Let me start last weekend because it was packed with Seminar events. On Friday after my 10 AM Philosophy lecture I took the bus over to the New York Public Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. This library is absolutely beautiful. It's flanked by the Metropolitan Opera House and it's right by Julliard. I personally love the Upper West Side because it's a bit more artsy and quieter than the Upper East Side and the last time I went there, I had some really amazing sorbet from this cart at 72nd. If you haven't gone to Lincoln Center, there's a huge water sculpture outside and a rooftop lawn that's nice to sit on if it's sunny and warm. This day it was raining, but it was still really pretty. I had originally gone there with my Seminar class to view dance videos but this time I had a five-page paper to write. Yeah, that paper. I buckled down with a whole pile of books around me and wrote the paper in six hours. Determination, children. Pure determination.
Anyway, that night I rushed back to the dorms to meet my friend and to go to a dance performance with my Seminar class. We saw a Roseann Spradlin post-modern dance piece called "beginning of something". It was crazy and amazing and it really opened my eyes to the world of dance. I've never been a dance person because I just never got it, but this piece was moving and packed with meaning and I came away knowing I would never forget it. Saturday morning, I went out again with my friend to the Noguchi museum in Long Island City. We got so lost. First, there were no N or R trains running to Queens that day and the 7 wasn't running at all, so we had to take the F and then the bus. However, I've never taken public transportation to Queens. If you've never been in Queens, you should probably know that as you go north, the avenue numbers go down, not up like in Manhattan. Thus, we took the bus in the wrong direction and ended up circling back to where we started after 20 minutes. We were just happy to be on a bus because it was a pretty long walk. We finally got there and took a look around. Some of the sculptures were pretty cool, especially the "Sun at Noon" and "Sun at Midnight" sculptures (shown below, respectively).
To reward myself for my diligent work on my paper the day before and for actually making it to this museum on a Saturday when the bus and train schedules are totally inconsistent and horrible, my friend and I went to the Olive Garden on 6th Avenue and 22nd street for the first time (at least for me). I got the Chicken and Gnocchi soup and unlimited breadsticks. Even though it was $7 for that soup, I feel like I deserved it after my paper and the long and difficult journey to Queens. Plus, you can't complain with unlimited breadsticks. I met up with some other friends down at St. Marks and we went to a super cute tea shop with Cinnamon tea that helped cure my sore throat. Seriously, my sinuses are going crazy from this changing weather. I also haggled with a street vendor for the first time and got some cute sunglasses for only $5!
Sunday I went to Fall for Dance with my seminar class, which wasn't nearly as interesting as the Roseann Spradlin piece. There was a piece by the Julliard school which was way too modern and minimalist for my taste. Twyla Tharp's "Sinatra Suite" was also great since I love Frank Sinatra and the mixture of ballroom dancing and ballet left me wanting more. However, my favorite was Hong Kong ballet's "Luminous". I find ballet really beautiful and their take on human relationships was so heartbreaking I actually felt myself tearing up a bit. That's what good art does for me. I spent the intermissions taking photos of the beautiful architecture (I'm kind of an architecture nerd to be honest).
Anyway, I had a full week of classes, a dinner with my parents, and some really great fries at the cart outside Hunter while catching up with my friend after English class (our bi-weekly ritual which was broken by dinner with my parents). This long weekend was spent catching up on work, laundry, and general housekeeping and lounging around. The most interesting parts of it were the undergrad night at the Frick Collection and our midnight adventure to the Brooklyn Bridge. The Frick is the most beautiful museum I've ever been to. It used to be an old house and has all these nooks and crannies that you can get lost in. There's even an antechamber to the bathroom. Again, I'm kind of an architecture nerd. I finally got to use my One Thousand New York Buildings book that I got a couple years ago. It has all these interesting buildings in New York by neighborhood along with a little history. I also dragged all my friends along with me to see the Palace Hotel for the 15th time because architecture. Plus, we had amazing empanadas at this Cuban restaurant. Anyway, I had never been to the Brooklyn Bridge before and my friend Chris kept getting lost trying to find it. Even when he got out at the Brooklyn Bridge stop, he ended up in Times Square. Somehow. We need to get a leash for him. It was a spur of the moment adventure and it was freezing but we had so much fun walking across the bridge and freezing our extremities off (seriously couldn't feel my toes). I'll leave you with the panorama photo my friend took of the city from the bridge.
Bye guys!
Erica
No comments:
Post a Comment