Sunday, August 29, 2010

Radio Shack Wireless Ethernet Adapter

Ellis Island, the Museum of European immigration


Between 1892 and 1954, this was the largest of all U.S. customs. Their numbers impressed, because during this period, some 12 million people passed through its facilities, mostly from Europe and the old continent.



The history of Ellis Island dates back to 1770 when Samuel Ellis becomes its owner.
Since 1812, the island passed to the U.S. Federal Government, who gave mostly military applications, but in 1890, becomes the principal office of the City of New York and a major immigration center country.

in 1954 when it lost this function to change the immigration system and was abandoned until 1965, when it was declared a National Monument.

Since 1990, houses the Museum of Immigration.

To understand and appreciate the significance of this museum, it is advisable to make a journey of 100 years in time and put us in a European port where we board a boat to sail with which we intend to cross the Atlantic in search of a better life across the ocean to take the American dream.

About a week later, we see the window of the boat, the silhouette of the Statue of Liberty and we started to hear screams and cries of joy from the hundreds of passengers they can almost touch hands with a future of progress and freedom, forgetting for a moment of moments of anguish and sadness for leaving behind family and homeland.

Nothing could be further from reality, as it was a very complex process that in many cases became reality in illusion and delusion on a hard blow to them back to whence they were expelled or who fled because of war and famine.

Upon arrival, began the disembarkation of passengers in first and second class, so that immigrants traveling in steerage, had to wait several hours until he finally received permission to disembark with their luggage, forming long queues at the entrance to the main building of the island.


then had to submit its documentation and pray that nothing was wrong or that the guard on duty to consider that someone of that nationality did not deserve to enter the country or suspected he was carrying some kind of disease.


Then came the physical evidence, a veritable sieve in which the mere fact of being crippled, have any tattoos, warts, or red eyes, the immigrant won many points to win a return trip so they were marked with a cross to undergo more medical tests.

In fact, most of the building was dedicated to a hospital where avails itself of that mass of people who needed a more thorough medical examination, although more than one hospital and due to the overcrowding of people, that was more like a concentration camp, as we see in this picture taken one of the information panels the museum.


The visit to the museum, you can see reconstructions of some of the rooms where they waited for days or even weeks to be visited by a doctor.


With a little luck, from a window that gave light to the room could see the Statue of Liberty giving encouragement and illuminating her torch their hopes of obtaining a visa that would open the gates of the land of dreams and opportunities.


Among the other tests they were subjected, were psychological examinations and interrogations that without a translator to help them understand and answer the questions, were not able to answer questions as simple as eg What is your name?, where does it come from?, Whither?, Do you have money or a contract of employment? ...

Finally, before getting the coveted visa, often ended up being questioned by a jury passed sentence by totally subjective judgments and even racist on many occasions, with the result that is subject to exceptional cases of families in which one of its members were not admitted and should return to their home country, mothers who had to leave their children, friends would be seen forced to break those ties forever.

According to statistics kept, only 3% of all immigrants were deported. It is a very high percentage, but they represent about 300,000 people of which nearly 3000 committed suicide rather than make the journey back home.

Back to the present, the museum has plenty of items left or lost by their owners. From dresses, furniture or documentation, even trunks kept inside the lifetime of some of the immigrants who traveled to the U.S. 100 years ago.

We also find some computers that we can find if any of our ancestors passed through Ellis Island on their journey from Europe to America, or where it appears many descendants of immigrants from each country is estimated that currently live in the U.S. .


A really interesting part, is dedicated to all the propaganda, posters, leaflets and other leaflets that praised the virtues of America at the expense of Europe, or where we can see the ads time that appeared in large cruise ships that plied the ocean between the two continents.


From a window, we have privileged views of the skyline of the city wrapped in a wet fog of late November, the only image that many succeeded in having the City skyscrapers.


Finally, from the ground up, we have an overview of all the main hall, and we can see in some photographs the various uses of this huge space, which has been home from a high to a hospital improvised.


It is precisely here, where many thousands of Europeans ended their American dream, where I put an end to the summary of my visits to New York City.

I thought it a good place to say goodbye to this amazing city around the meaning and the thousand and one stories that have passed between these four walls.
A place that could be considered the cradle of all the U.S., it is estimated that some 130 million Americans, nearly half of its total population, have been directly or indirectly through a family member to this place, so that All of them can be considered heirs of Ellis Island and authentic framers of the American dream.


Sunday, August 22, 2010

) Do You Know Your Shane-atology?

Statue of Liberty, the maritime gateway


The penultimate day of our trip was spent in a close look at one of the most representative monuments of the city, the Statue of Liberty.



Located on Liberty Island at the mouth of the Hudson River from New York, this statue is 46 meters (96 from the base to the tip of the torch) welcomed all immigrants from Europe since 1886, the year France gave the statue to commemorate the first anniversary of the declaration of independence from the U.S. and as a symbol of friendship between both nations.

In fact, as a curiosity, the statue is not looking toward Manhattan as I and many thought before you go, but is oriented towards Europe.


To get there, you have to take one of the ferries that go along with Castle Clinton in Battery Park, where we can get the tickets if we have the New York Pass. I recommend

early, because otherwise the queue to board can be a bit heavy, and that it is only the first of all queues that will have to wait to visit the statue.

This was one of the biggest disappointments of the trip. I thought the statue was most spectacular, that his visit was necessary, so that among the gray, rainy day and it took us almost 2 hours to get into "thank you" to the excessive and paranoid security measures, ended up making this one of the worst experiences of New York .

For me the most interesting of the visit is the actual statue itself, to observe it from different places in the small island of freedom in which it is raised, but what I have said, that day it rained, so we directly to the museum at the base of the statue.

To summarize a bit, we had to spend 3 comprehensive security controls, higher than the airport. Not allowed to enter with backpacks, food or water, so you have to leave everything (the camera if you let it pass) on a ticket that does not work very well but are technologically very advanced, because they have delayed opening up and can not be reopened in an interval of 15 minutes.

After a first inspection of documents in which even the guard was asking questions about why you were going to see the statue, where you were ... pass to another control that you must remove your belt, shoes .... how at the airport, but with the difference that you both look very closely that it took almost an hour to pass the second control!

And the last and most incredible, is a machine on which you walk barefoot raise your arms and you begin to release jets of compressed air, as if they had just let out of a biological laboratory and you could be contaminated.

After all this and just hand over the entrance is another guard and finally enter the museum in the statue!

Well, not if it was for those 2 hours lost to the folly in controls that I conditioned the rest of the visit, I found an interesting little museum which tells the story of the statue in a few panels and models .

The time to visit the museum: 15 minutes.

Most interesting was to see the original torch replaced in 1986, and which until 1916 could be accessed by paying 50 cents.


From the museum located on the pedestal of concrete stairs that go up to the viewpoint of the base of the statue, the highest point that could be visited at Christmas 2008, as access to the crown remained closed for several years.


At the end of the stairs and before going outside gazebo pedestal, looking up, we can see the inner structure of the statue, designed by Gustave Eiffel.

Estatua de la libertad Al

be raining and windy day, we could not watch the views of the harbor and Manhattan Skyline of the city, so I left the camera well protected in the shelter when we took a lap on the pedestal.

From here and after a very productive visit, we took the bags and stuff the box office and went in search of the ferry that would bring us closer to the nearby Ellis Island, where we would see the museum of immigration.



Monday, August 16, 2010

Baby Proof Kitchen Garbage Can

New York Central Park, an oasis in


At the heart of the island of Manhattan, we have a huge undeveloped wooded area in which abstract from the dizzying pace of the city surroundings. This is Central Park, the lungs of New York and must visit the city of skyscrapers.


With 4 kilometers long and about 1 wide, understand how it is possible that this park can accommodate one of the world's largest museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), a zoo, 7 lakes, green areas , rest areas, playgrounds, auditoriums, sports, and much more.

to know everything that we can find in Central Park, I recommend you check out their official website, http://www.centralparknyc.org/ , where does a lot of information that complement what podreis appears in this article.

of Sections One of the most useful page is displayed it on an interactive map on which are marked all the points of interest, information booths, restaurants, services ...
http://www.centralparknyc.org/maps/

I recommend a minimum of 2 to 3 hours to enjoy some of the park and the hundreds of charming places to hide and I'll share with you . Starting next to

Met Museum, we go towards the Belvedere Castle, a scale replica of a Gothic castle, dating from 1869. In it, we can find an interpretation center of the fauna and flora in the park, but certainly more highlight what are the views to the north it has on the Delacorte Theater, Turtle Pond and the Recreation Park, where we can see some hints of baseball.


This is the northernmost of the park until we arrived, and is located right in Ecuador it. From here northward and toward Harlem, is the largest lake in the park, The Reservoir, and many more sports facilities or conservatory Garden among others.

From Belvedre Castle, walk south, but the landscape could find to cross a small bridge over one of the lakes requires us to briefly deternos to enjoy the views.



continued walking and reached one of the areas which for me has the best views of the park.
is a small rocky peninsula in one of the lakes called "The Lake" (forgive the redundancy). As you can see the sunset over the skyscrapers from here is spectacular.


Near the Natural History Museum, stands one of the most emblematic buildings in northern New York, the San Remo building.


This luxury apartment building overlooking Central Park has 27 floors and 122 meters high, where they have lived celebrities like Bruce Willis, Tiger Woods, Steve Jobs, Bono of U2 and Steven Spielberg among others.


A little later we reached a small plaza that could be considered an almost cult-park. Strawberry Fields is a dedicated to John Lennon mosaic within which we can read the word IMAGINE and in which we always find flowers, candles, messages and people playing some of their most famous.


is located in a of the areas preferred by John Lennon and Yoko Ono for a stroll around Central Park, as it is situated very close to the Edifico Dakota, the couple's residence in New York. In fact, Yoko Ono still had the house in which they lived and in whose portal was killed the composer and singer of the Beatles in 1980.


The next point of interest that we are Bethesda Terrace, a huge square where there is always some kind of musical performance, breakdance ... so it is a rather crowded and lively.


Presiding over the square, we find the source of the "Angel of Waters ", built in 1873 to commemorate the opening of the aqueduct that brought drinking water to the city in 1842.


After sitting down to rest awhile while we retrieve forces with a puppy and bought a coke one of the stalls that are scattered throughout the park, the night is bearing down on us, so we have to go out of the park, although it has poor lighting, a little intimidated by the foliage of trees and shrubs.

We decided to end our visit with one of the mythical places and a thousand times seen in many films, the ice rink located almost at the foot of the Plaza. Who Macaulay Culkin does not remember making the rounds through the streets of New York and the robbers fled from the rink in "Home Alone 2?



Sunday, August 8, 2010

Olive Oil Is It Good For Dogs

concrete jungle Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) could be considered a "museum of museums" in which we find an example of the last 5000 years of history human told through various collections of art ranging from antiquity to the present day in disciplines such as painting, sculpture, architecture and costumes from all over the world.




This museum is considered one of the largest in the world with its collection of more than 2 million works of art from places as distant as ancient Egypt, Greece, Asia or the U.S. itself.

is located in Central Park, specifically at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Calle 82 in the eastern part of the park.


For updated schedules and costs, it is best to consult directly on their website: http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/general_information_spanish

also the website of the museum is possible to get an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat we will to find ahead of time and thus to better plan our visit. It is impossible to see the whole museum in one day, so choose the areas or exhibits that most interest us.
In this link you can download the map of the museum in Castilian: http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/pdf/floorplan_spanish.pdf

As I said earlier, this museum going to be able to find works of art virtually any time and place, so I'm going to leave a small sample of what you can find it if you visit this macro-museum.

As we left, we find the library Gieger and Roman art, which highlight Greek Sculpture courtyard.


Nearby, we found a pleasant surprise, a reconstruction of the courtyard of the castle of Velez-Blanco (Almería).


In a nearby room, we can see the collection of medieval art, where there are lots of religious artifacts from around the world, and even a reconstruction of the gate of the Cathedral of Valladolid.


Another essential room of the museum, is the European sculpture court.



In this area dedicated to European decorative arts, we find several reconstructions of palatial rooms like this several times.


In the TEM, there is also room for a sample of medieval weapons and armor, which highlights the horses yard, where we can see reconstructions of knights on horseback, both well protected for battle.


Without doubt, one of the most important collections and visited the museum is devoted to Egyptian art. Over several rooms, we can see sculptures, mummies, sarcophagi and utensils of this important civilization.


A sample size of this museum is this, the Egyptian temple of Dendur, out of Lake Nasser as Debod Madrid's Temple, and rebuilt on a small pond in one of the rooms exposure.



After visiting the Egyptian area, we climbed the stairs to the main entrance to begin to see the rooms on the second floor.


started by the Boards of Asian art, Islamic and will make a stop at the entrance to the room of Assyrian art, guarded by two reliefs of winged lions with human heads, which formerly guarded the gates of the palace of Asumasirpal II.


continue our journey through time by different cultures of the Near and Far East such as Persia, India, Mongolia, Syria and Mesopotamia, where this relief from Babylonia.


And finally, in this second most abundant plant, which are the rooms of European paintings from all periods and styles, can find works by artists such as Monet, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Van Gogh Velazquez, than I leave her "Self Portrait with Straw Hat."