New York City, New York Day 2
So my second day in Manhattan was everything I hoped a second day could be. Brigid's birthday was actually this day and her friends made her lots of cakes of all sorts.
In the AM we went and got some of that lovely oatmeal and then planned our day. I wanted to hit some art museums but we slept in pretty late so we decided that it would be smart to just go to one and try to give it an appropriate amount of our time. I chose the MET. Next time in in NYC I'll check out the Guggenheim and the MOMA.
The reason I chose the MET was because of my college graduation ceremony. The director of the MET, Philippe de Montebello, was our speaker at the ceremony. Honestly, before that I didn't know a think about him or the MET. His speach was so astounding and encouraging that I just had to go to the MET while he was still the director. He announced earlier this year that, after over 30 years of service to the MET and the USA as a whole, he was going to be retiring by the end of 2008. His story is quite remarkable and, if I could find a biography of him I'd post where to get it here but I can't, I'll try to get the transcript of the speech he gave and post it someday because it's definitely worth the read. Anyway this is why I chose the MET.
And what a good choice it was!
Man, I think Geeta and I could have spent like 48 hours in the MET and we still wouldn't have seen everything. To keep things short, my favorite parts were:
1. The Egyptian Temple of Dendur (c.a. 15 BC) that they moved stone for stone from Egypt to the MET in order to save it from flooding in Egypt.
The best thing about this Temple is the graffiti carved into the ancient ancient structure by fools from the 1700's and the 1800's. Literally "Joe-schmo was here in 1816" types of stuff... in all different languages and stuff. Hilarious! Those "tags" are now forever preserved at the MET. What an honor. haha
2. Chuck Close's work. I studied him pretty thoroughly during my years in Art School but have never actually seen any of his work in person. It's amazing and just makes me enjoy humanity.
3. Georgia O'Keeffe's work. I've loved her work since like 3rd grade when I had to do a report on her. I've seen some of her paintings in person before but never so many at once.
4. And this.
Yes folks that's bike frame art on display in the middle of the contemporary art wing of the MET. Not sure much about it I just thought I'd add it. Pretty appropriate considering why I was in NYC in the first place. haha.
I was pretty sad to leave the MET. Next time I'm in NYC I'm going to dedicate a WHOLE DAY to it. Oh, here's a fun fact- the MET has a huge cafeteria with it's own sushi chef! Yes, for a snack you can have MET sushi. Yes, of COURSE we did it. This museum really got me thinking... about war. Yes, war. If another nation decided to attack us and bomb the heck out of New York, or any other city for that matter, it's not just an attack on one group of people- it's an attack on all of humanity. We have HUMANITY's history and art in that museum and many many originals. We have art form the WORLD that makes up such an important human history. I can't imagine our loss if it was destroyed because of diplomatic differences. The same, however, can be said of any nation. How many museums have we Americans destroyed in other countries. How much of our own history has been lost alongside it? Art is such a unifying aspect of life. It's an international language and can ignite more feelings and meaning than almost any other form of expression. A book can be written about ideas or a story and then translated but you never have to translate a painting, a sculpture, a photograph. It just all hit me at once how petty our differences are and how precious our history is. How man cultures are there in humanity's past that we know NOTHING about?! If NYC ever got nuked so much of the earth's history would be lost. How much is lost already?
ugh
Anyway,
On the way to the MET we strolled through Central Park. The whole walk only look us like 30 minutes IF THAT. She is so lucky to live so close to all of these wonderful things.
Ok fast forward to that evening. Brigid and her friends all decided they should have a birthday dinner at the Chinese food restaurant right across the street from Columbia. We did this and I invited a few old friends. Margot, my very best friend from high school who I haven't seen in like 4 years came with her girlfriend. One of my closest friends from SCAD, Abigail, came with another friend who just recently moved to NYC from Utah, James. OH MY GOSH IT WAS SOOOO GOOD TO SEE THEM!!!!! Margot only stayed for a bit but I got to catch up with her and finally meet her girlfriend! They look awesome and I'm so glad they are doing well.
I didn't get a photo of Abigail, James, and I for some stupid reason but we hung out much later into the night. We took a few laps around the block that Geeta lives on and talked and talked. It was sooo refreshing to see them. Abigail is one of my most esteemed friends and what she brings to the world is so important. She has her priorities straight and constantly encourages me to continue to follow my dreams. I love her a lot. It was great seeing James too because we miss him so much here in SLC! James was my very first friend here in SLC because he knew Abigail and she helped me move in! It's good to know I have friends like these in New York. I can't wait to see them again. Oh my gosh I almost forgot, while we were walking and catching up a RAT literally ran over all of our feet. Abigail FREAKED out and that got me freaking out an James like KICKED it into the park. HAHa we survived a NYC rat attack!
So we finally got to bed late, but only after getting some music from Geeta's awesome friend CHRIS. YOU ARE AWESOME CHRIS THANKS FOR THE HOOKUP! Thank God there's at least ONE hardcore kid at Columbia. He lives down the hall from Brigid and even helped come and pick me up the first night I was there... good because two girls alone with a HUGE BOX on the subways at 3am without a big hardcore kid is not a good idea ;) Thanks Chris!
So the next morning we really just took it easy. We got up, ate some food, went to this church down the street from her school, and then I went back to sleep untill like 2pm.
The view from her dorm room on this rainy morning
I said my goodbyes and then Geeta and I jumped on the subway to Penn Staion where it was then up to me to figure out how the heck to take the train all of the way to NJ to my airport in Newark. It turned out to be not as hard as I thought although it was like, um, total chaos. There are seriously like NO rail-station people around to help you... you have to do everything through computer and then when your train comes you have no idea what rail it's going to be on until it actually GETS there and then you have to like RUN to the correct door that leads to it's tracks. Then you have to fight your way through the door and get your luggage stored (i didn't have anything but a backpack thank GOD) and then sit as fast as you can so you actually have a seat. THEN you look around and realize that the train is tottally packed and there are people seriously standing. I mean do they ever cut off the tickets at capacity??! I guess not. I mean seriously! Then you have to listen and MAKE SURE you get off at the right stop because there are NO MAPS IN THE TRAIN so you have to talk to like random people and make sure you know what's up. The problem is that most people don't have any clue what's up. haha. Somehow by God's good grace I ended up at the airport checking in only to hear....
that my airplane is like an hour behind and that it was going to be literally impossible to make my connecting flight in Dallas. Yes the flight I was absolutely going to miss happened to be the last flight of the night out of Dallas to SLC so, before I even got through security I knew I was going to be spending the night in my connecting city. Gag. Even better, I guess the plane with late because of weather so here's the guy at the ticketing booth telling me that not only will i have to spend the night in Dallas but that they won't pay for a place for me to stay so my options are either pay 50 bucks for a hotel room or sleep in the airport.
The flight was lovely but Dallas... DALLAS?! Lame. Anyway I ended up going the hotel rout and after waiting over an hour for the shuttle to pick me up I ended up at a relatively nice hotel. I saved some money on the room because I got some sort of discount but it was still 50 bucks and I had to get dinner. There was a sleezy sports bar next to the hotel (the only restaurant around) and six flags was literally in my backyard but closed for some reason. Closed? It was only like 10:30pm. Maybe the season is over for 6 flags? Who knows. Anyway I got a sandwich to go from the bar and then watched TV till I passed out. Got up the next morning, got free breakfast, and got GOING. I was back in SLC by 1pm and went straight to bed.
What a trip. Would I do it again? Yes of COURSE.. however I'm going to wait until I have enough money saved up to do it next time. No more credit card trips fosho. It's ironic isn't it? I'm in NYC during Wall Street's demise and I'm doing exactly what crashed the markets- living beyond my means... for the last time. woo!
We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea
In the AM we went and got some of that lovely oatmeal and then planned our day. I wanted to hit some art museums but we slept in pretty late so we decided that it would be smart to just go to one and try to give it an appropriate amount of our time. I chose the MET. Next time in in NYC I'll check out the Guggenheim and the MOMA.
The reason I chose the MET was because of my college graduation ceremony. The director of the MET, Philippe de Montebello, was our speaker at the ceremony. Honestly, before that I didn't know a think about him or the MET. His speach was so astounding and encouraging that I just had to go to the MET while he was still the director. He announced earlier this year that, after over 30 years of service to the MET and the USA as a whole, he was going to be retiring by the end of 2008. His story is quite remarkable and, if I could find a biography of him I'd post where to get it here but I can't, I'll try to get the transcript of the speech he gave and post it someday because it's definitely worth the read. Anyway this is why I chose the MET.
Man, I think Geeta and I could have spent like 48 hours in the MET and we still wouldn't have seen everything. To keep things short, my favorite parts were:
1. The Egyptian Temple of Dendur (c.a. 15 BC) that they moved stone for stone from Egypt to the MET in order to save it from flooding in Egypt.
The best thing about this Temple is the graffiti carved into the ancient ancient structure by fools from the 1700's and the 1800's. Literally "Joe-schmo was here in 1816" types of stuff... in all different languages and stuff. Hilarious! Those "tags" are now forever preserved at the MET. What an honor. haha
2. Chuck Close's work. I studied him pretty thoroughly during my years in Art School but have never actually seen any of his work in person. It's amazing and just makes me enjoy humanity.
3. Georgia O'Keeffe's work. I've loved her work since like 3rd grade when I had to do a report on her. I've seen some of her paintings in person before but never so many at once.
4. And this.
Yes folks that's bike frame art on display in the middle of the contemporary art wing of the MET. Not sure much about it I just thought I'd add it. Pretty appropriate considering why I was in NYC in the first place. haha.
I was pretty sad to leave the MET. Next time I'm in NYC I'm going to dedicate a WHOLE DAY to it. Oh, here's a fun fact- the MET has a huge cafeteria with it's own sushi chef! Yes, for a snack you can have MET sushi. Yes, of COURSE we did it. This museum really got me thinking... about war. Yes, war. If another nation decided to attack us and bomb the heck out of New York, or any other city for that matter, it's not just an attack on one group of people- it's an attack on all of humanity. We have HUMANITY's history and art in that museum and many many originals. We have art form the WORLD that makes up such an important human history. I can't imagine our loss if it was destroyed because of diplomatic differences. The same, however, can be said of any nation. How many museums have we Americans destroyed in other countries. How much of our own history has been lost alongside it? Art is such a unifying aspect of life. It's an international language and can ignite more feelings and meaning than almost any other form of expression. A book can be written about ideas or a story and then translated but you never have to translate a painting, a sculpture, a photograph. It just all hit me at once how petty our differences are and how precious our history is. How man cultures are there in humanity's past that we know NOTHING about?! If NYC ever got nuked so much of the earth's history would be lost. How much is lost already?
ugh
Anyway,
On the way to the MET we strolled through Central Park. The whole walk only look us like 30 minutes IF THAT. She is so lucky to live so close to all of these wonderful things.
Ok fast forward to that evening. Brigid and her friends all decided they should have a birthday dinner at the Chinese food restaurant right across the street from Columbia. We did this and I invited a few old friends. Margot, my very best friend from high school who I haven't seen in like 4 years came with her girlfriend. One of my closest friends from SCAD, Abigail, came with another friend who just recently moved to NYC from Utah, James. OH MY GOSH IT WAS SOOOO GOOD TO SEE THEM!!!!! Margot only stayed for a bit but I got to catch up with her and finally meet her girlfriend! They look awesome and I'm so glad they are doing well.
I didn't get a photo of Abigail, James, and I for some stupid reason but we hung out much later into the night. We took a few laps around the block that Geeta lives on and talked and talked. It was sooo refreshing to see them. Abigail is one of my most esteemed friends and what she brings to the world is so important. She has her priorities straight and constantly encourages me to continue to follow my dreams. I love her a lot. It was great seeing James too because we miss him so much here in SLC! James was my very first friend here in SLC because he knew Abigail and she helped me move in! It's good to know I have friends like these in New York. I can't wait to see them again. Oh my gosh I almost forgot, while we were walking and catching up a RAT literally ran over all of our feet. Abigail FREAKED out and that got me freaking out an James like KICKED it into the park. HAHa we survived a NYC rat attack!
So we finally got to bed late, but only after getting some music from Geeta's awesome friend CHRIS. YOU ARE AWESOME CHRIS THANKS FOR THE HOOKUP! Thank God there's at least ONE hardcore kid at Columbia. He lives down the hall from Brigid and even helped come and pick me up the first night I was there... good because two girls alone with a HUGE BOX on the subways at 3am without a big hardcore kid is not a good idea ;) Thanks Chris!
So the next morning we really just took it easy. We got up, ate some food, went to this church down the street from her school, and then I went back to sleep untill like 2pm.
I said my goodbyes and then Geeta and I jumped on the subway to Penn Staion where it was then up to me to figure out how the heck to take the train all of the way to NJ to my airport in Newark. It turned out to be not as hard as I thought although it was like, um, total chaos. There are seriously like NO rail-station people around to help you... you have to do everything through computer and then when your train comes you have no idea what rail it's going to be on until it actually GETS there and then you have to like RUN to the correct door that leads to it's tracks. Then you have to fight your way through the door and get your luggage stored (i didn't have anything but a backpack thank GOD) and then sit as fast as you can so you actually have a seat. THEN you look around and realize that the train is tottally packed and there are people seriously standing. I mean do they ever cut off the tickets at capacity??! I guess not. I mean seriously! Then you have to listen and MAKE SURE you get off at the right stop because there are NO MAPS IN THE TRAIN so you have to talk to like random people and make sure you know what's up. The problem is that most people don't have any clue what's up. haha. Somehow by God's good grace I ended up at the airport checking in only to hear....
that my airplane is like an hour behind and that it was going to be literally impossible to make my connecting flight in Dallas. Yes the flight I was absolutely going to miss happened to be the last flight of the night out of Dallas to SLC so, before I even got through security I knew I was going to be spending the night in my connecting city. Gag. Even better, I guess the plane with late because of weather so here's the guy at the ticketing booth telling me that not only will i have to spend the night in Dallas but that they won't pay for a place for me to stay so my options are either pay 50 bucks for a hotel room or sleep in the airport.
The flight was lovely but Dallas... DALLAS?! Lame. Anyway I ended up going the hotel rout and after waiting over an hour for the shuttle to pick me up I ended up at a relatively nice hotel. I saved some money on the room because I got some sort of discount but it was still 50 bucks and I had to get dinner. There was a sleezy sports bar next to the hotel (the only restaurant around) and six flags was literally in my backyard but closed for some reason. Closed? It was only like 10:30pm. Maybe the season is over for 6 flags? Who knows. Anyway I got a sandwich to go from the bar and then watched TV till I passed out. Got up the next morning, got free breakfast, and got GOING. I was back in SLC by 1pm and went straight to bed.
What a trip. Would I do it again? Yes of COURSE.. however I'm going to wait until I have enough money saved up to do it next time. No more credit card trips fosho. It's ironic isn't it? I'm in NYC during Wall Street's demise and I'm doing exactly what crashed the markets- living beyond my means... for the last time. woo!
We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea
Labels: adventure, autumn, bicycle, Brigid, Dallas, family, Geeta, New York, Texas
posted by Chelsea at 1:58 PM
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