Day at the MET

I went with my friend to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) today and it was really cool. We made it a goal to see as much of the museum as possible. This was my first time to the museum and I was blown away by it's size. I lost count of the number of times we got lost wandering around in that place.

The first thing we went to see was Egyptian art. My friend is half Egyptian and has been to the museum twice. Both times he spent nearly all of his time looking at Egyptian art so needless to say he was quite familiar with that section. The Egyptians made a lot of items that were for the afterlife. For example, I learned that they put their kings in something called a Sarcophagus (which just looked like a really elaborate casket made of stone) and often filled it with food so that the dead would be able to eat in the afterlife.

Marble Sarcophagus (My friend got in trouble for touching it hahaha) 

Before the body is put in a Sarcophagus they removed the organs of the dead body and put it inside Canopic Jars. The Jars were sculpted and represented Egyptians gods. Their purpose was to protect and preserve the organs so that the dead could find them when they came back to life. I thought, wow, sucks for the archaeologists who were digging these up because I doubt any of the dead actually came back to life to reclaim their guts.

Canopic Jar

Many of these after-life items were put inside tombs. One really cool we saw was the Tomb of Perneb which is pretty close to the entrance of the Egyptian art section. When we were inside I overheard a mother telling her son who was about seven or eight to stop looking at the map and look at the tomb. The kid was like "Mommy look! We're here! We're here" while poking his finger at a spot on the map. He seemed to have no interest in the actual tomb itself. I could relate.

We walked to the American Wing in the American Art section on the right side of the Museum and did a little bit of "art interpretation". Basically, we would look at a piece of art and then express the first thoughts that came to our mind about the piece. This was a lot of fun - it really allowed us to connect with the art and get in touch with how we were reacting to art. It also made the pieces much more memorable. Unlike the Egyptian sculptures, American sculptures looked much more alive and dynamic (they were often sculptures of things in the middle of an action) compared to the Egyptian sculptures which all seemed to look the same (arms folded across the chest like mummies ...).

Egyptian statues. Standing upright. 

American Art. Motion! Action!

Death and The Sculptor. My friend interpreted this as the Angel telling the sculptor to let go and surrender to death. His actions are futile.

Afterwards I complained about being hungry and we ended up getting lunch at this great italian restaurant called Grazie on 26th East 84th street. I had a brunch item called Eggs Royale and roasted vegetable soup. The Eggs Royale is basically an eggs Benedict with Salmon. It was amazing.

We went back to the MET shortly after and checked out these things in order:

Greek and Roman Art

The moment we walked into this section I was like, "wow, lots of dudes with they dicks out". Correction: they had their testicles out the dicks were broken off. Lots of busts. The sculptures were very big and the faces were very, very realistic. Mostly sculptures of Greek heroes and gods such as Hercules, Zeus, and Athena (God of Wisdom).

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

We were not too keen on this section. Lots of wooden carvings and totems. Oh, and this time there were definitely dudes with they dicks out. Humongous dicks that were dis-proportionally large. Don't ask why I keep focusing on the phallic parts of the art - it's their fault they made it so prominent.

Roof Garden

When I was looking at the map I saw "Roof Top Garden, Floor 5". We're close to the center of central park in Manhattan. This is a pretty tall museum. Roof top garden? The view must be incredible. Also, since it was so nice out, I knew we had to go to the garden.

It was gorgeous. I mean, neither of us had sun glasses and we were practically blinded by the sun but it was a beautiful sight. The moment we stepped out into the Garden we were facing downtown Manhattan - we saw the skyline from the north over the trees of central park. It was so beautiful! I'd love to go back there with my girlfriend sometime and take some pictures. Oh and by the way, there's also a house on the roof. 

We spent about three hours at this place and there's still so much we didn't see. I highly recommend this museum! If you do go, I recommend that you:

• Eat at Grazie. They have great food. 
• Wear sneakers because you'll be doing a lot of walking. 
• Bring a small back of snacks because chances are you'll be there for a while (it's a big place).
• Bring sunscreen and sunglasses so you can enjoy the rooftop views
• Picnic stuff if you want to chill at central park afterwards or in between tours (if you have a ticket you can leave the museum and come back)
• Bring a fully charged phone because you'll probably take lots of pictures (if you use your phone to take pictures) and have to look up a lot of things (what's vicera?)