Journal 4

Today our class went to our first of many trips to Manhattan. This trip was to the east side of the city and a block or two into the west side of the city only to eat lunch because it is cheaper. Our first stop was to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was way bigger then I could imagine. This museum is one of the biggest museums in the world with about 2 million pieces of work. We only saw couple of pieces but not even close to seeing the whole place. We almost got lost trying to find the exit when we were leaving. But we got to see Andy Warhol a famous artist who paint the Campbell soup picture and Marlin Monroe paintings. His work was mostly protest pieces and in one room he had a death sign that had the eat in death a different colors. He was a very interesting artist making weird videos that I didn’t understand at all. After we finished up with Andy Warhol we found our way to the arms and armor that I found pretty cool. “Arms and armor contains weapons that range from simple arrowheads to elaborate ceremonial jewel-encrusted swords” (BG p.341). When you walk in you see fully armed man on horses under all this colorful banners. Its so amazing how they made this armor to fit them and it protected them. The types of armor they had there was European armor, Japanese armor and Islamic arms. Out of these three I liked the Japanese armor because its had cool designs and looks sick with a samurai sword. Lastly at the museum I got to see one of the artist that I like work which was Jasper Jones. His piece was a white faded American flag painting. He mostly paints bulls eyes or American flags in different ways.

After the museum we went into Central Park and I found out that Robert Moses was involved in the making the park. Starting to realize what a big part Robert Moses had in New York instead of just a beach named after him. “Central Park is the heartland of Manhattan, 843 acres set aside for the recreation of New Yorkers and Visitors alike. Although the park seems “natural,” the largest surviving piece of Manhattan encrusted with asphalt and masonry, its landscape and scenery are completely man-made, based on designs by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux” (BG p.279). When walking we stopped by the Stewart Little lake where in the movie he was riding the boat and took pictures on the Alice and wonderland statues. Then walked little bit further and saw the boat pond which was green but looking around in that area there were many things going on. A Beautiful water fountain in the middle with a women playing the harp. It started to get close to lunch so we made our way to the West side for some cheap but really good food at the BBQ place. But before we got there we made a stop at the strawberry Fields which was named after John Lenning song. The reason why they named that part of the park this was because right across the street was his home and where he got shoot and later on died. I learned there a guy that put flowers out everyday for John Lenning and we got to see it and also heard a man playing a guitar sing Beatles songs.

After a nice lunch we made our way to fifth avenue where we stopped to get candy and look at toys at F.A.O. Schwartz which was a poplar business but died out and this was the oldest and almost last story still around. We walked up farther and saw the Trump Towers, Cola-Cola company, New York’s first skyscraper Fred F. French Building and got to stop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was having work done. This church was the biggest I ever been in and the architecture inside the church was amazing. When we finished up with St. Patrick’s Cathedral we made it to Grand Central Terminal. I found out that they are building a line from Long Island to there by around 2018 but it will be ready my children will be able to go and take the train to that station. Penn station was a lot better then Grand Central Terminal until they fixed it up. Now its one of the largest terminal in America and I found out that the true name is Grand Central Terminal not Grand Central Station. Grand Central Station is a post office but a lot of New Yorker just call it a station when it really is a terminal. Our last stop was going to be the New York Public Library to see the Main Reading Room which is bigger then a football field but we couldn’t because the library just closed. I enjoyed today’s trip to the east side of Manhattan and seeing Central Park and all the other cool sights we saw. Look forward to next weeks west side adventure.

Journal #3

Today’s class we adventured to Brooklyn one of the biggest boroughs in New York. We Started off going to Coney Island which isn’t an Island anymore, more like a peninsula. It was a 45 min train ride from Penn to Coney Island so our class got to know each other pretty well. When we got there we walked around on the boardwalk and went to eat at the original Nathans Hot Dog. Looking at the building on the right side by the boardwalk there was a sign counting down to the next hot dog eating contest. After we ate our hot dogs we went to the flee market right next to Nathans and looked at all the cool things they were selling. I was kind of disappointed that Coney Island Amusement Park was closed. But I feel Coney Island was a nice stop on this trip.

Our next stop in Brooklyn was to Brooklyn Heights where we stopped at the transit Museum to see the public transportation. We learned that this was a station at one point in its life but only went to one stop and people realized it was faster and cheaper to just walk. So by 1976 the train station turned in to the transit museum. During the period this train station wasn’t a museum Hollywood filmed some movies using the back drop of this subway. In this museum we say the old bus compared to the new ones and learned about how the subway was made and planned out. Most of the workers were Irish and Italians because those two groups needed money to send back to there countries. “Lined up on the tracks of the former Court St. station are examples of most of the subway cars that have traveled the tracks since the first line opened in 1904” (BG p.468). We found old advertisements on the old trains in the station. We found out that New York was against the Subway until one bad snow storm that hit the Northeast that stopped all the ground transportation. This lead to the subway to be built so that never happens again. I realized that building the subway was like mining. They used TNT to blow throw the ground and had to break the pieces that fell into mining carts. They brought all the pieces that fell to land fills around the area. They used a technique called cut and cover which was digging 15 to 20 feet or so down under ground and building the subway. They realized that they had enough room to have the trains go through and not digging so far. They used steel to hold up the tunnels so they wouldn’t fall on the people that used the subway. The way they made the tunnels so strong was to build it like a sky scraper that’s on its side.

After we were done with the museum we walked around Brooklyn Heights and learned about the different kind of styles of buildings they had. They were Greek Revival style, Gothic Revival style and Italianate style. Since Brooklyn was a city at one point they had a city hall that’s still there today. Since Brooklyn was isolated from Manhattan there was a ferry to get people from place to place. But soon Brooklyn got heavily populated and the ferry couldn’t handle the people. The largest suspension bridge was built by Roebling and his son called the Brooklyn Bridge that connected Manhattan and Brooklyn. This bridge was the tallest building in Brooklyn but before this bridge it was the Pilgrims church. I learned that the pilgrim church had a long point on its roof that made it the largest building in Brooklyn but it was taken down because when they were building the subway they were worried the rumbling would knock the point down so they took it down. They never put it up again because there really isn’t a point there are big sky scrapers. Once the tour was over we got ice cream and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to see the new freedom towers, Empire state building and the statue of Liberty. I always wanted to walk it and I finally did. It was awesome even thought my feet hurt from the long day.

Journal 2: Queens

Finally the class that I was looking forward to all day was here. I woke up and put my walking shoes on and got prepared to walk. I didn’t realized we would be walking that much. 11 we depart from Penn station to our first stop of the day Citifield. We get off the train and we could see Citifield and Flushing Meadow Park. I learned a couple of interesting things in the park about Robert Moses.”Queens bears the stamp of Robert Moses, who as parks commissioner preserved acres and acres of forest, meadows, beaches and marshes” (BG p.493). I thought Robert Moses was a guy who made the beach on Long Island, but little did I know he planned all the expressways in the City and to Long Island. He also was known for building up the world fair. By learning this I thought Robert Moses was a good guy until our professor asked us why do you think Robert Moses made all his bridges to Long Island so small. It was to keep the buses from going over the bridge. He only wanted the high middle class to come over to Long Island to use his beaches. I always wondered why they called parkways there name and I finally learned the reason why they are call parkways because they end at a park. After walking through the park we made it to the Worlds Fair.

The Worlds Fair was brought to New York to make the city interesting and to make it stand out. The big Earth that we saw there had rings around it to represent global independence. Soon after taking pictures we walked over to the Queens museum and saw the panorama of the city and the five boroughs and the watershed exhibit. I didn’t realize how big the watershed was and learned that we don’t need pumps to pump the water to the five boroughs because it all flows down to us. This Museum was “built for city's exhibition in the 1939-40 World's Fair and later used by the United Nations General Assembly” (BG p.497).

Leaving the Queens Museum to go get lunch in Jackson Heights I was a little nervous about trying Indian food for the first time. I didn’t know if would like it and would have to go eat McDonalds. We got to Jackson Diner and I had different kinds of Indian food that wasn’t bad. I just couldn’t get myself to try the goat, but it was a good experience. Finishing up at the diner we took the train to Steinway Street which was “the largest number of people of Greek heritage, though today it also has growing Arab and Latino populations” (BG p.499). We made our way to Queens museum of the Moving Image which I was already looking forward to go there because I love movies and love to learn how they make them too. I found out that they made Men in Black in the studio right next to this museum and looking around the museum they had Men in Black props from the movie too. Sesame Street and Born Identity was also filmed in that studio too. Walking around we all got to see how video cameras, mics, radios and television have developed since the first invention of them. Another great part of this Museum was that I got to make a stop motion video. This was my second favorite part of today’s trip. My first favorite of the trip was going to Long Island City to the institute of Higher Burnin'.

The Higher Brunin' is a big building that you can do graffiti on by just coming with what art you want to paint on the wall and asking the guy if you can. There isn’t a charge to paint your art work on the walls at all. Its was amazing looking at all the talent on the walls. One of the people that worked there told us that there are people that come here from all around the world to paint on this walls and he pointed at these two graffiti paintings on the wall of two lady’s and told us that a lady from Japan painted those. I really wasn’t looking forward to this part of the trip until I got there and I was very surprised. In Long Island city I learned that PS 1 was the oldest school in Queens and they turned it into an art gallery. Then our last stop into Long Island City was to Gantry Plaza State Park to see the amazing view of the city which was a great way to end the day. After this long walking day I”m sure Ill feel sore tomorrow but it was sure worth it.

Journal #1

I live pretty close to the New york city but I have been only there a handle full of times. I feel like its a dangerous place, needing to look out for robbers, scam artist, terrorist and mainly getting lost in the city or worst of all on the subway. The subway to me could be in Chinese for all I know. The first time I was ever on the subway I got lost. I didn’t get lost by taking the train to far or not knowing what stop I needed to get off. I wish I could of said that was the reason but I got lost getting to the train. I'm so use to the Long Island railroad being left to Penn station or right to Montauk, but the subway there are ups and downs and lefts and rights and letters which is so confusing specially when you are rushing to get to a place you need to go to. All my life (all 20 years of it) I was always good at directions and finding my way through a town or a place, just need to be walked through it once I could find my way out even easier. It was just something about the subway, maybe being to far under the surface I couldn’t get my barrings.

Every since 9/11 I was nervous with many people about going into the city. It took me couple years to get to go my first trip to the big apple. I went with my family in December to see the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center. We also walked around the Time Square and saw all the advertisements and the great sights. After my first trip to the city I felt comfortable going there and thought I knew my way around. I soon realized I really didn’t. When I went with my friends to see a concert at Central Park , I realized how big and intimidating the city could be. Cars driving crazy and blocks being huge, it was pretty easy to get lost and not know what to do. So after the the concert was over we walked around and ended up by the empire state building and finally made it to Penn. I wish I knew more of the streets and how to get place or locate places faster because every time I get out of Penn I could never tell if I'm going up town or down town. I usually take a guess and start walking and if the numbers are going down and I was suppose to go uptown I just turn around.

What I want to get out of this class is really know the City. To actually say I've been there and to learn all the great history of this great city. I would like to learn about Queens since I'm so close too, so after the class I could drive there or just hang out. The only time I really go to Queens is to see a ball game. I think I'm going to get a lot of this class because its not sitting in a classroom and looking at pictures on a computer or reading about them and seeing them in your text book. Your actually living it and learning it which I feel is the best way to learn something, well for me it is. I'm very excited to start this class on September the 7^th spend the day in the city learning experiencing and not sitting in a class room.