Saturday, July 3, 2010

More Museums and Maddening Disappearances

I’m the kind of guy who’s slow to make new friends, but the awkwardness of not knowing anyone has more or less completely vanished. I managed to wake up around nine on a weekend to meet up with some guys for a trip to the Natural History Museum! (Yes, waking up at nine of my own free will is insane.) While I feel that it was over hyped, it housed a large collection of very cool exhibits. My two favorite parts were the dinosaur room, and the planetarium. The short film, “Journey to the Stars” especially was amazing! I truly felt like I was hurdling through space at unfathomable speeds!

Unfortunately, there is some VERY bad news. That is I have not seen my camera for the past week. I’m absolutely sure I packed it when moving to the Columbia Dorms and I also had it the first day at the dorms. However I haven’t seen it since then, so I’m going to have to declare it lost. I’m really sorry as well as mad at myself. Mostly because that was my mom’s brand new camera, but also because for Don, there will not be as many pictures up here as there would have been. I’ll still try to borrow someone else’s camera whenever possible, to snap pictures.

Anyway, to end this blog on a lighter note, most of our entire residential program will be going to the beach tomorrow, then coming back to watch the fourth of July fireworks! I’ll get some rest tonight so I can get up (somewhat) early the next day. Good night!

2 comments:

  1. Jamie,

    Now I know why I've been feeling so poorly this past week or so. It's like the phantom pains that amputees sometimes get where they can still feel their amputated limbs. I could still feel your camera even though it had walked off and left you. Even though it wasn't really there, my body felt as though it still was.

    As Obie Won Kenobe would tell Luke Skywalker after the planet Tatooine had been disintegrated, he felt 'a disturbance in the Force'.

    I truly am sorry about your loss and the fun you'll have explaining this to your mother when you return. You haven't lost her brand new laptop, have you?

    A few years ago I paid a visit to a museum of natural history in Puerto Williams, Chile--the southernmost village on Earth.

    This was a truly amazing museum, Jamie. If you went in as soon as it opened in the morning you could study everything on display several times over and still be out of the building before breakfast. They didn't have much to show people.

    Their main focus was to show things that were indigenous to the area--in particular the wild life. This was done by displaying a number of stuffed animals and maybe some skins hanging on the wall.

    The saddest part of it all was that almost all of the animals looked like road kill. I swear I saw some Michelin tire tracks across the backs of a few of the animals.

    This was just a village of no more than 400 people and they didn't have the resources to build a museum like NYC might so maybe I should bite my tongue.

    At least it provided me with nearly two decades worth of stories to tell.

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  2. I went to the Gugenheim. It's a Frank Lloyd Wright designed building and no stairs to walk - just follow the ramps.

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