#3

My hostel was located on Amsterdam Avenue, which is about 2 minute walk from subway station and 5 minutes from Central Park. There are some markets nearby if you wanna buy some food and cook at the hostel (the hostel has a pretty good kitchen). So the first place I went after I checked in was Central Park. It's a good place for picnic/ a little small escape from the skyscrapers.  There are also some museums in the park if you love museums: American Museum of History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Belvedere Castle. I haven't been to all three museums (museum is definitely a no-no for me, unless it's supeeeeeeer famous like Musée du Lovre/ shows things that I'm interested in, for example, spy museum, native american museum etc/ I've nothing else to do) so I couldn't make any comment about them. But I heard from a friend who doesn't like museum too, that the Metropolitan Museum of Art's good.

I decided to walk from Central Park to Columbia University after that. Trust me, do not do that! 'Cause it's so damnnn far. Columbia University was the first Ivy League that I visited, and I was like "wow" when I stepped into the campus. The first building that captured my attention was the Low Memorial Library. It was soooooooooo pretty, I just couldn't resist walking in that building (and accidentally signed up for a campus tour too). If you're interested in joining a group tour and having a guide leading you, go into the room on the left of the entrance. The guide won't show you every part of the campus, of course, but the tour includes all major buildings, and you'll get to know some interesting stories about the university. In front of Low Memorial Library, there's also a bronze statue of Alma Mater, and you can see lots of students having their lunch/ snack, reading, or simply just hanging out on the staircases in front of that building. The university also has a chapel called St. Paul's Chapel (which is also one of the landmarks of NYC). The guide told us that the chapel is very popular for weddings and many alumni like to have their weddings at that chapel. People usually have to wait in line for 3 years in order to get married in the chapel lol. 

If you ask me what is my most favorite place in NYC, I would say Times Square. I just love the crowds, lights and big screens. At Times Square you can always see people dressing as cartoon characters like Elmo or Mickey Mouse, and taking pictures with tourists. Do not think it's free.... They are not volunteers. I was so excited when I saw the characters. I asked for taking a picture with them, they asked for some $ after pictures were taken lol. 

I love visiting universities, and universities are definitely my must-do's in every city I go. I've visited like 18 universities during my 2++ years in the states. Universities are beautiful, and you'll always get to see things that you never expect to see. The most important thing is, campus visiting's free woohoo :) The second university I visited in NYC was New York University. NYU isn't like Columbia University, it doesn't really have a campus area, all it has are some blocks of buildings. Not my ideal campus although it's a pretty good school. I don't like traveling according to plans (although I usually draft an itinerary for each trip), and this was the place I accidentally found when I was wandering near NYU: Washington Park. I did not see beautiful flowers or statues, all I saw were kids chasing each other, seniors sitting on the bench, someone playing piano (yes it's piano! there's a freaking piano at the center of the park. wtf?! lol), couples holding hands, parents watching their children, some food stalls and beautiful sunshine. I sat there for a while, enjoyed the sunshine, and used my camera to capture happy moments of the kids. This is so much meaningful than visiting a freaking museum/ art gallery, with only a few people in a room and some freaking paintings that I would never understand. 

.................................................................................................................. To be continued