Manic Midtown & Wild Williamsburg

Where do i begin? i wake up to a beautiful morning with nothing but the sound of the rain dribbling down my window. The first thought that came to mind was " i want to sleep in since this is my favorite weather" but i sucked it up anyway, got dressed and left the house. Around 9:30 the rain started to get heavier but i still didn't mind that we had class. It wasn't until i got to Penn Station and started walking down Times Square that it dawned on me. I was grumpy as ever and was feeling hot at the same time. Only thought that was going through my head was " why class wasn't cancelled". I was not a happy camper but i figured there was no turning back because i was already in the city. Before Times Square became what it is today, it was originally named Longacre Square which was dominated by horse exchanges, carriage factories,stables,and blacksmiths'shops. It got the name " Times" when the publisher of  New York Times persuaded the city to rename the area for his newspaper ( BG, p.217). Since the 1990s, Times Square has flourished; it went from a city of crime, drug dealing, and prostitution to attracting as many as million tourists annually ( BG, p.218). My impression of Times Square is that it is fast paced and when you walking through there you have to pay attention especially when crossing the streets because the drivers are not going to stop for you. I know that is not a place that i would want to visit everyday because i am a slow walker.
From Times Square, we walked through the GE building, originally the RCA building. It was the first building constructed at Rockefeller Center and is home to NBC studios ( BG, p.248). Walking through the building led us to Rockefeller Center. What captured me as i was walking around was the mural painted Jose Maria Sert that depicted the theme of " man's new possibilities". The mural was originally created by  Diego Rivera but it was discarded because he created a fresco that included a portrait of Lenin along with a crowd of workers near his tomb carrying red flags, and a scene of rich people playing cards while venereal disease germs hover over them. The mural that replaced Rivera's is now called " American Progress" in which Abraham Lincoln, standing,represents the "Man of Action", while Ralph Waldo Emerson,seated,represents the " Man of Thought"(BG,p.249). The mural was breathtaking, i've never seen something so beautiful; it had a breathtaking aura about it even though it's over 70 years old.
From Rockefeller Center, we made our way to MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art. It is one of the city's  premier cultural institutions, one of the great repositories not only of modern painting and sculpture, but also of drawing,design,photography,and film (BG,p.260). Honestly i wasn't too crazy about visiting yet another museum. The paintings were similar to that of the Met. I actually enjoyed the paintings i saw at the Met better because some of the works i saw at MoMa did not strike me as art and i'm not even an art person to begin with.

After viewing the art collection at MoMA, we stopped at a Thai restaurant called Yum Yum 2. Majority of us dined there but some other students decided to go somewhere else to eat. I didn't mind where we were eating as long as i wasn't "paying" for it. To my surprise, the food was good.it's similar to Chinese food but Thai rice is less fried and feels lighter compare to Chinese cuisine.

Once our bellies were full and everyone was up and ready to go, we got on the subway and made our way to Williamsburg. This area has changed a lot since the concept of gentrification; people that once settled there can't even afford to live there anymore because everything is becoming expensive since the upper class moved in. As we made our way to Bedford Ave, we stopped at an antique museum called City Reliquary. it is a non profit museum that display artifacts of New York City (http://www.cityreliquary.org/museum/). The museum was intriguing because it wasn't like your typical museum. It had things in there that people can reminisce on. My favorite part of the museum was the slideshow with the kids getting haircut. I thought it was a thoughtful way of alleviating the other kids' fears about getting their haircuts; at least they knew that someone went through it and getting a haircut is not that bad as it seems or sounds.

Our last and final stop for the day was at the Sketchbook Museum Project.The concept behind this is that artists from all around the world put their collections together to form a traveling library of artists' books. This was my favorite part of the day. It was nice to sit down at a library and have the books come to you. I enjoyed reading different stories from all age groups. I like the idea that there's no limitations; one can write or put pictures or do whatever else they can do to convey a message to the public.