Features
Jewel Galbraith jgalbraith1@fordham.edu
September 20, 2012
THE OBSERVER
REX SAKAMOTO/THE OBSERVER
A biking and jogging trail runs parallel to the Hudson River and Riverside Park, a peaceful 222-acre park full of majestic elm trees and grassy lawns for reading and relaxing.
Take a New York Minute For Yourself at these Manhattan Gems BY DANIELLE ROMANO Contributing Writer
They say one is the loneliest number, but is that really true? Whether you’re moving into your new dorm and meeting your suitemates for the first time or figuring out your new schedule and ordering your last minute textbooks, the beginning of the school year can be a very taxing time. Sometimes, the best way to get away from all the stress and clear your head a bit is to enjoy the wonders of New York City — alone. Intimidated by the idea of facing the big city by yourself? Don’t be. There seems to be a stigma when it comes to doing things alone, but having some time to yourself can be a really wonderful thing. I sometimes grab lunch during my free periods between classes by myself. I can eat in peace without having to talk to anyone. It helps me to reflect on my day and focus on what needs to be done later. So if you feel like you need to relax and get away from it all for just a little while, check out these suggestions for fun solo trips
in the city.
Like the outdoors? Try Riverside Park.
72nd Street and Riverside Drive We all know Central Park is a great place to get some nature time in the Big Apple, and it is conveniently located a few blocks from school. But if you’re looking to distance yourself from campus, shake up your routine with a visit to Riverside Park. You can escape from the city and get lost in its tranquil scenery. Find a bench under a shady tree and read a book, or take a long walk or bike ride along the water. Running from 72nd to 158th Streets, this is one of my favorite places to go in the city when I need some time away. You can watch the sunset along the Hudson River and unwind.
Want to try something new? Head over to Bryant Park.
Between 40th and 42nd Streets & 5th and 6th Avenues
Website: http://bryantpark.org/ Situated behind the New York Public Library, this New York fixture is a quick ride away on the B or D line. It may be a lovely place to just sit and relax, but the park also offers many fun activities to try— for free. They offer bird watching tours, square dancing, Tai Chi classes and more. Check out their website and find something new to experience all on your own. If you get hungry, walk across the street to Kinokuniya Bookstore (1073 Ave of the Americas). If you’re a fan of Japanese culture or anything Japanrelated, this is your place: the store boasts a large selection of manga, movies and music, Japanese books and magazines, anime merchandise, and calligraphy items. Then head to the second floor to Café Zaiya. You can sit by the window and enjoy the beautiful view of the park below. While seating can be quite limited, no one rushes you out and they have a good selection of pre-prepared Bento boxes, sandwiches and pastries.
Into museums? Explore
some lesser-known exhibits. Skyscraper Museum 39 Battery Pl.
Sony Wonder Technology Lab 56th Street and Madison Avenue. Museum of the City of New York 1220 5th Ave. [at 103rd Street] The most obvious museum choices in the city are the Met, MoMA or the American Museum of Natural History, and all three are fascinating, but there are plenty of other museums to try that you may not have heard of. The Skyscraper Museum is perfect for any architecture or design enthusiast. Browse the exhibitions and learn how technology, construction and historical influences have built and shaped the high-rise complexes that dominate New York’s extraordinary skyline. There is also the Sony Wonder Technology Lab. If you’re into technology, whether it be programming a robot or designing a video game, this place is a four-floor, hands-on playground featuring the latest digital equipment
and technology used in the entertainment, medical and research and development fields. There is also the Museum of the City of New York, which explores NYC’s earliest days and current history. A wide variety of multimedia presentations, performances and public programs keeps visitors and immersed and involved.
Roommates hogging the Xbox? Enjoy an alternate gaming experience.
Chinatown Fair 8 Mott St. between Chatham Square & Worth Street Dave & Busters is overcrowded and won’t let anyone under 21 in after 6 p.m. Check out Chinatown Fair, one of the last arcades still around in the city. Enjoy some skee-ball, mini basketball, video poker, Guitar Hero and fighting games like Street Fighter. They also have TVs where you can play big name titles like Call of Duty for a small fee. If you’re looking for some alone time, this is a fun way to unwind and kill a little time.
A Tale of Two Cities: One Freshman’s International Journey to Fordham By MEG O’HARA Contributing Writer
Most people can only imagine what life is like on the other side of the globe, but Tavy Wu, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’16, has lived it. “When I was a kid, the general idea was that pretty much everything American was seen as better; America was like a dreamland. Now, America is my reality,” Wu said. Wu has lived in the United States for five years now. After leaving his native China for Los Angeles five years ago, he has since relocated to New York City, which he says is the “greatest city in the world,” to begin his freshman year and study pre-law at Fordham. “My father got a job at University of California at Irvine, so we left Beijing right before I started high school. The biggest difference I found right away was the freedom,” Wu said. He experienced this freedom primarily in home life— though stereotypes, Wu said, would assume otherwise. “My father is a member of the Communist Party, so there are a lot of ideas about that in America. But it is just a piece of paper: he is very liberal, more than a lot of Americans I know who are his age, and he gave me a lot of independence,” Wu said. Wu’s father attended university in Germany and taught his son German at a young age— English is Wu’s third language— and since it was just the two of them in Los Angeles, Wu had the freedom to forge his own path in America. The first time he saw New York, he knew his path would lead him here.
“I came here junior year of high school to play music and I just fell in love with the city,” he said. “Plus Lincoln Center is just the best location I can think of in the city… no, in the world.” Wu arrived a week before school began to participate in Fordham Lincoln Center’s International Student Orientation, which, he said, “if you attend, you’ll know pretty much all of the international kids.” As he said this, he waved hello to a girl passing by on the plaza: “That’s my friend from Japan! I met her at the orientation,” he explained. And at a campus where one in four students is international— in a city where over half of the residents are foreign-born— Wu feels more at home here than he would in China. He went back to Beijing to intern at Ernst & Young this summer and said that he could hardly recognize the city. “In China, they want to be always progressing. Always moving forward,” he said. “Things change very quickly because they tear down old buildings to put up new ones; they don’t realize that they tore down special or historic places until it is too late. They even rename the streets— everything just has to be new all of the time. Beijing looks like a Star Wars city; something from the future.” Wu prefers the juxtaposition of the old and the new that he can find in New York. He finds the two cities to be similar in the sense that there are tall buildings and that “people mostly stay indoors,” but Beijing has nothing like the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building, which are some of
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAVY WU
Tavy Wu, FCLC ’16, poses with his ukelele in front of a restaurant in his native China.
his favorites. The ease of access he has to Broadway shows, city museums and neighborhoods like SoHo is a huge benefit, he says, to living at Lincoln Center. But even with the time he has spent in the United States and his love for New York, Wu doesn’t see himself becoming an American citizen anytime soon. “It just doesn’t make sense to me; I mean, I wasn’t born here,” he said. “I am a Chinese citizen and I’m proud of that.” Also on his mind is the fact that China is quickly growing into a world superpower. And Wu is not alone in his think-
ing. “This summer in China I made a documentary called “Volare” about Americans who live and play music in Beijing,” he said. He was interested in the people who travelled the opposite way around the world as he, as well as the stereotypes this phenomenon has helped to break. “There are a lot of stereotypes of China in the U.S., but now they [the subjects of “Volare”] actually live there and see it,” he said. “They see that China is even more postmodern than the U.S. and they want to stay there.” But he said there is one way that China is largely lacking progress: the
Internet. Though social media has helped to connect young people in China to the rest of the world, there is still a discrepancy between the information that he and his Chinese friends have access to. This summer, Wu was forced to use China’s censored Internet if he wanted to go online at all. “There is a wall up online because of the government,” he said. “You know the wall is there, so you feel uncomfortable. It’s like Big Brother, always watching. I mean the truth is that everyone knows what’s outside the wall, but still the government tries to block out the world.” But the promise of a growing economy may, for Wu, be enough to send him back to China sometime after college. His family is mostly in the United States: his twin sister goes to New York University, his girlfriend attends school around the corner from Lincoln Center and his father now lives in Michigan (he visited once in January and responds “No! Definitely not Michigan!” when asked if he’d ever live there— too cold, he said). But as a pre-law student, he is keeping an open mind about where he’ll be able to find a job in the future. “China is definitely on the rise – it’s doing much better than when I lived there as a kid— but I’m definitely not leaving New York anytime soon. This is my favorite place in the world,” he said. “The food on campus might not be the best, but my roommates and I cook a lot… And it might get cold in the winters – but to live in this city, with all of the great things here, I can definitely accept that.”