N-Y-C!

Let me preface this post by warning everyone that I LOVED New York so be prepared for some enthusiasm!

We left for New York on May 22, the Friday before Memorial Day. Our bus driver was named Tony and at the beginning of our journey, he sang to us over the intercom. Only $40 and I got a ride to New York and a free concert! Of course, we had to take a picture with Tony after we arrived.

Here was my first exposure to a New York bathroom. Notice the open bottle of alcohol in the bathroom stall. Nice.

We went straight from the bus drop off to Times Square. It is quite an overwhelming experience and a bit of a tourist trap, but I loved it!



This is me eating my first hot dog from a vendor in New York.



After Times Square we made the trek up to our hostel in Upper Manhattan. It was a clean hostel, but the building it was in was old. This is all of us trying to pack into the tiny old elevator.

Here is our room. Three bunk beds in New York for about $28 a night.

This is Juliana and me on Saturday morning riding the subway.

Saturday morning we took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There was a beautiful view of Manhattan from the ferry.

I really enjoyed Ellis Island and learning about the tradition of immigration that we have in the United States.



From Ellis Island, we headed over to China Town. Michelle had told us before we got to New York that she wanted to buy a purse in China Town. So after we got off of the subway and a shady looking man asked us to follow him to his purse shop, we did it. Looking back on it, it seems like what we were doing was probably illegal, but somehow at the time I was just content to follow everyone else around.

We also had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in China Town.


Little Italy is right next to China Town.


Alicia waited in line for hours on Saturday morning while we went to the Statue of Liberty to get us discounted tickets to The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.

Here is us in the theater.


For dinner on Saturday we went to his famous pizza place in Brooklyn called Grimaldi's. It is so famous that we had to wait in line for hours to get inside.

Mmmm...

We planned it so that we would walk across the Brooklyn bridge toward Manhattan as the sun set. Beautiful!
On our way to our next destination, we made a stop at Grand Central Station.


It has a cool ceiling.

For dessert we went to this cute little cafe called Serendipity. They have the most delicious and expensive desserts there.




On our way to church on Sunday morning, we walked to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It is said to be the fourth largest Christian church in the world.





After our visit to the cathedral, we walked through Central Park. I looked up as we were walking and saw the Angel Moroni sticking up through the trees!

While waiting for church to start, we sat out on the rocks.


And took pictures on the bridge that reminded us of the movie Enchanted.

The Manhattan temple!


After church we went back to central park to eat lunch.


And took the subway down to the World Trade Center. This is Harry. He has the most amazing story and was so interesting to listen to. Here is a video of him on YouTube.


Near the World Trade Centers is Trinity church. National Treasure, anyone?

And near Trinity Church is Wall Street. Here is the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).


We woke up early on Monday morning. I went to Columbia University while the other girls went to a famous bagel shop. We met up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I LOVED it! Inside I saw paintings by Monet, Degal, Degas, Picasso, Manet, and VanGogh.


There were even annunciation paintings. This was the size of the whole wall!


This is the perfect picture to describe the weekend. Juliana and me looking at the map.


After the museum we made a stop by FAO Schwartz and were able to play on the BIG Piano.


And as we were walking to the UN, we took a picture by the LOVE statue.


Sadly, North Korea set off some missiles so the UN was closed for the day. World Peace!



Then we headed over to the Rockefeller Center. You can see all of NYC from up there.






After the Rockefeller, we swung back by our hostel to pick up our bags and headed to the bus station. It was such a fun vacation and we were able to do so much. I highly recommend New York! Here is us by the hostel.

Minnesota Nice

Apparently "Minnesota Nice" is real. Today one of my co-workers (from Wisconsin and alum of the University of Minnesota) said she could tell I'm from Minnesota because I'm so nice. Better to be nice than mean, I say.

Not everyone in the United States agrees with me. Not even the cashier at CVS Pharmacy who told me to "read the sign" yesterday when I asked if what I was purchasing rang up as the correct price (and then said, "I was right," when he showed me the sign). Nor the waiter in New York who told me that my method of payment was annoying. Nor the doctor's office receptionist who had a completely flat facial expression and didn't even try to make nice conversation with me...

I admit it, I have unrealistically high expectations. And it probably isn't healthy that internally I feel upset when strangers aren't nice to me (I even talk about it later with an incredulous tone - Can you BELIEVE what he said to me?!?).

However, I am slowly coming to grips with the "real world." Every day I learn how to be kind to those who are unkind and to forgive even strangers who I will never see again. Without the discomfort I have felt here on the east coast, I likely would never have learned these lessons.

But I still like Minnesota nice. :)

I'm an Art-aholic

Since I've been out East, I've had the chance to attend many art museums and I've discovered... that I'm an art-aholic! So far my favorites have been the Metropolitan Museum of Art (top) and the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum (bottom).

Paintings just aren't the same in a textbook as they are in person. Sometimes the most important aspect of a piece of art is its actual physical size. Other times, the vividness of the colors does not hold in the reproduction. Mostly, there is something about looking at the actual canvas that Picaso, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Seurat, Raphael, Cassatt, or Degas painted that is thrilling.

I love impressionism. These paintings are meant to capture the impression of scenes and often portary everyday events or landscapes. The beauty of the brushstrokes and the capturing of the feeling of an event or scene can make me feel serene.

Back at BYU I went to a lecture on annunciation paintings and now I just love them. To illustrate this, at the Met in New York I specifically sought out an exhibit that I thought would have annunciation paintings. I walked through, enjoying the artwork but noticing the lack of annunciations. Then I turned a corner and **BAM** there was a wall-sized annunciation and I gasped! Audibly. The rest of the rooms of the exhibit had several annunciations and I took pictures of them so I could study and ponder them later. If you don't believe, see photo of the annunciation painting below. They are packed full of symbolism, which makes searching for symbols like an eye spy game, and I am impressed with some of the consistencies across the paintings. Ask me later if you want to hear more about my love for them.

But as you can see from the quizzical look below, I still have a hard time understanding modern and contemporary art. We thought this one (at the Musem of American Art) looked like a thought bubble. The plaque described it as an example of delicacy despite it's large size and some other stuff that I didn't buy. If anyone has any insights, feel free to share.

Yay art!