New York: Day 2

After very little sleep two nights in a row (under 6 hours combined), I decided to sleep in, rolling out of bed around 10:00am.  I spent the morning lounging with Mara, looking at photos from her abroad experiences (she studied abroad three times: Florence, Ghana, and Israel, and had incredible experiences everywhere) and hearing stories.

Eventually we got ready for the day, and while Mara went to her Italian class, I decided to walk downtown - from her dorm, it was just a few short blocks to Broadway, then straight down about 20 minutes, passing through Chinatown.

The weather was absolutely beautiful - 60+ degrees and sunny.  I wore a bright red dress, and overheard many slightly sketchy but still confidence-building remarks about all the pretty summer dresses coming out.

My mission was to find Park51, the location of the Islamic Cultural Center that caused such a stir in the news recently.  I am aware that people of varying political persuasions will be reading this blog, so I preface this with saying that this was an experience I wanted to have for my own particular reasons, and definitely do NOT want to start a heated debate on the legitimacy of its existence.  I personally believe it has every right to exist, and my reason for finding it was to see for myself how not-big-a-deal it is, and so I made it part of my travel itinerary.  If you are of a different opinion, you have every right to be, but please don't let that interfere with the spirit of this blog.

Construction has not yet started, but as you may or may not be aware, it is already currently a site for Islamic worship - there is a prayer space inside, and has been since before the announcement to open the cultural center.  The building is an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory, in an unassuming stretch of Park Place in the financial district next to an Amish market.

I had no idea where I was in relation to Ground Zero until I went to the end of the block and rounded the corner - from there, it was a couple blocks until I could see a small stretch of the construction fence around the site.  I walked towards it, and in typical New York fashion, despite the small distance between blocks I already felt like I was in a different place.  I walked around the perimeter of the construction site until I came upon St. Paul's church, whose facade faces Ground Zero.

View from the front steps of the church of Ground Zero construction

I'd never walked inside the churchyard, and it was open, so I went in.  It was actually pretty neat - there are little historical placards placed sporadically around the walkway, and I learned a lot about the church's history.  Not only is it across the street from Ground Zero, it is the oldest continually functioning public building in New York.  George Washington attended this church, and apparently inside you can see his favored pew (I didn't go inside).  It is also a very pretty spot in the middle of a very modern, bustling area.

St. Paul's Church

Then I went to pick up my coat at Mara's, and headed up town to MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art).  Every Friday evening, Target sponsors the museum and admission is free to the public.  I met my friend Dani there, and we spent about an hour inside the museum (I wish we could have stayed longer, but we both were exhausted and our museum-brains gave out after about that long, and everything started to just wash over us).  We started off upstairs in an Andy Warhol film exhibit, then got down to the famous paintings.  There are many famous works inside the museum, including a lot of Picasso, and a smattering of Van Gogh (including his Starry Night).

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - Picasso

Starry Night - Van Gogh

There are six floors to the museum, and it is usually recommended to start at the top and work your way down.  The top floor was the Andy Warhol film exhibit and gift shop, then the next was the famous paintings.  The rest get progressively more modern, and our brains weren't quite up to the task, so after a brief time in the "Abstract Expressionism" exhibit we gave up and left.

View from the 5th floor (1 floor still above us)

Dani and I outside the museum

We met up with Mara for dinner at a place near her dorm called Mac Bar - a tiny little place that sells a bunch of unique Macaroni & Cheese dishes.  I got one with lobster and it was amazing.

We got the idea to go because I remember a place near my dorm with the same concept called S'Mac, and had a craving for it, but Mac Bar was closer to Mara's dorm and was still equally amazing.

After Mac Bar, we went to Mara's new favorite bakery (she's been there 8 times in the last 3 weeks) and bought some cake - I got red velvet.  It was very, very delicious.

I decided to stay in for the evening, still exhausted, so I didn't go to the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe like I'd planned before the trip.  I'm saving that for when I can bring Loren to New York.  After eating our cake, Mara went out to see some of her friends from her Israel Study Abroad Program, and I relaxed and went to bed.  I'm going out tonight, so I didn't feel like too much of a hermit.

Until then, Tschuss!