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.