Museum of Fine Arts

Yay! Another art museum! The first art museum of the summer was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I wrote about HERE. I have been the Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA from now on) a few times with my family and a group when I went to Boston University for the Summer Challenge.

The museum has a great Egyptian collection and currently has a quilting exhibit called Quilts and Color. Dad, who is a teacher, wanted to see this because he helps with the quilting project that his class does every year. I did not take any pictures of the quilts because, while beautiful, they aren’t really my thing.

We walked around the quilting exhibit then we headed for lunch at the Garden Cafeteria at the museum. I chose from the salad bar getting iceberg lettuce, chicken, feta cheese, cucumbers and Caesar dressing. And Emma got another barbeque sandwich!

During lunch we discussed what collections we were going to see. Emma picked the mummies and I picked the Impressionists. We ended up seeing Egyptian, Greek and Roman art as they were all in the same area. Emma was a bit freaked out to see all the nude sculptures!

This was a piece that we studied in AP Art History. Weird to see it in person!

From my time in AP Art History I gained an appreciation for most art movements, but Impressionism and Post-Impressionist are in doubt my favorites. Vincent van Gogh would then be my favorite artist (and Vincent and the Doctor definitely did not influence that in any way. Nope, not at all.).

Dance at Bougival by Pierre-Augustus Renoir. A favorite of mine!

Woman with a Parasol and Small Child on a Sunlit Hillside by Renoir. I just adore the movement in this painting. 

Then we somehow found our way to some of the modern art galleries. While I generally do not like modern art, some of these were interesting. 

These are painted shadows! It confused us for a second, "where are theses coming from?"

I especially liked the ones where the photographer took the photos like they were Renaissance portraits where the objects are made out of yarn. Did that make any sense?

See what I mean now? I also liked the huge, cloud-like hanging sculpture made out of Styrofoam cups.

I could spend days wandering through the galleries, doing audio-tours and sitting at the little café reading about art. But unfortunately I don’t have that much time. I hope that I can come back soon to go through some of the Medieval galleries.

Thanks for reading!

A Day in the Life | Walden Pond

Hello everybody! On Wednesday Dad, Emma and I went to WaldenPond. Back in junior year of high school my English class read Walden. It was by no means my favorite book that we read that year, but I was still excited to see the cabin and the pond. The first thing that we saw was the reconstructed cabin that Thoreau lived in for over two years. It was definitely smaller than I had imagined while reading the book.

I don’t know if I would be able to live there alone in the woods for two years. I also don’t think that Thoreau would enjoy seeing a gift store and beach so close to his sanctuary.

Next we went into the wood to look for a geocache. Geocaching can pretty much be described as looking for Tupperware (a cache) in the woods, on street signs, under rocks, or anywhere. Our family has been geocaching for a few years now and our team name is TeamSchiap (isn’t it creative?). For this one (called Thoreau’s Perpendicular Bisector), we had to go into the wood and follow one of the trails. I won’t give away where we found the cache, but it took a bit of looking!

One day, I would like to hike around the wood for real (and with useful shoes, I was wearing sandals) or read book on the beach. The lake itself is beautiful and I wish that we could have spent more time there.

After geocaching we went to downtown Concord for lunch at Comella’s. It was actually very good. I got grilled chicken parmesan which hit the spot! Once finished eating, we headed to a Lenscrafters for an eye exam. I decided to get contacts and I have been using them for three days. I find it really hard to take them in and out, anyone got any tips?

Thanks for reading!

A Day In the Life | A Trip Back to the 17th Century

Hello guys! Welcome back! Today I will be talking about our visit to Plimoth Plantation. I have been here a few times; the first time was when I went to Boston on our eighth grade trip. It was early summer and still a bit chilly. The second time was last summer and then the third time was this past Thanksgiving when I went with our family and it was COLD. This time, however, the weather was warm and pleasant. Personally, I enjoyed the experience the most when we went during the fall because Thanksgiving and Plimoth go together. The fires are blazing in the pilgrims’ homes and the Wampanoag homesite, your breath frosts in the cool air and everyone is bundled up. The atmosphere there and at that time is wonderful.

As a history buff, Plimoth Plantation is always a lot of fun and a great chance to explore history. People may think that history is boring, but that is probably due to only studying history in a classroom. History is not about memorizing facts; it is a chance to discover how people lived and how historic events influence current events. I love it when I can connect events spanning decades (Franco-Prussian War to World War II is an example).

After watching the introduction video, we walked down to the Wampanoag homesite. Everyone here speaks English and talks from a 21^st century P.O.V..

Then we strolled along the “woodland path” to the village where everyone there is role-player speaking from the 17^th century. The idea is to ask about their lives and their opinions. Sometimes they will ask what is happening back in England and you have to flounder for a response. Last summer we were asked this and Dad responded that the prince and princess had a baby, meaning William and Kate. The role-player was confused and thought we were crazy!

After a picnic lunch we headed to Nye Barn where they have rare breeds from the 17^th century. But when we entered the barn we were surprised to a see a . . . llama. I know, a llama in a “17^th century” barn. No one was there so we could not ask why a llama was with the goats. It is still a mystery.

At the gift store, I got some maple sugar candy that we ate last night. Let me tell you, they were delicious. If you don’t like sugar or maple syrup, however, you would not like these.

And that was our day! I hope that you had a great day and I will see you next time.

Thanks for reading!