2010 Trip: New York Day 5
21st June 2010
Today was my last proper day in New York. My first port of call was technically not part of the USA. The United Nations headquarters have been based in NY since its inception, however the piece of land they occupy is technically independent of the USA.
The flags of the world hang still, lined up in front of a New York avenue, like a huge firing squad at rest. I joined the queue for tourist entry. After a fairly long wait and posing in front of the famous ‘Knotted Gun’ sculpture, we were led through airport-style security and finally inside. I tagged myself onto the end of a tour. We were shown some of the various gifts to the UN by various countries, told about the renovation in the area (most of the buildings are currently closed), looked at the UN Millennium Goals, and the UN’s work towards disarmament, disaster relief, peacekeeping, and feeding those in poverty. We also got to take a look at the General Assembly, which was in session (well, a small session). New Zealand was present, kudos to the representative! It is a pretty impressive venue! After exploring the gift shop, sending a couple of UN postcards, and looking at the exhibits on nuclear issues, and different areas around the world where the UN have peacekeepers, I headed back out into the New York heat.
The weather here has constantly been 30C+ and pretty humid. A little too warm in my books! I headed across Manhattan to the New York Public Library. This vast edifice, surprisingly devoid of books, was rather cool to wander about. The public reading room was particularly impressive. Ninety percent of the visitors were beavering away on laptops using the free Wifi, in the cool air-conditioned room. The room is vast and hundreds of people sit in row after row. The high ceiling is ornately decorated with vast frescoes and on the walls, shelves of reference texts are topped with tall windows. I sat for a while and took in the ambience.
From here, I headed south to a very different venue. The Museum of Sex. This was actually really fascinating. It wasn’t actually dodgy at all, well at least in terms of venue. However, your mileage may vary when it comes to content. The first floor was dedicated to depictions of sex - the changing video footage as video pornography became mainstream. The second floor was dedicated to sexual acts, fetishes, and other media. They looked into why people have certain fetishes/desires and the relationship between different sexual activities. They also had a cool display of anime, sex dolls, and BDSM equipment. All very interesting. The next exhibition was on condoms, their history, cultural position in society, and the technology used to manufacture and test them. It was particularly interesting to look how condoms were promoted by various armies for controlling the spread of various STDs. The final exhibition was on animal sexuality, looking at the sexual activities of various species - whether they kept monogamous relationships, the amount of sexual activity, sexual dimorphism, and the level of same-sex relations. I thought the museum was very interesting; it was also interesting to watch the people who came to visit. I was one of very few who came alone. Most were couples or small groups of friends.
People’s body language slowly changed through the exhibits. To start with, most were very closed and embarrassed; however, people gradually became more open as the went through the exhibitions. After this, I headed back to the hostel and got everything packed up for leaving tomorrow.