June 25 Myer House and Cherry Hill

So today was a nice day, we went into Albany to visit the Myers House; which was a headquarters for the Underground Railroad. It is a work in progress, there is still a lot of reconstruction work to be done. It is run by a small organization to preserve the house. On the side of the house, there were gardens, that were set up the way the house was. The plants where set up in a way that the plants were things that would be found in that room. For example, there was cilantro and basil where the kitchen would have been. My favorite plant was the tiger lilly. They were the flowers that I used for prom and I think they are just soo pretty.

Myer house

Myer House Garden

There was a little mix up with our lunches, we didn't order box lunches for today, so we had to go back to campus for lunch. We just went to Buchman, it was nice. We met up again to go to Cherry Hill. This was a house that belonged to the Van Rennselear family. This family was royalty during their time. The house was in the process of being restored. We were showed pictures of the house before the work was done; the house was in rough shape from the amount of weight that was in the attic. The main support beams were rotted out and the walls were supporting the weight of the house. 

Cherry Hill

After our tour, we walked up to the gardens, they were very nice. After we left, we took a ride to Snowman's to get ice cream. Michael was nice enough to buy it for us. I got what I normally get when I get ice cream, a vanilla cone with cherry dip. Today was another short day, and I got home at a decent time. This is my final blog post, sooo sad. It has been real Discovery Degree...until next time.

June 24: Onrust Community Service

So today we went to do community service, yet again. This community service was much different than the last one, we were on a boat! This boat was a remake of the Onrust, a Dutch Ship from 1614. This year is the 400th anniversary of the boat. When we first arrived, the weather did not look like it was going to cooperate. It was really cloudy and rainy all morning, though when we got there, it wasn't that bad. There was a lot of work to be done on the boat and we got right to work.

Onrust

 Before I get into how the cleaning went, I would just like to mention that we have been here before, when we visited the lock in Waterford. Deja-Vu. I love the view from here which is why I took a picture :).

Bridge near Lock #2

 Now back to the cleaning. Me and Katie cleaned downstairs on the boat. They had just returned from a voyage to New Jersey. The picture below shows the after. Before we cleaned there was just a lot of stuff everywhere. We just straightened up, we didn't really know what to do with anything, so we just kind of did it. I thought this boat was soo cool. Though the original boat did not have a kitchen and bathroom, OSHA regulations make them have a bathroom and the kitchen was a nice touch. It was made out of 400 year old white oak. This white oak is the least water resistant and that is good for the boat.

Downstairs after it was cleaned

 When we were finished downstairs, we went upstairs. We helped Gretta move totes onto the boat, then Katie helped oil the deck. I wish I could have helped, but because of my knee, I couldn't. I found it very rude that someone who didn't help at all with the community service had the nerve to say to me "Are you gunna help, or are you just gunna sit there". The fact that I helped with what I could shows that I did my part. I could not kneel on my knee because of my brace and the fact that my knee hurt. Anyway, other than that itty bitty piece of negativity, we had a really good day. This was the only activity we did today, so I was home by 2 :).

Working Hard

June 23: Schodak Island

So today we went to Schodak Island. Our adventure for the day was to connect with nature. We started out our day like normal, we met in Hart 206, which we haven't done since week 3, and we read blogs. I didn't read mine though; soon I will. After the blogs were read, we ventured off. Schodak Island is a little south of Albany. Upon our arrival we ran into a lady that was already there and she told us to take a look down the path; there was a turtle there. This is the turtle in the picture below. When Toby realized that it was not a snapping turtle, he picked it up. almost immediately, the turtle retracted into its shell and peed down Toby's leg. We learned that this is a defense mechanism. The turtle was scared. The girls wanted Toby to put the turtle into the water, but he put it back where he found it. We find out later that this was a good decision.

Scared Little Turtle

 We then went back down to the river and stood on the dock. We got a brief lecture from Toby about the river. The early Native Americans called it the river that flows two ways. This is because it is a tidal estuary. during low tide, the tidal influence of the water is stronger that the current. We saw this when a stick was flowing upstream rather than down stream. When the tide starts to come back in, the water will again flow downstream. The picture below shows a cement plant near Coeyman. This plant is the largest mercury pollutant in New York state.  The cement plant burns coal which emits Mercury. Bacteria then convert the Mercury into methyl mercury. Methyl mercury gets absorbed into the plants which the fish eat. Humans then eat this fish. This process is called bio-accumulation. It is also the reason that there are warning signs about how much fish someone should eat. It can be fatal in areas where people depend on fish to survive. I find it frustrating that regulators are more worried about how much money it costs to rid of the mercury than the damage the mercury does to the ecosystem.

Cement Plant

 After we got our lecture we were able to walk around for about twenty minutes. Me, Michelle and Krista decided to go check on the turtle. We ran into it laying eggs. At the time we weren't sure what it was doing, but Toby cleared it up for us.

Same Little Turtle Laying Eggs

After our short adventure, we walked along a trail to go fishing in a creek connected to the river. Unfortunately I have no pictures for this, though because I was in the water. One by one everyone, except for two people, got into the water. When I jumped in, I sank about 8 inches into the mud. My poor sneaker probably hate me. Kassiana and Katie had the best reaction though, when they screamed bloody murder, and Kassiana jumped into my arms. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. We are encouraged to try new things, and this was definitely new. Today was a nice relaxing, and a lot of fun. Until tomorrow...

June 18th Birthday in Brooklyn; Viewer Discretion Advised

So today is my 19th birthday. It doesn't feel much different than my 18th birthday, though now I can get into Pacha. Our adventures today consisted of going to Brooklyn and getting a walking tour from one of Andor's friends from Grad School; his name was Allan. He was a really great tour guide; he definitely knew his stuff. Our tour lasted for about an hour and a half, we walked all through Brooklyn; learned things that I didn't know. One in particular was Brooklyn used to be a city; though it merged with New York City and became one of the five burrows.

Old Brooklyn City Hall

Throughout the tour we payed close attention to the buildings. Allan told us how to tell the when the building was built just by the architecture. I found this really interesting. The picture below shows what is now apartments. If you look closely, the buildings have what looks like garage doors. At first I thought it was for a fire department, though I soon learned that these were the stables for the horses and carriages back when people rode them through the city.

An Alley Way 

 From the port, we could see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I am really excited to go to this on Friday. I have never seen the Lady Liberty up close, or even as close as this picture, so I should have a lot of fun, though I do not think that I could climb it due to my bad knees.

Statue of Liberty

 After a short lunch and a trip to the park to discuss salt marshes we ventured to the Brooklyn bridge. Now before I get into how the walk was, I would just like to point out that a classmate of ours has chosen to be unfair to the rest of the class and skip out on the walk. Now I understand that you may be afraid of the sun, or the sunburn, but that should be no reason to skip out on a whole part of class. None of us really wanted to walk the bridge, but we still did it anyway. The whole point of this class is to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. There are some people that are afraid of water, are afraid of heights, or are physically injured but the rest of us did the walk. Just because you want to be miserable during our trips doesn't mean that you should get out of activities. If you really didn't feel well, it's because you refused to drink all day and when you did drink, you drank a milkshake; not too smart when it 90 degrees out. Now that I got that out, the walk was actually better than I thought it would be. It would have been a little better if the sun wasn't beating down on us. It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would and the views were amazing.

Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn Bridge

Freedom Tower

 My favorite part of this trip was being able to see the Freedom Tower. I really would love to visit this, but there is just no time. After a four hour break we were able to go to a Broadway show. Me and Krista went on a date (again), and went to see Matilda. I thought the play was awesome. I had two favorite characters in this play, Matilda and Mrs. Trunchbowl. I would say actresses but Mrs. Trunchbowl was played by a man. They were a riot. We laughed, and applauded and enjoyed ourselves. It turned out to be a good day with a few speed bumps. It was definitely a different way to celebrate my birthday, and now I can't wait to go home and celebrate with my family. Until next time...

June 17 Chinatown

So today we took an adventure to Chinatown. We started off at the Museum of Chinese in America, or MOCA. I really enjoyed this museum because it was very modern and very interesting. The first gallery that I walked in to was of contemporary art. It was definitely odd, but still pretty cool. They had an exhibit that I wasn't expecting to be there, an LGBTQ exhibit. It was interesting to read the stories of these Asian families that accepted their child as they were. I was somehow surprised by this though, I wasn't expecting it.

Contemporary Art

 The picture below was a part of the LGBTQ exhibit. I really liked the quote that was had written in. I'm not exactly sure who wrote it, but it was really nice. Though the quote is hard to read in the picture the caption below the picture is the quote.

"Do nothing else today, then meditate because you can do nothing if you aren't here. If you can only do 1 more thing, then do yoga because you can take no action if you're not in your body. After that, write...+live+play (guitar)+cook, but always remember you are not what you do- you are far more magical than that."

The Ellis Island on the West Coast

 I was interested in Angel Island also. I figured immigrants traveled to the West Coast, but I didn't think that they had anything like Ellis Island. Angel Island is in San Francisco, and it served the same purpose that Ellis Island did on the East Coast. This makes me wonder if it is a tourist attraction the way Ellis Island is, or is it still in use? The picture below shows a dragon costume. I really liked the design on it, and for some reason it reminded me of the Rugrats cartoon, though I'm not exactly sure why. I think there was something like it in the Rugrats go to Paris movie.

Dragon Costume

Harold Lee Reconstruction

We got to learn about different families throughout the exhibits. I saw a little bit about the Lee family, though I don't exactly remember what I saw, I think the heat is getting to my head. I should really learn to take better notes. At 11:30, we went on a walking tour around Chinatown. I wasn't really interested in this though, it was so hot and humid. I couldn't really focus on our tour guide, and the action of the streets caught my attention more than the tour guide. We went to lunch at the Golden Unicorn Restaurant; it was a Dim Sum chinese restaurant. This experience was definitely unusual. I had never been to a place like this. In the afternoon, we went to the Tenement Museum. This too was really hot and humid and I was not a fan of how the tour was set up. It was almost like we had to initiate the conversation. I may have started daydreaming. My favorite part of the day was dinner. Me, Krista, Michelle, and their friend Shar went to Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. It was amazing. I had only been there once and it was in Chicago. The food was absolutely delicious, and we even got to play trivia. Though it was a really hot day, we still had some fun at the end of the day. Until tomorrow...

June 14 Phillipe's Manor. June 15 Architecture Rally. June 16 The Met and Alumnae Dinner

So recap! The reason that I have waited so long to post this blog is because upon arriving to the city we were told that we only had to do three blogs while we were here. This was like music to my ears. I was so ecstatic. So on Saturday we Visited the Phillipe's Manor. This house tour was different than any I had taken. First of all, all of the people were dressed up. I found it humerous. Second of all, the tour guides that we had didn't paint the Mr Phillipe to be a saint. He talked about the business he was in, slave trading, and bardering. They knew the names of the slaves, which I though was pretty cool, and each job the slaves had. We found out how they knew all of this. Mr Phillipe did not leave a will behind when he died, therefore an inventory of all of his stuff was taken. This inventory is what helped the researchers find out how each room was set up and each and every slave, worker, and tenant farmer on the property I though that was pretty amazing.

Phillipe's Manor

So Sunday, which was yesterday, was father's day. It was pretty rough for me not to be able to see my dad on father's day, but I talked to him so that made it a little better. We did what is called an architecture rally throughout the city. What is this you may ask? Well pretty much it is a giant scavenger hunt. It was pretty fun, though my legs and feet still hurt because I wore the wrong shoes, I definitely learned my lesson. I will forever wear sneakers when I go out like this. We walked a total of twelve point four miles, and I did it all in flip-flops. Any way, it was still fun. Me and Kassianna were partners and all of the pictures were taken on her tablet so I didn't really have much to choose from out of the pictures that I took. So I just picked a picture with me in it. 

Me in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Finally today was the day that we went to the Met. This place was huge. I couldn't believe how much was here, and their gift shop was more like a department store. Anyway we were given an assignment to go to the American Wing, we also had to find some stuff that Mrs. Sage donated. Let me tell you, there was a lot. Just on the third floor of the American Wing, there were something like 10 pieces of furniture that Mrs. Sage donated. I thought that was crazy. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 The picture below shows Michelle posing as the Native American in the statue. I just liked the picture so I put it in :).

Can't tell the difference

 The Met was incredible, I have never seen anything like it. There was just so much to do, we couldn't fit it all in. So after we left the Met, we went to lunch down at Battery Park. This park was really close to our next destination, the Museum of American Indians. The exhibits were really small, which kind of upset me because I find Native Americans really interesting. It literally took us 20 to 30 minutes to walk through all of the exhibits.

Small Museum about Native Americans

Infinity of Nations

"Land of the People" 

After we left the second museum, we headed back to Barnard to get ready for the Alumnae dinner. It was really nice, the Alumnae that we talked to were so interesting, and interested to hear what we had to say. The restaurant was on 20th street, so we only had about 20 minutes to get ready before we again had to leave the dorms. Ronnye was there again. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met. We all kind of split up so we could talk to the Alumnae, but we ended up talking to Andor for a lot of the night. He was giving us all advice and making fun of us as per usual. Today was a really great day, and tomorrow should be as well. By the way, only two more days until my birthday, which I can't wait for.

June 12 FDR,Vanderbilt Mansion, and Val-kill

Today is the day we all have been waiting for. It's the day we get to leave Newburgh and go home, whether to Troy or Saugerties, we were all relieved. There was a catch though, we had to make a pit stop on the way there. This pit stop consisted of the Roosevelt home (old money), the Vanderbilt Mansion (new money), and Val-Kill, which was a nice comfy cottage. So lets start the day at the Roosevelt home. There was yet another scheduling issue, apparently we were supposed to go to Vanderbilt Mansion first, but we went to the Roosevelt home. I don't call it FDR's home though because he is the not only one that lived there. It kind of annoys me that it is called FDR's home; what about his mother, his wife, his kids, his father. I do understand that he was an important part of history but there were people behind him and there to support him through every decision that he made. For instance, his mother; though she was over bearing, she is one of the reasons he turned out the way he did. I was surprised to find out that FDR was home-schooled until he was fourteen and then sent off to a boarding school. When he was younger, he also learned how to read and write; he learned other languages; and he learned proper manners. Anyway continuing on with the day. While we were in Newburgh, we watched a video about Eleanor Roosevelt. It is her that I really should be focusing on. But again I'm Fast forwarding; let's talk about the Vanderbilts.

View from the Roosevelt Home

The Roosevelt Home

Roosevelts'  Graves

Visitor Center at Vanderbilt Mansion

 When I first walked in to the visitor center, my eyes were drawn to the trophies on the wall. no not like an award trophy, like a hunting trophy. I could not imagine what I would do if I ever got a trophy like these. The racks on the deer are huge, and just about perfect, and I have never gone bison hunting, which is what the trophy is on the bottom I'm pretty sure. This makes me think, did Vanderbilt actually get those himself, or did he buy them from a taxidermist? Anyway, the Vanderbilt mansion, was HUGE!!!!! There were only two people that owned the house, Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt. Why on Earth would two people need 54 rooms in their house. That is just crazy. The house was more for show than necessity though. There were servants that lived with them in their house, but there were 6 or 7 guest rooms just on the second floor. I honestly don't think I am friends with enough people to fill every room in the house. Another thing that blows my mind is, it wasn't their home year round. They only went to the house during the Fall and Spring. I couldn't believe that it was also the smallest of the Vanderbilt mansions. The Vanderbilt family liked to show off their wealth and they sure did that with the mansions that they built. After Vanderbilt Mansion, we went to lunch. Everyone else went back to the visitor center at the Roosevelt house, though I did not want to pay those prices, so me, Krista and Michelle went to McDonalds. It was just as tasty. At one o'clock, we ventured on down the road to Val-Kill.

Vanderbilt Mansion

 Val-Kill was the get away home for Eleanor Roosevelt. Continuing from before, Eleanor was a woman of influence. She was the most powerful woman in the world for quite a few years. This woman had been through so much heartache and betrayl so early in life that it is amazing she became the woman that she did. FDR built Val-Kill for Eleanor because she didn't feel comfortable in his mother's home. This was also built after Eleanor found out that FDr was had an affair with Lucy Mercer. Eleanor was heartbroken when she found this out because she loved FDR, but after this incident, which was early on in their marriage, she was not the same person. Val-Kill was a cozy little cottage. Apparently Eleanor liked it this way. I could definitely tell that this place was used for recreation for the family, it seemed a lot more like home than the other Roosevelt house. Eleanor still had important people over to her house, but she insisted on treating everyone the same, whether you were the King of England, or a mine worker, you were seated at the same table. Also scattered around this dinner table were Eleanor's grandchildren. I thought this was pretty cool; I never got to sit at the adult table, and sometimes I still don't. Eleanor was someone that was looked up to, and she conquered everything that she could imagine. I can imagine that she died a very happy lady because she really did it all.

Val-Kill

After Val-Kill, we were on our way. We have to meet up on Saturday at 8 a.m. yay :(. At least we get one day off.