I am actually home now but thought I should still update what I did on the last few days in New York :)
Tuesday was fairly uneventful, it was nice to have a lie in then just potter into White Plains for the final present/myself shopping. We were supposed to be going to the Yankees game that evening, we all got dressed up in our jerseys with the little NY logo eye linered on our cheeks..but in true New York fashion the game was rained off :( Luckily for us it was rescheduled for the next day at 1pm and as we had little planned for Wednesday we could still go :) It probably turned out better for us actually as Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day (as my sunburn proved!).
The Yankees game was one of my favourite experiences from the whole trip! It took me a while to figure out what was going on, with a lot of help from our American lecturer Davis who was explaining the rules to me as it went along and looked at me with a very confused expression when I finally said "oh, so it's basically like rounders and cricket"! Anyway, the Yankees won, we all cheered and then we went and had a pretty average and overpriced meal at Dominick's (the restaurant from the Godfather movie).
Thursday was a bit of a roller-coaster day, we were all starting to get a bit sad as it was our last proper day in the city. We went to ground zero to see the 9/11 memorial, there was a question for a while as to whether they were going to rebuild on the site. I'm glad they didn't, the peace garden which is now there is beautiful and it shows that the victims of the attack have not been forgotten. The new world trade centre also stands next to the garden, which will be the tallest building in the skyline when it is complete- it has been built to show that the city can come back stronger. Seeing the thousands of names around the memorial was incredibly sad because it really gave you the scale of how many families were affected by that day, but it was also somehow impersonal, unlike meeting Ben at the fire station- which for me was the strongest experience of 9/11 we had in New York. A few of the names stopped us in our tracks because they had 'and her unborn child' following them, it's inconceivable to think that the actions of a few people meant that those children never even got the chance to be born.
We got the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn purely to walk back over the Brooklyn Bridge because we kind of needed something to bring us back up after the experience of the memorial. The bridge was another high point of the trip for me, the views are incredible and there's just something amazing but unexplainable about the whole experience.
Thursday evening we had our posh 'Park Ave' party :) We all dressed up and the talented amongst us played piano and sang (I was not amongst them!). We kept it very American themed with a 'most likely to...' Section with categories like 'most accident prone' and 'biggest spender', I got biggest geek for my insanely nerdy film knowledge- it was a proud moment :) For most of the trip we had a secret 'Fred committee' consisting of Emily, Lauren and myself which was in charge of finding out Fred's interests so that we could get him a nice present..he was very happy with his Goldshlager, glasses and engraved platter :) However, as I really didn't help that much with Fred I decided to organise the lecturers presents so I got a contribution from everyone and dragged Steph shopping with me! We had all decided that we needed to get Peter a bow tie as we loved his style, we wanted to get him a Union Jack one but there were none to be found! Trying to stick with the British theme we got a very nice Ben Sherman tie for Davis :) shopping for Darren was more of a treat for me than him as I found a really cool/nerdy shop with comic book stuff that I spent a good hour in, left with an X-Men pint glass for him and Avengers shot glasses for me :D
Soooo..that very briefly sums up the last few days of my trip. Friday was just a rounding off day, although some of the staff did put on a BBQ for us which was very nice of them, and we had a lovely Pagli girls dinner at the coach diner :) I had such an amazing time and met some wonderful people, luckily I will see most of them again- even our All American girl Adrianna is coming to London this summer :) Unfortunately I don't know if/when I will get to see the lovely Clarissa again, so after living with her for three weeks it was pretty hard to say goodbye!
I don't really know how to sign this off! I will always remember my time in the Big Apple and I will upload pictures to share with you soon :) Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Monday, 17 June 2013
Sunday 16th and monday 17th June
A morning full of temples followed by an afternoon of fun fair fun :)
We went to a very ornate Hindu Temple and watched the bathing of Ganesh ceremony- very bizarre experience in which the statue of the Elephant god (which the Hindus worship as sort of the deity itself) is bathed in milk, yogurt, water, orange juice, oil amongst other unidentifiable things! The day was kind of a rush of temples- another Hindu one, a Sikh one and a Thai Buddhist one- all were incredibly welcoming to us and they all kept trying to feed us..we did have authentic Hindu cuisine for brunch which was very nice :)
The afternoon was spent sitting by the beach at Coney Island- Visited the famous Lunar park and won a Pirate Patrick the starfish and a mini racing driver Roey duck on the arcade machines! We also tried corn dogs from the original Nathan's which were unfortunately kind of disappointing :( The day ended with a visit to café Glechnik in little Russia and tried Russian dumplings which were surprisingly yummy :)
Today is Monday and we started the day with a visit to Amnesty International- I have to admit that I wasn't exactly excited about it because I've never really taken much interest in AI. However, I have realised today that the organisation is not what I thought it was and it is actually a very important body which does amazing work through the sheer power of social pressure. It was hot hot hot today to the point where it was uncomfortable and sticky- jokingly I was walking along saying take me back to the cold and rain... within 5 minutes it was raining and everyone was blaming me haha It was actually quite nice though as the air was still warm and the rain was cool and light so it was refreshing. Plus you can't complain about a little bit of rain when you're walking through Central Park! It was another perfect, authentic, 'New York' moment walking through the trees with a guy playing slow jazz to the side of us and a street dance performance going in up ahead :) We walked a few blocks from the park to the Museum of Natural History- where night at the Museum is based :)The geek in me was satisfied by seeing all the dinosaurs (the girls were actually laughing at how much of an excited child I was when I saw them!) and we spent some time lying under the huge Blue whale suspended from the ceiling, feeling very tiny. To me Central Park followed by the Museum of Natural History was a perfect way to spend the afternoon.
So that's what I've been doing the past couple of days.. sorry it's late and short! Pictures will follow when I have time/energy!
We went to a very ornate Hindu Temple and watched the bathing of Ganesh ceremony- very bizarre experience in which the statue of the Elephant god (which the Hindus worship as sort of the deity itself) is bathed in milk, yogurt, water, orange juice, oil amongst other unidentifiable things! The day was kind of a rush of temples- another Hindu one, a Sikh one and a Thai Buddhist one- all were incredibly welcoming to us and they all kept trying to feed us..we did have authentic Hindu cuisine for brunch which was very nice :)
The afternoon was spent sitting by the beach at Coney Island- Visited the famous Lunar park and won a Pirate Patrick the starfish and a mini racing driver Roey duck on the arcade machines! We also tried corn dogs from the original Nathan's which were unfortunately kind of disappointing :( The day ended with a visit to café Glechnik in little Russia and tried Russian dumplings which were surprisingly yummy :)
Today is Monday and we started the day with a visit to Amnesty International- I have to admit that I wasn't exactly excited about it because I've never really taken much interest in AI. However, I have realised today that the organisation is not what I thought it was and it is actually a very important body which does amazing work through the sheer power of social pressure. It was hot hot hot today to the point where it was uncomfortable and sticky- jokingly I was walking along saying take me back to the cold and rain... within 5 minutes it was raining and everyone was blaming me haha It was actually quite nice though as the air was still warm and the rain was cool and light so it was refreshing. Plus you can't complain about a little bit of rain when you're walking through Central Park! It was another perfect, authentic, 'New York' moment walking through the trees with a guy playing slow jazz to the side of us and a street dance performance going in up ahead :) We walked a few blocks from the park to the Museum of Natural History- where night at the Museum is based :)The geek in me was satisfied by seeing all the dinosaurs (the girls were actually laughing at how much of an excited child I was when I saw them!) and we spent some time lying under the huge Blue whale suspended from the ceiling, feeling very tiny. To me Central Park followed by the Museum of Natural History was a perfect way to spend the afternoon.
So that's what I've been doing the past couple of days.. sorry it's late and short! Pictures will follow when I have time/energy!
Friday 14th and Saturday 15th June
On Friday we went back to the Met as Peter didn't feel we had adequate time there during the Museum Mile festival. We spent a lot of time looking at Islamic art and Far Eastern art, including many versions of the Buddha, one being about 1200 years old and made of wood. We didn't get time to visit the Greek and Roman art though which I was very upset about! We then spent the afternoon learning how to meditate with our eyes open at a Shambhala meditation centre.. it was a very weird experience and I started to see faces in the wooden flooring that I was staring at! We finished the day with the best meal I've had since we've been here- Thai :) Massaman Curry with Thai Ice tea, absolutely beautiful- although my step-mum's comes pretty close to it :)
Saturday was a free day so I used the time to chill out and Skype home before going to Broadway in the evening :) I have to be honest, as much as I love it here, there was a part of me when I was skyping home that felt quite ready to go home! However, when we were on the subway into the city four guys got on who introduced themselves as brothers and then started to dance and flip down the aisle right in front of us- it was like a mini Diversity performance :) It felt so authentically 'New York' and just like that I went back to never wanting to leave! We went to see Mamma Mia- I love the film and the show did not disappoint! I LOVED IT- it was so funny, most of the singing was great and at the end we all got up a clapped and swayed to Waterloo :)
Saturday was a free day so I used the time to chill out and Skype home before going to Broadway in the evening :) I have to be honest, as much as I love it here, there was a part of me when I was skyping home that felt quite ready to go home! However, when we were on the subway into the city four guys got on who introduced themselves as brothers and then started to dance and flip down the aisle right in front of us- it was like a mini Diversity performance :) It felt so authentically 'New York' and just like that I went back to never wanting to leave! We went to see Mamma Mia- I love the film and the show did not disappoint! I LOVED IT- it was so funny, most of the singing was great and at the end we all got up a clapped and swayed to Waterloo :)
Thursday 13th June
Wow.. I did not realise how long it had been since I updated! Apologies folks I am normally just too tired or don't have enough time but we are having a chilled evening at the Pagli house tonight so I will try to write a little bit about what I have been doing for the past 5 days :)
Thursday was a long day with three museum trips- don't get me wrong I love a good museum but after a while you stop taking everything in because it's too overwhelming! The first museum was the Native American Indian museum around Wall St, it had some really cool tools and dresses from various Native American tribes. There was also a section on musicians throughout recent years who have Indian heritages which included Jimi Hendrix' rainbow coat on display and a section of comfy seats to sit and watch old footage of him playing.
The next museum, which should have been the last so we could send more time there, was the Jewish Heritage museum. It has an interesting layout with the origins of the culture leading up to the pre-holocaust years on the first floor, the holocaust on the second and post- holocaust on the third floor so it was like walking though the entire history of the Jewish culture in a couple hours. Of course everyone knows about the holocaust and how awful it was but seeing some of the pictures and artefacts and reading the statistics can still take your breath away. Darren mentioned a famous quote from a philosopher which went something like 'can there be poetry and beauty after the atrocities of Auschwitz?', I can understand what he meant because it's hard to imagine that humans who are capable of such horrendous and disgusting behaviour can then create anything beautiful. However, going up to the third floor of the museum and seeing the many ways in which the Jewish community came together after the holocaust to pull themselves through and rebuild their lives showed, in my eyes, that there can be beauty after Auschwitz.
The last museum of the day was the Brooklyn Museum which had a mixture of exhibits including different calendars throughout history, unfortunately we were mostly too tired and museumed out to take in a whole lot there!
Thursday was a long day with three museum trips- don't get me wrong I love a good museum but after a while you stop taking everything in because it's too overwhelming! The first museum was the Native American Indian museum around Wall St, it had some really cool tools and dresses from various Native American tribes. There was also a section on musicians throughout recent years who have Indian heritages which included Jimi Hendrix' rainbow coat on display and a section of comfy seats to sit and watch old footage of him playing.
The next museum, which should have been the last so we could send more time there, was the Jewish Heritage museum. It has an interesting layout with the origins of the culture leading up to the pre-holocaust years on the first floor, the holocaust on the second and post- holocaust on the third floor so it was like walking though the entire history of the Jewish culture in a couple hours. Of course everyone knows about the holocaust and how awful it was but seeing some of the pictures and artefacts and reading the statistics can still take your breath away. Darren mentioned a famous quote from a philosopher which went something like 'can there be poetry and beauty after the atrocities of Auschwitz?', I can understand what he meant because it's hard to imagine that humans who are capable of such horrendous and disgusting behaviour can then create anything beautiful. However, going up to the third floor of the museum and seeing the many ways in which the Jewish community came together after the holocaust to pull themselves through and rebuild their lives showed, in my eyes, that there can be beauty after Auschwitz.
The last museum of the day was the Brooklyn Museum which had a mixture of exhibits including different calendars throughout history, unfortunately we were mostly too tired and museumed out to take in a whole lot there!
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
Wednesday 12th June
Another day centred around food! Got the subway to Harlem today and had lunch in the famous Sylvia's soul food restaurant. I have to admit it did live up to the hype; they bring out 'bread' for the table to start with which was more like madeira cake and the creamy garlic mash was some of the best mash I've ever had (sorry nan/mum!). We then had a walking tour around Harlem, famous for being a centre of black culture- but not where the Harlem Globetrotters are from! A lot of us were expecting a very run down, unsafe area- which I'm sure some parts of it are but the centre of Harlem is actually a very wealthy area, with architecturally beautiful town houses that can sell for $2-3 million. By then we were supposed to have walked up an appetite so we went to another famous diner, this time Tom's restaurant from the TV show Seinfeld... hardly any of us were actually hungry by that point so we just had a milkshake (amazing) and shared some mozzarella sticks. My favourite part of the day was walking round Columbia University, partly because it's a really nice campus, very historical and prestigious.. but mostly because my inner Gossip Girl geek was thinking 'this is where Nate goes!!' :)
A couple of the many famous names that have won the Apollo's amateur night
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
Tuesday 11th June
Woke up feeling all round crappy today so I didn't get into this mornings 'mock security council' as much as I should have, think the next meeting is Friday.. all I can say is that the world is lucky that we are not really in power!
We spent the first part of the afternoon at an Islamic centre- I had to go out yesterday to buy a long skirt, scarf and shirt as I had nothing appropriate to wear, apparently trousers are still too risqué! The Imam spent a lot of time with us talking about the Muslim religion in general and also the community projects that the centre is involved in. The centre opens at 3am so that the local Muslim community can go there for their first prayer of the day at 4:15am.. don't think I'll be signing up!
The late afternoon and evening was so enjoyable and I feel a lot better now that I did this morning. We walked across Park Ave and Madison Ave (very nice area!) to get to Fifth Avenue- or 'Museum Mile' as there is currently a festival going on that means that between 6-9pm you can enter any of the museums and galleries for free. They also shut off the street and there are various street performers and DJs playing, more hot dog stands than you've ever seen and lots of chalk lying around for everyone to draw on the street. The whole atmosphere was amazing and we spent quite a lot of time just siting on a bench eating ice cream and people watching :)
We visited two museums, the Met and the Jewish Heritage Museum. Unfortunately a lot of the Met was closed off but we did get into the Punk exhibition, which was a celebration of the fashion and culture of the punk era- including a recreation of the graffiti covered bathroom of the CGBG club! I actually knew more names than I thought I would, most of the t-shirts on display were designed by Vivienne Westward and worn by Adam Ant. The designs were so 'in your face' and it knocked the idea that we have that punk was/is all about black pvc and studs and chains- originally punk fashion was as simple as a t-shirt was a couple of words or a picture that pushed boundaries and shocked the mainstream. The whole exhibit had low music playing and it heightened the experience to walk around bobbing my head to the Sex Pistols' 'Pretty Vacant' :)
The Jewish Heritage Museum told the Jewish history from its conception to its modern place in the world. Peter was telling us all about the artefacts we were looking at but he kept getting interrupted by members of the public asking him questions, I'm pretty sure they thought he was actually a tour guide, especially when they started following us round to the next floor! They actually had an anti-Semitic section with paraphernalia from around the world, including America- some of it quite recent. I thought it was cool that the Jewish people could show that they excepted this hate as a part of their history as it has clearly helped shape the modern generations of Jews.
We spent the first part of the afternoon at an Islamic centre- I had to go out yesterday to buy a long skirt, scarf and shirt as I had nothing appropriate to wear, apparently trousers are still too risqué! The Imam spent a lot of time with us talking about the Muslim religion in general and also the community projects that the centre is involved in. The centre opens at 3am so that the local Muslim community can go there for their first prayer of the day at 4:15am.. don't think I'll be signing up!
The late afternoon and evening was so enjoyable and I feel a lot better now that I did this morning. We walked across Park Ave and Madison Ave (very nice area!) to get to Fifth Avenue- or 'Museum Mile' as there is currently a festival going on that means that between 6-9pm you can enter any of the museums and galleries for free. They also shut off the street and there are various street performers and DJs playing, more hot dog stands than you've ever seen and lots of chalk lying around for everyone to draw on the street. The whole atmosphere was amazing and we spent quite a lot of time just siting on a bench eating ice cream and people watching :)
We visited two museums, the Met and the Jewish Heritage Museum. Unfortunately a lot of the Met was closed off but we did get into the Punk exhibition, which was a celebration of the fashion and culture of the punk era- including a recreation of the graffiti covered bathroom of the CGBG club! I actually knew more names than I thought I would, most of the t-shirts on display were designed by Vivienne Westward and worn by Adam Ant. The designs were so 'in your face' and it knocked the idea that we have that punk was/is all about black pvc and studs and chains- originally punk fashion was as simple as a t-shirt was a couple of words or a picture that pushed boundaries and shocked the mainstream. The whole exhibit had low music playing and it heightened the experience to walk around bobbing my head to the Sex Pistols' 'Pretty Vacant' :)
The Jewish Heritage Museum told the Jewish history from its conception to its modern place in the world. Peter was telling us all about the artefacts we were looking at but he kept getting interrupted by members of the public asking him questions, I'm pretty sure they thought he was actually a tour guide, especially when they started following us round to the next floor! They actually had an anti-Semitic section with paraphernalia from around the world, including America- some of it quite recent. I thought it was cool that the Jewish people could show that they excepted this hate as a part of their history as it has clearly helped shape the modern generations of Jews.
I've left my mark on NYC
Fifth Avenue chalk work
One for the Roehampton students- see, Lions and Zebras can get along!
Steps of the Met (one for the Gossip Girl fans)
Monday, 10 June 2013
Monday 10th June
Free day today so we had brunch at IHOP- International house of pancakes! If the Americans have only gotten one thing right over the span of human history it is that pancakes and bacon are a bloody good combination! Some people have gone into the city to shop but there is only a certain amount of shopping I can stand in one trip.. instead Darren and I decided we would see if we could make our way to Salem. Not the witch hunt Salem as that is in Massachusetts but Salem, Westchester County- supposed home of Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters! Unfortunately it would have taken 2 buses and a train so we may try and bribe Davis into driving us another day :)
Not really a lot else to say about today, except that we are going for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory :) I am hoping to see Penny, if not I am still going to ask the waitress who gets the other half of my 'soup and a half sandwich'.
I forgot to write about something quite important in yesterday's blog. On our way back through Chinatown we passed an open Firehouse and stopped to take pictures with the fire trucks with their gold dragons on the front. Shortly after a man called Ben came and started talking to us, answering all our questions and taking pictures with us. He then started telling us some of the stories from that particular fire house's experience of 9/11. Ben was grateful that 8 of their men/women who went into the building nearest to them came out again, only because a woman had started to freak out on/under a stairwell and they had agreed to stay with her to calm her down. When the building collapsed that stairwell was one of the only places that remained in tact and so they were all saved. But not all of their colleagues were as lucky. Ben was training two very new recruits that day and because of that one of his friends who he had known and worked with since kindergarten had ran ahead to get into the building whilst he was still trying to talk the new guys into it. He finally managed to do so but when they were on their way towards the building it collapsed, killing nearly everyone that was still inside.
For people of my generation 9/11 is probably one of the first major world events that we remember, we have grown up in the aftermath of it and have heard countless stories about the devastation it caused. But hearing it first hand when we were not expecting it made it feel so much more real to me and showed how after all these years it is still affecting lives here, it is still very much at the forefront of people's minds. I don't think that in other parts of the world we have forgotten about it but neither do we remember it as people do here. Meeting Ben was an incredibly humbling experience and I imagine that Thursday 20th when we go to the Ground Zero memorial will be emotionally draining but I think we owe it to the people who lost their lives to remember them, even for a day, as the New Yorkers do every single day.
Not really a lot else to say about today, except that we are going for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory :) I am hoping to see Penny, if not I am still going to ask the waitress who gets the other half of my 'soup and a half sandwich'.
I forgot to write about something quite important in yesterday's blog. On our way back through Chinatown we passed an open Firehouse and stopped to take pictures with the fire trucks with their gold dragons on the front. Shortly after a man called Ben came and started talking to us, answering all our questions and taking pictures with us. He then started telling us some of the stories from that particular fire house's experience of 9/11. Ben was grateful that 8 of their men/women who went into the building nearest to them came out again, only because a woman had started to freak out on/under a stairwell and they had agreed to stay with her to calm her down. When the building collapsed that stairwell was one of the only places that remained in tact and so they were all saved. But not all of their colleagues were as lucky. Ben was training two very new recruits that day and because of that one of his friends who he had known and worked with since kindergarten had ran ahead to get into the building whilst he was still trying to talk the new guys into it. He finally managed to do so but when they were on their way towards the building it collapsed, killing nearly everyone that was still inside.
For people of my generation 9/11 is probably one of the first major world events that we remember, we have grown up in the aftermath of it and have heard countless stories about the devastation it caused. But hearing it first hand when we were not expecting it made it feel so much more real to me and showed how after all these years it is still affecting lives here, it is still very much at the forefront of people's minds. I don't think that in other parts of the world we have forgotten about it but neither do we remember it as people do here. Meeting Ben was an incredibly humbling experience and I imagine that Thursday 20th when we go to the Ground Zero memorial will be emotionally draining but I think we owe it to the people who lost their lives to remember them, even for a day, as the New Yorkers do every single day.
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