Mission Failed

Mission: Visit Guggenheim at 1700 hours.

Status: Failure

Today after class, Beilul and I planned to fulfill our requirement to see a museum by visiting the Guggenheim Museum with a RA, Mo. Personally, I was really looking forward to this trip because the Guggenheim was the one museum that I wanted to see the most. I was drawn to the unique architecture of the building. Instead of being a typical skyscraper in New York, the Guggenheim is built as a spiral. I had only seen pictures before our trip but, when we approached the museum I was truly taken aback. It was over 9000 times better in real life. While we may not have got to see all the sculptures in the museum, seeing the exterior in person almost made the trip worthwhile.

Guggenheim Museum

Why did we not see the sculptures and art in the museum?

Well, our trip was doomed from the beginning. We left a half hour late because our RA was confused about who was coming so we waited for any stragglers. After leaving campus, we had to wait for the bus to come even though I know that we could have taken the subway to get close to Guggenheim. However, Mo insisted on taking the bus. The only problem was that after 30 minutes of waiting, we figured that our bus wasn't coming and took another one to 86th street where we transferred to another bus. Taking the bus was particularly frustrating because we had to travel a good 20 blocks and the bus stopped about every block whereas if we took the subway, which stops about each six to nine blocks, we could have been there a lot quicker. When we did arrive and went inside to buy tickets only to find we arrived five minutes before closing time and they weren't selling anymore tickets. I admit it, I was really bummed out. Looking back, it was really awesome just to see the exterior and to go inside and look at the spiral.

Inside of Guggenheim

Some of the art we saw in the Guggenheim store

Mo, the RA, felt really bad about the fiasco and took us to Rockefeller Center to grab dinner to make up. We enjoyed our sandwiches and burgers which are comparable to those from Buckhorn Grill. I loved the food, and ate until I was stuffed. While the rest of the group wanted to go have dessert, Beilul and I were exhausted and decided to head back to Columbia. While the main objective of this trip may not have been accomplished, I found it neat to take the bus for the first time and I got to be in the same area where NBC shows 30 Rock and the Today Show were filmed. The only downside is that with our trip coming to an end, there might not be enough time to visit a museum. What a shame.

30 Rock!

Central Park on the way back to the subway

Sunset between the buildings