The Fancy Eastside

As I walked to the subway this morning looking at the sky thinking it was an okay day to go on an adventure around “The Fancy Eastside”. I arrived at our usual hang out spot at Penn station as I waited for more of my classmates to come Mike did his morning ritual of getting everyone excited for this beautiful yet raining day. We hippity hopped out of the train station to go to our first stop which was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art or “Met” for short is the largest, most extensive collection of art than any museum around the world. The Met occupies 1.5 million square feet and their collection includes as many as two million objects. (BG, 326) As we finally arrived to the museum everyone including myself took a second shower in this Monsoon type rain. The art professors explained to us about the artists and their art work. As we walked from room to room I really enjoyed the art pieces and the way they painted on the oil canvasses and the way they made such beautiful art work. We then stopped at a Pollack painting which to me and other people around thought anybody do that it looks so easy but to my surprise a professor of ours said, “well my students and I tried to replicate Pollack’s “Autumn Rhythm”.  I saw some of Andy Warhol‘s images of Jackie Kennedy and Skull. The last time I was at the Met it was a few years ago for my art class and I had to write about certain paintings about Pablo Picasso. I then roamed around the Roman, Egyptian, Greek and African exhibits with Scott and Jessie. It was pretty awesome looking at old items that date back so far from the Greek times. 

Then we went back out to the rain to Grand Central terminal to have lunch and relax a bit. Some of us had pizza at Two Boots. From there we had to get back to the information desk. Grand Central Terminal is one of the world’s greatest railroad stations and enduring symbol of the city and it covers three city blocks from 42^nd to 45^th street between Vanderbilt and Madison avenue (BG, 229). Also a little fact I never knew was Penn Station at one time looked a lot like Grand Central and was about to be torn down but it was saved by Jackie Kennedy.

After lunch we visited the New York Public Library at Bryant Park. As we entered, we saw these lions made out of legos which was pretty cool. The library holds about 30,000 books reference books in the main reading hall (BG, 208).  The New York Library is one of the four major research facilities and worlds famous for its collection and much admired for the architecture of its building. (BG, 207) We then went to the Main Reading Room to rest and write down in my notepad.

From the public library we then trotted down fifth avenue we passed by St. Patrick’sCathedral.  St. Patrick’s is the largest catholic cathedral in the US and the 11th largest in the world. (BG, 254) It is also a famous landmark for New York City and it’s a symbol of success of the Irish population. (BG, 254)  After all the sightseeing of all the stores down 5th avenue we ended up at FAO Schwartz where there are tons of toys. Mike told us to find our favorite toy and take a picture with it. I scrambled around the store to find a stuffed animal to take a picture with. There were gigantic stuffed animals, little princess outfits, a large collection of candy (my favorite part of the store J) and the giant keyboard piano.

Although the weather was horrible and I took a second shower in pouring rain but in the end I truly enjoyed today’s visit on the gorgeous East side. I enjoyed the collections that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had to offer, the Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library. Next class we are off to the Wild West of Manhattan.