Trip to NYC Days 1 & 2

Friday, April 11th

We woke up at 6:40 am and had breakfast. We left at around 8:40 am (10 mins. delay) and walked to the Cervantes Institute at number 211 of 49th Street.

This institute was created between 1991 and 1993, by the fusion of former institutes of spanish culture, in order to create a database of spanish works, an exposition center, and a way of promoting culture through spanish, galician, catalan, and euskera classes. It has extended around the world (there currently are about 70). The one in NYC currently houses more than 80,000 books, films, and CDs, located in 2 floors and a cellar (70% of all materials is in the cellar). In the latter is located an auditorium used for cultural activities, such as the reading of "El Quijote" in 46 languages. The institute is used as an exposition center. When we visited it, there was an exposition on photos of brain cells and nerves, accompanied by poems written by spanish authors specifically for them. Many of the materials found in the Cervantes Institute have been contributed by famous spanish TV presenters who have moved to NYC.

After this we walked from 49th Street to 79th Street to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We ate a hot dog outside and then had a guided tour of the museum's highlights. These included, the first greek sculpture in a standing position, an African statue of a man and a woman sharing a bench, several cubist and modernist American paintings from the 20th century, French Renaissance paintings, works by Pablo Picasso, and an Andy Warhol self portrait. Just after this we went to see an original Egyptian temple moved and rebuilt stone by stone in the museum.

We then got the metro to go to SOHO (South of Houston), where we had 2 hours for shopping, and then went to have dinner at an Italian Restaurant in Little Italy.



Saturday, April 12th

We woke up at the same time as yesterday, and at 8:30 got the metro to Battery Park, to catch a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. There in the park there was a monument for the Korean War veterans.


We had to wait for about an hour due to the fog, but finally managed to visit the monuments.



The museum had a database where one could search to see if any of his ancestors had immigrated to the US through the island. This can also be consulted through the internet. In addition to this, it had several pictures of immigrants and ships, original files, immigrants' suitcases, etc.

We returned to Manhattan, and watched a street show. We went to eat at 4:00, and then crossed through Wall Street to get to Ground Zero, where they are currently rebuilding some skyscrapers. After this we went to a shopping mall for about an hour, and then went to have dinner in Chinatown. During the way back to the hotel we found several musicians playing traditional chinese instruments.