Journal 5: Desde EL BARRIO de PARQUE CENTRAL
09/26/2014
We began the day at Penn Station, like we usually do, and then hopped on the E and transferred on Lexington Avenue to transfer to the 6 train to Lexington and 103st in East Harlem. Once we got off the train we learned our first lesson of the public transportation system in East Harlem which is, the subway enables people to live in this area and settle. With the trains, it has made it easier for people to travel back in forth to work. East Harlem became El Barrio in the 50's because it was the prime written place full of Hispanic cultures in the city. By the 60's it was very high in crime and by the late 1990's gentrification kicked in to this poor Latino area. The reason why gentrification came to East Harlem was because it's near Central Park and a couple blocks away from the east side. Of course it would not be Gotham class without learning about the evil villain Robert Moses. Moses wanted to make high rise apartments named tenements but little did he know that these tenements would lead to an increase in crime and later be known as the projects.
Our first stop of East Harlem was the Museum of the City of New York. The museum has changing exhibition focused on the history of New York City, especially its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation (ENY, p.162).In the museum we saw a movie called Timescapes which was 22 minutes filled with different facts and photos of the history of New York. After we left the museum, we met our tour guide, Luke.
Luke spoke a little about how the community of East Harlem means family. We learned that the way we love our family and our friends should be expanded, and how the love of life should be expanded to all not just our families. As a poet, we could not start the tour without hearing a poem so Luke recited a poem named Solidarity which was absolutely captivating! (You can hear his poem in the video below). After listening to his wonderful poem, we began to walk the streets of east Harlem. Luke explained to us that on almost every block there is always a group of people talking together telling stories and spending time, spreading the idea of family is the community not just the people you live with at home. On 104th street where we were standing Luke told us that it used to be a river, where the Native Americans use to live (marshland) where they had the same sense of family and communication. After 104th street, we walked to a community garden where we saw a strange sculpture of a woman's Fallopian tube. The artist that made it was a women that made it to represent the women’s true reasoning of life and showing that women should not only be sexually depicted but shown for what they bring to the world which it the gift of life. We than walked to the mural of the Spirit of East Harlem which shows real people of Harlem depicted on the wall. While viewing the mural, I thought to myself. Wow! This community is real close together, everyone knows who everyone is and stops to help each other, unlike most other communities. Our last stop with Luke was at the Botanica where people can buy natural herbs and spirituals to heal themselves. For example, if you’re having trouble with something you can get a candle and light it and the spirits will come to you and help you with your problem. After the great tour with Luke, we had an hour lunch break where I ate Chinese food. YUMMY!
After lunch we all met up in front of Central Park where we learned that the whole park is completely hand made with each area depicting a unique sense of style with over 30 bridges within the park. The park was supposed to be made for the immigrants but the wealthy were who enjoyed it more. The low point of the park came in the 60s-70s when the park was high in crime, homeless people, drugs, muggers and just plain dirty. In 1980 the park was taken under the city where they redid the park; made new bridges and planted new seeds and now it is the park we see today. We walked into the park through the Vanderbilt Gate, which originally stood before the Vanderbilt mansion on 5th avenue and 58th street which was later donated to the city and is now an example of one of the finest wrought iron work in New York city (ENY, p.150). While walking through the park, we saw the Frances Hodges Burnett Memorial Fountain, who Mike told us was the author of the book The Secret Garden. The statues from the fountain depict the children in the book.
Because time was catching up to us we had to make the decision of going to the museum or continue to admire the beauty of the park. Of course that was an easy choice. If I write about all of the locations we went to see in the park I would be here for hours writing how gorgeous it is, I guess you all would have to take a day and explore the park yourselves, trust me you WON’T regret it! I didn’t! But I will tell you my favorite part of the park, the Bethesda Fountain. The Bethesda Fountain. Has an angel right on top which is said that the angel is blessing the lake and purifying it. In an era when the public water supply was often contaminated and cholera epidemics were frequent the fountain was created to celebrate the fresh clean delicious water of New York City (Blue Guide, p. 290). Today’s class was filled with beautiful sights and information I will continue to remember. I cannot wait what is in store for us on the West Side!
09/26/2014
We began the day at Penn Station, like we usually do, and then hopped on the E and transferred on Lexington Avenue to transfer to the 6 train to Lexington and 103st in East Harlem. Once we got off the train we learned our first lesson of the public transportation system in East Harlem which is, the subway enables people to live in this area and settle. With the trains, it has made it easier for people to travel back in forth to work. East Harlem became El Barrio in the 50's because it was the prime written place full of Hispanic cultures in the city. By the 60's it was very high in crime and by the late 1990's gentrification kicked in to this poor Latino area. The reason why gentrification came to East Harlem was because it's near Central Park and a couple blocks away from the east side. Of course it would not be Gotham class without learning about the evil villain Robert Moses. Moses wanted to make high rise apartments named tenements but little did he know that these tenements would lead to an increase in crime and later be known as the projects.
Our first stop of East Harlem was the Museum of the City of New York. The museum has changing exhibition focused on the history of New York City, especially its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation (ENY, p.162).In the museum we saw a movie called Timescapes which was 22 minutes filled with different facts and photos of the history of New York. After we left the museum, we met our tour guide, Luke.
Luke spoke a little about how the community of East Harlem means family. We learned that the way we love our family and our friends should be expanded, and how the love of life should be expanded to all not just our families. As a poet, we could not start the tour without hearing a poem so Luke recited a poem named Solidarity which was absolutely captivating! (You can hear his poem in the video below). After listening to his wonderful poem, we began to walk the streets of east Harlem. Luke explained to us that on almost every block there is always a group of people talking together telling stories and spending time, spreading the idea of family is the community not just the people you live with at home. On 104th street where we were standing Luke told us that it used to be a river, where the Native Americans use to live (marshland) where they had the same sense of family and communication. After 104th street, we walked to a community garden where we saw a strange sculpture of a woman's Fallopian tube. The artist that made it was a women that made it to represent the women’s true reasoning of life and showing that women should not only be sexually depicted but shown for what they bring to the world which it the gift of life. We than walked to the mural of the Spirit of East Harlem which shows real people of Harlem depicted on the wall. While viewing the mural, I thought to myself. Wow! This community is real close together, everyone knows who everyone is and stops to help each other, unlike most other communities. Our last stop with Luke was at the Botanica where people can buy natural herbs and spirituals to heal themselves. For example, if you’re having trouble with something you can get a candle and light it and the spirits will come to you and help you with your problem. After the great tour with Luke, we had an hour lunch break where I ate Chinese food. YUMMY!
After lunch we all met up in front of Central Park where we learned that the whole park is completely hand made with each area depicting a unique sense of style with over 30 bridges within the park. The park was supposed to be made for the immigrants but the wealthy were who enjoyed it more. The low point of the park came in the 60s-70s when the park was high in crime, homeless people, drugs, muggers and just plain dirty. In 1980 the park was taken under the city where they redid the park; made new bridges and planted new seeds and now it is the park we see today. We walked into the park through the Vanderbilt Gate, which originally stood before the Vanderbilt mansion on 5th avenue and 58th street which was later donated to the city and is now an example of one of the finest wrought iron work in New York city (ENY, p.150). While walking through the park, we saw the Frances Hodges Burnett Memorial Fountain, who Mike told us was the author of the book The Secret Garden. The statues from the fountain depict the children in the book.
Because time was catching up to us we had to make the decision of going to the museum or continue to admire the beauty of the park. Of course that was an easy choice. If I write about all of the locations we went to see in the park I would be here for hours writing how gorgeous it is, I guess you all would have to take a day and explore the park yourselves, trust me you WON’T regret it! I didn’t! But I will tell you my favorite part of the park, the Bethesda Fountain. The Bethesda Fountain. Has an angel right on top which is said that the angel is blessing the lake and purifying it. In an era when the public water supply was often contaminated and cholera epidemics were frequent the fountain was created to celebrate the fresh clean delicious water of New York City (Blue Guide, p. 290). Today’s class was filled with beautiful sights and information I will continue to remember. I cannot wait what is in store for us on the West Side!
Journal 6: The HARLEM shake
10/03/2014
We began our day at Penn Station where we learned we wouldn't be able to head to the MET but instead we were on our way to the Frick Museum. We took the E train and transferred to the 6 where we got off at Hunter College and were in the Upper East Side. We arrived at the Frick and met with our guide Rebecca. Shamefully she told us we couldn't take any photos only of the garden which only had a beautiful fountain which was not always there. She told us it was built in recently to cover the roads where the carriages and horses used to enter from. The Frick’s collection housed in one of the few remaining great Fifth Avenue mansions, is a monument to the passion for acquiring European art that beset many wealthy men around the turn of the 20th century (Blue Guide, p.299).We began our tour in the dining room where we talked about the increase wealth of the era. If you wanted to entertain in would be done in that area. The Frick’s would hold two dinner parties a week in that dining room with about 40 people with 6 courses of food and live music. The next room on the tour was the drawing room where the women retire to after dinner. The idea of the room was to group paintings to with a sweet theme that tells a story together; the paintings in the room were not in the original order but by observing the photos you can figure out how it's supposed to be. After the drawing room, we walked into the living hall which is the room in the house that looks the most to what Mr. Frick wanted. All of his collection must stay in that room (that was his wish). As the ladies retired to the drawing room the men retired to the living hall after dinner. The last room of our tour was the great gallery which was a single purpose room which showed more art in one room than throughout the house. Since Mr. Frick was a true collector, he kept art work throughout the house not just in the gallery. After we were done with our tour of the Frick it was lunch time so we walked through Hell’s Kitchen to a Thai Restaurant called Yum Yum II where Mike and Merritta paid for our delicious lunch. Our last location for the day was Central Harlem where we met our tour guide Jim. Jim told us that Harlem used to be an old ditch village which is now known for us as the African American Harlem of the renaissance. As we walked through the tour I learned many interesting facts about Central Harlem but the ones that stood out the most to me where these: The local library that is located on 136 steet replaced the mansion of Madame CJ Walker. Harlem hospital has the first feature image picture in the United States. The image shows what goes around Harlem, on the inside of the hospital it looks like a regular window but looking from outside you see the beautiful image. The AME Zion church on 137th street is surprisingly in the middle of the street which is weird because usually churches are on the corner. Lastly, the best part of the tour had to be the walk through the Harlem Walk of Fame which contains a series of bronze plaqus designed by Otto Neals and Ogundipe Fayoumi to honor great African Americans who have made notable contributions in music, science, the arts, and public service (ENY, p.183). Although we were only touring through Central Harlem, we learned that Central Harlem has a more residential feeling whereas Lower Harlem is more commercial where the Apollo Theater is. Quick interesting fact that I LOVED about Lower Harlem! When performing at the Apollo Theater, performers must rub the tree of hope before performing to the community. If they didn’t, the audience would rebel against them and not allow them to perform. Sadly, our day at Harlem was short but I’m glad to have learned so much about the history that lies in the streets of Central Harlem.
Next week we take on Lower Manhattan, BRING IT ON!
10/03/2014
We began our day at Penn Station where we learned we wouldn't be able to head to the MET but instead we were on our way to the Frick Museum. We took the E train and transferred to the 6 where we got off at Hunter College and were in the Upper East Side. We arrived at the Frick and met with our guide Rebecca. Shamefully she told us we couldn't take any photos only of the garden which only had a beautiful fountain which was not always there. She told us it was built in recently to cover the roads where the carriages and horses used to enter from. The Frick’s collection housed in one of the few remaining great Fifth Avenue mansions, is a monument to the passion for acquiring European art that beset many wealthy men around the turn of the 20th century (Blue Guide, p.299).We began our tour in the dining room where we talked about the increase wealth of the era. If you wanted to entertain in would be done in that area. The Frick’s would hold two dinner parties a week in that dining room with about 40 people with 6 courses of food and live music. The next room on the tour was the drawing room where the women retire to after dinner. The idea of the room was to group paintings to with a sweet theme that tells a story together; the paintings in the room were not in the original order but by observing the photos you can figure out how it's supposed to be. After the drawing room, we walked into the living hall which is the room in the house that looks the most to what Mr. Frick wanted. All of his collection must stay in that room (that was his wish). As the ladies retired to the drawing room the men retired to the living hall after dinner. The last room of our tour was the great gallery which was a single purpose room which showed more art in one room than throughout the house. Since Mr. Frick was a true collector, he kept art work throughout the house not just in the gallery. After we were done with our tour of the Frick it was lunch time so we walked through Hell’s Kitchen to a Thai Restaurant called Yum Yum II where Mike and Merritta paid for our delicious lunch. Our last location for the day was Central Harlem where we met our tour guide Jim. Jim told us that Harlem used to be an old ditch village which is now known for us as the African American Harlem of the renaissance. As we walked through the tour I learned many interesting facts about Central Harlem but the ones that stood out the most to me where these: The local library that is located on 136 steet replaced the mansion of Madame CJ Walker. Harlem hospital has the first feature image picture in the United States. The image shows what goes around Harlem, on the inside of the hospital it looks like a regular window but looking from outside you see the beautiful image. The AME Zion church on 137th street is surprisingly in the middle of the street which is weird because usually churches are on the corner. Lastly, the best part of the tour had to be the walk through the Harlem Walk of Fame which contains a series of bronze plaqus designed by Otto Neals and Ogundipe Fayoumi to honor great African Americans who have made notable contributions in music, science, the arts, and public service (ENY, p.183). Although we were only touring through Central Harlem, we learned that Central Harlem has a more residential feeling whereas Lower Harlem is more commercial where the Apollo Theater is. Quick interesting fact that I LOVED about Lower Harlem! When performing at the Apollo Theater, performers must rub the tree of hope before performing to the community. If they didn’t, the audience would rebel against them and not allow them to perform. Sadly, our day at Harlem was short but I’m glad to have learned so much about the history that lies in the streets of Central Harlem.
Next week we take on Lower Manhattan, BRING IT ON!
Journal 7: Lower Manhattan
10/10/2014
Since this week’s first location was closer to my house, I decided to meet the class by Brooklyn bridge city hall. But due to my horrible navigation skills I spent 15 minutes trying to find the class. I finally found them and we were off too our first stop was the outside of ceiling of the Brooklyn bridge city hall train station where we learned about Gustavino style where we looked up and saw the tile work where we learned that the tiles is the only thing supporting the roof. We learned that this style can be found all over the city. It's special because this man made a method holding up a whole roof by just tiles. We walked to the court house street where law and order is filmed. This area is so important because of two important events. Mike told us that right below where we were sitting was thousands of Africans graves. We also learned that the black granite ship fountain in front of us was made into a slave ship because in the past NY was a slave state. On the steps, or as Mike likes to call it our classroom, we learned about the Five Points. The five points was the dirtiest most violent dangerous areas in the US. There were frequent riots by Irish gangs and NY fixed it by destroying the Five Points. As we continued to walk around lower Manhattan we walked up to the Tweed courthouse which is now owned by the board of education and is considered one the most beautiful buildings in NY. Next on our list of the day was a tour of City Hall. City Hall is the mayor’s office and seat to the city council. In front of City Hall we met with our tour guide where she explained to us the George Washington statue right in front of the building. The statue was a replica of George Washington hearing the Declaration of Independence for the first time. After hearing it, he and his men went to take down the statue King George the third. After our brief history lesson on the statue we went inside of the City Hall building where another George Washington statue was. This statue was very important because it was done after the revolutionary war. The bronze statue is one of the most accurate statues because the artist plastered his body to make it. After viewing the rest of the lobby, we walking into the city council chamber where New York City passes laws for NY not the US. The chamber also approves the cities budgets. The city hall tour was very informative but I felt overwhelmed with all the information. After we ended our city hall tour, we decided to stop by the African burial ground memorial and watched a video that taught us so much about the importance of this memorial to many people. In the past when the African graves were discovered, there was a big controversy on what was going to happen to them. After fighting against the state the people one and the graves were put into a memorial which made many people happy knowing that these remains were respected and acknowledged. After the museum we were given an hour break where I ate a lamb gyro which I must say was the best gyro I have had and for me to say that (a bay ridge girl) it means a lot. After the gyro I stopped into “By Suzette” and enjoyed my first crepe which was Nutella; I was amazed on how yummy they were. After lunch we continued our tour of lower Manhattan. Our first stop was Saint Paul's chapel, the oldest church in Manhattan and the oldest building in use in NYC. In 1764 George's Washington used to attend mass here, if you walk into the building you can see his seat is still there. Behind Saint Paul’s Chapel, during 9/11/2001, all the rescue workers used the back yard to eat and sleep. During 9/11/2001 they had come to find out that an old sycamore tree blocked the church allowing it survive the terrible day, speaking about that terrible day, our next stop was the 9-11 memorial. In 1972 the World Trade Center was made and the center piece was the twin towers. On September 11 terrorist attacked NY and caused a great devastation throughout the country. The new center piece "reflecting absence" which consists of two one acre pools set in the footprints in the United States descend into the pools draining into a center void (ENY, p.49). Before leaving the memorial, Meritta told the class about a tree that survived the fall of the towers, they uprooted the tree took it into a conservatory and re planted it in its natural area. If you walk around the memorial you can still see the tree there. Our next stop was the NY Stock exchange building which is the world's largest exchange in terms of dollar value, it is one of the reasons why New York is a preeminent city of the capitalist world (Blue Guide, p.68). The NY Stock Exchange building comes with some hidden mysteries, such as the mystery of the tree in front of the building along with the frieze. The tree in front the NY stock exchange symbolizes the buttonwood agreement which was the creation of the NY stock exchange. The Frieze secret is that the sculptures were starting to deteriorate and the makers decided to replace it secretly with sheet metal without the public’s knowledge. Our last stop of the day was the Wall Street bull which symbolizes the Wall Street optimism (ENY, p. 53). Lower Manhattan was such a great experience for me, the artwork behind it all is breathtaking! I am such an Italian at heart so I can’t wait for little Italy next week!
Journal 8: Chi-Chi-Chi-China Town
10/17/2014
The first stop of our last day for the Gotham class was at the Tenement Museum where we learned that the area we were in was known as one of the smallest, most crowded, and poorest areas in New York back in the days. Multiple-unit dwellings first came to New York in the form of tenant houses or tenements, built for the very poor, especially the Irish and German immigrants who flooded the city in the 1840s and 1850s (Blue Guide, p.18). The name of the museum "Tenement museum" came from the old word for apartment building for 3 or more people in a 3 room apartment not just cramped and small apartment. Samantha, our tour guide, showed us around the Tenement Museum where we learned how the other half lived in those times. Once we went in my fist impression of the building was that the building needed to be taken down IMMEDITATELY! I was scared to walk around and risk falling through the floor. Gladly, Samantha reinforced that the building is indeed up to code and nothing bad would happen to us. The building in 1935 the landlord closed the building because he couldn't afford to change the houses regulation such as wood stairs which are a fire hazard. Throughout the tour we went into two apartments and which were staged as if a family was still living there. I was shocked when I was told that in that little building between the times of 1863-1935 7,000 people had lived here. The apartments had three rooms, the smallest room in the apartment was the bedroom and the biggest was the parlor/living room. On average you would find 8-10 people in one of these apartments. Throughout the tour, we would see how the people that lived in these apartments would learn to balance religion in the US and working in the US. In the 1900s this was not only a neighborhood where people lived but also where many worked, in the past it was known for garment industries. The first apartment we went to belonged to the Levin family. Mr. Levin had his on sweat shop in the apartment, the definition of a sweat shop is working in bad conditions. Mr. Levin used his parlor as a factory. I would look around the little apartment and wonder where would these people pee and Samantha replied that in the yard there were 4 outhouses in the yard for all 200 people in the building. The next apartment we walked into looked more like a home than the Levin’s; they even had their own toilets and sinks! This family had 6 children where they all lived together. On March 25, 1911 there was a strike in regards to the fire that occurred in a garment shop. People complained that they were sending their own people to work for the benefit of the wealthy people. In the process of them doing that, the doors were locked during work times so no breaks could be taken. This was a huge tragedy for not only the neighborhood but also in the city. I learned so much about the museum and how bad conditions were in the past. The next stop after the museum was the Great China Town Adventure. We began our tour and tried a pork bun and bubble tea. Bubble tea was most definitely not me tea and butter but I guess the pork bun wasn’t too bad. Than we went to Canal Street; Canal Street is the home of New York’s knock-off designer market where you can get amazing deals on fake versions of favorite high-end items (ENY, p.77). On Canal Street we bumped into a man that told us he had a great selection of Michael Kors and Coach Bags. I was beyond ecstatic but after roaming around in circle and circles when he finally showed us his selection it wasn’t worth ANYTHING! What a HUGE waste of time! After our mission we went to a Chinese buffet with tons of great Chinese food. After the buffet we met with our tour guide for lower Manhattan, and to my surprise it was Jim the same guy that gave us a tour of Harlem. We went to Eldridge street and Rivington where the first settlement house in the United States was located; this is the first house that had the idea of helping people who needed help. We continued our tour all along lower Manhattan. I learned so many interesting things that I would have never taken the time to look up. After our tour was over we all went our separate ways. I enjoyed this class SO MUCH! Until next time NYC <3
10/17/2014
The first stop of our last day for the Gotham class was at the Tenement Museum where we learned that the area we were in was known as one of the smallest, most crowded, and poorest areas in New York back in the days. Multiple-unit dwellings first came to New York in the form of tenant houses or tenements, built for the very poor, especially the Irish and German immigrants who flooded the city in the 1840s and 1850s (Blue Guide, p.18). The name of the museum "Tenement museum" came from the old word for apartment building for 3 or more people in a 3 room apartment not just cramped and small apartment. Samantha, our tour guide, showed us around the Tenement Museum where we learned how the other half lived in those times. Once we went in my fist impression of the building was that the building needed to be taken down IMMEDITATELY! I was scared to walk around and risk falling through the floor. Gladly, Samantha reinforced that the building is indeed up to code and nothing bad would happen to us. The building in 1935 the landlord closed the building because he couldn't afford to change the houses regulation such as wood stairs which are a fire hazard. Throughout the tour we went into two apartments and which were staged as if a family was still living there. I was shocked when I was told that in that little building between the times of 1863-1935 7,000 people had lived here. The apartments had three rooms, the smallest room in the apartment was the bedroom and the biggest was the parlor/living room. On average you would find 8-10 people in one of these apartments. Throughout the tour, we would see how the people that lived in these apartments would learn to balance religion in the US and working in the US. In the 1900s this was not only a neighborhood where people lived but also where many worked, in the past it was known for garment industries. The first apartment we went to belonged to the Levin family. Mr. Levin had his on sweat shop in the apartment, the definition of a sweat shop is working in bad conditions. Mr. Levin used his parlor as a factory. I would look around the little apartment and wonder where would these people pee and Samantha replied that in the yard there were 4 outhouses in the yard for all 200 people in the building. The next apartment we walked into looked more like a home than the Levin’s; they even had their own toilets and sinks! This family had 6 children where they all lived together. On March 25, 1911 there was a strike in regards to the fire that occurred in a garment shop. People complained that they were sending their own people to work for the benefit of the wealthy people. In the process of them doing that, the doors were locked during work times so no breaks could be taken. This was a huge tragedy for not only the neighborhood but also in the city. I learned so much about the museum and how bad conditions were in the past. The next stop after the museum was the Great China Town Adventure. We began our tour and tried a pork bun and bubble tea. Bubble tea was most definitely not me tea and butter but I guess the pork bun wasn’t too bad. Than we went to Canal Street; Canal Street is the home of New York’s knock-off designer market where you can get amazing deals on fake versions of favorite high-end items (ENY, p.77). On Canal Street we bumped into a man that told us he had a great selection of Michael Kors and Coach Bags. I was beyond ecstatic but after roaming around in circle and circles when he finally showed us his selection it wasn’t worth ANYTHING! What a HUGE waste of time! After our mission we went to a Chinese buffet with tons of great Chinese food. After the buffet we met with our tour guide for lower Manhattan, and to my surprise it was Jim the same guy that gave us a tour of Harlem. We went to Eldridge street and Rivington where the first settlement house in the United States was located; this is the first house that had the idea of helping people who needed help. We continued our tour all along lower Manhattan. I learned so many interesting things that I would have never taken the time to look up. After our tour was over we all went our separate ways. I enjoyed this class SO MUCH! Until next time NYC <3
Journal 9: How I See NYC After This Class
10/18/2014
Do I see NYC differently after this class? I most DEFINITELY DO! I never realized how diverse the city is and how each and every persons culture has an impact on NYC. This class has taught me to appreciate the little things that make the city so great!
In between the Museum of Moving Images, The Chelsea Galleries, and the Tenement Museum I don't know which I liked the most! before I used to think the city was mostly known for the MET or MOMA but now I see how much other activities can be done! Its most definitely not about all the fancy lights and night life its about the little businesses you pass by and are lucky enough to indulge in! I walked through places in the city that I would have never found on my own. I cant honestly say that because of this class I am truly glad to say I am a NEW YORKER! This class was just the first step into my city adventures now that I had such a great start I cant wait to explore more areas. THANK YOU GOTHAM CLASS!!!!
10/18/2014
Do I see NYC differently after this class? I most DEFINITELY DO! I never realized how diverse the city is and how each and every persons culture has an impact on NYC. This class has taught me to appreciate the little things that make the city so great!
In between the Museum of Moving Images, The Chelsea Galleries, and the Tenement Museum I don't know which I liked the most! before I used to think the city was mostly known for the MET or MOMA but now I see how much other activities can be done! Its most definitely not about all the fancy lights and night life its about the little businesses you pass by and are lucky enough to indulge in! I walked through places in the city that I would have never found on my own. I cant honestly say that because of this class I am truly glad to say I am a NEW YORKER! This class was just the first step into my city adventures now that I had such a great start I cant wait to explore more areas. THANK YOU GOTHAM CLASS!!!!