NYC Blog 2- A day in China Town

Art Work in Chinese Museum

 Today we went to a Chinese museum that was located in Chinatown. I liked the town because it is mostly populated by Chinese, a culture that I had no clue about until today. The best part of the  museum because was the areas to sit and watch videos. This was so nice because by this point in the week my feet are killing me! After sitting down for my own personal comfort I began to watch a film about how Chinese Americans were treated during the cold war. It surprised me how cruel we were to them. To me this is very similar to the holocaust and what the Germans did to the Jews. We forced many to leave the country and one women in the video said when she tried to gain citizenship in a couple years she was not able to. They kept a close eye on the Chinese Americans and even bugged their phones. The FBI knew what they were doing at all times. After this video I went to look at paintings. The picture above was displayed in the art gallery. I really liked it because I saw it as a painting that informed people of what we are doing to our environment. The buildings represent our wants, such as shopping malls, tall buildings and factories. The tree stumps represent the damage that we are doing in the process. This is how I interpreted the image anyway. The poster below was also very interesting to me. Chinese men would fight in the wars but they were not always given the same rights as everyone else. This is surprising because he is fighting for freedom, something he does not have himself.

Poster Found in Museum

After looking around the museum for an hour or so we went on a walking tour around Chinatown. Sadly I did not get a lot out of this tour. It was so hot and humid out it was so hard to focus. Also in the city there is so much going on around you. I think my ADD kicked in and I noticed everything else except what the tour guide was saying. After the tour we went to eat lunch and a the Golden Unicorn restaurant. The style of the restaurant was totally different and was called Dim Sun. Inside the building was really amazing. There were a lot of colors and it was well decorated. I did not eat any of the food because I am very picky, but I enjoyed being there. It was interesting to see all the people pushing their carts asking if we want the food they have. I laughed at the facial expressions of those around me as they tried new foods with different tastes. I thought this was a great experience. The last stop of the day was to the Tenement Museum. This was not what I expected at all. I really liked being up in the tenement houses and seeing what it was like but it seemed like the tour was only about the families who lived there. I wanted to know more about the life of people in this type of housing in general. A lot of things they had set up were incorrect also. They thought it was correctly set up at the time but they realized with greater research that is not how some objects were. Lets just say it was a disappointment. One thing that we did get to experience is how hot it was in these buildings during this time period. The heat was so awful and I could not imagine staying in that building during the summer time without even a fan. This just makes me appreciate air conditioning a lot more.

 I was so excited to get dinner tonight because I planned to get dinner with Michelle, Precious and Sharmise a girl who goes to Sage with us that is from Manhattan. I was excited to see Shar and to go to out because this is my all time favorite restaurant. The restaurant is based off the movie Forest Gump. I mostly go for the atmosphere not the food. In the picture I am sitting on the bench just like Forest did. This was a new addition to the restaurant and I was very excited to take a picture. Also I bought a pair of shorts and shirt from the gift shop which I was so excited about. This was a great end to a hot and humid day because I got my favorite dessert, an ice cream sundae on a warm chocolate chip cookie. Well it is almost 2 am and I am just finishing this blog. I really need some sleep and I am going to regret being out late with my friend Shar but how often do you get to spend a whole week in New York City? Sleep is for the weak! or weekend whichever comes first.