Yesterday our group traveled to the New York Public Library for a tour.
There are two lion statues outside the library. They even have names! Patience and Fortitude. I don’t know which is which.
Kendra, Alexa, and Vanessa.
The outside entrance. This is not like any library I’d ever seen before.
The library opened at 10. We were early by about 10 minutes.
Main doors.
Main lobby. It’s actually been 100 years since it opened in May of 1911.
This was some kind of study room.
In one of the study rooms, we looked out the window and there was the Empire State Building! I hadn’t realized we were so close.
There was a children’s library on the bottom floor and our tour guide said the original animals based on the character’s of Winnie the Pooh that A. A. Milne bought for his son, Christopher Robin (I hadn’t realized that was where he got his son’s name…and I call myself an English major…). He had originally bought them at Harold’s in London, but they are now in the Main Branch of the New York Public Library, as you can see.
There was an exhibit of different kinds of artifacts on display including Malcom X’s briefcase, Virgina Woolf’s walking stick, and a copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. We weren’t allowed to take photographs of them, but it was in honor of the 100 year celebration of the main branch of the library (the one we visited) be opened.
After the library we headed to the UN for a tour. It wasn’t so much a tour as it was a history lesson about the UN while looking at a model of what the four buildings look like and then proceeding to read about the eight millennial goals on a board. I don’t really know what I was expecting, though, because I hadn’t ever thought about going to the UN or held much of an interest in it. It was kind of cool to know we weren’t really in NYC anymore when we were in the building: we were on international land.
Our tour guide, though, was a contemptuous, condescending, sarcastic twit. He had his moments where he would be funny and say something like, “You’re not going to fall asleep on me, are you?” but then he kept saying things like, “Okay, well, you only have a few more minutes and then you can take a nap” or “You’re still awake, right? I’m not boring you, am I?” No, you’re not, but if you keep it up, I’ll fall asleep right now since that what you think everyone does.
I guess it’s hard because he’s probably used to jittery, rambunctious school kids and here we are in college and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He’d also ask stupid questions like, “You guys did hear about the Haiti conflict back in 2004, right?” and he’d ask a question about something we just discussed a few minutes before and would be like, “You were listening right? When I talked about such-and-such a thing?”
No wonder people think the French are rude.
After that lovely tour, we went over to Dylan’s Candy Bar on 3rd and 61st. It’s three floors of wall-to-wall candy with the top floor being a kind of ice cream/bakery/soon-to-be bar. It was so great. Better than any M&M’s or Hershey’s store. There was old candy that isn’t manufactured anymore, recent candy, and candy I’ve never even heard of.
Giant thing of Double Bubble gumballs!
My ice cream. Called Dirt Ball. I think it had white chocolate chips and crushed oreo with chocolate ice cream. The bulk chocolate I bought is melting and has been ever since I left the store, so unfortunately I’ve had to eat it.
Darn. :]
I Love New York. 