Home

Yes.  Finally.  And it didn't come without quite an ordeal.  This morning went well, our car came to pick up Genevieve and me right on time and got us to the airport in no time.  I did have to then take the shuttle to my terminal, but that wasn't too bad.  Because we got there so early, I had quite a bit of waiting to do, but that was find.  But then my flight was delayed.  First by only half an hour.  Then they decided that we would require a new plane as our scheduled aircraft had some damage from the weather.  So they pushed our flight back another hour and a half.  They also kept switching our gates so it felt a bit like musical chairs.  We finally took off at the time when we were supposed to arrive in Jacksonville.  But alas, it was all washed away when I speed-walked (or sped-walked?) out into the arms of my mommy and daddy, tears of joy on my cheeks, so happy to be home.  And now here I sit, on my proper bed, in the air conditioning and silence - real silence, uninterrupted by cars honking or sirens blaring or the general white noise created by running multiple fans at once.  Yes.

Our last hoorah

Today, I went to Beacon, New York for my last day in New York City.  Yeah, that's right, for my last day in the city, I left the city.  We spent our last Guggenheim museum culture seminar at Dia: Beacon, an art museum located about an hour and a half north of New York City.  The building was originally a Nabisco box printing factory so it is huge.  The art in the collection makes use of the massive amounts of space offered in the galleries with rather large pieces as well as wide open spaces.  Beacon itself was quite nice as well, and the weather was wonderful.

After touring the museum and having lunch, I bid farewell to all of my fellow Guggenheim interns and new friends and headed back to the city to pack for my trip home.  My glorious trip home!  I have been looking forward to this day for quite some time and it appears it has finally arrived.  I have already booked a car to drive Genevieve and me to Laguardia in the morning.  It's been real, New York, but I think we need a break.  It's me not you, really.  You're going to make someone really happy one day, but for now, I just need my space, ok?  I hope we can still be friends.

Today's mileage: 2.79 mi.
Total New York mileage: 222.77 mi.

It's been fun, Guggenheim library

Today was my last day working in the Guggenheim library.  I've learned a lot while I was there and met some really fantastic people.  Becky, my supervisor took me out to lunch to celebrate my last day.  She also surprised me at the end of the day with a parting gift - my choice of either a Guggenheim coffee mug or any one book from the collection of Guggenheim publications.  I decided to go with a book (surprise, surprise), The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright, the Making of the Modern Museum as it is far less likely to shatter in my luggage on the trip home.  Ok, that's not the only reason, I mean, I am a (wannabe) librarian, right?  My last act as the library intern took Becky and I on a tour of the Whitney Museum's new library.  Their library is similar to that of the Guggenheim, though their space was designed more with a library in mind than ours was.  But that is not my last act as a Guggenheim intern: tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Beacon to visit the Dia: Beacon museum.  But I don't want to get ahead of myself here, you'll just have to wait until tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of my whirlwind New York tour!

Yesterday's mileage: 2.31 mi.
Today's mileage: 3.76 mi.

This time next week...

Yep, that's pretty much all I will be thinking about all this week: what I will be doing this time next week.  Thus begins the last week of my internship at the Guggenheim and in New York City.  I know it's not over yet, but before I forget, I'd like to thank all of my faithful (and intermittent) readers for your continued attention and encouragement.  I never thought people would actually want to read about what I do and have to say but alas, you keep coming back for more.  And I thank you for that.  The knowledge that someone will be reading this has kept me on my toes and motivated me to keep blogging about my experiences.  Never fear, I will continue to blog even after I leave New York, though it will probably not be a daily occurrence.  Let's fact it, life in Gainesville is just not as exciting, not that I am complaining.  The excitement of New York is too much for me.  I greatly look forward to going back to working at the UF library and spending my free time baking and such.  And air conditioning.

Today's mileage: 1.09 mi.

Wait, what is the BMW Guggenheim Lab?

This week's museum culture seminar took us to the BMW Guggenheim Lab which just opened Wednesday.  You're probably wondering what the BMW Guggenheim Lab is.  Yeah, me too.  According to the website, it's "a mobile laboratory traveling around the world to inspire innovative ideas for urban life."  It's got a cafe.  The best I could gather was that it's a space created for various events.  I don't know, maybe this is just one of those things I don't get.  But it is completely free for everyone, so if you happen to be in Manhattan and have some time on your hands, you can check it out.  If you have a better understanding of it, please do explain it to me.

Today's mileage: 6.45 mi. (That's a new record, by the way, if you've been keeping track.  It's also roughly the same distance as a 10K.  Today's mileage also puts me over 200 miles for this summer thus far.)

A whole lotta nothin'

I'm not gonna lie, I've got nothin' for you guys today.  Just an average day at the library, cataloging and fielding reference questions.  Honestly, all I can think about is how much I miss home and cannot wait to go back.  If you too are anxiously awaiting my return, please direct your attention to the countdown widget on the left-hand sidebar, with the zero-hour being my arrival time at the Jacksonville airport.  I know that's not technically home, but it's close enough and it's when I get to give my parents a big hug!

Today's mileage: 2.34 mi.

Neat-o photo

I noticed this great photo op a few days ago and finally got around to taking a picture of it.  This is the view from the balcony of one of the NYU buildings - including both the Washington Square Arch and the Empire State Building:

See, Mommy, I told you I see the Empire State Building all the time.

Today's mileage: 2.33 mi.

Laziness and Lady Liberty

My apologies for my lack of blog post yesterday.  You see, dear reader, yesterday I was lazy.  I mean, I still managed to walk just over a mile (see below) in the quest for meals and such, but other than that, I did basically nothing.  It was quite nice, actually.

Today, I was a bit more active.  Anu and I brunched with a friend of hers in Times Square, which was far busier than the one other time I was there.  We later traveled down to Battery Park, at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, to see the Statue of Liberty from across the water.  No, we did not actually go out to the island to see it close-up or climb to the top or anything.  That costs money!  And we are being quite cheap at the moment.  Ok, mostly we just had no real interest in going.  But I also saw the Statue of Liberty when my plane to New York City was landing, which I thought was pretty neat.

Yesterday's mileage: 1.06 mi.
Today's mileage: 2.48 mi.

Countdown

So, you may have noticed that I added a countdown to my homecoming on the left sidebar a few days ago.  Yes, I am greatly looking forward to coming home.  And in addition to counting down the days (and hours, minutes, and seconds in my digital countdown), I keep finding other ways to countdown my time in New York City.  From this moment until I fly home:

• I will do laundry once.
• I have 2 whole weekends here.
• I will eat 14 meals from the dining hall.
• I will spend about $75 in dining dollars.
• I have 4 museum culture seminars to attend.
• I will spend 8 days in the Guggenheim library.
• I will walk roughly 45 miles.

If anyone has any more countdown suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Today's mileage: 2.31 mi.

Getting away from the city without leaving Manhattan

Because the weather was slightly nicer today than it has been the past few days (it was a mere 90 or so degrees), Anu and I took the opportunity to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloisters Museum & Gardens.  Although it took us a 45-minute subway ride to get there, it was totally worth it.  The air was wonderfully breezy, it was gloriously quiet, and fantastically beautiful.  It was as if we had been transported from the mean streets of Manhattan to a wonderland of peace.  And that was just the gardens!  The Cloisters themselves were fabulously air-conditioned and a treat to enjoy as well. 

After our lovely trip to the Cloisters, Grace and I ventured out to see the movie Horrible Bosses to escape the now-tolerable-but-still-unpleasant heat.  It was very funny and a good end to the day.

Today's mileage: 5.12 mi

Yay for air conditioned museums!

Yes, my appraisal of museums has been reduced to my enjoyment of their air conditioning.  I met up with Anu today for a trip to the Whitney.  We had a good time, mostly soaking up the a/c, I'm not gonna lie.  My supervisor mentioned to me a few weeks ago that the Whitney recently got a new library and the librarian offered us a tour, which we are in the process of arranging.  But back to my Whitney experience.  As I always do when I visit a museum , I took a quick poke around the gift shop and this time I found something worth buying.  It was a book called I Feel Relatively Neutral About New York.  While both Anu and I are currently learning more toward the feeling-negatively-about-New-York-City side at the moment, especially considering the heat wave, we do recognize the good things that the city has to offer...like its awesome museums.  In any case, I purchased the book as a rather telling reminder of my time here.

As I just mentioned, New York does amazing museums, but there is one that I have a bit of a beef with at the moment: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  As you may or may not know, one of my primary missions in New York has been to see Madame X at The Met - a wish that I have been unable to fulfill thus far as the wing in which the painting resides has been under renovation.  Said renovation was slated to be completed July 22nd - yesterday.  However, upon my visit to The Met today for the explicit purpose of seeing my dear painting, I found that the wing was still closed.  I am quite frustrated.  And needless to say, the heat did not help.

In another attempt to seek shelter from the sweltering heat, Anu, Genevieve, and I went to see the final installment of the Harry Potter saga: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.  It was pretty epic.  I cried...kind of a lot.  I mean, not full-blown sobbing, but tears definitely came to my eyes quite a few times.  It's the end of an era, man. 

Today's mileage: 3.30 mi

Beating the heat with museum field trips

This photo is actually from our museum culture seminar to the MTA Arts for Transit program last Friday.  It's a sculpture of a tree hanging upside-down from the ceiling, dripping with Swarovski crystals in Grand Central Market.  You can learn more about it and see more photos of the sculpture here.  (Also, I just uploaded the other photos from that trip as well as my second trip to The Met in case you're interested - see the link to my New York photo album in the left sidebar of the page.)

As for today's museum culture seminar, we learned about the Guggenheim's exhibition management department.  In addition to the exhibitions installed in the Frank Lloyd Wright building, the speakers also discussed the international (and a couple of domestic) exhibitions and satellite endeavors pursued by the museum.  They are currently working on establishing an institution and collection in Helsinki.

After our time at the Guggenheim, I sought refuge from the heat in another exhibition space: The Center for Book Arts.  It was not really what I expected, though I couldn't tell you what exactly it was that I expected.  It seems that their primary purpose is to provide a space and materials to those pursuing various books arts and print-making techniques.  But it was air-conditioned so I'm not complaining. 

And speaking of air-conditioning, I am currently planning my life around the pursuit of it.  It's no wonder as the temperature today was in the triple digits for most of the day.  It's sad when it's so hot that I long to return home to Florida.

Today's mileage: 3.36 mi

Heat wave

New York City is experiencing a heat wave at the moment.  It is unpleasant.  Very unpleasant.  Tomorrow's high is in the triple digits.  It is currently cooler in Florida than it is here.  That is not ok.  Apparently the heat is making me rather cryptic as well.  Fingers crossed for cooler weather soon.

Today mileage: 3.07 mi (despite the weather)

Journal Entry #3

Forgive me for my delay in posting.  My computer has incurred some technical difficulties.  It insists that it is unable to locate the hard disk drive, however I am quite secure in my belief that it is indeed there.  I have found some battle tactics to take on the issue so hopefully it will be resolved soon...and at little to no cost.  In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.  Also, should my posting be intermittent for the next week or so, you now know why.

Much has happened since my last journal entry.  In the library, I am mainly been copy cataloging the backlog of books that need to be added.  I also asked my supervisor if I could learn to do original cataloging as well and she said that she would show me how later this week.  And because I have been doing a lot of cataloging, I suggested to my supervisor that I complete the free online MARC training through OCLC.  The class was called TMQ MARC21 in Your Library Part 1: MARC & Bibliographic Info Fundamentals and the last couple of modules were helpful but most of it was really basic review.  I was also able to try my hand at some archiving.  There was a major grant-funded project that I was recruited to help with in order to complete the project on time.  Primarily, I was numbering folders and confirming their place on the finding aids, but this also let to a decent amount to finding aid editing.  In addition, my supervisor and I have been working on weeding the collection of duplicate items as well as consolidating records to clean up the catalog a bit.

I have also been busy with museum and non-library internship events.  There have been a number of museum culture seminars since my last entry including trips to exhibition spaces, public art programs, and an in-depth explanation of the Guggenheim’s current exhibition.  Speaking of which, I attended the Members' Opening Party and Private Viewing: Lee Ufan a couple of weeks ago and while I wasn’t particularly taken with the exhibition itself, the event was certainly something I was glad to have experienced.  There was also a program put on by Sotheby’s Institute of Art featuring the director of the Andy Warhol Museum which a number of us interns attended.  Finally, I went to the recent all-staff meeting for the museum.

As for extracurricular New York City activities, I have been visiting a lot of museums.  I have been taking advantage of my free pass to all of the museums in the city – otherwise I would be spending a fortune on admission.  I have gotten in the habit of visiting a different museum almost every day that I am not at work.  I am still blogging daily and more details of my adventures and daily happenings can be found on my blog (here).  I am greatly enjoying my internship but I think I have determined that New York City in general is not for me.

Wednesday's mileage: 3.03 mi

Manhattanhenge

Manhattanhenge is an event that occurs twice every year, 3 weeks before and 3 weeks after the summer solstice.  The first one of the year happened just before I got here so I was excited to find out that I only had to wait a few weeks to see its second annual occurrence.  This modern phenomenon occurs when the setting sun aligns with the numbered streets of Manhattan.  Manhattanhenge is, of course, named after the famed Stonehenge which has similar solar alignment properties.  Last summer, I visited Stonehenge on my whirlwind trip to London and the UK.  As you can see from my photo here, I had little to complain about heat-wise.

Today's mileage: 3.06 mi

A few words about air conditioning

Take note of the air around you at this moment.  It probably feels deliciously cool upon your skin despite the rising temperatures and suffocating humidity that is summer outside the comfort of your indoor space.  I bet you didn't even notice it before I said anything.  You were just sitting comfortably, perhaps you were even feeling a bit chilly (this is a shout-out to all my ALF people, by the way), unaware of just how lucky you are to be enjoying the benefits of air conditioning.  Be grateful.  Be very, very grateful for air conditioning.  Because when it's hot and you don't have it, it's all you can think about.

And indeed, as you may or may not know, my New York City dorm does not have a/c, and as you can probably tell, it is all I can think about.  I fantasize about it.  I look forward to being at work and bathed in the cool air of the library - note that I did not say that I look forward to going to work as that act of going to work entails me walking a mile in the miserable heat of the city.  And I'm often reminded that I am from Florida, so I should be accustomed to the heat.  While this is true to a certain extent, we in Florida learned a long time ago that it is best to have air conditioning wherever possible.  We have air conditioning at home, in our cars, at work, even on school buses.  In fact, the man who invented air conditioning is from Florida.  The National Statuary Hall Collection in the US Capitol building holds two statues of important people from each state.  One of Florida's statues is John Gorrie, the father of modern air conditioning.  I learned this bit of trivia on my fifth grade trip to Washington, DC and have remembered it ever since.  So thank you, Mr. Gorrie, thank you.

Today's mileage: 3.05 mi

Oh baking, how I have missed you

A week or so ago I found out that there are kitchen supplies available to check out in the communal kitchen on the first floor of my dorm here in New York City.  Having accepted a lack of kitchen, and in turn an inability to bake, for the summer, this was an extremely exciting discovery for me.  I resolved to bake bagels at some point as those are one of my favorite things to bake, they require very few utensils and ingredients, and said ingredients do not need to be refrigerated.  My roommates were excited as well as they would no doubt benefit from the bagel-baking endeavor.  Thus, after collecting the ingredients from a number of different locations (the grocery stores here aren't what they are in Florida - read: they're no Publix), I turned over my ID in exchange for the key to the kitchen cabinets.  All went well except for a slight hiccup when it came to the amount of salt I had; a hiccup that was easily remedied by sweet-talking the RAs at the dorm front desk with the promise of a fresh homemade bagel in return for access to the staff stash of condiments.  Needless to say, they determined that a delicious bagel was worth a teaspoon of salt.  And soon the bagels were baked and two-thirds of them have already been eaten, leaving just enough for breakfast for my roommates and I tomorrow morning.  Having not baked in 6 weeks, this was a happy day for me and I look forward to doing it again.

Today's mileage: 1.11 mi

I'm smack dab in the middle of my trip

Yep, that's right, I'm halfway through my stay in New York City.  And in light of this landmark occasion, I'd like to reflect on some things I've learned and some musings I've been having lately.  First, this is the longest I have ever been away from home.  That sounds so very sheltered, but I don't think that's really the case - I've been to Europe twice, visiting 6 countries altogether, and, obviously, I've lived in Manhattan for over a month now.  I think it's just that I haven't seen much reason to leave home aside from simply exploring the world.  I'm finding that sometimes the best part about traveling is coming home.  Can you tell I'm a bit homesick?

As for a few things I've learned about New York City:

• The essence of New York City is, apparently, waiting is horrifically long, chaotic lines.
• Customer service is not a top priority for most businesses here.
• I don't think I will ever get used to having to pop my ears because the elevator goes up just that high (I work on the 12th floor).
• Building numbers do not coincide with street numbers - a fact that I find quite frustrating.
• There are some really cute dogs up here.
• As much as we complain about the price of gas, taking the subway is way more expensive (It's $2.25 every time you get on the subway or a bus which would equate to driving about 15-20 miles in terms of gas prices, yet I rarely take the subway more than about 4 miles.).
• It is really easy to find a sandwich with brie in it here (!!).

And speaking of mileage, if you've been following along like the dedicated reader I know you are, you've noticed my daily mileage counts at the bottom of each post.  So far, I have walked a total of almost 120 miles and I average about 3.3 miles per day.  For all my fellow Gainesvillians out there, that's like walking along Archer Road from I-75 to 13th Street, everyday.  Yes, yes, it's good for me, I know, but I can't say that I'm enjoying that part of my stay here.

In an attempt to end my rant of a post on a positive note, I would like to express the fact that I am indeed enjoying my internship, as well as the benefits it has to offer.  As I hope you can tell from previous posts, I do take great pleasure in visiting the amazing museums that the city has to offer, made possible in part by my internship and its free-admission-to-any-museum-in-the-city(-except-the-Museum-of-Sex) benefit.

Today's mileage: 3.33 mi

Fireworks!

Today, fireworks won out over museum field trips.  Yes, fireworks and fellow Gainesvillians.  Ok, just one fellow Gainesvillian, my friend Anu.  We met up earlier this evening to have dinner and go see the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks show over the Hudson River.  Things did not go quite as planned, however.  We had a restaurant all picked out but failed to remember that today is in fact a holiday and thus may be closed.  Needless to say, it was.  So we started walking towards a fireworks viewing spot and eventually found a place it eat.  When we left, it was just in time for the fireworks show to begin but the police were not letting anyone past 9th Avenue, where the primo views were.  The problem was, 9th Ave is just east of the High Line, making said High Line in the line of sight for the fireworks.  Thus, Anu and I ended up standing right in the middle of 9th Ave to see the show - don't worry, there were a ton of other people standing in the middle of the road as well.  In any case, I discovered that the best way to photograph fireworks is using the burst mode on my camera which takes picture after picture as long as you are holding down the shutter button.  So if you flip through the photos I took - see the link below -it's as if you are watching them too!

From NYC fireworks

Today's mileage: 3.88 mi

Keeping it rollin'

My primary goal of the day was to visit and explore the Morgan Library & Museum which just so happens to be located near a number of other New York City landmarks.  So I took the subway to Grand Central (landmark #1) and wandered from there to the New York Public Library (#2) which wasn't open due to the holiday weekend, but I figured the facade is enough of a landmark to count.  I continued west past Bryant Park (#3) to Times Square (#4) mostly just to say I'd been there - being a dreary Sunday, there wasn't much going on outdoors.  And speaking of the dreary weather, I've found that New York City weather has somehow figured out a way to be both cool and disgustingly humid at the same time, which makes for difficult decisions in the attire department.

But anyway, I finally made it to the Morgan Library & Museum which was fantastic.  This is another small museum like yesterday's Frick Collection which I quite like.  There were a number of things I took note of while there.  First, in the Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands exhibition, there is one illustration described as "Saint Julian accidentally kills his parents."  Now, I don't know about you, but at this point I'm thinking, "This kid accidentally murdered his parents and he still became a saint?  Really, Catholic Church, really?"  I did some investigation and found that the story of Saint Julian the Hospitaller is somewhat similar to that of Oedipus.  That being said, I still don't quite understand what got him sainted.

The next item that sparked my interest was in the Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists' Enumerations from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art exhibition.  One of the lists was written by one Robert Smithson with notes for his Spiral Jetty piece.  And why might this have caught my attention, you ask dear reader?  Well, both Robert Smithson and his Spiral Jetty are mentioned in a song by one of my favorite bands, Vampire Weekend.  The song I reference was not officially released except on the internet so you may not recognize it, even if you are a Vampire Weekend fan as well.  It's called "Giant" and you can listen to here (you can ignore the accompanying slide show/visuals). 

Finally, once I made it to the library portion of the collection, I spent quite some time browsing the shelves for titles that I recognized or seemed interesting.  The books are beautiful, or their spines are at least - everything is behind glass so it's not like I could actually look at anything.  But anyway, one book that made me chuckle a bit read "Heywood History of Women 1657" on the spine.  After a bit of research (I am almost a librarian, after all), I found that the book's title is actually The generall history of women: containing the lives of the most holy and prophane, the most famous and infamous in all ages [sic].  Sounds interesting, does it not?

Today's mileage: 2.89 mi