felt ‘in-balance’ in that room. Like, nothing felt out of order, which really intrigued me. Overall, this museum trip was very fun. I liked that the rooms were big, I learned a lot of new information about people of a huge museum I went to visit and that it was far away form boring long island. The only thing I disliked was the fact the there was no photography allowed. I felt that was lame only because I felt there is no harm in taking pictures. After the Frisk museum, we headed to lunch. I was excited because I was starving!
Our plan was to eat at a Thai resturaunt called Yum Yum. We went through Hell’s kitchen to get there. Alittle information about Hell’s kitchen, it resides in Manhattan, and it is located between 34th and 59th street. It is filled with affordable places to eat at Manhattan. Back in the 19th century, Hell’s Kitchen had been known as poor, crime-ridden neighborhood (ENY, p.122). So its great to see how much of a big difference there was from back then to now. When I went through it, it felt like a clean and crowded area. We did stop at one area that Mike briefly discussed about. It was the Opera house and I remember Mike saying he disliked the architecture style, but I though “C’mon Mike, it looks so beautiful!” But going through it we arrived at Yum Yum.
It was a small Thai restaurant located on 650 9th avenue. It was very nice of Mike to treat the entire class. I remember having the Pad Ke Mao with 2 fried dumplings and a soda. I originally was going to have the Thai salad with the fried calamari appetizer because I was very familiar with it, but because Mike suggested to us to try something new, I did. I felt it would be completely boring to go with the old stuff we are always familiar with. It’s a special trip to the city with my class so I said to myself “I’ll quit being lame and get something new!” and so I did. I honestly thought the food was okay. It wasn’t the best thing I ever tasted but it wasn’t the worst thing I ever tasted as well. But I felt it didn’t matter because the only thing that mattered was I enjoyed it and it was new. As soon as that was done, we were ready to head out to our next destination: Harlem!
TO get there, we had to take the subway. I remember taking the 3 train all the way to Central Harlem. From there we met our new tour guide and an awesome fella named Jim. Jim was so nice and knowledgeable of ALL the areas around New York City. TO start off, I remember Jim mentioning a lot of things Harlem was known for, including the YMCA, the African American Renaissance and Schomburg Center. As stated by the book, “The uptown neighborhood of Harlem lies north of Central Park and is bordered by morningside Heights to the West and East Harlem to the east. It has been an eclectic ethnic melting pot, and intensively spiritual place of churches and mosques, an example of urban blight and racial conflict, the place where jazz became a distinctive American form of music, and the soul of African-American culture in the United States” (ENY, p.173). I love that this place has had a hue history related to jazz and music. Hearing that made me want to enjoy this trip even more. As we walked around, Jim pointed out the hospital. Outside the hospital was a beautiful mural outside the building. As a nursing major, I thought that mural was epic! I hope to one day work in a hospital with any sorts of fancy art design outside. We also noticed a lot of churches and church-like buildings being shown. This is probably because back then Harlem was known to have many churches and mosques. I felt it was interesting that back then people were very religious. Most of the churches we saw had a gothic revival style of architecture.
We ended our long and exciting day of class around 125th street! I had a blast only because I learned about a lot of new things and saw art and history in a whole new perspective. I felt so pumped for the next core class and the excitements that awaits us!
Today was my sixth day of my core class. As usual, our class met Mike and Meritta at Penn Station and discussed what the plan was for the whole day. Today we were going to start a journey the Frisk House Museum, which is located on 1 East 70th Street, by 5th avenue. Before it was a museum, it used to be a house. I personally loved the garden area we went into. It was huge and peaceful to be in. A lot of people were probably wondering, how big was the mansion? According to the book, it states, “The mansion, which was six stories tall and had its own stables and private gardens next to it, contained 130 rooms that included a five-story entrance hall, a library, two stations, a two-story ballroom, and a two-story formal dining room – all too accommodate Vanderbilt’s family of eight!” (ENY, p.130). It felt like it was large enough to have a huge basketball court inside. I took some pictures of the main entrance outside. But once we stepped in, we were NOT allowed to take anymore pics. As we stepped in, I was told by security to hand in my backpack at the front security check-in desk. As we walked around, we learned more about Henry Clark Frisk from our tour guide. It was also mentioned that the only reason that Frisk’s house was transformed into a museum was because that’s what he wanted after his death. This museum was so huge it had my rooms, including the Garden Court, North Hall, Living Hall, Library, South Hall, etc… My favorite room was the Living Hall. In this room, both Hastings and Allom worked on making the room be very symmetric. The portraits were from artists such as Holbein and El Greco. That room was so symmetric with how the portraits, tables, chairs and the chandelier was placed. Everything felt ‘in-balance’ in that room. Like, nothing felt out of order, which really intrigued me. Overall, this museum trip was very fun. I liked that the rooms were big, I learned a lot of new information about people of a huge museum I went to visit and that it was far away form boring long island. The only thing I disliked was the fact the there was no photography allowed. I felt that was lame only because I felt there is no harm in taking pictures. After the Frisk museum, we headed to lunch. I was excited because I was starving!
Our plan was to eat at a Thai resturaunt called Yum Yum. We went through Hell’s kitchen to get there. Alittle information about Hell’s kitchen, it resides in Manhattan, and it is located between 34th and 59th street. It is filled with affordable places to eat at Manhattan. Back in the 19th century, Hell’s Kitchen had been known as poor, crime-ridden neighborhood (ENY, p.122). So its great to see how much of a big difference there was from back then to now. When I went through it, it felt like a clean and crowded area. We did stop at one area that Mike briefly discussed about. It was the Opera house and I remember Mike saying he disliked the architecture style, but I though “C’mon Mike, it looks so beautiful!” But going through it we arrived at Yum Yum.
It was a small Thai restaurant located on 650 9th avenue. It was very nice of Mike to treat the entire class. I remember having the Pad Ke Mao with 2 fried dumplings and a soda. I originally was going to have the Thai salad with the fried calamari appetizer because I was very familiar with it, but because Mike suggested to us to try something new, I did. I felt it would be completely boring to go with the old stuff we are always familiar with. It’s a special trip to the city with my class so I said to myself “I’ll quit being lame and get something new!” and so I did. I honestly thought the food was okay. It wasn’t the best thing I ever tasted but it wasn’t the worst thing I ever tasted as well. But I felt it didn’t matter because the only thing that mattered was I enjoyed it and it was new. As soon as that was done, we were ready to head out to our next destination: Harlem!
TO get there, we had to take the subway. I remember taking the 3 train all the way to Central Harlem. From there we met our new tour guide and an awesome fella named Jim. Jim was so nice and knowledgeable of ALL the areas around New York City. TO start off, I remember Jim mentioning a lot of things Harlem was known for, including the YMCA, the African American Renaissance and Schomburg Center. As stated by the book, “The uptown neighborhood of Harlem lies north of Central Park and is bordered by morningside Heights to the West and East Harlem to the east. It has been an eclectic ethnic melting pot, and intensively spiritual place of churches and mosques, an example of urban blight and racial conflict, the place where jazz became a distinctive American form of music, and the soul of African-American culture in the United States” (ENY, p.173). I love that this place has had a hue history related to jazz and music. Hearing that made me want to enjoy this trip even more. As we walked around, Jim pointed out the hospital. Outside the hospital was a beautiful mural outside the building. As a nursing major, I thought that mural was epic! I hope to one day work in a hospital with any sorts of fancy art design outside. We also noticed a lot of churches and church-like buildings being shown. This is probably because back then Harlem was known to have many churches and mosques. I felt it was interesting that back then people were very religious. Most of the churches we saw had a gothic revival style of architecture.
We ended our long and exciting day of class around 125th street! I had a blast only because I learned about a lot of new things and saw art and history in a whole new perspective. I felt so pumped for the next core class and the excitements that awaits us!
7. GOTHAM CLASS GOT LOW, LOW, LOW TO THE MANHATTAN SIDE
Today was my seventh day of my core class. As usual, our class met Mike and Meritta at Penn Station and discussed what the plan was for the whole day. When we started our journey, Mike mentioned how we would be seeing a lot of places today and not doing a lot of walking, which seemed like a great idea. Our tour began by glancing at the tall, tower-like building called the ‘Woolworth Building’. Alittle background of this building, it was designed by Cass Gilbert and is a neo-Gothic style. Also the lobby of the building has been called one of the most sumptuous in New York. The lobby is now closed to visitors because of the September 11th attacks (ENY, p.46). I am so scared of heights so I can only imagine how I would feel if I would be on top of the building. But still it would have been nice to see what it looks like inside the building.
After seeing some street performances, we took a short stop by Municipal Building. There was something very interesting about this that Mike mentioned, and this also became a favorite word of mine. The building use of the ceiling tiles of Guastavino style. Basically, “this method uses support arches and vaults using interlocking terra cotta tiles, was developed by Raphael Guastavino and can be found in some of New York’s most important Beaux Arts building” (ENY, p.42). I really loved the design of the Guastavino. I don’t know why but dome like curve tiles caught my attention. Afterwards we managed to reach City Hall plaza. After getting harassed through security, we met with our tour guide as she talked about the history of the plaza. She mentioned how the City Hall plaza is the place people come to protest. Speaking of protests, there was a protest in progress as we made our way inside the City Hall building. Another interesting fact about this City Hall plaza that boggled my mind was that on July 9th, 1776, George Washington read the Declaration of Independence from the same spot we were standing. I paused for a moment. I could not believe I was standing on the same ground George Washington signed the Declaration. I felt so special for being in class that day. The type of architecture for the building was neoclassical. As we entered, I was fascinated by the design of both the ceilings and the stairs. I also the pillars that existed in the building. “As you enter city hall, you find yourself in the building rotunda, standing beneath City Hall’s coffered dome supported by ten Corinthian columns” (ENY, p.41). The ceiling had that type of Guastavino appearance, but the tiles were arranged alittle differently. The ceiling was a dome like structure. Besides that, I enjoyed going into the Governor’s room. I was going to ask either Mike or the tour guide if I was allowed to sit behind the bench so I could look like a judge. That room also had many old furniture with some portraits on the walls. I personally felt this museum visit was okay, but it could have been better. My reaction had nothing to do with the tour guide, per say, but the fact that it didn’t fully catch my interest. From there, we hopped on to another museum: The African Burial Ground Museum!
There is a historical fact that should be known about the African Burial Ground National Monument: “From 1690 to 1794 an estimated 20,000 free Africans and slaves were buried in a 6.6 acre burial ground on this site, which at the time was outside the boundaries of the City of New York” (ENY, p.45). Basically, this site was known as a resting place for the slaves that went through hell during their time of oppression. I always felt badly about the idea of slavery. I feel no one should be treated differently based on race. When we walked into the museum, we looked around and saw a bunch of portraits and artifacts. Our class also saw a short film about the struggles of being an African American in this world. The narrator explained that with African Americans when someone dies in their family, the family members bury them as a sign of respect. When I saw the short film, there was a little girl who had to watch the burial for her own father. I felt so sad when I saw this because its awful to see, in my eyes, a twelve year old girl finding out she doesn’t have a father anymore. After the short film was over, we ended our trip for this museum and we headed for lunch. I had a quick snack at checkers. Not anything new but most of the class had chipotle.
After lunch was finished, our class met in front of a subway entrance. This subway entrance had the Guastivano tiles as mentioned earlier by Mike. After hearing it so many times, it became my favorite word for the day. Like how Mike was with the name “Robert Moses”, I was with the word Guastavino. Mike also loves the phrase ‘Manhattan shist’, which we saw as we made our next journey to the St. Paul’s chapel. Located on Broadway, it was completed in 1766 and is New York’s only intact pre-Revolutionary War church. Also it is the OLDEST building in the City of New York (ENY, p. 46). That was pretty cool to notice. I’m glad I can say now I have visited one of the oldest building existed in the city of New York. It had also been through a lot of disasters, such as debris from the 9/11 attacks and the fire of 1776. Not only is this building ancient, but its legendary. I felt so honored standing next a long-lasting building. What I liked about this visit was that I learned about one of the most prominent churches in the history of New York. It’s also interesting to note that I never heard about this church when I was younger. I did hear about the 9/11 attacks, but never about this. After the church, we went a few blocks down to the ground zero point.
As we were about the track our way through the huge crowd surrounding ground zero, Mike and Meritta told us we had to meet them back at the end of the ground zero area. They dispersed and went somewhere else for a while. As I was going throught he crowded place, I saw one of the most beautiful things ever. Originally where the two towers once stood, there are now very large fountains that flow the water down in a continuous loop. It was really awesome the way they made the design the way they did. I also liked how they had the names of the victims who died during the terrorist attacks. Looking back, all I can remember was being sent home early from my 3rd grade class. I didn’t understand why, but seeing everyone run around, panicking, made me think that the classes being sent home early was not a good sign. After the ground zero spot, we met Mike and Meritta and walked our way to the New York Stock Exchange. “The stock exchange was established as a way to pay back the $80 million in bonds that had been issued by Congress to pay Revolutionary War debts” (ENY, p.51). I noticed this building is a neo-classical style of architecture. We decided to end the class early by the steps of the National Museum of the American Indians. Overall, today was a long day for our core class even though we did end early. We had a lot to see and a lot to talk about. Next week is the last week. I die a little on the inside just thinking about it! It’s true what they say tho: ‘all good things must come to an end!’
Today was my seventh day of my core class. As usual, our class met Mike and Meritta at Penn Station and discussed what the plan was for the whole day. When we started our journey, Mike mentioned how we would be seeing a lot of places today and not doing a lot of walking, which seemed like a great idea. Our tour began by glancing at the tall, tower-like building called the ‘Woolworth Building’. Alittle background of this building, it was designed by Cass Gilbert and is a neo-Gothic style. Also the lobby of the building has been called one of the most sumptuous in New York. The lobby is now closed to visitors because of the September 11th attacks (ENY, p.46). I am so scared of heights so I can only imagine how I would feel if I would be on top of the building. But still it would have been nice to see what it looks like inside the building.
After seeing some street performances, we took a short stop by Municipal Building. There was something very interesting about this that Mike mentioned, and this also became a favorite word of mine. The building use of the ceiling tiles of Guastavino style. Basically, “this method uses support arches and vaults using interlocking terra cotta tiles, was developed by Raphael Guastavino and can be found in some of New York’s most important Beaux Arts building” (ENY, p.42). I really loved the design of the Guastavino. I don’t know why but dome like curve tiles caught my attention. Afterwards we managed to reach City Hall plaza. After getting harassed through security, we met with our tour guide as she talked about the history of the plaza. She mentioned how the City Hall plaza is the place people come to protest. Speaking of protests, there was a protest in progress as we made our way inside the City Hall building. Another interesting fact about this City Hall plaza that boggled my mind was that on July 9th, 1776, George Washington read the Declaration of Independence from the same spot we were standing. I paused for a moment. I could not believe I was standing on the same ground George Washington signed the Declaration. I felt so special for being in class that day. The type of architecture for the building was neoclassical. As we entered, I was fascinated by the design of both the ceilings and the stairs. I also the pillars that existed in the building. “As you enter city hall, you find yourself in the building rotunda, standing beneath City Hall’s coffered dome supported by ten Corinthian columns” (ENY, p.41). The ceiling had that type of Guastavino appearance, but the tiles were arranged alittle differently. The ceiling was a dome like structure. Besides that, I enjoyed going into the Governor’s room. I was going to ask either Mike or the tour guide if I was allowed to sit behind the bench so I could look like a judge. That room also had many old furniture with some portraits on the walls. I personally felt this museum visit was okay, but it could have been better. My reaction had nothing to do with the tour guide, per say, but the fact that it didn’t fully catch my interest. From there, we hopped on to another museum: The African Burial Ground Museum!
There is a historical fact that should be known about the African Burial Ground National Monument: “From 1690 to 1794 an estimated 20,000 free Africans and slaves were buried in a 6.6 acre burial ground on this site, which at the time was outside the boundaries of the City of New York” (ENY, p.45). Basically, this site was known as a resting place for the slaves that went through hell during their time of oppression. I always felt badly about the idea of slavery. I feel no one should be treated differently based on race. When we walked into the museum, we looked around and saw a bunch of portraits and artifacts. Our class also saw a short film about the struggles of being an African American in this world. The narrator explained that with African Americans when someone dies in their family, the family members bury them as a sign of respect. When I saw the short film, there was a little girl who had to watch the burial for her own father. I felt so sad when I saw this because its awful to see, in my eyes, a twelve year old girl finding out she doesn’t have a father anymore. After the short film was over, we ended our trip for this museum and we headed for lunch. I had a quick snack at checkers. Not anything new but most of the class had chipotle.
After lunch was finished, our class met in front of a subway entrance. This subway entrance had the Guastivano tiles as mentioned earlier by Mike. After hearing it so many times, it became my favorite word for the day. Like how Mike was with the name “Robert Moses”, I was with the word Guastavino. Mike also loves the phrase ‘Manhattan shist’, which we saw as we made our next journey to the St. Paul’s chapel. Located on Broadway, it was completed in 1766 and is New York’s only intact pre-Revolutionary War church. Also it is the OLDEST building in the City of New York (ENY, p. 46). That was pretty cool to notice. I’m glad I can say now I have visited one of the oldest building existed in the city of New York. It had also been through a lot of disasters, such as debris from the 9/11 attacks and the fire of 1776. Not only is this building ancient, but its legendary. I felt so honored standing next a long-lasting building. What I liked about this visit was that I learned about one of the most prominent churches in the history of New York. It’s also interesting to note that I never heard about this church when I was younger. I did hear about the 9/11 attacks, but never about this. After the church, we went a few blocks down to the ground zero point.
As we were about the track our way through the huge crowd surrounding ground zero, Mike and Meritta told us we had to meet them back at the end of the ground zero area. They dispersed and went somewhere else for a while. As I was going throught he crowded place, I saw one of the most beautiful things ever. Originally where the two towers once stood, there are now very large fountains that flow the water down in a continuous loop. It was really awesome the way they made the design the way they did. I also liked how they had the names of the victims who died during the terrorist attacks. Looking back, all I can remember was being sent home early from my 3rd grade class. I didn’t understand why, but seeing everyone run around, panicking, made me think that the classes being sent home early was not a good sign. After the ground zero spot, we met Mike and Meritta and walked our way to the New York Stock Exchange. “The stock exchange was established as a way to pay back the $80 million in bonds that had been issued by Congress to pay Revolutionary War debts” (ENY, p.51). I noticed this building is a neo-classical style of architecture. We decided to end the class early by the steps of the National Museum of the American Indians. Overall, today was a long day for our core class even though we did end early. We had a lot to see and a lot to talk about. Next week is the last week. I die a little on the inside just thinking about it! It’s true what they say tho: ‘all good things must come to an end!’
8. ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!
I hate to say this, but here goes: today is my last day of my core class. As usual, the class met at Penn station. However, since I’m lame and woke up late, I met up with the class at a later time and missed the tenement museum tour which Mike was not happy about. I’m sorry Mike =[. But I did end up scheduling to go to a tour that was open at a later time which I will discuss at the end of this journal entry.
So after the Tenement Museum tour, Mike and Meritta (sorry Meritta for showing up late) split us up into groups and started a great Chinatown Adventure for us! But before I talk about my thoughts and reactions to the Chinatown Adventure, history lesson time. Having the largest number of Chinese immigrants outside of Asia, most of the Chinese came to New York from California and settled in Mott Street. But over recent years, Chinatown has grown over parts of Little Italy and Lower East Side (ENY, p. 73). It’s really nice to know the immigrants back then have made a huge impact on their people to present time. Anyway, as we were walking, I felt so lost (I know, I know, when I am never lost, right?) because it was very crowded and I felt I only could communicate with the people from my class. But as soon as we walked like three to four minutes into this adventure, a strange man approached us and tried to scam us with some bags and purses. Since I’m not a women and I have my ol’ reliable pack on my back I, honestly, made no attempt to talk to this man. I felt he would do his best to try to make me buy a bag for my mom or something. This man, lets call him unknown, took us to a park and made us wait to look for a women who wanted to make the purchase. As we waited, I was enjoying the weather and the experience of not feeling badgered of walking around and just sitting down. Finally the women unknown was waiting for came and actually bought the bag. We all felt so annoyed because we didn’t know why we had to wait for everything. I felt unknown didn’t care and didn’t help us at all showing us around Chinatown. But as he left, we managed to make it to see our class by the restaurant we were going to have lunch.
Finally, lunch began. I was so thrilled because I was very hungry! The restaurant was fantastic! The rotator in the middle of the table to move around the coke, ice, food from person to person was so unique. I have never in my lifetime seen anything like that before so it was really mind-boggling for me. I really, really wish every restaurant had something like the rotator. But the food? OMG it was very delicious! I really loved the mild chicken and vegetable rice. This lunch break was my second favorite from this class (my first being the Indian restaurant).
After the wonderful lunch, we met with, once again, our tour guide Jim. This awesome fella wanted to give us a quick tour along the Lower East Side. He pointed out to us about one of the three Carnegie libraries. After seeing that, we stopped by an exquisite candy shop called Economy Candy. This store was filled with different types of candy available. As a nursing major I made a joke by telling everyone in my class that “this store is the best place to go to if you want diabetes”. Diabetes is when you have too much sugar, or glucose, in your blood. I got myself a dinosaur gummi made with 100% vitamin C. It was very delicious! When I was a kid, I used to have these gummi hamburgers by the company ‘e-frutti’. It was SO delicious when I was a kid and having the dinosaur gummi took me back to that time period. I was savoring it to really enjoy the taste! As we departed from the candy place, we managed to get to the Bialystoker Synagogue. Jim pointed out that it was made from Manhattan Shist and that it was originally called the ‘Willet Street Methodist Episcopal’. I had to end early because I had to make up the Tenement museum trip because I came late. So as I said my farewells to Mike and thanked him for such an amazing class, I headed back to the museum by going down Delancey Street.
I hate to say this, but here goes: today is my last day of my core class. As usual, the class met at Penn station. However, since I’m lame and woke up late, I met up with the class at a later time and missed the tenement museum tour which Mike was not happy about. I’m sorry Mike =[. But I did end up scheduling to go to a tour that was open at a later time which I will discuss at the end of this journal entry.
So after the Tenement Museum tour, Mike and Meritta (sorry Meritta for showing up late) split us up into groups and started a great Chinatown Adventure for us! But before I talk about my thoughts and reactions to the Chinatown Adventure, history lesson time. Having the largest number of Chinese immigrants outside of Asia, most of the Chinese came to New York from California and settled in Mott Street. But over recent years, Chinatown has grown over parts of Little Italy and Lower East Side (ENY, p. 73). It’s really nice to know the immigrants back then have made a huge impact on their people to present time. Anyway, as we were walking, I felt so lost (I know, I know, when I am never lost, right?) because it was very crowded and I felt I only could communicate with the people from my class. But as soon as we walked like three to four minutes into this adventure, a strange man approached us and tried to scam us with some bags and purses. Since I’m not a women and I have my ol’ reliable pack on my back I, honestly, made no attempt to talk to this man. I felt he would do his best to try to make me buy a bag for my mom or something. This man, lets call him unknown, took us to a park and made us wait to look for a women who wanted to make the purchase. As we waited, I was enjoying the weather and the experience of not feeling badgered of walking around and just sitting down. Finally the women unknown was waiting for came and actually bought the bag. We all felt so annoyed because we didn’t know why we had to wait for everything. I felt unknown didn’t care and didn’t help us at all showing us around Chinatown. But as he left, we managed to make it to see our class by the restaurant we were going to have lunch.
Finally, lunch began. I was so thrilled because I was very hungry! The restaurant was fantastic! The rotator in the middle of the table to move around the coke, ice, food from person to person was so unique. I have never in my lifetime seen anything like that before so it was really mind-boggling for me. I really, really wish every restaurant had something like the rotator. But the food? OMG it was very delicious! I really loved the mild chicken and vegetable rice. This lunch break was my second favorite from this class (my first being the Indian restaurant).
After the wonderful lunch, we met with, once again, our tour guide Jim. This awesome fella wanted to give us a quick tour along the Lower East Side. He pointed out to us about one of the three Carnegie libraries. After seeing that, we stopped by an exquisite candy shop called Economy Candy. This store was filled with different types of candy available. As a nursing major I made a joke by telling everyone in my class that “this store is the best place to go to if you want diabetes”. Diabetes is when you have too much sugar, or glucose, in your blood. I got myself a dinosaur gummi made with 100% vitamin C. It was very delicious! When I was a kid, I used to have these gummi hamburgers by the company ‘e-frutti’. It was SO delicious when I was a kid and having the dinosaur gummi took me back to that time period. I was savoring it to really enjoy the taste! As we departed from the candy place, we managed to get to the Bialystoker Synagogue. Jim pointed out that it was made from Manhattan Shist and that it was originally called the ‘Willet Street Methodist Episcopal’. I had to end early because I had to make up the Tenement museum trip because I came late. So as I said my farewells to Mike and thanked him for such an amazing class, I headed back to the museum by going down Delancey Street.